Richard Nixon, the Cold War and the Watergate scandal
Summary:
This book deals with both personal life and Richard Nixon’s policy. Nixon was one of the presidents of the twentieth century who obtained the most passion and rejection at the same time. He received thousands of qualifiers both good and bad throughout his mandate. He achieved high popularity thanks to the high interest he had at a cold war, specifically in communism, because this was contrary to this ideology. His arrival at the White House was characterized by the serious crisis that American society was going through. This was also quite divided.
Nixon’s foreign policy was characterized by the intervention of US troops in the Vietnam War, something that raised it as far as fame and acceptance is concerned. And his collaboration in some way in the fall of the Salvador Allende regime in Chile. This caused its fall in support among the American population.
Richard Milhous Nixon, was President number 37 of the United States of America. This was born on January 3, 1913, in Yorba Llinda (California). It was the second of five brothers. His mother was Hannah Milhous, while his father was Frank Nixon, driver of Gran Vía and later farmer. He also had a grocery store and a gas station.
Richard Nixon, was characterized by being a student boy, who got brilliant results. One of his greatest virtues was the great ability to pray he had, that is, he was a very good speaker. After passing through school, he made high school, which he completed in Whittier. Then, he went to Duke University, located in North Carolina. There he trained as a jurist. In 1937, he obtained the title of lawyer.
After his educational stage ends, Nixon returns to California and exercises about 4 years as a lawyer at a Whittier school, where years before he studied. During his work stage at this Bar Association, he meets Thelma Patricia Ryan, with whom he marries years later and has two daughters.
In 1942, Nixon and his whole family decide to move to Washington, where he finds a job. However, that work does not leave him fully satisfied, so he decides to enlist the Navy, which he leaves tempo later with the degree of Lieutenant Ship.
His life after this stage takes a 180º degree turn. The California Republican Party contacts him asking him to represent them and help them defeat the Democrats in the elections of a California district. After a hard electoral campaign Nixon expires, thus becoming the representative of this district of California. He stood out above all for his strong opposition to communist politics. He also organized an investigation to a former diplomat, declared guilty of espionage. This provided notoriety and catapulted him to success.
On November 7, 1950 he is elected senator by California and a year later he is elected vice president of the USA.UU., During the mandate of President Eisenhower. This is re -elected again in 1956, however during this time he falls ill, which causes to some extent that it is Nixon who replaced him by directing the country’s policy. In 1959 Nixon travels to Moscow where he treated Kruschev (president of the USSR) the pros and cons of both communism and capitalism.
That is when Nixon presents the elections held in the United States in 1960, in which he is defeated by Kennedy, who will die of a shot in 1953. After this he decides to appear again, however now he would do it for California again. There he was defeated again, which caused his temporary withdrawal from politics.
During this period of political retirement, Nixon again exercises as a lawyer, this time business on Wall Street. This stage served him to consider again and reflect on the new policy he would carry out. Nixon is again appointed Republican candidate to appear at the new elections in which he would face Democrat Hubert Horathio Humphrey. One of the promises that Nixon performs is to intervene and end the Vietnam War. It also manages to reach agreements with the USSR and close relations with China. In 1977 he is re -elected and a new scandal hits him, the Watergate case. This triggers Nixon’s resignation, which took place on August 8, 1974. Gerald Ford will be the one who relieves them and gives immunity for all the crimes committed during his presidency.
In spite. He also begins to write, among other things his memoirs, which he made before his death for a heart attack on April 22, 1994 in New York.
As for the political, social and economic context, in the 70s American policy was characterized by the federal intervention of Democratic presidents. Kennedy, then president proposed to stop the so -called "new border", that of prejudices and poverty. Kennedy dies and is Lyndon Baines Johnson who replaces them. This increase social reforms. He had an ambitious project, which consisted of the creation and construction of the so -called "Great Society". This constituted a program full of legislative and social reforms. With this, the poverty tried to alleviate that much of the American population was going through. He also emphasized everything related to health or health. This created Medicare, a public health system for the elderly. Social spending and education aids increased. This policy of the so -called "Welfare State" obtained acceptable results, however with the arrival of the Vietnam War, the reforms were paralyzed and the Vietnamese conflict monopolized all the prominence.
