President Ronald Reagan (left) and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet in 1985.]] The Cold War (, 1947–1991) was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition existing after World War II (1939–1945) between the Communist World, primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies, and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States and its allies. Although the primary participants' military force never officially clashed directly, they expressed the conflict through military coalitions, strategic conventional force deployments, extensive aid to states deemed vulnerable, proxy wars, espionage, propaganda, conventional and nuclear arms races, appeals to neutral nations, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race.

Despite being allies against the Axis powers, the USSR and the US disagreed about political philosophy and the configuration of the post-war world while occupying most of Europe. The Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc with the eastern European countries it occupied, annexing some and maintaining others as satellite states, some of which were later consolidated as the Warsaw Pact (1955–1991). The US and its allies used containment of communism as a main strategy, establishing alliances such as NATO to that end.

The US funded the Marshall Plan to effectuate a more rapid post-War recovery of Europe, while the Soviet Union would not let most Eastern Bloc members participate. Elsewhere, in Latin America and Southeast Asia, the USSR assisted and helped foster communist revolutions, opposed by several Western countries and their regional allies; some they attempted to roll back, with mixed results. Some countries aligned with NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and others formed the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Cold War featured periods of relative calm and of international high tension – the Berlin Blockade (1948–1949), the Korean War (1950–1953), the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Vietnam War (1959–1975), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989), and the Able Archer 83 NATO exercises in November 1983. Both sides sought détente to relieve political tensions and deter direct military attack, which would probably guarantee their mutual assured destruction with nuclear weapons.

In the 1980s, under the Reagan Doctrine, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the nation was already suffering economic stagnation. In the late 1980s, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the liberalizing reforms of perestroika ("reconstruction", "reorganization", 1987) and glasnost ("openness", ca. 1985). The Cold War ended after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving the United States as the dominant military power, and Russia possessing most of the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal. The Cold War and its events have had a significant impact on the world today, and it is commonly referred to in popular culture.

Origins of the term

At the end of World War II, English author and journalist George Orwell used the term Cold War in the essay “You and the Atomic Bomb” published October 19, 1945, in the British newspaper Tribune. Contemplating a world living in the shadow of the threat of nuclear war, he warned of a “peace that is no peace”, which he called a permanent “cold war”,

As a result of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (followed by its withdrawal from World War I), Soviet Russia found itself isolated in international diplomacy. The western Allies desired a security system in which democratic governments were established as widely as possible, permitting countries to peacefully resolve differences through international organizations. while strong US and Western allied forces remained in Western Europe.

The Western Allies themselves were deeply divided in their vision of the new post-war world. Roosevelt's goals - Military victory in both Europe and Asia, the achievement of American supremacy in the global economic competition with the British Empire, and the creation of a world peace organisation - were more global than Churchill's, which were mainly centered on securing control over the Mediterranean, ensuring the survival of the British Empire, and the independence of Eastern European countries as a buffer between the Soviets and the UK.

The Soviet Union, United States, Britain and France established zones of occupation and a loose framework for four-power control of occupied Germany. Lithuania (which became the Lithuanian SSR), part of eastern Finland (which became the Karelo-Finnish SSR) and eastern Romania (which became the Moldavian SSR).

Potsdam Conference and defeat of Japan

, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference.]] At the Potsdam Conference, which started in late July after Germany's surrender, serious differences emerged over the future development of Germany and eastern Europe.

Stalin was aware that the Americans were working on the atomic bomb and, given that the Soviets' own rival program was in place, he reacted to the news calmly. The Soviet leader said he was pleased by the news and expressed the hope that the weapon would be used against Japan. such as East Germany, Cominform faced an embarrassing setback the following June, when the Tito–Stalin split obliged its members to expel Yugoslavia, which remained Communist but adopted a non-aligned position. When the slightest stirrings of independence emerged in the Bloc, Stalin's strategy matched that of dealing with domestic pre-war rivals: they were removed from power, put on trial, imprisoned, and in several instances, executed. Even though the insurgents were helped by Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia, US policymakers accused the Soviet Union of conspiring against the Greek royalists in an effort to expand Soviet influence.

The plan's aim was to rebuild the democratic and economic systems of Europe and to counter perceived threats to Europe's balance of power, such as communist parties seizing control through revolutions or elections. The Soviet Union's alternative to the Marshall plan, which was purported to involve Soviet subsidies and trade with eastern Europe, became known as the Molotov Plan (later institutionalized in January 1949 as the Comecon). Stalin was also fearful of a reconstituted Germany; his vision of a post-war Germany did not include the ability to rearm or pose any kind of threat to the Soviet Union. The Italian Christian Democrats defeated the powerful Communist-Socialist alliance in the elections of 1948. which were held on December 5, 1948 and produced a turnout of 86.3% and an overwhelming victory for the non-Communist parties. That August, the first Soviet atomic device was detonated in Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR. Following Soviet refusals to participate in a German rebuilding effort set forth by western European countries in 1948, The Soviet Union proclaimed its zone of occupation in Germany the German Democratic Republic that October.

Media in the Eastern Bloc was an organ of the state, completely reliant on and subservient to the communist party, with radio and television organizations being state-owned, while print media was usually owned by political organizations, mostly by the local communist party. Radio Free Europe attempted to achieve these goals by serving as a surrogate home radio station, an alternative to the controlled and party-dominated domestic press. The United States, acting through the CIA, funded a long list of projects to counter the Communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the developing world. In May 1953, Beria, by then in a government post, had made an unsuccessful proposal to allow the reunification of a neutral Germany to prevent West Germany's incorporation into NATO. In NSC-68, a secret 1950 document,

US officials moved thereafter to expand containment into Asia, Africa, and Latin America, in order to counter revolutionary nationalist movements, often led by Communist parties financed by the USSR, fighting against the restoration of Europe's colonial empires in South-East Asia and elsewhere.

Korean War

, UN Command CiC (seated), observes the naval shelling of Incheon from the USS Mt. McKinley, 15 September 1950.]] One of the more significant impacts of containment was the outbreak of the Korean War. In June 1950, Kim Il-Sung's North Korean People's Army invaded South Korea. the UN Security Council backed the defense of South Korea, though the Soviets were then boycotting meetings to protest that Taiwan and not Communist China held a permanent seat on the Council. In North Korea, Kim Il Sung created a highly centralized and brutal dictatorship, according himself unlimited power and generating a formidable cult of personality.

