Lesson Summary 10 Era of Change

10.5 The Two Sides of the Nixon Presidency During his years as President, Richard Nixon fundamentally reshaped the way the United States approached the world. His leading adviser on national security and international affairs, Henry Kissinger, helped him.

In foreign affairs, Nixon and Kissinger shared the idea of realpolitik, a German word meaning “real politics.” According to this idea, a nation’s political goals around the world should be defined by what is good for the nation instead of by abstract ideologies.

In 1972, Nixon traveled to China to and met with Premier Zhou Enlai and Chairman Mao Zedong. The visit was a historic first step toward normalizing relations between the two countries.

Nixon’s trip to China was met by an immediate reaction from the Soviet Union. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev invited the President to visit Moscow, where they signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. This agreement froze the deployment of intercontinental ballistic missiles and placed limits on antiballistic missiles. The treaty was a first step toward limiting the arms race.

The United States and Soviet Union now implemented a new policy called détente to replace the prior foreign policy, which was based on suspicion and distrust. Détente eased tensions between the two nations.

In 1968, Richard Nixon narrowly defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey to win the presidency. During the campaign, Nixon claimed to represent the silent majority, the working men and women who made up middle America. He believed that they were tired of “big” government.

Nixon’s presidency was plagued by a combination of recession and inflation that came to be known as stagflation. When the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) placed an oil embargo on Israel’s allies, oil prices skyrocketed.

Nixon set out to expand his base of support. His southern strategy targeted southern whites, who had traditionally voted for Democrats.

In June 1972, burglars broke into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. After their conviction, one of them charged that administration officials had been involved. Nixon denied any wrongdoing in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal. He claimed executive privilege, which is the principle that the President has the right to keep certain information confidential. However, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes. These tapes provided evidence of Nixon’s involvement in the coverup. In order to avoid impeachment and conviction, Nixon resigned in August 1974.