Stains on his record
Nixon came back to national prominence once more when he again won the Republican nomination for president in 1968. Nixon ran on the promise that he would bring an end to the hugely unpopular and nationally divisive Vietnam War. After President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) announced that he would not be running for president in the 1968 election, Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic opponent Nixon would face for the presidency. Nixon was comfortably ahead in the polls when LBJ announced that the North Vietnamese had offered to attend peace talks if the U.S. agreed to a bombing halt. LBJ was keen to bring about an end to the hugely unpopular war and agreed to the demand.
Nixon saw this as a potential threat to his victory in the race for the White House as he was campaigning on a platform of bringing an end to the Vietnam War. Nixon’s fears were being borne out in the polls and his rival Humphrey was cutting into his lead. While publicly Nixon was saying that he would not do or say anything that might interfere with the peace negotiations, privately Nixon began attempts to scupper the Paris peace talks by using an intermediary, Anna Chennault as a go-between him and the South Vietnamese leader, President Thiệu.
FBI surveillance successfully intercepted a message communicated to Anna Chennault from Nixon, which said, “Hold on, we’re going to win,” which meant: tell President Thiệu not to go to the Paris peace talks, that he was going to win the presidency and that South Vietnam would get a better deal from a Nixon administration. Nixon’s plan worked. Three days before the presidential election, the South Vietnamese sent a message to LBJ stating that they would not be attending the Paris peace talks. Any hope of peace evaporated. Nixon went on to narrowly win the election. The Vietnam War raged on for another seven years. During that time thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese on both sides were killed.
Nixon’s desire to hold onto power most notoriously was demonstrated by his repeated denials of involvement in the Watergate Scandal. As more and more evidence linking him and his administration with the break-in and subsequent cover-up came to light, Nixon let others take the fall in the hope that he himself might survive the controversy. The protracted issue of the release of the White House tapes revealed a man desperately trying to cling to power.
Despite his many flaws, Nixon did achieve some good in his time in power. Arguably Nixon’s greatest achievements came in mending foreign relations. His historic visit to Beijing in 1972 marked the beginning of a new relationship between the United States and China. In May 1972 Nixon and the Soviet Union’s General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and an interim agreement on Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I).
However, 1972 was also the year of the Watergate Scandal and as the pressure mounted on Nixon over the next two years, and as impeachment loomed, Nixon resigned in August 1974. As Henry Kissinger put it, “Everything that he had worked for all his life was collapsing, and deep down he knew, that he had made a big contribution to its collapse.” In Nixon’s emotional farewell speech, he alluded to his own culpability in his political demise, in it he said, “others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them and then you destroy yourself.”
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Reputations: The Secret World of Richard Nixon”. BBC Documentary, 2000.
“The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon”. Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan. 2001.
“President Nixon Arrives In China For Talks”. History.Com Editors. History. November 13, 2009
“U.S. Relations With China”. Council on Foreign Relations.
“10 Crimes of the Nixon Administration”. Larry Holzwarth. History Collection. March 27, 2018
“Nixon’s Foreign Policy and Strategic Arms Limitations Talks/Treaty (SALT) I and II.” History.state.gov.
CSPAN interview with Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan discussing their book, The Arrogance of Power.