After the death of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev became the Soviet leader following the deposition and execution of Lavrentiy Beria and the pushing aside of rivals Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. On February 25, 1956, Khrushchev shocked delegates to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party by cataloguing and denouncing Stalin's crimes.

On November 18, 1956, while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow, Khrushchev used his famous "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you" expression, shocking everyone present. Dulles also enunciated the doctrine of "massive retaliation", threatening a severe US response to any Soviet aggression. Possessing nuclear superiority, for example, allowed Eisenhower to face down Soviet threats to intervene in the Middle East during the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Warsaw Pact and Hungarian Revolution

countries]] While Stalin's death in 1953 slightly relaxed tensions, the situation in Europe remained an uneasy armed truce.

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 occurred shortly after Khrushchev arranged the removal of Hungary's Stalinist leader Mátyás Rákosi.

US pronouncements concentrated on American strength abroad and the success of liberal capitalism. In this context, the US and the Soviet Union increasingly competed for influence by proxy in the Third World as decolonization gained momentum in the 1950s and early 1960s; The CIA helped the local military overthrow civilian governments hostile to the U.S. Restoring the Shah of Iran in 1953 did not involve Cold War tensions, but the Cold War was involved when the military in Guatemala ousted president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954.

Many emerging nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America rejected the pressure to choose sides in the East-West competition. In 1955, at the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, dozens of Third World governments resolved to stay out of the Cold War. Meanwhile, Khrushchev broadened Moscow's policy to establish ties with India and other key neutral states. Independence movements in the Third World transformed the post-war order into a more pluralistic world of decolonized African and Middle Eastern nations and of rising nationalism in Asia and Latin America.

Sino-Soviet split, space race, ICBMs

in context of Sputnik and other nuclear threats.]] The period after 1956 was marked by serious setbacks for the Soviet Union, most notably the breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance, beginning the Sino-Soviet split. Mao had defended Stalin when Khrushchev attacked him after his death in 1956, and treated the new Soviet leader as a superficial upstart, accusing him of having lost his revolutionary edge.

After this, Khrushchev made many desperate attempts to reconstitute the Sino-Soviet alliance, but Mao considered it useless and denied any proposal. In August 1957, the Soviets successfully launched the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) although the Cold War's first arms control agreement, the Antarctic Treaty, had come into force in 1961. Khrushchev had become an international embarrassment when he authorized construction of the Berlin Wall, a public humiliation for Marxism-Leninism.

Confrontation through détente (1962–79)

in 1969—a symbolic milestone in the space race.]] intercepts a Soviet Tupolev Tu-95 D aircraft in the early 1970s]] In the course of the 1960s and '70s, Cold War participants struggled to adjust to a new, more complicated pattern of international relations in which the world was no longer divided into two clearly opposed blocs. From the beginning of the post-war period, Western Europe and Japan rapidly recovered from the destruction of World War II and sustained strong economic growth through the 1950s and '60s, with per capita GDPs approaching those of the United States, while Eastern Bloc economies stagnated. Moscow, meanwhile, was forced to turn its attention inward to deal with the Soviet Union's deep-seated domestic economic problems. During this period, Soviet leaders such as Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin embraced the notion of détente.

French NATO withdrawal and invasion of the Dominican Republic

The unity of NATO was breached early in its history, with a crisis occurring during Charles de Gaulle's presidency of France from 1958 onwards. De Gaulle protested at the United States' strong role in the organization and what he perceived as a special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. In a memorandum sent to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on 17 September 1958, he argued for the creation of a tripartite directorate that would put France on an equal footing with the United States and the United Kingdom, and also for the expansion of NATO's coverage to include geographical areas of interest to France, most notably French Algeria, where France was waging a counter-insurgency and sought NATO assistance.

Czechoslovakia invasion

In 1968, a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia called the Prague Spring took place that included "Action Program" of liberalizations, which described increasing freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of movement, along with an economic emphasis on consumer goods, the possibility of a multiparty government, limiting the power of the secret police The doctrine found its origins in the failures of Marxism-Leninism in states like Poland, Hungary and East Germany, which were facing a declining standard of living contrasting with the prosperity of West Germany and the rest of Western Europe.

Additionally, Operation Condor, employed by South American dictators to suppress leftist dissent, was backed by the US, which (sometimes accurately) perceived Soviet or Cuban support behind these opposition movements.

Moreover, the Middle East continued to be a source of contention. Egypt, which received the bulk of its arms and economic assistance from the USSR, was a troublesome client, with a reluctant Soviet Union feeling obliged to assist in both the 1967 Six-Day War (with advisers and technicians) and the War of Attrition (with pilots and aircraft) against US ally Israel;

Nixon, Brezhnev, and détente

and Jimmy Carter sign SALT II treaty, June 18, 1979, in Vienna]]

Following his China visit, Nixon met with Soviet leaders, including Brezhnev in Moscow.

Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence" and established the groundbreaking new policy of détente (or cooperation) between the two superpowers. Between 1972 and 1974, the two sides also agreed to strengthen their economic ties, including agreements for increased trade. As a result of their meetings, détente would replace the hostility of the Cold War and the two countries would live mutually.

Meanwhile, these developments coincided with the "Ostpolitik" of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. Other agreements were concluded to stabilize the situation in Europe, culminating in the Helsinki Accords signed at the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe in 1975.

Second Cold War (1979–85)

The term second Cold War has been used by some historians to refer to the period of intensive reawakening of Cold War tensions and conflicts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tensions greatly increased between the major powers with both sides becoming more militaristic.

War in Afghanistan

During December 1979, approximately 75,000 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in order to support the Marxist government formed by ex-Prime-minister Nur Muhammad Taraki, assassinated that September by one of his party rivals. In response, Mikhail Suslov, the Kremlin's top ideologist, advised Soviet leaders not to intervene if Poland fell under the control of Solidarity, for fear it might lead to heavy economic sanctions, representing a catastrophe for the Soviet economy. At the same time, Reagan persuaded Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, Issues with command economics, In 1983, the Reagan administration intervened in the multisided Lebanese Civil War, invaded Grenada, bombed Libya and backed the Central American Contras, anti-communist paramilitaries seeking to overthrow the Soviet-aligned Sandinista government in Nicaragua. While Reagan's interventions against Grenada and Libya were popular in the US, his backing of the Contra rebels was mired in controversy. However, Moscow's quagmire in Afghanistan was far more disastrous for the Soviets than Vietnam had been for the Americans because the conflict coincided with a period of internal decay and domestic crisis in the Soviet system.