On the other hand, American society despite the social reforms that were raised and that were designed by and for them, was going through a serious and difficult identity crisis. At the end of the 50s, blacks began to fight for their rights and to achieve equality between races. The so -called "Black Power" was becoming stronger, at the same time than other movements that sought to claim the same rights for both races began to emerge.
With poverty and segregation as the main characteristic of American society, the disturbances in the ghettos of the big cities began to increase and with the passage of time they were growing more and more and more. They highlighted the riots that took place in Watts (Los Angeles), Nashville (Tennessee) or Houston (Ttexas).
Other minority groups joined that of blacks. Strikes and protests by most of the American population followed continuously, the universities being the main focus of protest. In these, movements such as the one created by the philosopher Marcuse "New Left" arose. The increase in voltage in Vietnam contributed to the increase in support in student protests.
Women’s protests also appeared greatly.
Regarding the international context during the 70s, the events that highlighted were the construction of the Berlin wall and the missile crisis in Cuba. The United States advanced to other powers, becoming the first in the scientific career and also in the space race, throwing the first man (Neil Armstrong) to space and the moon with Apollo 11. The main concern of the North American country was the Vietnam War. EE.UU. He got back into a war, which would cause a total loss of support, staying alone. However, this did not influence anything, since.UU. They went ahead with their goal, stop communism. This war would bring nefastic consequences to the United States once again.
The US intervention.UU. In the Vietnam War, it was criticized by many, so much that it became called the "dirty" war, for the strategies and attacks that took place in the country Vietnamese. Those who opposed the participation of American in this conflict increased. As well as the manifestations in favor of peace. One of the aspects that was most criticized was the recruitment of young people, by the US government, for the subsequent intervention of these in the war. Young people who did not usually be part of the well -off family. Despite this, most Americans continued supporting the government. Peace movements increased and increased their violence.
On January 30, 1968, Vietnam launches a general offensive that triggers the stoppage of attacks, bombings among others, and the beginning of negotiations between the USA.UU. and Vietnam. This confrontation caused a change in American thinking, society and economy.
On November 5, 1968, Richard Milhous Nixon is elected president of the United States of America and on January 20, 1969 his investiture takes place. Nixón comes to power at a time when American society is divided. That is why, so the first thing Nixon does as president is to reassure the population, in order to appeal it. Get the support of the white middle class, which was formed among others by merchants or farmers. The electoral program carried out by Nixon focused mainly on the order and prosperity of the country. He also criticized the way Democrats had to carry out and treat Vietnam’s conflict.
Although Nixon was voted in the elections held in North America in 1968 by much of the population and of which he was winning, in the Senate and in the House of Representatives the majority had the Democrats. Something that did not favor the new president of the USA at all.UU. Nixon was re -elected president twice more, in 1970 and in 1972.
The beginning of his mandate was characterized by the difficult economic situation in which the country was. There was a high unemployment data, pessimism reigned, inflation was large and there was a high budget deficit also. So Nixon and his team decided to create a plan to save the economy and carry out a Keynesian economic recovery policy. However, the economy continued not improved.
At the beginning of 1972 the economy began to recover little by little due among other things to the peace agreement that reached EE.UU. With Vietnam. Something that not only improved the economy but also improve the image of Nixon who was getting more and more support. A year later the oil crisis broke out, which coincided with Yom Kipur’s war. This crisis triggered the fuel price increase. In 1974, the recovery of the economy was already evident.
Nixon proposed a new American revolution, in which new financial, health, environmental, educational measures were put on the table … educational ..
