Nixon, Richard M.

Nixon, Richard M. (1913–1994), congressman, vice president, thirty‐seventh president of the United States.Richard Nixon became president in January 1969, when the era of American strategic superiority was waning and rising domestic discontent with the pace of reform and the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was fueling a political backlash. Nixon, working closely with his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, appreciated that the United States did not have unlimited resources or unlimited interests, and sought to redefine America's role in the world through a retrenchment of its global commitments. Nixon's accomplishments and reputation as a strategist are overshadowed by his resignation in 1974 over the Watergate scandal.

The centerpiece of Nixon's international strategy was to manage the Soviet threat by inducing Moscow to moderate its behavior in the world arena. To achieve this, he endeavored to engage the Soviet Union in a web of relations that would furnish Moscow with incentives to seek accommodation with the United States. Vital to this were the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), which in 1972 resulted in an agreement to limit the deployment of strategic offensive missiles and antiballistic missile systems. Although the interim agreement on ballistic missiles arguably was flawed, the SALT Treaties paved the way for subsequent superpower nuclear arms control and disarmament agreements.

Another cornerstone of Nixon's policy was his historic opening to Communist China. Nixon correctly perceived, where others did not, that for strategic reasons China would welcome an approach from the United States, and Nixon, the staunch anti‐Communist, was comparatively invulnerable to partisan attacks of being “soft on communism.” The president recognized that a rapprochement with the People's Republic of China would help to isolate North Vietnam—which the United States was attempting to force into a settlement of the Vietnam War—and would confront the Soviet Union with the prospect of cooperation between its two greatest enemies, the United States and China.

Nixon's triumphant summit meeting in Beijing in 1972 and his visit to Moscow to sign the SALT Treaties a few weeks later marked the beginning of a period of detente (“easing of tensions”), in which Washington and Moscow sought to achieve accommodation and reduce the danger of nuclear war. Detente did not last, in part, critics have argued, because Nixon's policy lacked forceful disincentives to discipline Soviet misbehavior.

Nixon's principal electoral mandate was to end the war in Vietnam. He authorized the gradual withdrawal of the 500,000 American troops from South Vietnam and sought to negotiate a settlement that would not harm U.S. interests or credibility. U.S. draft calls and casualties declined, but the war continued. To increase U.S. leverage, Nixon ordered the incursion into Cambodia in 1970, the massive bombing of Hanoi, and the mining of Haiphong Harbor to cut off Soviet aid. These actions were domestically unpopular and are extremely contentious, even though Nixon claimed that they were instrumental to reaching the settlement by which all American combat forces were withdrawn and all known prisoners of war freed by March 1973. Fulfilling a campaign promise, Nixon ended conscription in 1973, transforming the U.S. military into an All‐Volunteer Force.

Nixon's Vietnam policy was and remains controversial. Some assert that he sold out the South Vietnamese government. Others argue that his attempt to negotiate conditions advantageous to U.S. objectives needlessly prolonged the war, for these were never attained, and the settlement eventually negotiated had been obtainable much earlier.
[See also Cold War: External Course; Cold War: Domestic Course; Nixon Doctrine.]

Bibliography

Stephen E. Ambrose , Nixon, 3 vols., 1987–91.
Herbert S. Parmet , Richard Nixon and His America, 1996.

Terry Terriff