A senior US State Department official predicted such an outcome as early as 1980, positing that the invasion resulted in part from a "domestic crisis within the Soviet may be that the thermodynamic law of entropy up with the Soviet system, which now seems to expend more energy on simply maintaining its equilibrium than on improving itself. We could be seeing a period of foreign movement at a time of internal decay". the Soviet economy was stagnant and faced a sharp fall in foreign currency earnings as a result of the downward slide in oil prices in the 1980s. These issues prompted Gorbachev to investigate measures to revive the ailing state.

Despite initial skepticism in the West, the new Soviet leader proved to be committed to reversing the Soviet Union's deteriorating economic condition instead of continuing the arms race with the West. At one stage the two men, accompanied only by an interpreter, agreed in principle to reduce each country's nuclear arsenal by 50 percent. In addition, the security advantage of a buffer zone was recognised as irrelevant and the Soviets officially declared that they would no longer intervene in the affairs of allied states in Eastern Europe. In the USSR itself, glasnost weakened the bonds that held the Soviet Union together and by February 1990, with the dissolution of the USSR looming, the Communist Party was forced to surrender its 73-year-old monopoly on state power. After Russia embarked on capitalist economic reforms in the 1990s, it suffered a financial crisis and a recession more severe than the US and Germany had experienced during the Great Depression.

The aftermath of the Cold War continues to influence world affairs. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the post-Cold War world is widely considered as unipolar, with the United States the sole remaining superpower. The Cold War also marked the apex of peacetime military-industrial complexes, especially in the USA, and large-scale military funding of science. The breakdown of state control in a number of areas formerly ruled by Communist governments has produced new civil and ethnic conflicts, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. In Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has ushered in an era of economic growth and a large increase in the number of liberal democracies, while in other parts of the world, such as Afghanistan, independence was accompanied by state failure.

Historiography

As soon as the term "Cold War" was popularized to refer to post-war tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, interpreting the course and origins of the conflict has been a source of heated controversy among historians, political scientists, and journalists.

Although explanations of the origins of the conflict in academic discussions are complex and diverse, several general schools of thought on the subject can be identified. Historians commonly speak of three differing approaches to the study of the Cold War: "orthodox" accounts, "revisionism", and "post-revisionism".

"Orthodox" accounts place responsibility for the Cold War on the Soviet Union and its expansion into Eastern Europe. "Revisionist" writers place more responsibility for the breakdown of post-war peace on the United States, citing a range of US efforts to isolate and confront the Soviet Union well before the end of World War II. "Post-revisionists" see the events of the Cold War as more nuanced, and attempt to be more balanced in determining what occurred during the Cold War. Much of the historiography on the Cold War weaves together two or even all three of these broad categories.

See also

Index of Soviet Union-related articles

List of United States – Soviet Union summits

List of primary and secondary sources on the Cold War

American imperialism

Canada in the Cold War

Cold war

Communism

Culture during the Cold War

Danube River Conference of 1948

Human experimentation in the United States

Nuclear warfare

Post-World War II boom

Soviet Empire

Timeline of events in the Cold War

World War III

Cold War Legacies

Footnotes

References and further reading

Davis, Simon, and Joseph Smith. The A to Z of the Cold War (Scarecrow, 2005), encyclopedia focused on military aspects

Hoffman, David E. The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (2010)

Hopkins, Michael F. "Continuing Debate and New Approaches in Cold War History," Historical Journal, Dec 2007, Vol. 50 Issue 4, pp 913–934, historiography

Johnston, Gordon. "Revisiting the cultural Cold War," Social History, Aug 2010, Vol. 35 Issue 3, pp 290–307

Mastny, Vojtech. The Cold War and Soviet insecurity: the Stalin years (1996) online edition

; Pulitzer Prize

Tucker, Spencer, ed. Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History (5 vol. 2008), world coverage

Walker, Martin. The Cold War: A History (1995), British perspective

Primary sources

Hanhimaki, Jussi and Odd Arne Westad, eds. The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts (Oxford University Press, 2003). ISBN 0199272808.

External links

;Archives

Open Society Archives, Budapest (Hungary), one of the biggest history of communism and cold war archives in the world

An archive of UK civil defence material

CONELRAD Cold War Pop Culture Site

CBC Digital Archives Cold War Culture: The Nuclear Fear of the 1950s and 1960s

The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP)

The Cold War Files

CNN Cold War Knowledge Bank comparison of articles on Cold War topics in the Western and the Soviet press between 1945 and 1991

The CAESAR, POLO, and ESAU Papers–This collection of declassified analytic monographs and reference aids, designated within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Intelligence (DI) as the CAESAR, ESAU, and POLO series, highlights the CIA's efforts from the 1950s through the mid-1970s to pursue in-depth research on Soviet and Chinese internal politics and Sino-Soviet relations. The documents reflect the views of seasoned analysts who had followed closely their special areas of research and whose views were shaped in often heated debate.

;Bibliographies

Annotated bibliography for the arms race from the Alsos Digital Library

Annotated bibliography from Citizendium

;News

Video and audio news reports from during the cold war

;Educational Resources

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site: Protecting a Legacy of the Cold War , a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

* Category:Global conflicts Category:Wars involving the United States Category:Wars involving the Soviet Union Category:20th century Category:Historical eras

Name	Janelle Monáe
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Janelle Monáe Robinson
Born	December 01, 1985
Origin	Kansas City, Kansas, United States
Genre	Pop, Indie Pop, soul, Afrofuturism, Afro-punk, funk, dance-punk.
Occupation	Artist, performer, producer
Years active	2003–present
Label	The Wondaland Arts SocietyBad Boy RecordsAtlantic Records
Url	jmonae.com

Janelle Monáe (born December 1, 1985 in Kansas City, Kansas as Janelle Monáe Robinson) is an American Grammy-Nominated singer, songwriter, dancer, and performer. She is currently signed to the Wondaland Arts Society and Bad Boy/Atlantic Records. Monáe first introduced herself to the music scene with a conceptual Extended Play named ‘’Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase)’’ which gained her a Grammy nomination for her track ‘’Many Moons’’. |width = 30% |align = left }} After moving to Atlanta, GA, where she met OutKast's Big Boi, Monáe founded the Wondaland Arts Society with like-minded young artists and made appearances on Idlewild, where she is featured on the songs "Call the Law" and "In Your Dreams". Big Boi told his friend Sean Combs about Monáe, whom he had not heard of before. Combs promptly visited her MySpace page and, according to Bad Boy Records A&R; Daniel 'Skid' Mitchell in an interview with HitQuarters, the label boss loved it straight away, "[He] loved her look, loved that you couldn’t see her body, loved the way she was dancing, and just loved the vibe. He felt like she has something that was different - something new and fresh."