Next we will analyze the most relevant facts that took place during their presidency. We will begin with the Vietnam War, of which we will mainly analyze the exit of the North American country of this conflict that faced South Vietnam against Northern Vietnam and in which US troops intervened. The EE departure.UU. From the Vietnam War, it began after the order that Nixon gave to withdraw all the American troops from the Asian country, despite this, it did not leave Southern Vietnam unprotected, territory to which it supported. At the same time, he continued with his plans to continue the war. In March 1967, Nixon Bombardea Cambodia which makes its popularity on a large scale fall. In June 1969 the tension begins to decrease and the president launches the so -called "Vietnamitation", that is, it replaced US troops with South Vietnamese, which had been previously prepared and trained militarily. While this happened in Vietnam, in the USA.UU. The pacifist and student revolts continued and even increased, which caused Nixon to try to accelerate negotiations in order to achieve peace. The president left the negotiation process in the hands of Henry Kissinguer, who began to strengthen relations with the Northern Vietnam representative. On January 22, 1973, the Paris Agreement took place, which ended the US intervention in Vietnam. However, two years later, the problems arrived again.
Apart from this conflict, in relation to foreign policy carried out by the Nixon government, we also highlight the improvement of relations between the US.UU. and China and between the EE.UU. and the USSR. Although relationships improved, Nixon continued with his anti -communist ideology and with his goal of curbing communism. EE.UU. He also supported dictatorships and regimes such as the Chilean of Salvador Allende or Greece. What Boil the image of Nixon, after this was improved after the country’s exit from the Vietnamese conflict.
In internal policy, the most prominent event is the Watergate cases, one of the greatest cases of espionage in the history of the United States and which caused the crisis of presidential power at that time. The starting point of this event is the re -election campaign of President Nixon, which took place in 1972. On May 17 of that same year, five people who believed themselves at first that they were thieves were questioned at the headquarters of the Democratic Party in Washington, they carried several microphones in them in order to establish a system of a system of a system ofListen clandestine. So it was assumed that these five people were spies and former agents of the CIA. Days later came to light that people close to Nixon’s environment were involved in this plot. It was also discovered, that Nixon recorded all conversation that he had with someone at the White House, so it was thought that the president was also involved in the Watergate case. When those recordings are requested, he refuses to deliver them. After this, the dimensions begin to happen just like accusations. Nixon’s vice president also resigns, but for reasons outside this case, so Nixon is forced to name a successor, this will be Gerald Ford.
Later, Nixon is forced to deliver the recordings to Parliament. This unleashed that his popularity would decline with great force. He only supported 24% of the population, so he was forced to resign on August 8, 1974.
The result in foreign policy was good due to the good, due to the improvement of relations with China and the USSR, the end of the Vietnam War and its position in the Yom Kippur war. Vietnam’s war was Nixon’s biggest challenge during his presidency. Around 58,000 people died and 300000 were injured. After the war the economy fell again, 160000000 were spent and there were also serious moral and psychological consequences for all the inhabitants.
The Americans began to distrust those who ruled them, since the consequences of the war left them quite touched. THE CREDIBILITY OF US.UU. also descended by the other countries. While the tension with this country began to disappear after the signing of the Helsinki Treaty in August 1933, an agreement that signed more than 35 countries among which we highlight.UU., and the Soviet Union.
Personal opinion:
The book in question has seemed quite interesting and enjoyable to read, since it has not been made at all heavy. Being a biography, it tells relevant aspects of Nixon’s life, all of them narrated very detail. That is why, so I decided to choose this book, to expand knowledge about both the personal and professional life of the 37th President of the United States of America and to obtain more information from the Watergate case, in my opinion, one of the spy plotsmore attractive, and in which Nixon was involved, and on which so many speculations have been made throughout history. In this sense it has not disappointed me. On the other hand, since it is such a short book, it has been quite difficult for me to choose the main ideas and raise them or summarize them. From this book, I highlight several aspects that have seemed significant to me;The first one, as Nixon managed to gain popularity, lose it and time later to win it again. The second, as this approached positions and strengthening relationships with two of the world powers with the USA.UU. He had more rivalry, these were the USSR and China. In short, I think this is a recommended book and quite ascerocated.
Leave feedback