User:Kjberwin/Richard Nixon

Background
Richard Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 to Hannah Milhous Nixon and Frank Nixon who at the time was a lemon rancher in Yorba Linda, California. His boyhood was spent in poverty and hardship, in which his father's ranch failed, his family was forced to Whittier, California, where he worked in his father's grocery store as well as any other odd jobs he could find around the community, and two of his brothers, Arthur and Harold, were stricken with disease, tubercular encephalitis and tuberculosis respectively, and both died, Arthur in 1925 and Harold in 1933. Also, it was well known that his father was a hard and belligerent man, whom historian David Reynolds called a "violent bully," and Nixon himself wrote in his autobiography that he was "a strict and stern disciplinarian" with a "quickness to anger" who showed such outburst of temper that many of the customers of his grocery store would not return. Furthermore, there are many who report that Nixon was bullied by students during his youth, booed during a performance as an amaeteur actor, and lost a high school student body presidential election through lack of popularity. These experiences caused Nixon to mask and hide his real nature, the ambition and ruthlessness of his father masked by the polite nature of his mother, because he craved applause and attention. Also when he later ran for U.S. Senate seat for California, his opponenent Helen Douglas called him Tricky Dick, a nickname that would follow him the rest of his life, and when he held the position of Vice President beginning in 1953, his expansion of the position, even conducting meetings when the president was absent illustrated how even then, he was deceptive and hungry for power. His ruthlessness to get what he desired showed even in his marriage to Thelma Ryan, whom most called Pat, as he courted her by coming to her house unannounced and proposing to her several times, before she eventually capitulated. After losing the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy, Nixon won the 1968 presidential election, in the Republican party, against the Democratic party candidate, Hubert Humphrey and independent candidate George Wallace to become the 37th President of the United States.

Positive and Neutral Aspects of His Presidency
In his administration he first showed himself to have virtues as well as vices. However, after a time, all that remained were his vices, in which it was revealed that through his ambition he had become lustful for power to a perverse extreme and his insecurities beginning from his birth made him paranoid and thus, driven to desperate means.

During the years of his presidency, Nixon continously showed support and personal interest in the development of National Aeronautics and Space Administrations, sending three manned missions to the moon, speaking to the astronaut Neil Armstrong over the phone while Armstrong was on the moon, a first and historic event which Nixon was particularly proud of, attending a rocket launch as the first president to do so, and proving his interest in the nation continuing to explore space by approving NASA's plan to develop the Space Shuttle program.

However, he did all this without increasing the budget of the NASA program, rather he decreased their budget, illustrating his concern and prudence in creating the budget, during a time of economic unstability and worry of the people about inflation, in which Nixon showed bravery and intellect through several bold maneuvers. As inflation increased due to the cost of the Vietnam War and increased domestic spending, and the gold coverage of the paper dollar declined dramatically, Nixon imposed a 90-day wage and price freeze without consulting anyone else, created a 10 percent import surcharge, and ended the gold standard, a plan which the people greatly praised him for, exclaiming that had rescued them from a potential economic crisis and price-gougers.

Nixon also showed a progressive and fair spirit by focusing on helping minority groups reach equality in the nation. He spoke out against racism and school segregation, approving laws to enforce integration, and during his presidency millions of African American children were integrated into formerly all-white Southern public schools. Nixon's own presidential counselor, Daniel Moynihan reported that under Nixon, "there has been more change in the structure of American public school education" during his presidency than there had been "in the past 100 years." He was the first president to create a federal affirmative action program called the Philadelphia Plan; he approved the Equal Rights Amendment, signed Title IX, and during his presidency abortion was legalized, all events which increased female rights.

He also defused international tensions through his diplomatic personality. In a visit to China he greatly improved relations between the two nations through his respect and courtesy of manner, as his biographer Stephen Ambrose reports that he made sure to shake Zhou Enlai's hand immediately after landing in China, not even allowing his advisors to descend from the plane until he had done so, and impressing Mao Zedong with his straight forward nature. The success of this meeting eased the threat of nuclear war as the Soviet Union did not wish to spur an alliance between the United States and China against them.

Negative Aspects of His Presidency
However, his good qualities and successes were soon superseded by his vices, as his power lust and arrogance grew rapidly and would lead to his political death. While, his arrogance remained hidden through his ample talents at deception, his ruthlessness for power soon became apparent. He became infamous for his involvement in the Watergate Scandal, the facts of which are well known by everyone, in which five men were caught breaking into Democratic Party headquarters in Washington D.C. at the Watergate Hotel in a savage effort to sabotage his opponents, being funded by members of the Committee to Re-elect the President, and close friends and workers of Nixon were bribing the caught criminals for silence about their involvement, bribes and obstruction of justice which Nixon, despite his profuse denials, knew of and endorsed as evidenced by the released tapes from the recordings in the Oval Office in which Nixon proves his guilt by stating, "they have to be paid." Nixon's perverseness of justice even went so far as attempting to use the CIA to impede the FBI investigation, agreeing with H.R. Haldeman's advice in another tape recording to have the CIA call Pat Gray of the FBI, and have him say, "Stay the hell out of this...this is ah, business here we don't want you go any further on it." However, Nixon's guilt was evident long before the tapes, because after a long and suspicious refusal to release the tapes under the subpoena of the court, he first released the tapes with an unexplained gap over 18 minutes, causing the public to grow increasingly doubtful that he was not involved. Nixon also tried to stop the printing of the Pentagon papers and after their publication, created the corrupt and nefarious White House Plumbers to keep information from the media and public, some even report that that they unsucessfully attempted to burglarize the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, to take Ellsberg's file and discredit him. Nixon's own White House Counsel, John Dean admitted to a list created of all Nixon's public enemies, which Dean stated in a memorandum was created in order to see "how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies," illustrating how corrput the White House administration had become under Nixon. Nixon was not only corrupt but arrogant, declaring in his interview with David Frost that "When the President does it, that means it's not illegal," thereby, admitting that he placed himself above the law and restrictions that applied to all citizens.

Furthermore, the Watergate Scandal revealed his deceptive nature, pretending to be an honest man, stating that he was not a crook, all the while involved in illegal activities. Nixon was always hiding his real nature from the public view. He supported and defended Israel in the Yon Kippur War and held meetings with Golda Meir, but in private, he disparaged the Jews as "aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious" who are born "spies." Despite his involvement with integration, he declared that out of the African American community only "some are smart" and that abortion should be avoided except in cases of interracial pregnancy.