2007-Present: Metropolis: Suites I (The Chase), The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) and Acclaim

In 2007, Monáe released her first solo work, titled Metropolis. It was originally conceived as a concept album in four parts, or "suites", which were to be released through her website and mp3 download sites. After the release of the first part of the series, in mid-2007, these plans were altered following her signing with Sean "Diddy" Combs's label, Bad Boy Records, later in the year. The label gave an official and physical release to the first "suite" in August 2008, which was retitled Metropolis: The Chase Suite (Special Edition) and included two new tracks. The EP was generally well-received by critics, garnering Monáe a 2009 Grammy nomination in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance for her single "Many Moons", |width = 30% |align = left }} Janelle Monáe has gained a signature clothing style of wearing a Tuxedo wardrobe and she said on the matter to Honey Magazine "I bathe in it, I swim in it, and I could be buried in it. A tux is such a standard uniform, it’s so classy and it’s a lifestyle I enjoy. The tux keeps me balanced. I look at myself as a canvas. I don’t want to cloud myself with too many colors or I’ll go crazy. It’s an experiment I’m doing. I think I want to be in the Guinness Book of World Records." The Telegraph also commented on her image as an artist saying "Sitting in a grey, airless record company office, this slight, stiff young woman delivers her speech in slow, deliberate tones, utterly expressionless. Dressed in her trademark starched shirt and tuxedo, hair immaculately quaffed, Monáe’s face is an opaque mask of perfection: all silken smooth skin, button nose and glassy brown eyes. I begin to worry for a moment that Monáe may not just be a humourless science-fiction nerd, but actually an android herself." Her Tuxedo's she has described as being a uniform for her career and she has stated that when she wears them that she is working.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Guest appearances

2005 In "House" Sessions

2005 Broadcasting the Definition

2005 Purple Ribbon All-Stars - Got Purp? Vol 2 ("Time Will Reveal," "Lettin' Go")

2006 Outkast - Idlewild ("Call the Law," "In Your Dreams")

2008 "big"- collaboration with Big Boi and Atlanta Ballet

2009 Chester French- Jacques Jams, Vol. 1: Endurance (Mixtape) ("Nerd Girl")

2009 Open Happiness

2009 Stargate Universe - "Earth" Episode 7, Season 1

2010 B.o.B. - ("The Kids")

2010 Big Boi - ("Be Still")

2010 of Montreal - False Priest ("Our Riotous Defects," "Enemy Gene")

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Official website

Janelle Monáe discography at Discogs

Janelle Monáe at MSN music

Janelle Monae interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' June 2010

Janelle Monáe Interview

Janelle Monáe interview at URB

Janelle Monáe interview with SPIN

Review of Tightrope (feat. Big Boi)

Q & A with Janelle Monae

"Tightrope" Video on Youtube

"Janelle Monáe on BackPocketMag.com

Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Bad Boy Records artists Category:1985 births Category:African American singers Category:American female singers Category:2000s singers Category:Musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:2010s singers Category:Living people Category:People from the Kansas City metropolitan area Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States

Name	Richard M. Nixon
Order	37th President of the United States
Term start	January 20, 1969
Term end	August 9, 1974
Predecessor	Lyndon B. Johnson
Successor	Gerald Ford
Birth date	January 09, 1913
Birth place	Yorba Linda, California
Death date	April 22, 1994
Death place	New York City, New York
Restingplace	Nixon Presidential LibraryYorba Linda, California
Religion	Quaker
Signature	Richard Nixon Signature.svg
Signature alt	Cursive signature in ink
Spouse	Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan
Children	Tricia Nixon CoxJulie Nixon Eisenhower
Occupation	Lawyer
Alma mater	Whittier College (B.A.) Duke University School of Law (LL.B.)
Party	Republican
Vicepresident	Spiro Agnew (1969–1973)(Resigned, Oct 10, 1973)Gerald Ford (1973–1974)(Ascended to Presidency, August 9, 1974)
Order3	36th Vice President of the United States
Term start3	January 20, 1953
Term end3	January 20, 1961
Predecessor3	Alben W. Barkley
Successor3	Lyndon B. Johnson
President3	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Order4	United States Senator from California
Term start4	December 4, 1950
Term end4	January 1, 1953
Predecessor4	Sheridan Downey
Successor4	Thomas Kuchel
Order5	Member of the US House of Representatives from California's 12th District
Term start5	January 3, 1947
Term end5	December 1, 1950
Predecessor5	Jerry Voorhis
Successor5	Patrick J. Hillings
Branch	United States Navy
Serviceyears	1942–1946
Rank	Lieutenant commander
Awards	American Campaign MedalAsiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with two service stars)World War II Victory Medal
Battles	World War II (Pacific Theater)

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1974, having formerly been the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. A member of the Republican Party, he was the only President to resign the office as well as the only person to be elected twice to both the Presidency and the Vice Presidency.

Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. After completing his undergraduate work at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law in La Habra. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he joined the United States Navy, serving in the Pacific theater, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander during World War II. He was elected in 1946 as a Republican to the House of Representatives representing California's 12th Congressional district, and in 1950 to the United States Senate. He was selected to be the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party nominee, in the 1952 Presidential election, becoming one of the youngest Vice Presidents in history. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and an unsuccessful campaign for Governor of California in 1962; following these losses, Nixon announced his withdrawal from political life. In 1968, however, he ran again for president of the United States and was elected.

The most immediate task facing President Nixon was a resolution of the Vietnam War. He initially escalated the conflict, overseeing incursions into neighboring countries, though American military personnel were gradually withdrawn and he successfully negotiated a ceasefire with North Vietnam in 1973, effectively ending American involvement in the war. His foreign policy initiatives were largely successful: his groundbreaking visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972 opened diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. On the domestic front, he implemented the concept of New Federalism, transferring power from the federal government to the states; new economic policies which called for wage and price control and the abolition of the gold standard; sweeping environmental reforms, including the Clean Air Act and creation of the EPA; the launch of the War on Cancer and War on Drugs; reforms empowering women, including Title IX; and the desegregation of schools in the deep South. He was reelected by a landslide in 1972. He continued many reforms in his second term, though the nation was afflicted with an energy crisis. In the face of likely impeachment for his role in the Watergate scandal, His mother was a Quaker, and his upbringing was marked by conservative Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from drinking, dancing, and swearing. His father converted from Methodism to Quakerism after his marriage. he also taught Sunday school at East Whittier Friends Church, where he remained a member all his life. In 1934, he graduated second in his class from Whittier. In 1933, Nixon became engaged to Ola Florence Welch; daughter of the Whittier police chief; the two broke up in 1935. At the time, the law school was new and sought to attract the top students by offering scholarships. This high-expense approach to building a law school applied to the faculty as well, which was given high salaries; most professors had national or international reputations. Nixon later spoke about the influence of his alma mater, saying, "I always remember that whatever I have done in the past or may do in the future, Duke University is responsible in one way or another." where he worked on commercial litigation for local petroleum companies and other corporate matters as well as on wills.

