The Checkers speech (1952)
Televised defence against a campaign fund scandal, mentioning his dog Checkers
US Presidents · 20th century
Richard Nixon
1913–1994 · American
Republican
In office: 1969–1974
Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president, opened relations with Communist China, pursued détente with the Soviet Union and withdrew US forces from Vietnam. The Watergate scandal made him the only US president to resign, on 9 August 1974.
How to spot them
- ▸Watergate; 'I am not a crook'; 'Tricky Dick'
- ▸The only president to resign
- ▸Visit to China in 1972; détente; the Checkers speech as a vice-presidential candidate
- ▸The Kitchen Debate with Khrushchev; the Frost interviews
In office
The Kitchen Debate (1959)
Impromptu exchange with Khrushchev at an American exhibition in Moscow, as vice president
Creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970)
Federal environmental regulator established by executive reorganisation
Ending the dollar's convertibility into gold (1971)
The 'Nixon shock' that ended the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates
Visit to the People's Republic of China (1972)
Met Mao Zedong in Beijing, the first presidential visit to the PRC
SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972)
Arms control agreements signed with Brezhnev in Moscow
'I am not a crook' (1973)
Denial at a press conference during the Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal and resignation (1972–1974)
Break-in at Democratic headquarters and cover-up, revealed partly by secret White House tapes
Key ideas
- Détente: easing of tensions with the USSR, largely with Henry Kissinger
- Vietnamization: handing combat to South Vietnamese forces while withdrawing US troops
- The Nixon Doctrine: allies to bear primary responsibility for their own defence
Quick-fire facts
- •37th president; born in Yorba Linda, California
- •Vice president under Eisenhower (1953–1961); lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy
- •After losing the 1962 California governor race he said the press 'won't have Nixon to kick around anymore'
- •His first vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned in 1973 and was replaced by Gerald Ford
- •Spoke by telephone to the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon in 1969
- •Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein pursued the Watergate story; their source was 'Deep Throat'
- •Pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford in September 1974
- •Gave a series of television interviews to David Frost in 1977
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- Miller Center, University of Virginia — Richard Nixon
- Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward — All the President's Men