- Richard Nixon (1913-1994) served as the 37th President of the United States (1969-1974) — the only president to resign from office, doing so in August 1974 after the Watergate scandal made his impeachment and removal certain.
- Watergate — the cover-up of a June 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters — revealed a systematic abuse of executive power including wiretapping, political espionage, and obstruction of justice that defined the outer limit of presidential corruption.
- Nixon opened diplomatic relations with China in 1972 — his visit to Beijing was the most consequential diplomatic shift of the Cold War era, exploiting the Sino-Soviet split to triangulate between the two communist powers and reshape the global balance.
- He established the Environmental Protection Agency (1970) and signed the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act — a domestic environmental record that exceeds most Democratic presidents, reflecting the era before environmental protection became partisan.
Biography
Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California, the son of a lemon farmer and a devout Quaker mother. He grew up in modest circumstances in Whittier, California, working in the family grocery store, and earned a scholarship to Duke University Law School after graduating from Whittier College. After a brief law practice and wartime service as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific, he entered politics in 1946, winning a California congressional seat by accusing his opponent of being soft on communism. He rose to national prominence as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, pursuing State Department official Alger Hiss in a espionage investigation that ultimately resulted in Hiss's conviction for perjury — a case that made Nixon one of the country's best-known anti-communist voices before his 35th birthday.
He was elected to the Senate in 1950 and tapped by Dwight Eisenhower as his vice presidential running mate in 1952, serving two terms as VP. He narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy — one of the closest in American history, decided by 112,827 popular votes — in part due to his unfavorable television performance in the first presidential debate. He then lost the 1962 California gubernatorial race and declared he was quitting politics in a bitter press conference: "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore." Six years later, in 1968, he won the presidency, defeating Democrat Hubert Humphrey by less than one percentage point in the popular vote while Vietnam, racial tensions, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. tore the country apart.
Nixon won re-election in 1972 by one of the most decisive margins in American history — 520 Electoral College votes to George McGovern's 17, carrying 49 of 50 states. The landslide made the Watergate cover-up all the more mystifying: Nixon had won without cheating and didn't need to. The cover-up, not the break-in, destroyed his presidency. He resigned on August 9, 1974, the only president ever to do so, boarded Marine One on the South Lawn, and flashed his signature double-V peace sign as he departed the White House for the last time. He was pardoned by Gerald Ford a month later. Nixon died in New York City on April 22, 1994, at age 81.
Key Policy Areas
Opening China
Nixon's February 1972 visit to China was the most dramatic diplomatic reversal in modern American history. Twenty-two years of non-recognition ended when Nixon shook hands with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger made secret preparatory visits in 1971. The resulting Shanghai Communiqué acknowledged “one China” and opened the era of Sino-American engagement. The strategic logic was to exploit the Sino-Soviet split and gain leverage against Moscow — it was cold-war realpolitik at its most skillful, executed by a president whose anti-communist credentials made the opening politically possible. The visit reshaped global geopolitics for decades.
Environmental Legacy
Nixon's domestic environmental record stands as one of the most consequential of any modern president — and the least expected from a Republican. He created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by executive order in December 1970. During his presidency, he signed the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 — the legal framework of American environmental regulation. He also proposed a Family Assistance Plan that would have created a guaranteed minimum income, implemented wage and price controls, and abandoned the gold standard in the “Nixon Shock” of August 1971 — policies more associated with the progressive left than the Republican Party.
Vietnam & the Nixon Doctrine
Nixon inherited 543,000 troops in Vietnam. His “Vietnamization” strategy gradually shifted combat responsibility to South Vietnamese forces while withdrawing American troops. He ended the military draft in 1973 and achieved the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 — which earned Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize, though North Vietnam collapsed the agreement and captured Saigon in April 1975. Nixon also secretly bombed Cambodia from March 1969, widening the war in ways hidden from Congress and the public; invaded Cambodia in April 1970, triggering the Kent State protest killings; and launched the Christmas Bombing of Hanoi in December 1972. The Nixon Doctrine declared that the US would support allies with aid and advisors but not with large-scale ground forces — the principle that shaped American military strategy for a generation.
Watergate: The Scandal That Ended a Presidency
On June 17, 1972, five men connected to Nixon's re-election committee (the Committee to Re-Elect the President, widely known by the derisive acronym CREEP) were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. The break-in itself was a third-rate burglary — Nixon was ahead in every poll, cruising toward one of the great landslide re-elections in American history. The cover-up that followed was the catastrophe. Nixon approved hush money payments to the burglars, used the CIA to obstruct the FBI investigation, and ordered subordinates to lie to investigators. The cover-up was captured on the White House tape recording system Nixon himself had installed.
The Senate Watergate Committee hearings in the summer of 1973 transfixed the nation and revealed the taping system's existence. Nixon refused to turn over the tapes, claiming executive privilege. On October 20, 1973 — the “Saturday Night Massacre” — he ordered Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than comply; Solicitor General Robert Bork carried out the order. The firings triggered a constitutional crisis: 21 impeachment resolutions were introduced in the House the following week. Deep Throat, the anonymous source who guided Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein throughout their investigation, was revealed in 2005 to be Mark Felt, the FBI's Associate Director.
