Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994)
I. Introduction
- •a central figure in post-1945 U.S. history
- •anticommunism at home and abroad
- •the tension between the welfare state and conservatism
- •the Vietnam war
- •the end of the "imperial presidency"
II. Nixon's career
- •Youth
- •World War II and early political career
- •Office of Emergency Management (1942)
- •Navy (1942-1946)
- •House of Representatives (1946-1950)
- •House Un-American Activities Committee and Alger Hiss
(1946-1948)
- •Senate (1950-1952)
- •Vice President (1952-1960)
- •Latin America (1958)
- •Soviet Union (1959)
- •Republican candidate for President (1960)
- •Candidate for Governor of California (1962)
- •Lawyer (1962-1968)
- •President (1968-1974)
- •conservative rhetoric but liberal actions
- •civil rights
- •war on drugs
- •War on Poverty
- •environment
- •"stagflation" (1971-1974)
- •"Vietnamization"
- •bombing and invasion in Laos and Cambodia
- •peace agreement (Jan. 1973)
- •"detente" and a "new world order"
- •China and Russia
- •Watergate and resignation (1972-1974)
III. Conclusion
- •Nixon a central figure in virtually every major political and diplomatic
trend in the U.S. from end of World War II to 1970s
- •Rise of cold war and Red Scare (McCarthyism)
- •critic of welfare state, but federal government's activities
expanded greatly during his presidency
- •frustration with the Vietnam war led to American withdrawal
and to a search for a new international order that began the
end of the cold war
- •his assertion of absolute presidential power led to Watergate
and to sharp reduction in presidential power