VLVL(6) Ch 11 Note - Dick Nixon

[Peter Petto]

204.25  Dick Nixon - Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994), 37th president of
the United States (1969-1974), and the only president to have resigned from
office. He was forced to resign to avoid impeachment as a result of the
Watergate scandal. Although he is not mentioned often, his personality is a
backdrop to Vineland and Gravity's Rainbow (where he appears as both
himself and Richard M. Zhlubb). I know that everyone here already knows a
lot about him, but I have this hope that someone who doesn't may dig this
stuff out of some archive somewhere somewhen. So here's more than you
probably want to hear, again.

The most important issue Nixon faced when he became president was the
Vietnam War. The war had begun in 1959 when Communist guerrillas (the Viet
Cong) in South Vietnam, backed by the Communist government of North
Vietnam, launched an attempt to overthrow the government of South Vietnam.
By 1968, there were more than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam. Antiwar
sentiment developed at home, and demonstrations against the war became a
daily occurrence.

Nixon's program, known as Vietnamization, emphasized the responsibilities
of the South Vietnamese in the war. Although Nixon began withdrawing U.S.
combat troops from South Vietnam, he actually expanded the war. In 1970 he
authorized the invasion of Cambodia to pursue North Vietnamese troops
there, and in 1971 the United States assisted a South Vietnamese invasion
of Laos. In 1972 the United States retaliated against a massive North
Vietnamese offensive with the first deep-penetration bombing raids over the
north since 1967. Nixon soon ordered the mining of major ports of North
Vietnam, and air strikes were directed against North Vietnamese railroad
lines. After secret peace meetings-between Henry A. Kissinger, assistant to
the president for national security affairs, and the North Vietnamese
delegate Le Duc Tho-abruptly collapsed in December, Nixon ordered further
massive bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.

In other areas of foreign policy, Nixon traveled to Beijing and Moscow in
1972 to improve relations with China and the USSR, respectively. He signed
trade agreements with both countries and a treaty with the USSR to limit
the deployment of antiballistic missile systems. At home, Nixon's
appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States shifted the court
toward more conservative positions, and he also tried to slow the pace of
integration of black students into white schools.

In 1972 Nixon easily won reelection over the Democratic opponent, Senator
George S. McGovern of South Dakota. Almost unnoticed during the campaign
was the arrest of five men connected with Nixon's reelection committee. The
five had broken into the Democratic Party's national headquarters in the
Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to steal
documents and place wiretaps on the telephones.

Near the beginning of his second administration, Nixon sensed advances in
the peace talks and halted all bombing, mining, and artillery fire in North
Vietnam. In early 1973 he announced that agreement on all terms for a
formal cease-fire had finally been reached.

Nixon's popularity began to suffer with the exposure of the Watergate
scandal. By March, investigative reporting and persistent questioning in
the trial of the Watergate burglars had shown that a cover-up had concealed
the scope of the burglars' activities and their connections with high
government officials and the president's closest aides. Soon after, a
Senate committee on Watergate revealed that the Democratic headquarter
break-in was one of many scandals, including four years of political
espionage and sabotage by Nixon loyalists. The actions had been directed
against Democrats and a variety of critics. They had been financed in part
by secret illegal campaign contributions from political favor seekers.

These revelations forced the resignation of all but one of Nixon's closest
aides and raised questions about Nixon's participation in the cover-up. In
October, Nixon ordered the firing of Justice Department special
investigator Archibald Cox over the question of access to White House tape
recordings and other documents. The public was outraged, and two days later
the House Judiciary Committee was ordered to look into the possible
impeachment of Nixon. The next day he agreed to produce the material in
question, but soon after, it was revealed that some tapes did not exist and
that the key part of one had been erased.

The Watergate inquiry sparked other investigations, including income tax
evasion by Nixon. In an unrelated scandal, Vice President Agnew resigned
following revelations of his financial improprieties. Nixon nominated
Michigan congressman Gerald R. Ford to succeed Agnew.

In March 1974 Nixon's two top aides, John D. Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman;
his former attorney general, John N. Mitchell; and two other men were
indicted in connection with the Watergate cover-up. Nixon was named as an
"unindicted co-conspirator." Nixon refused to surrender more tapes, but he
eventually released edited transcripts of some taped conversations. In July
the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Nixon's claims of executive
privilege, and the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives
voted to impeach him on charges of obstructing justice, abusing
presidential power, and refusing to obey subpoenas by the House.

On August 5 Nixon released tapes showing that he had participated in the
Watergate cover-up as early as 1972. On August 8 he announced that he would
resign. He left office the next day, and Vice President Ford was sworn in
as president. President Ford unexpectedly issued a pardon to Nixon for all
federal crimes he may have committed while president. In retirement, Nixon
wrote and traveled widely and gradually regained some public respect,
especially as a foreign policy expert.