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Impact of the watergate scandal
Nixon's involvement in the watergate scandal
Nixon's involvement in the watergate scandal
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Richard Nixon begins off his memoir by explaining the times of his most, greatest failure in life. It describes the writings of his most important comings with Chou En-lai. His worst failure was having no source of communications, whatsoever with the country of China for at least 25 to 26 years. Nixon talks about both of the sides of his feelings with the significance of his greatest triumph. (Richard Nixon, pg 13, 343) He also goes through his life, previous to the Watergate event, in San Clemente and the other sites near the end of his time as president when he did large amounts of writing and traveling. (Richard Nixon, pg 27) Then writes about the political issues that landed between the years of 1989 and 1990. Richard was raised as a Quaker, but showed no resemblance or sign, towards the beginning of his adult years. He recalls all the lessons he had remembered during his school years. They helped him become the person he was, and how his wealth after his presidency was fare more fortunate. Primarily this book shows his struggles and happiness, throughout the many years of his hard life. The promotion of peace and decisions to make it made him want to create it even more, towards the end of his political career. (Richard Nixon, pg 335-337, 353) On August 9, 1974, his last day as the President of the United States, he spent a lot of his time working on the speech he would give to the grounds of the White House, for his final time. This is one of his most recognized speeches, because of its great thanks and the best moment during his presidency. It gave humble amounts of inspiration with its quotes and phrases, which gave a great amount of hope and will for his country, family, and political standpoints. Even though he didn't r... ... middle of paper ... ...knew of the Watergate break in. After knowing this he also showed his "smoking gun" tape and discussed it in great detail, which brought back serious myths and thoughts. (Richard Nixon, pg 34) This book of memoirs should be intended to anybody who is interested in becoming a good politician. In conclusion, the ways that he lived his life were different then most, especially in the "arena". His lessons throughout his own life showed that he went through everything early and late in life the hardest way possible, even in college. He did what he had to do, to finish and become the best he could have with the conditions given to him. Nixon could have quit, but he didn't and pulled through and lived his life one step at a time, broken and angered. The most important thing is that he kept strong and mentally stable at all times, which made him the great politician he was.
Nixonland is four stories put into one novel that was written by Rick Perlstein. Each story was about a different campaign that happened between the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Besides Nixonland, Perlstein has also written another novel, “Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus”. Although he does go into detail about some of the Presidents that were mentioned in the book, the book is not a biography. It is classified as nonfiction.
Nixon showed hubris, which is also known as egotistical behavior or exhibiting too much pride. He thought that he deserved to be reelected as president, even if in order for this to occur he had to behave in an unethical manner. The Watergate Scandal proved that Nixon was confident in his ability to pull off a major crime, although he was caught. This event also shows prideful behavior because he thought he could control the law and the election, even if he wasn’t the rightful winner.
The "Checkers Speech" saved Nixon's career, what was left of it.. Eisenhower kept him on the ticket just because of his looks and he went on to serve eight years as Vice President. He wanted to win by a lot. In 1960 Nixon ran for President, losing a close race to John F. Kennedy. The smell of hope. He was paranoid. Two years later he lost a bitter race for Governor of California to Pat Brown and retired from politics, telling the press, "There is always next year. He was paranoid.
The documentary entitled, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, documents the political decisions and environment within the Nixon Administration from 1969-1974. The documentary specifically details and describes the environment and culture in which the Watergate scandal could occur and the events and abuses of power that lead to its occurrence. Setting the tone and the political climate of the Nixon Administration was the Vietnam War; making him a wartime President, a war that he inherited from his predecessor. The Vietnam War faced a lot of opposition from the general public, with massive protests and political demonstrations by the younger generations and overall general public. Nixon’s presidency was surrounded by this climate amidst the
Pious, Richard M. Richard Nixon: A Political Life. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Julian Messner, 1991.
Historians on the opposing side believe that Nixon had a choice, but he chose the wrong one. He wanted to cover up the Watergate scandal, and that was the turning point of his presidency. Maurice H. Stans explains, “Nixon was not a party to the Watergate break-in. That has been established, especially by the White House tapes beginning in June 1972, which showed his initial consternation at learning about it.” (Nixon 178)
He opens with a strong statement about god, “As we are a nation under God, so I am sworn to uphold our laws with the help of God” (13). He strikes emotion while also sharing personal views as he states that we are a country unified under God and that he not only relies on himself, but on god, which tends to strike emotion in religious peoples. He states his belief that Richard Nixon should be pardoned of all accusations regarding the watergate scandal. He also speaks about how Nixon wouldn’t be treated fairly and how, if a trial was held, it could never be settled, and if it were against him, his punishment would be cruel and unjust. The expression of belief gets the reader thinking about the real overlook of the situation, and how it is all handled, the emotions striving to express forgiveness and a new outlook on Richard
The politics of the ultratight resonated deeply with Richard Nixon. Nixon had cut his political teeth as a young Red-hunting member of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. His home district in Orange Country, California, was widely known as a Birch Society stronghold. The Los Angeles-area Birch Society claimed the membership of several political and economic elites, including members of the Chandler family, which owned and published the Los Angeles Times. According to the writer David Halberstam (1979, 118) the Times, which was once described as “the most rabid Labor-bating, Red-hating paper in the United States,” virtually created Richard Nixon.
