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Module 10: How Will Historians Treat Richard Nixon?
Evidence
(click to print)
The materials presented below, all taken from the public speeches of President Richard Nixon, provide a basis upon which to evaluate the historians' interpretations outlined in the conclusion to this module. In five sections, you'll find portions of several speeches in spoken format (as audio files) and full excerpts as transcriptions. Although the documents included are edited versions of longer speeches, they all reproduce the actual words spoken by Nixon. The accompanying photographs provide visual indications of the kinds of issues that shaped Nixon's presidency.
Defining the Issues
This speech, delivered by Nixon to the Republican National Convention in August 1968, defined the objectives of his candidacy and laid out the standards by which Nixon himself wished the American people and historians to evaluate his future presidency.
Domestic Policy
Nixon placed a high priority on certain aspects of his domestic policy. Four social problems drew his particular attention: welfare, race relations, energy, and the environment. The excerpts in this section outline Nixon's new federal approach to such problems in the everyday lives of Americans.
The Cold War
Foreign policy was always a high priority for President Nixon, particularly in relation to the other superpower, the Soviet Union, and the emerging communist power, China. The materials in this section illustrate how Nixon's presidency transformed United States policies and attitudes regarding the Cold War. Starting with the striking change in rhetoric articulated in Nixon's inaugural address in 1969, the speeches illustrate how Nixon's statements on China and the Soviet Union defined the emerging policy of détente, or coexistence, between the superpowers. The photographs from Nixon's trip to China in 1972 provide the most visible evidence of the dramatic change in United States foreign policy toward the communist world.
Vietnam
The speeches in this section trace the evolution of Nixon's strategy regarding the Vietnam War, starting with his promise of "an honorable end to the war" at the time of his nomination in 1968 to the declaration of a cease-fire with an American withdrawal of troops in early 1973. The interview with television correspondents in mid-1970 provided a clear statement of how the "domino theory" continued to shape United States policies in Southeast Asia, while Nixon's address on the invasion of Cambodia defined the reasons for escalating United States involvement beyond the borders of Vietnam. Yet the speeches of November 1969 and January 1973 also illustrate how persistently the Nixon administration sought an end to the war, even while trying to determine an outcome that would be most satisfactory in domestic and world political terms.
Watergate
In his first recorded statement on the Watergate break-in on June 22, thirteen days after the event, Nixon set the tone for the following two years, during which he pursued various strategies designed to keep the scandal from destroying his presidency. As illustrated in the speeches to the nation in April 1973 and April 1974, however, his strategies were clearly failing. Pressure on the president increased in the media, the judicial system, Congress, and certainly in public opinion. The Watergate crisis ended in August 1974 with Nixon's resignation.
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