Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913–April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President of the United States (1969–1974) and the only American president to resign the office. During the Cold War, Nixon was a congressman, Senator, Vice President and US President.

California congressman
Nixon was a republican in California's 12th congressional district from 1947 to 1950. In June 1947, Nixon supported the Taft–Hartley Act, a federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions, and he served on the Education and Labor Committee. In August 1947, he became one of 19 House members to serve on the Herter Committee, which went to Europe to report on the need for U.S. foreign aid. Nixon was the youngest member of the committee and the only Westerner. Advocacy by Herter Committee members, including Nixon, led to congressional passage of the Marshall Plan.

US Senate
Nixon was a California state senator from 1950 to 1953. In the Senate, Nixon took a prominent position in opposing global communism, traveling frequently and speaking out against it. He maintained friendly relations with his fellow anti-communist, controversial Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, but was careful to keep some distance between himself and McCarthy's allegations. Nixon also criticized President Harry S. Truman's handling of the Korean War. He supported statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, voted in favor of civil rights for minorities, and supported federal disaster relief for India and Yugoslavia. He voted against price controls and other monetary restrictions, benefits for illegal immigrants, and public power.

Vice President
Eisenhower gave Nixon more responsibilities during his term than any previous vice president. Nixon attended Cabinet and National Security Council meetings and chaired them in Eisenhower's absence. A 1953 tour of the Far East succeeded in increasing local goodwill toward the United States, and gave Nixon an appreciation of the region as a potential industrial center. He visited Saigon and Hanoi in French Indochina. On his return to the United States at the end of 1953, Nixon increased the time he devoted to foreign relations.

US Presidency
Under President Nixon, the United States followed a foreign policy marked by détente with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and by the opening of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. Nixon successfully negotiated a ceasefire with North Vietnam, effectively ending the longest war in American history. Domestically, his administration faced resistance to the Vietnam War. In the face of likely impeachment by the United States House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate for the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a controversial pardon for any federal crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.

Real Peace
In his book Real Peace in 1983 Nixon wrote that: "Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war". Nixon was the first president to visit all fifty states, as well as the first to visit the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (and later the Peoples Republic of China). While in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, he engaged in intense negotiations with his Soviet counterpart, Leonid Brezhnev. Out of this "summit" meeting came agreements for increased trade and two landmark arms control treaties. SALT (named for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks underway since 1969) froze each country's arsenal of intercontinental missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles, so that neither side would be tempted to attack the other without fearing devastating retaliation. Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence," in which "détente" (cooperation) would replace the hostility of the Cold War.