Critical thinking paper			       	Omaid F.

	 “It’s not illegal if the president does it” –President Nixon (Frost/Nixon). Richard Milhous Nixon was one of the best yet most controversial presidents in national history. Even though Nixon was the only president to have ever resigned, his accomplishments and actions in his career eclipse his mistake of covering up a break-in. Nixon helped America by cracking down on crime, unemployment, pollution, inflation, and preventing potential disasters between several nations in the far east(Grolier). Nixon was well known for his foreign policy, which was known as the Nixon Doctrine, and was made up of mostly his policy of Détente (Holt, Chapter 21). Though he did attempt to obstruct justice in the scandal known as Watergate, the event should not be blown out of proportion to the point where it eclipses all of his other achievements. He was a strong anti-communist, and a firm conservative who found Alger Hiss as a community spy (Grolier). Richard Nixon was a great president because of his methods of uniting America, and his foreign policy that stands to make an impact to this day.


	Richard Nixon was helped America by following through with his plans to unite the nation. His plan was to crack down on crime, drugs, help the environment, and ease tensions throughout the world. Statistics have shown that Nixon’s work on cracking down on hard drug use worked (Coming Apart, 208). Nixon helped draft the Howard Taft act and made the EPA, which still stands today (Grolier and Holt, Chapter 21). Not only did he prevent a war crisis, but he also fought an oil crisis in which gas quadrupled in price overnight. While fighting the oil crisis, his tactics to help the economy were a huge success: unemployment dropped, and he kept an even bigger disaster from happening by vetoing bills that went over his budget (Grolier). Détente was one of his most famous programs; an ease of tensions with community nations using “realpolitik” (Holt, Chapter 21). He was a strong advocate for world stability, a reason for visiting China and Russia when Cold War tensions were still high. Nixon also worked for world stability by using Vietnamization to end the war in Vietnam and set up an independent and stable government in South Vietnam. He made nuclear weapon treaties with Russia and China which were a first of their kind (Holt, Chapter 21).Nixon was very popular as well, ranging at about 70%; as well as being the head GOP speaker even before he ran for presidency (Grolier). Nixon promised to, and did get the USA out of a long and costly war without surrendering or losing. Famous for his debating and speech skills, he was able to communicate with America and the media, one of his famous speeches was the “Checkers Speech”; which was modeled off of RFK’s speech where he introduced his dog to the American public(Frost/Nixon).

No man is perfect, and Richard Nixon did make small mistakes along the way. He did not make as much headway (Grolier).Republicans felt that Nixon was abandoning his conservative values when he froze prices and wages for 90 days to stop inflation during the oil crisis. He was also criticized by fellow conservatives for visiting the republic of china and Russia. On getting US troops out of Vietnam, he sent more local Vietnamese to fight instead, called Vietnamization; one could say that he was placing the burden on someone else. Nixon was known for being paranoid, and even though he had a huge lead in the polls he still spied on his enemies; which ended up being a fatal trait during the Watergate fiasco.

But before Watergate, he ended the Vietnam War, brings in détente, and opened up the USA to china which is the main focus of our importation economy today. Barely anyone else could pull off a feat without being called a communist, but Nixon was a McCarthy follower. Even though he is not as popular as JFK or Carter, he supported civil rights legislation. When he shifted from the gold standard to floating currency, he had the biggest influence on the modern money system in the last 100 years. Many presidents have done worse and Nixon stated years beforehand that the “liberal” media had been a long time enemy of his. But the outrage and exploitation of the media calling him a crook was the silver bullet for him, his political career was over. Afterwards he wrote many books, had several famous interviews, and was pardoned by Gerald Ford.

	What Nixon is most known for his foreign policy which is now known as the Nixon Doctrine and included the strategy of Détente to easy tensions worldwide.  Thanks to his actions, the US has access to China which is our most popular importer or goods. He also visited Russia, where he was able to sign a nonaggressive nuclear pact (Holt, Chapter 21). With these treaties in place, Nixon and the USSR were able to force an ending to fighting in Arab states by only using pressure. By doing this, Nixon received a warm welcome when he visited Israel and Arab Nations (Grolier). Nixon had to make some tough decisions while visiting communist nations, as he was a firm conservative but he was an idealist who knew the advantages of realpolitik. Without the use of realpolitik, Nixon would have embarrassed the US and the SALT I and II treaties would have never happened.

Although Nixon was great at foreign policy, his domestic policies were not as good. Nixon’s biggest criticization and situation that lead to his downfall was the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. By obstructing justice, he failed to uphold the constitution which is what a president’s main priority should be, and he tried to hide his actions by fighting any criminal prosecutions. His paranoia got the best of him and he couldn’t face the American public with the truth. Nixon left the trust of the government in pieces after his resignation. The young “rebellion” population lost interest in voting and stopped caring about politics, and the government never gained the trust of the media again.

	Now, Nixon didn’t actually break into the Democratic National Committee, but he tried to cover it up; that is the only reason he resigned. No one should put the total blame of the break in on Nixon anyways, if there were checks and balances in this country, and if those checks and balances weren’t corrupt as well or working, none of this should have happened. This was an awakening for the American people who were lied to about the Vietnam War for years. Thanks to this loss of trust, investigations are more thorough, and many scandals have been uncovered since then, such as the Lewinsky scandal, Abu Ghraib torture, and the unwarranted wire tapping that has occurred post 9/11.

	Nixon had experience in many things and used that experience in his presidency. He was in the Navy Commander, an author, a lawyer, police prosecutor, and debater (Grolier).He kept all of his promises like uniting America and getting out of Vietnam. Nixon never took losing as an answer and had series of wins throughout his career. Though he didn’t get his happy ending when Watergate broke out, he had hundreds of more achievements in his political career which began very soon in his life. Nixon covered all of his bases by fighting many issues in America.