By his own admission, Nixon would not work on divorce because he was "severely embarrassed by women's confessions of sexual misconduct." Nixon found the practice of law unexciting, but thought that it would gain him experience that would be beneficial in a future political career.

After a honeymoon in Mexico, the Nixons moved to Long Beach, then settled into an apartment in East Whittier a few months later.

World War II

Nixon was eligible for an exemption from military service, both as a Quaker and through his job working for the OPA, but he did not seek one and was commissioned into the United States Navy in August 1942. He was trained at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island and was assigned to Ottumwa Naval Air Station, Iowa, for seven months. He was subsequently reassigned as the naval passenger control officer for the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command, supporting the logistics of operations in the South West Pacific theater. He resigned his commission on New Year's Day 1946. He helped finance the campaign with his World War II poker winnings. He was part of the Herter Committee, which went to Europe to prepare a preliminary report on the newly enacted Marshall Plan.

Nixon first gained national attention in 1948 when his investigation on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) broke the impasse of the Alger Hiss spy case. While many doubted Whittaker Chambers' allegations that Hiss, a high State Department official, was a Soviet spy, Nixon believed the allegations to be true. He discovered that Chambers saved microfilm reproductions of incriminating documents by hiding the film in a pumpkin. He was easily reelected in 1948.

Senate

In the 1950 mid-term elections, Nixon ran against Democratic Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas for a seat in the U.S. Senate, representing California. Conversely, Douglas referred to Nixon as "Tricky Dick", a derisive nickname which remained with him for the rest of his life. In the November election, Nixon defeated Douglas.

In the Senate, Nixon took a prominent position in opposing the spread of global communism, traveling frequently and speaking out against "the threat." He also criticized what he perceived to be President Harry S. Truman's mishandling of the Korean War. He supported statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, voted in favor of civil rights for minorities, and supported federal disaster relief for India and Yugoslavia.

Vice Presidency (1953–1961)

In part because of his reputation as an ardent anti-communist, 39-year-old Nixon was selected by Republican party nominee General Dwight D. Eisenhower to be the Vice Presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in July 1952. Nixon responded that the fund was not secret, and the campaign commissioned an independent review which showed that it was used only for political purposes. While it was the first time that a national politician released his tax returns, the speech became best known for its rhetoric, such as his remark that his wife Pat did not wear mink, but rather "a respectable Republican cloth coat," and that, although he had been given an American Cocker Spaniel named Checkers in addition to his other campaign contributions, he was not going to give the dog back because his daughters loved it. It became known as the "Checkers speech", it resulted in much support from the base of the Republican Party and from the general public, In the 1952 presidential elections, Eisenhower and Nixon defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson and Alabama Senator John Sparkman by seven million votes. Nixon assumed the office as the second youngest Vice President in American history. As President of the Senate, he intervened to make procedural rulings on filibusters to assure the passage of Eisenhower's 1957 civil rights bill, which created the United States Commission on Civil Rights and protected voting rights. On one such trip to Caracas, Venezuela, anti-American protesters disrupted and assaulted Nixon's motorcade, pelting his limousine with rocks, shattering windows, and injuring Venezuela's foreign minister. Nixon was lauded and attracted international media attention for his appearance of calm and coolness during the incidents.

In March 1957, he visited Libya for a program of economic and military aid. Before his visit, Nixon cautioned: "There is no magic formula which will settle the differences between us, no conference at the Summit which will dramatically end world tensions. The road to peace is a long and a hard one, and if we are to stay on it, both our people and our leaders must display patience and understanding to a maximum degree."

As Vice President, he officially opened the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. His Democratic opponent was John F. Kennedy, and the race remained close for the duration.

A new medium was brought to the campaign: televised presidential debates. In the first of four such debates, Nixon was recovering from illness and, wearing little makeup, looked wan and uncomfortable, in contrast to the composed Kennedy. Nixon's performance in the debate was perceived to be mediocre in the visual medium of television, though many people listening on the radio thought that Nixon had won. There were charges of vote fraud in Texas and Illinois; Nixon supporters unsuccessfully challenged results in both states as well as nine others. Nixon halted further investigations to avoid a Constitutional crisis. Nixon and Kennedy later met in Key Biscayne, Florida, where Kennedy offered Nixon a job in his administration, an offer which Nixon declined. It recorded his political involvement as a congressman, senator and vice president and used six different crises Nixon had experienced throughout his political career to illustrate his political memoirs. The work won praise from many policy experts and critics. It also found a favorable critic in Mao Zedong, who referred to the book during Nixon's visit in 1972. Despite initial reluctance, Nixon entered the race. The campaign was clouded by public suspicion that Nixon viewed the governorship as a political "stepping-stone" to a higher office, some opposition from the far-right of the party, and his own lack of interest in being California's governor. He lost to Brown by nearly 300,000 votes. This loss was widely believed to be the end of his career; in an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon famously blamed the media for favoring his opponent, saying, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." The California defeat was highlighted in the November 11, 1962, episode of ABC's entitled "The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon." In 1963 the family bought an apartment at 810 Fifth Avenue. This reputation was enhanced when Nixon wrote an article in Foreign Affairs entitled "Asia After Vietnam", in which he proposed a new relationship with China. and took an extended trip to South America and parts of the Middle East in 1967. He formally announced his candidacy for president of the United States on February 1, 1968.

1968 presidential election

in July 1968.]] Throughout the campaign, Nixon portrayed himself as a figure of stability during a period of national unrest and upheaval. President Lyndon B. Johnson, consumed with the Vietnam War, announced that he would not seek reelection. After a contentious Democratic primary campaign, Vice President Hubert Humphrey held a moderate but not decisive lead over Senator Robert F. Kennedy; however, Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles following the final, California primary. Humphrey was nominated at a convention marked by mass protests. Nixon appeared to represent a calmer society. With regard to the Vietnam War, he promised peace with honor, and campaigned on the notion that "new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific." He did not give specific plans on how to end the war, resulting in media intimations that he must have a "".

