Richard Nixon

Served as President from 1969-1974
Era: The Sixties
American Identity and Culture
During the years 1969 through 1974 there were many new things in the United States that dealt with the American culture. For example, people were now experiencing many different things. One of these was the discrimination of females and males in universities and other forms of higher education. To counter this, in 1972 a law was passed that ended sex discrimination in any higher level form of education, including colleges and universities. There were also scientific advancements such as the United States winning in the race to land people on the moon. In 1969, the United States successfully landed Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the moon.
Economic Transformations and Globalization
During Richard Nixon’s presidency, because of the Korean War and the Great Society from Johnson, the United States was under a large debt and had many large budget deficits. His largest goal however, was to reduce inflation. He made a New Federalism as he gave federal grants to lots of states but a lot of this grant money was lost in the process of congressional budget. At Camp David, Nixon announced for temporary wage and price controls and also allowed the United States dollar to float against other country’s currencies. He also ended the ability for United States citizens to convert their money back into gold. In 1973, Nixon was still controlling prices and these produced many food shortages. In the end, Richard Nixon had failed to control inflation in America, and along with that failure the controls also ended.
Environment
During Richard Nixon’s presidency, he established the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1970 the first Earth Day had also taken place. Nixon also made the Clean Air Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to further his support for the conservation movement. The Environmental Protection Agency that Nixon made required many Federal projects to have environmental impact states. Even though Nixon had passed many of these environmental things for the conservational movement, there was one legislation that Richard Nixon did not pass. In 1972 he had vetoed the Clean Water Act of 1972 because he though it objected the policies goals of the EPA and because it also would have cost a lot of money which the federal government did not have at that time.
Politics and Citizenship
During Richard Nixon’s presidency, he enacted the “New Federalism.” This program devolved a lot of power to the state governments and also the few local officials that are elected. Congress, however, was very hostile and skeptical about these ideas. Richard Nixon also eliminated lots of people from the United States Post Office Department of the federal government who were in the cabinet-level. In 1971 the Post Office Department also changed into the United States Postal Service. One large political thing though was the Watergate Scandal. This term came from the illegal activities that had gone on during the Nixon administration. In this Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon ordered people to harass many activist groups and people like the FBI, the Internal Revenue service and others. It was later known that Richard Nixon’s aides were the ones who were trying to sabotage the democrats in high positions.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
It was starting in Richard Nixon’s presidency that many schools in the south that were public allowed the integration in such a large scale. Richard Nixon’s Vice President Agnew lead a force of local leaders in the Southern towns to try and work with the integration of both African American kids and white kids in public schools. Although Richard Nixon appointed the Vice President to do the work, it was really Labor Secretary George Shultz who did it. Nixon also implemented a large plan for civil rights known as the Philadelphia Plan in 1970. This plan was the first federal action to be an affirmative action program. He endorsed a new amendment known as the Equal Rights Amendment and he tried to get it ratified in the United States.
War and Diplomacy
During Richard Nixon’s presidency the United States was still at war in the Southeast Asia. In 1970 and 1971 the invasion of Cambodia and Laos took place, respectively. The Vietnam War is also still going on, where the Northern Communistic forces were fighting the nationalists of the South. Richard Nixon even bombed Cambodia in suspicious that there were Viet Cong bases there. Nixon also went to South Vietnam and started the process strategy known as Vietnamization. This process was to start by replacing the American troops with troops from Vietnam. In the end, the United States withdrew from the Vietnam War because of the heavy casualties that the American people have faced. Along with the withdrawal they also agreed to cease fire and stop supporting the Southern Vietnamese Nationalists.