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