In a three-way race between Nixon, Humphrey, and independent candidate George Wallace, Nixon defeated Humphrey by nearly 500,000 votes to become the 37th President of the United States on November 5, 1968. In response to a congratulatory message from Humphrey, Nixon said: "I have received a very gracious message from the Vice President, congratulating me for winning the election. I congratulated him for his gallant and courageous fight against great odds. I also told him that I know exactly how he felt. I know how it feels to lose a close one." He spoke about turning partisan politics into a new age of unity:

In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another, until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices. The most immediate task, however, was the Vietnam War.

Name	Nixon
President	Richard Nixon
President start	1969
President end	1974
Vice president	Spiro Agnew
Vice president start	1969
Vice president end	1973
Vice president 2	Gerald Ford
Vice president start 2	1973
Vice president end 2	1974
State	William P. Rogers
State start	1969
State end	1973
State 2	Henry Kissinger
State start 2	1973
State end 2	1974
Treasury	David M. Kennedy
Treasury start	1969
Treasury end	1971
Treasury 2	John Connally
Treasury start 2	1971
Treasury end 2	1972
Treasury 3	George Shultz
Treasury start 3	1972
Treasury end 3	1974
Treasury 4	William Simon
Treasury date 4	1974
Defense	Melvin R. Laird
Defense start	1969
Defense end	1973
Defense 2	Elliot Richardson
Defense date 2	1973
Defense 3	James Schlesinger
Defense start 3	1973
Defense end 3	1974
Justice	John N. Mitchell
Justice start	1969
Justice end	1972
Justice 2	Richard Kleindienst
Justice start 2	1972
Justice end 2	1973
Justice 3	Elliot Richardson
Justice date 3	1973
Justice 4	William B. Saxbe
Justice date 4	1974
Post	Winton M. Blount
Post start	1969
Post end	1971
Interior	Walter Joseph Hickel
Interior start	1969
Interior end	1971
Interior 2	Rogers Morton
Interior start 2	1971
Interior end 2	1974
Agriculture	Clifford M. Hardin
Agriculture start	1969
Agriculture end	1971
Agriculture 2	Earl Butz
Agriculture start 2	1971
Agriculture end 2	1974
Commerce	Maurice Stans
Commerce start	1969
Commerce end	1972
Commerce 2	Peter Peterson
Commerce start 2	1972
Commerce end 2	1973
Commerce 3	Frederick B. Dent
Commerce start 3	1973
Commerce end 3	1974
Labor	George Shultz
Labor start	1969
Labor end	1970
Labor 2	James D. Hodgson
Labor start 2	1970
Labor end 2	1973
Labor 3	Peter J. Brennan
Labor start 3	1973
Labor end 3	1974
Health, education, and welfare	Robert Finch
Health, education, and welfare start	1969
Health, education, and welfare end	1970
Health, education, and welfare 2	Elliot Richardson
Health, education, and welfare start 2	1970
Health, education, and welfare end 2	1973
Health, education, and welfare 3	Caspar Weinberger
Health, education, and welfare start 3	1973
Health, education, and welfare end 3	1974
Housing and urban development	George W. Romney
Housing and urban development start	1969
Housing and urban development end	1973
Housing and urban development 2	James Thomas Lynn
Housing and urban development start 2	1973
Housing and urban development end 2	1974
Transportation	John A. Volpe
Transportation start	1969
Transportation end	1973
Transportation 2	Claude Brinegar
Transportation start 2	1973
Transportation end 2	1974

in Reykjavík, Iceland, 31 May 1973.]]

Vietnam War

When Nixon took office, 300 American soldiers were dying per week in Vietnam. The Johnson administration had negotiated a deal in which the U.S. would suspend bombing in North Vietnam in exchange for unconditional negotiations, but this faltered. Nixon faced the choice of devising a new policy to chance securing South Vietnam as a non-communist state, or withdrawing American forces completely. He then proposed simultaneous substantial withdrawals of North Vietnamese and American forces from South Vietnam one year after reaching a mutual agreement. He soon enacted phased U.S. troop withdrawals but authorized incursions into Laos, in part to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail that passed through Laos and Cambodia. Nixon's 1968 campaign promise to curb the war and his subsequent Laos bombing raised questions in the press about a "credibility gap", similar to that encountered earlier in the war by Lyndon B. Johnson. Under President Nixon, American involvement in the war steadily declined from a troop strength of 543,000 to zero in 1973. Once American support was diminished, in 1975, North Vietnam was able to conquer South Vietnam and formed one country.

Economy

Under Nixon, direct payments from the federal government to individual American citizens in government benefits (including Social Security and Medicare) rose from 6.3% of the Gross National Product (GNP) to 8.9%. Food aid and public assistance also rose, beginning at $6.6 billion and escalating to $9.1 billion. Defense spending decreased from 9.1% to 5.8% of the GNP. The revenue sharing program pioneered by Nixon delivered $80 billion to individual states and municipalities. Nixon then spoke to the American public, saying that by "Working together, we will break the back of inflation."

Another large part of Nixon's plan was the detachment of the dollar from the gold standard. By the time Nixon took office, U.S. gold reserves had declined from $25 billion to $10.5 billion. Gold was an underpriced commodity, as the dollar was overpriced as a currency. The United States was on the verge of running its first trade deficit in over 75 years. Nixon felt that the dollar should float freely like other currencies. an end to fixed exchange rates, devaluation of the dollar on the free market, and a 10% tax on all imports into the U.S. Income per family rose, and unionization declined.

Nixon wanted to lift the spirits of the country as polls showed increasing concern about the economy. His program was viewed by nearly everyone as exceptionally bold, and astounded the Democrats. Nixon soon experienced a bounce in the polls.

Initiatives within the federal government

Noam Chomsky remarked that, in many respects, Nixon was "the last liberal president." and the Council on Environmental Quality.

In 1971, Nixon proposed the creation of four new government departments superseding the current structure: departments organized for the goal of efficient and effective public service as opposed to the thematic bases of Commerce, Labor, Transportation, Agriculture, et al. Departments including the State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice would remain under this proposal. and supported the Legacy of parks program, which transferred ownership of federally owned land to the states, resulting in the establishment of state parks and beaches, recreational areas, and environmental education centers.

