How Did Richard Nixon Influence American Domestic Policies

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The Cold War was a period in American history filled with the hysteria of perceived threat of the communists in everyday society. Throughout this tumultuous era, Richard Nixon was the most influential president, although he was also the most controversial. Nixon’s presidency was filled with great advancements in American domestic and foreign policy, but it was also marred by his participation in the Watergate scandal.

Throughout his first and second terms of his presidency, Richard Nixon implemented many domestic policies into action. The American military draft started in 1940 with World War II and ended in 1947. With the advent of the American intervention in the Vietnam War in 1969, the draft was started up again and lasted until January …show more content…

Under his presidency, Nixon and Henry Kissinger, his leading advisor on national security and international affairs, adopted realpolitik, an idea that said that political goals should be defined by concrete national interests instead of abstract ideologies. In 1949, the communists won the Chinese civil war and established the People’s Republic of China, but the United States refused to officially recognize the country. When Nixon started his political career as a Californian governor, he was one of the loudest anti-communists. However, in the 1970’s Nixon began to recognize the People’s Republic of China as the country was one of the world’s largest economy. In 1971, China invited an American ping pong team to play against their players. Along with this invitation, Henry Kissinger began to have discussions with Premier Zhou Enlai. In February 1971, Nixon became the first president to travel to China. He issued the Shanghai Communiquè, announcing a desire for open, normalized relations and sat down for extensive meetings with Zhou Enlai and Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong. These meetings marked the beginning of improved US and Chinese ties. In 1979, both countries established full diplomatic relations with each other. Nixon’s and Kissinger’s meetings provoked a response from the USSR. Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Leader, in fear of isolation from the growing relationship with China and the United States, invited Richard Nixon to visit Moscow. In May 1972, Nixon made the trip and established diplomatic relations with the Soviets. The countries adopted a policy of détente to help ease Cold War tensions. In addition, they also signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), which froze the deployment of intercontinental ballistic missiles and placed limits on antiballistic missiles. In the Middle East, Nixon and

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