37th President of the United States

official White House portrait of Richard Milhous Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon:
37th President of the United States, 1969-1974

Richard Nixon was the 12th former Vice-President to become President, and the first to not succeed the President under whom he had served.

After taking office as President, Nixon won respect for his conduct of foreign policy. He ended U.S. military participation in the Vietnam War and eased the tension that had existed for years between the United States and both China and Russia. He became the first President to visit China while in office, and also visited Russia.

At home, Nixon was challenged by sharply rising prices. He placed government controls on wages and prices to halt inflation, but the controls had little effect. He ended the military draft and created an all-volunteer system for the U.S. armed services.

Unfortunately for Nixon, his political skills eluded him during the investigation into the Watergate scandal, which centered around a burglary of Democratic national headquarters and other illegal activities by employees of Nixon's 1972 re-election committee. Nixon's attempts to cover up these crimes became a major part of the scandal and led to calls for his impeachment. On August 9, 1974, he became the first (and to date only) U.S. President to resign from office.

	1968 Election	1972 Election
Place of Nominating Convention	Miami Beach	Miami Beach
Ballot on Which Nominated	1st	1st
Democratic Opponent	Hubert H. Humphrey	George S. McGovern
American Independent Opponent	George C. Wallace
Electoral Vote	301 - 19 - 46	520 - 17
Popular Vote	31,710,470 - 30,898,055 - 9,446,167	46,740,323 - 28,901,598


Vice-Presidents and Cabinet
Vice-President	Spiro T. Agnew Gerald R. Ford (1973)
Secretary of State	William P. Rogers Henry A. Kissinger (1973)
Secretary of the Treasury	David M. Kennedy John B. Connally (1971) George P. Shultz (1972) William E. Simon (1974)
Secretary of Defense	Melvin R. Laird Elliot L. Richardson (1973) James R. Schlesinger (1973)
Attorney General	John N. Mitchell Richard G. Kleindienst (1972) Elliot L. Richardson (1973) William B. Saxbe (1974)
Postmaster General	Winton M. Blount
Secretary of the Interior	Walter J. Hickel Rogers C.B. Morton (1971)
Secretary of Agriculture	Clifford M. Hardin Earl L. Butz (1971)
Secretary of Commerce	Maurice H. Stone Peter G. Peterson (1972) Frederick B. Dent (1973)
Secretary of Labor	George P. Shultz James D. Hodgson (1970) Peter J. Brennan (1973)
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare	Robert H. Finch Elliot L. Richardson (1970) Caspar Weinberger (1973)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development	George W. Romney James T. Lynn (1973)
Secretary of Transportation	John A. Volpe Claude S. Brinegar (1973)

Major Domestic Events of His Administration Population in 1970: 203,235,298
1969	A lottery system for the military draft was established by Congress.
1970	The U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency, replaced the Post Office Department.
1970	Congress established an independent agency to operate a passenger train system across the country--Amtrak.
1970	The minimum voting age in federal elections was lowered to 18.
1970	The Environmental Protection Agency was created by the President.
1971	The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age for all elections to 18.
1971	Nixon established a Pay Board to stop inflationary wage and salary increases and a Price Commission to regulate price and rent increases.
1971	The Supreme Court approved busing as a way to integrate public schools in areas where state laws had required segregation.
1972	The State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act provided for sharing federal tax money with state and local governments.
1973	Investigations into actions surrounding the 1972 burglary of Democratic national headquarters in the Watergate complex began.
1973	The military draft was ended and the military became an all-volunteer force.
1973	Congress refused to provide money for continued U.S. bombing of Cambodia.
Oct 10, 1973	Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew resigned.
1974	Congress established the Federal Energy Administration to deal with an energy shortage.
July 1974	The House Judiciary Committee recommended three articles of impeachment against President Nixon.
Aug 9, 1974	Nixon became the first President to resign from office.

Major World Events of His Administration
July 20, 1969	U.S. astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., became the first men to set foot on the moon.
1969	The United States began to withdraw its ground combat forces from South Vietnam.
1970	Charles de Gaulle, former President of France, died.
1971	China became a member of the United Nations.
1971	The Pakistan Civil War ended with the creation of the Republic of Bangladesh.
1972	Nixon became the first President to visit China while in office.
Jan 27, 1973	The United States and the other participants in the Vietnam War signed agreements to stop fighting immediately and begin exchanging prisoners.

Questions or comments about this page?

World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago:World Book-Childcraft International, Inc., 1979.

The American Presidency. ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0288590-00
Presidents of the United States. Internet Public Library. www.ipl.org/div/potus/rmnixon.html
The White House. www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rn37.html

American Experience: Nixon

Watergate
American Independent Party
George C. Wallace
Spiro T. Agnew
Gerald R. Ford
John B. Connally
Republic of Bangladesh

This page was last updated on 11/25/2008.

The Robinson Library
American History.--United States: General History and Description.--Later Twentieth Century, 1961-2000.--Richard Nixon's Administration, 1969-2000.--Richard Milhous Nixon.

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