Civil rights

The Nixon years witnessed the first large-scale integration of public schools in the South. and concentrated on the principle that the law must be color-blind: "I am convinced that while legal segregation is totally wrong, forced integration of housing or education is just as wrong." All U.S. Project Apollo moon landings, and the attempted moon landing of Apollo 13, took place during Nixon's first term. On November 14, 1969, he became the first incumbent president to attend a rocket launch, Apollo 12. Richard Nixon's signature is included on the plaque left by the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon in 1969. American public opinion was concerned with the atrocities

Nixon relayed messages to Yahya, urging him to restrain Pakistani forces.

Nixon met with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and did not believe her assertion that she would not invade Pakistan; because he favored a cease-fire. This was significant in that the fifteen-member table tennis team were allowed to enter mainland China after a period of over twenty years in which Americans, except on very rare occasions, had been denied visas Soon, the world was stunned to learn that Nixon intended to visit Communist China the following year.

Nixon and Kissinger were soon summoned to an hour-long meeting with Mao and Zhou at Mao's official private residence, where they discussed a range of issues. He also said he was suspicious of Kissinger, though the National Security Advisor referred to their meeting as his "encounter with history." A formal banquet welcoming the presidential party was conducted that evening in the Great Hall of the People. The following day, Nixon met with Chou; during this meeting he stated that he believed “there is one China, and Taiwan is a part of China.” Americans received their first glance into China via Pat Nixon, who toured the city of Beijing and visited communes, schools, factories, and hospitals accompanied by the American media.

The visit ushered in a new era of Sino-American relations. Fearing the possibility of a Sino-American alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to American pressure for détente. with his Soviet counterpart. Out of this "summit meeting" came agreements for increased trade and two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I, the first comprehensive limitation pact signed by the two superpowers, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles. Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence" and established groundbreaking new policy of détente (or cooperation) between the two superpowers. Détente would replace the hostility of the Cold War and the two countries would enjoy peaceful relations. A banquet was held that evening at the Kremlin.

Nixon extended the Nixon Doctrine from Vietnam to his policy toward the Soviet Union, believing that helping Iran become stronger would check the Soviets' power. Nixon and Brezhnev met in Yalta, where they discussed a proposed mutual defense pact, détente, and MIRVs. While he considered proposing a comprehensive test-ban treaty, Nixon felt that it would take far too long to accomplish. There were not any significant breakthroughs in these negotiations.

1972 presidential campaign

Nixon entered his name on the New Hampshire primary ballot on January 5, 1972, effectively announcing his candidacy for reelection. the President had expected his Democratic opponent to be Senator Ted Kennedy, Though Muskie defeated McGovern in the New Hampshire primary, his showings were poorer in Florida and he soon ended his campaign. He announced the Equal Education Opportunities bill that would seek a moratorium on local school busing; Nixon re-imposed price controls in June 1973, echoing his 1971 plan, as food prices rose; this time, he focused on agricultural exports and limited the freeze to 60 days.

The price controls became unpopular with the public and businesspeople, who saw powerful labor unions as preferable to the price board bureaucracy. Business owners, however, now saw the controls as permanent rather than temporary, and voluntary compliance decreased. The controls produced food shortages, as meat disappeared from grocery stores and farmers drowned chickens rather than sell them at a loss. The controls were slowly ended, and by April 30, 1974, the control authority from Congress had lapsed. However, the controls on oil and natural gas prices persisted for several years. Nixon also dramatically increased spending on federal employees' salaries while the economy was plagued by the 1973–1974 stock market crash. This became one of a series of scandalous acts involving the Committee to Re-Elect the President. Nixon downplayed the scandal as mere politics, and his White House denounced the story as biased and misleading. As the FBI eventually confirmed that Nixon aides had attempted to sabotage the Democrats, many began resigning and senior aides faced prosecution.

Nixon's alleged role in ordering a cover-up came to light after the testimony of John Dean. Unlike the tape recordings by earlier Presidents, Nixon's were subpoenaed. The White House refused to release them, citing executive privilege. A tentative deal was reached in which the White House would provide written summaries of the tapes, but this was rejected by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, a former member of the Kennedy administration. Cox was fired at the White House's request and was replaced by Leon Jaworski, a former member of the Johnson administration. Jaworski revealed an audio tape of conversations held in the White House on June 20, 1972, which featured an unexplained 18½ minute gap. The first deleted section of about five minutes has been attributed to human error by Rose Mary Woods, the President's personal secretary, who admitted accidentally wiping the section while transcribing the tape. The gap, while not conclusive proof of wrong-doing by the President, cast doubt on Nixon's claim that he was unaware of the cover-up. He insisted that he had made mistakes, but had no prior knowledge of the burglary, did not break any laws, and did not learn of the coverup until early 1973. Nixon said, }}

In April 1974, Nixon announced the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations between him and his aides. Despite this, the House Judiciary Committee, controlled by Democrats, opened impeachment hearings against the President on May 9, 1974. These hearings resulted in bi-partisan votes for Articles of Impeachment, the first vote being 27-11 in favor on July 27, 1974 on obstruction of justice. On July 24, the Supreme Court (including 5 Republican-appointed Justices, three of them appointed by Nixon) then ruled unanimously in the case of United States v. Nixon that the tapes must be released to Jaworski; one of the secret recordings, known as the Smoking Gun tape, was released on August 5, 1974, and revealed that Nixon knew of the cover-up from its inception and had suggested to administration officials that they try to stop the FBI's investigation. In light of his loss of political support and the near certainty of impeachment, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening.

The resignation speech was delivered on August 8, 1974, at 9:01 p.m. Eastern time from the Oval Office and was carried live on radio and television. The core of the speech was Nixon's announcement that Gerald Ford, as Vice President, would succeed to the presidency, effective at noon Eastern time the next day. Around this announcement, he discussed his feelings about his presidential work and general political issues that would need attention once he left. He never admitted to criminal wrongdoing, although he conceded errors of judgment. During the Watergate scandal, Nixon's approval rating fell to 23%. It was discovered that a clot from his leg had broken off and traveled to his lung; to treat this, he was placed on an anti-coagulant intravenous machine. which was rejected. An eighteen-inch blood clot was found in a vein leading to Nixon's heart. Surgery was deemed necessary for his survival; he underwent a ninety-minute operation on October 29. While recuperating, Nixon fainted, fell out of bed, and fell into a coma. His family stayed by his side, while he was visited by Ford and telephoned by Mao Zedong. He returned home on November 14. Three leading doctors sent by the judge in the Watergate trial evaluated Nixon's condition, and concluded that he was not able to testify. The judge ruled that his testimony would not be necessary. He maintained an office in a Coast Guard station 300 yards from his home, first taking a golf cart and later walking the route each day; he mainly worked on his memoirs. At the invitation of Mao Zedong, Nixon traveled to China in February 1976. His trip was initially criticized, including by some within his own party, who argued that citizen-Nixon was conducting U.S. foreign policy. The well-publicized trip was deemed a success, however; upon his return, Nixon prepared a lengthy memorandum on his experiences that was sent to the White House. Nixon did not admit to criminal wrongdoing, denied criminal intent, He was criticized at the time by some who opined that he should not be giving information to Frost that he had declined to give to federal courts. and their respective releases enabled Nixon to further his comeback effort by partaking in book tours. The Nixons moved to New York City in February 1980 to be closer to their family.