The House Judiciary Committee adopted three articles of impeachment in late July 1974 — obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. On August 5, the “smoking gun” tape was released, revealing Nixon had ordered the CIA to block the FBI investigation six days after the break-in. His last congressional defenders collapsed. On August 8, Nixon addressed the nation: “I have always tried to do what is best for the nation.” He resigned effective noon on August 9, 1974. Gerald Ford, who had famously said “our long national nightmare is over,” pardoned Nixon on September 8, 1974 — a pardon that likely cost Ford the 1976 election. Nixon's secretary Rosemary Woods had previously explained an 18.5-minute gap in a key tape by demonstrating she had accidentally erased it while answering the phone, a demonstration widely met with disbelief. Nixon's infamous assertion during a 1977 David Frost interview — “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal” — became one of the most quoted statements in presidential history.
Approval Ratings: The Rise and Fall
Nixon's approval arc is among the most dramatic in the history of Gallup polling — from 67% at the opening of his presidency to 25% in the final days before his resignation. The trajectory charts the Watergate unraveling in real time.
| Period | Approval | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Early 1969 | 67% | Honeymoon period, post-inauguration high |
| Late 1970 | 57% | Cambodia invasion fallout, Kent State protests |
| February 1972 | 56% | China visit, pre-Watergate high-water mark |
| January 1973 | 67% | Paris Peace Accords, Vietnam troop withdrawal |
| Late 1973 | 40% | After Senate Watergate hearings, tapes revelation |
| November 1973 | 27% | After Saturday Night Massacre, "I am not a crook" |
| August 1974 | 25% | Final reading before resignation — career low |
Presidential Elections
| Year | Opponent | Pop. Vote Margin | Electoral College | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | John F. Kennedy (D) | Lost by 0.2 pts (112,827 votes) | 219–303 | Lost |
| 1968 | Hubert Humphrey (D) | Won by 0.7 pts (500,000 votes) | 301–191 | Won |
| 1972 | George McGovern (D) | Won by 23.2 pts | 520–17 | Won (landslide) |
Historical Legacy
Richard Nixon's legacy is defined by one of the sharpest divides in the historical record: a presidency of genuine foreign policy achievement and surprising domestic progressivism, permanently overshadowed by a cover-up that was as unnecessary as it was self-destructive. His opening to China, strategic arms limitation treaties with the Soviet Union (SALT I), and the Nixon Doctrine represent a realist foreign policy vision that historians of diplomacy consistently regard as sophisticated and consequential. His domestic agenda — the EPA, the Clean Air and Water Acts, the end of the draft — would be considered liberal by the standards of any subsequent Republican administration.
But Watergate consumed everything. The cover-up — not the break-in, which Nixon may not have ordered — revealed a president willing to abuse the full apparatus of executive power to protect himself from political embarrassment. The Saturday Night Massacre, the 18.5-minute tape gap, the payments of hush money, the enemies list, the illegal wiretapping of journalists and aides: the complete picture that emerged was of a presidency operating with contempt for legal constraint. Nixon's resignation established that no president is above the law and that the constitutional mechanisms of accountability can function even against the most powerful officeholder in the republic. That precedent, and what it cost to establish it, remains his most durable contribution to American democracy — though not the one he intended.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Richard Nixon resign from the presidency?
Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 after the House Judiciary Committee adopted three articles of impeachment and the release of the “smoking gun” tape revealed he had ordered the CIA to obstruct the FBI investigation six days after the Watergate break-in. With his last congressional defenders abandoning him and Senate conviction a near-certainty, resignation was the only option that allowed him to depart on his own terms. He was pardoned by President Ford on September 8, 1974.
What was Nixon's historic opening of China?
Nixon's February 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China ended 22 years of American non-recognition and began the era of Sino-American engagement. He met with Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. The strategic goal was to exploit the Sino-Soviet split. The visit was made possible, in part, by Nixon's own anti-communist credentials — only a president beyond suspicion of being “soft on communism” could have made such a diplomatic reversal politically viable.
What was the Saturday Night Massacre?
On October 20, 1973, Nixon ordered the firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus both resigned rather than carry out the order. Solicitor General Robert Bork ultimately dismissed Cox. The firings triggered a constitutional crisis: 21 impeachment resolutions were introduced in the House the following week and turned public opinion decisively against Nixon.
Who was Deep Throat?
Deep Throat was the anonymous source who guided Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during their Watergate investigation. His identity was one of the most guarded secrets in American journalism for 30 years. In 2005, Mark Felt — the FBI's Associate Director during Watergate — revealed himself as the source. Felt had been passed over to succeed J. Edgar Hoover as FBI Director; his motivation for leaking to the press was at least partly personal grievance against the Nixon administration.