Another very important factor was Nixon’s previous experience in politics. After graduating from Duke University, Nixon joined the navy during World War II. After returning from the war Nixon jumped right into politics. He answered a Republican Party call in the newspaper. They were looking for someone to run against the five-term Democratic Congressman Jerry Voorhis. John Ehrlichman once said of Richard Nixon, “He is like a race horse specially trained to run a particular race and no good for pulling wagons. He’s for running the race to be president, and that’s what he lived for (Matusow 1).” That just gives you an idea about Nixon’s attitude. He would do whatever it took in order to win. The style of Nixon’s first campaign for congressman set the tone for the early part of his political career. An example would be that while running against Voorhis he accused him of being a communist. He even had campaign workers make calls to voter...
Richard Nixon was born and raised in California in 1913 and died 1994. He was our 37th president of the United States of America. He also was vice president, senator, a member of the House of Representatives, and even served in the Navy during World War Two. He seems like he could have been a great leader, but could he have been a perpetrator of espionage. He should have been known for success in ending American fighting in Vietnam, and improving relations with China and Russia; but he is really known for the tragic Watergate Scandal. He served one full term, and was elected for a second term, but resigned. Five articles of impeachment were written three had already been passed, making it almost a necessity to resign. This makes him the first and still to this day the only president to resign in office. Why would he resign? He was scared he would be impeached because of what was happening in what was called the Watergate Scandal.
Richard Milhouse Nixon was born of a Quaker family on January 9,1913 in Yorba Linda, California. He graduated second in his class from local Whittier College in 1934 and later graduated third in his class from Duke University Law School. From there Nixon joined a law firm, and then briefly worked for the tire-rationing section of the Office of Price Administration, in Washington, D.C. Eight months into World War II, he enlisted in the Navy and moved to the Pacific to become a supply ...
[1] Watching Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995) and the director’s earlier film JFK (1991), it is difficult to have kind thoughts about Richard Nixon. Stone’s investment in the figure of the president manifests itself in two ways: first, in the director’s fixation on Nixon as a symbol of the corrupt political landscape after President John Kennedy’s assassination, and, second, his fixation on Nixon as a symbol of a failed patriarch or an ineffective father figure who led the country into further turmoil. Stone has argued that he hoped to elicit sympathy for Nixon, but I will show that the director’s emphasis on Nixon as an epic tragedy, especially in conjunction with the Beast thesis, does not allow for sympathy or understanding of the man or his politics.
...nam. Nixon, himself, has thought about how different his presidency could have been if he were elected in 1960. He would have followed Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had an 8-year scandal-free administration. Instead, he followed in Lyndon B. Johnson’s steps of corruption, spying, recordings, extended illegal use of the FBI, and exploited access to TV. (Nixon 624-25) This fed into his insecurities and habitual paranoia, which facilitated his downfall.
Nixon was long associated with American politics before his fall from grace. He was along time senator before finally being elected president in 1968. During his first term, his United States went through the Vietnam War and a period of economic inflation. In 1972 he was easily re-elected over Democrat nominee George McGovern. Almost unnoticed during his campaign was the arrest of five men connected with Nixon’s re-election committee. They had broken into the Democrats national head quarters in the Watergate apartment complex, in Washington D.C. They attempted to steal documents and place wire taps on the telephones. By March of 1973, through a federal inquiry, it had been brought to light that the burglars had connections with high government officials and Nixon’s closest aids. Despite Nixon and his lawyers best efforts, it was shown that the president had participated in the Watergate cover-up. On August 8, 1974 Nixon announced, without admitting guilt, that he would resign. He left the Oval Office the next day: an obvious fall from grace.
The years leading up to the 1972 election were filled with new political tactics. Going into the election year, President Nixon seemed like he could never lose the second term election after successfully negotiating with Vietnam, Beijing, and Russia to improve international relations (Emery 4). Raising international toughness made Nixon seem like the most worthy person to stay president. Fred Emery analyses in his novel Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon, the president was also setting up the first summit meeting in history with Soviet Union Presidents (3). There seemed to be nothing capable of holding the seemingly responsible man back. However, this assurance came with massive consequences. The absolute certainty that Nixon would be reelected fueled the lies and abuse of power by the Nixon government (Emery 195). As the outlook of landslide winnings took over the White House, the moral reasoning, “the end justifies the means” became more prevalent. Nixon was obsessed with winning and being successful. Under his command his staff did whatever possible to ...