When the former Shah of Iran died in Egypt in July 1980, Nixon defied President Jimmy Carter's State Department by attending the funeral. Throughout the 1980s, Nixon maintained a routine schedule of speaking engagements and writing, traveled, and met with many foreign leaders, especially those of Third World countries. He joined former Presidents Ford and Carter as representatives of the United States at the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat. On a trip to the Middle East, Nixon made his views known regarding Saudi Arabia and Libya, which attracted significant U.S. media attention; The Washington Post ran stories on Nixon's "rehabilitation." On his return from the Soviet Union, Nixon sent President Ronald Reagan a lengthy memorandum that contained foreign policy suggestions and his personal impressions of Mikhail Gorbachev. Following this trip, Nixon was ranked in Gallup's most admired man and woman poll as one of the ten most admired men in the world.

Elder statesman

In 1986, Nixon gave an address to a convention of newspaper publishers, impressing his audience with his tour d'horizon of the world. Newsweek, among other publications, He gained respect as an elder statesman in the area of foreign affairs, being consulted by both Republican and Democratic successors to the presidency; Reagan sought Nixon's advice in dealing with Gorbachev. Nixon was comforted by his family while former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and their wives attended the ceremony.

Death and funeral

Nixon suffered a severe stroke at 5:45 p.m. EDT on April 18, 1994, while preparing to eat dinner in his Park Ridge, New Jersey home. Damage to the brain caused swelling (cerebral edema) and Nixon slipped into a deep coma. On April 22, 1994, he died at 9:08 p.m., with his daughters at his bedside; he was 81.

Nixon's funeral took place on April 27, 1994, the first for an American president since that of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973, which Nixon had presided over as president. Held at the Nixon Library, eulogists included then-President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, California Governor Pete Wilson, and the Reverend Billy Graham. In keeping with his wishes, his funeral was not a full state funeral, though his body did lie in repose in the Nixon Library lobby from April 26 to the morning of the funeral services.

Although he did not achieve all that he had wished for in the Middle East, Nixon virtually expelled the Soviet Union from the region and initiated a long peace process. He began formal relations with China and improved relations with the Soviet Union. Domestically, he decentralized government by revenue sharing, greatly reduced segregation in schools, reduced inflation (until it rose again as a result of the oil cartels), ended the gold standard, reduced the crime rate, and pioneered positive environmental measures. As a result of the Watergate scandal, however, the mood of the nation was severely affected and the office of the presidency was demeaned. He advised people not to care about what others thought of them. Some experts have described him as having a narcissistic and paranoid personality.

In popular culture

Nixon has been portrayed in multiple TV shows, films, plays, audio recordings.

In Oliver Stone's 1995 biopic Nixon he was played by Anthony Hopkins

In the 2008 movie Frost/Nixon directed by Ron Howard he was played by Frank Langella

In the film Secret Honor directed by Robert Altman he was played by Philip Baker Hall

Portrayed favourably in the song The Love of Richard Nixon by Manic Street Preachers - a Welsh rock trio whose members were all age 5 at the time of Nixon's resignation.

His likeness appears in the video game during the "Zombie Mode 'Five'", a single-player or cooperative mode where four players incarnate Nixon, Kennedy, Fidel Castro or Robert McNamara. He is voiced by Dave Mallow.

See also

Samuel Byck, assassination planner

Bibliography

Notes

References

http://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html Information on SS Amendments of 1972 and http://www.ssa.gov/history/1970.html

External links

Richard Nixon Foundation

The Nixon Center, Washington, D.C.

Richard Nixon Presidential Library

White House biography

Richard Nixon: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress

The Watergate Tapes

Account of the day Nixon had his fatal stroke in April 1994

Nixon's will

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Imagesize	260px
Order	35th
Office	President of the United States
Term start	January 20, 1961
Term end	November 22, 1963
Vicepresident	Lyndon B. Johnson
Predecessor	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Successor	Lyndon B. Johnson
Jr/sr2	United States Senator
State2	Massachusetts
Term start2	January 3, 1953
Term end2	December 22, 1960
Preceded2	Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Succeeded2	Benjamin A. Smith
State3	Massachusetts
District3	11th
Term start3	January 3, 1947
Term end3	January 3, 1953
Preceded3	James Michael Curley
Succeeded3	Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr.
Birth date	May 29, 1917
Birth place	Brookline, Massachusetts
Birthname	John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Death date	November 22, 1963
Death place	Dallas, Texas
Father	Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Mother	Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
Spouse	Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy
Children	Arabella KennedyCaroline Bouvier KennedyJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr.Patrick Bouvier Kennedy
Alma mater	Harvard College (S.B.)Solomon Islands campaign
Years	1952, 1958
After	Ted Kennedy}}

}}

Category:1917 births Category:1963 deaths Category:20th-century presidents of the United States Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:American anti-communists Category:American biographers Category:American military personnel of Irish descent Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American people of the Vietnam War Category:American politicians of Irish descent Category:American Roman Catholic politicians Category:American Roman Catholic writers Category:American socialites Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Assassinated United States Presidents Category:Barnstable, Massachusetts Category:Bouvier family Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Category:Cold War leaders Category:Deaths by firearm in Texas Category:Democratic Party (United States) presidential nominees Category:Choate Rosemary Hall alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Kennedy family Category:Massachusetts Democrats Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Category:American people of Irish descent Category:People associated with the Boy Scouts of America Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:People from Brookline, Massachusetts Category:People murdered in Texas Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Presidents of the United States Category:Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Category:Recipients of the Navy and Marine Corps Medal Category:Recipients of the Purple Heart medal Category:Space advocates Category:United States Navy officers Category:United States presidential candidates, 1960 Category:United States Senators from Massachusetts Category:United States vice-presidential candidates, 1956 Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:Democratic Party Presidents of the United States Category:Democratic Party United States Senators Category:Time Persons of the Year Category:American murder victims