History UsefulNotes / RichardNixon

->''"Always remember: others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself."''

** It's more personal for Nixon's VO Creator/BillyWest than for Groening, as West was drafted in Vietnam; he also saw the JFK/Nixon debate when he was little (which is where his characterization of Nixon as a "werewolf" comes from; he thought Nixon was turning into one when he saw him with his stubbly beard on TV).

->''"Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself."''

[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/richard_nixon_portrait.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:325:''"Well, when the President does it, that means that\\

Given all of his achievements, Nixon enjoyed high approval ratings throughout his first term to the point that his re-election in 1972 appeared a given. His major foreign policy breakthroughs during the election year prevented the Democrats from launching any meaningful campaign against him, easily trouncing opponent UsefulNotes/GeorgeMcGovern in one of the biggest landslide victories in American history. Nixon won every state except for Massachusetts, which led to "Don't Blame Me, I'm From Massachusetts" bumper stickers becoming popular as Nixon's support cratered. Another notable event of this election was when [[InnocuouslyImportantEpisode five men were arrested in June 1972 after being caught breaking into the Watergate hotel to bug the Democratic National Committee's offices]].

* Portrayed by Creator/LaneSmith in the 1989 TV movie ''The Final Days'', focusing on Nixon's role in Watergate. Smith's performance earned a Golden Globe nomination and he's generally considered one of the best screen Nixons.
* Another television film, ''Kissinger and Nixon'', focuses on the Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War. Creator/BeauBridges plays Nixon, Creator/RonSilver is Henry Kissinger and Creator/GeorgeTakei is North Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho.

* In the film ''Film/BlackDynamite'', [[spoiler: Nixon ends up as the BigBad, [[ItMakesSenseInContext being behind a conspiracy to use liquor to shrink the crotches of black men]]. He then proceeds to fight Dynamite with kung fu and John Wilkes Booth's gun. Lincoln's ghost shows up to save the day.]]
** Nixon continues to be Black Dynamite's arch-nemesis in [[WesternAnimation/BlackDynamite the animated series]], much to the chagrin of UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger, who at one point remarks "Why don't you find another black who isn't Dynamite to have an unhealthy obsession with?"

* The 1997 TV-movie ''ElvisMeetsNixon'' imagines events that led to the famous [[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elvis-nixon.jpg White House meeting]] of the two in 1970. President Nixon is trying to figure out how to connect to young people, and Elvis, sneaking out on his own for the first time in a dozen years, gets the idea to become a DEA agent. Nixon is played by Creator/BobGunton.
* In the 2016 film ''Elvis & Nixon'' (another fictionalized account of the 1970 meeting), Nixon is played by Creator/KevinSpacey.

* Features in the 1978 film ''Born Again'', a biopic of Chuck Colson, White House counsel-turned-Christian evangelical, played by Dean Jones. Nixon is played by Dean Spillman.

* There's an obscure 1970s comedy called ''Another Nice Mess'', which spoofs Nixon and Spiro Agnew as a Creator/LaurelAndHardy-style bumbling duo. Nixon is played by famous impressionist Creator/RichLittle. This film was produced by comedian Tom Smothers, as a TakeThat against Nixon for persuading CBS to cancel ''Series/TheSmothersBrothersComedyHour''.

* ''Cowboy Angels'', by Paul [=McAuley=], is a book about a group of people who travel through various alternate universes, or "sheaves". Due to when they visited it, our universe is referred to as "the Nixon sheaf".

* Thomas Mallon's 2012 book ''Watergate: A Novel'' offers a fictionalized version of the Watergate scandal. Nixon himself [[DemotedToExtra is a peripheral character]], though; Mallon focuses on Nixon's wife Pat, political operative Fred [=LaRue=], and other lesser-known figures more than he does the President.

* In ''The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham'', a [[JustForFun/XMeetsY mashup]] of Creator/HunterSThompson and Creator/HPLovecraft by Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas, Nixon is revealed to [[spoiler: worship Cthulhu]].
* Creator/PhilipRoth wrote a satirical novel about Nixon in 1971, called ''Our Gang''. In the book President Tricky E. Dixon comes out in favor of voting rights for the unborn, has to face the arising accusation by the Boy Scouts that he supports sexual intercourse and invades Denmark as a distraction. He's eventually assassinated and ends up in {{Hell}}, campaigning against Satan for the position of Devil.
** Many of Roth's works reference him, or even discuss him at length, inevitably in a highly disparaging light. ''Literature/AmericanPastoral'' includes several scenes where the protagonists discuss the Watergate scandal, and Roth devotes a large section of ''I Married a Communist'' to an AuthorFilibuster about Nixon's funeral and his harmful impact on American politics.

* ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'' has the RunningGag of Nixon's political defeats being "widely believed to be the end of his career."
** Elsewhere Dave states that Dick resigned to live in a state of utter disgrace: [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]].
* Robert Coover's 1977 novel ''The Public Burning'' features Vice President Nixon as a VillainProtagonist presiding over the trial and executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. A mixture of AlternateHistory and satire of the RedScare, which climaxes with [[BlackComedyRape Nixon being raped by an anthropomorphic Uncle Sam]]. The book was suppressed when Nixon's lawyers threatened to sue the publishers; after much finagling, it was finally released and became a best seller.

* Austin Grossman's 2015 novel ''Crooked'' imagines a supernatural AlternateHistory where Nixon's Red-baiting and paranoia are a cover for his battle against interdimensional demons working to destroy mankind.
* John Ehrlichman parlayed his time as Nixon's domestic advisor into three RomanAClef novels, which offer a thinly-veiled (and scathing) portrait of the Nixon White House. One novel, ''The Company'', was adapted into the TV miniseries ''Washington Behind Closed Doors'' starring Cliff Robertson and Jason Robards.

Nixon's political career began in earnest in 1946, when the local Republican Party in California's 12th congressional district asked him to spearhead their challenge against the Democratic incumbent Jerry Voorhis. Nixon, who had participated in school politics in his youth, found the prospect exciting and accepted the nomination. In a bit of foreshadowing toward how his future career in politics would turn out, Nixon's campaign was mainly rooted in attacking Voorhis for vague second-hand connections to communist organizations and insinuating that he held radical views. In spite of--or because of--the mudslinging, Nixon eventually defeated Voorhis with about 15,000 votes in his favor.

Already in early 1949, Nixon began to consider running for the United States Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Sheridan Downey, and entered the race in November. Downey, meanwhile, having fought in a bitter primary against challenger Helen Gahagan Douglas, decided to retire from politics and forfeited the nomination to Douglas. Once again using plenty of red baiting, some underhanded tactics, and quite a bit of not-so-subtle sexism against Douglas, Nixon eventually won the election with 20 percent point, and earned himself the nickname of "Tricky Dick" in the process. As a senator, Nixon was an outspoken anti-communist, having already involved himself with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, in early 1947; as a result, he early on established friendly relations with the controversial UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy (but true to form, he was careful to keep some distance between himself and [=McCarthy=]'s allegations, which probably helped to save him from a lot of the later fallout when [=McCarthy=]'s witch-hunting eventually backfired on him).

While he originally planned to use his law degree to join the FBI, Nixon instead drifted into working as a practicing attorney. In 1938, while a part of a community theater play, he met a high school teacher, Thelma "Pat" Ryan. Though reluctant at first, Pat eventually agreed to date him, and they eventually married in 1940. When World War II broke out, Nixon, setting aside his birthright as a Quaker which exempted him from the draft, sought a commission in the US Navy. His application was successful, and he was appointed a lieutenant junior grade in the US Naval Reserve on June 15, 1942. He would continue to serve in active duty until 1946.

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, [[TheSeventies from 1969 to 1974]]. The 14th president from the Republican Party, Nixon served between UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and UsefulNotes/GeraldFord. Prior to that he was the vice president under President UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower from [[TheFifties 1953–61]].

[[quoteright:322:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/richard_nixon_portrait.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:322:''"Well, when the President does it, that means that\\

* Another television film, ''Kissinger and Nixon'', focuses on the Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War. Creator/BeauBridges plays Nixon, Ron Silver is Henry Kissinger and Creator/GeorgeTakei is North Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho.

* Portrayed by Lane Smith in the 1989 TV movie ''The Final Days'', focusing on Nixon's role in Watergate. Smith's performance earned a Golden Globe nomination and he's generally considered one of the best screen Nixons.

If you could write a Shakespearean tragedy about any United States president, none would be a more viable candidate than him. One of the least popular presidents -- if not ''the'' least popular -- among the general public today,[[note]]He ''was'' reelected with over 60% of the vote, carrying 49 states, but after his downfall few people would admit to having voted for him in 1972, and the only president who seems to rival him in terms of unpopularity is UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, notorious for his apathy towards the escalating tensions in America during his tenure that led to the Civil War[[/note]] Nixon is [[OvershadowedByControversy infamous]] for his role in the [[{{Scandalgate}} Watergate scandal]], which eventually led to his becoming the only president thus far to resign from the office.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Richard Nixon continues to govern in a fifth term, partly because he was reckless enough to order the god-like superhero Dr. Manhattan to attack the Vietcong and North Vietnam to win UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, disregarding the dire implications of disrupting the international balance of power and riling the USSR up to prepare themselves for an all out fight. In addition, the Watergate Scandal doesn't happen because [[spoiler:Woodward and Bernstein were killed by an assassin, implied to be [[SociopathicHero the Comedian]].]] Creator/AlanMoore stated that he used Nixon as a stand-in for UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan because the former was an {{Acceptable Target|s}} in a way Reagan wasn't.

This would all set the stage for Nixon's first run for the White House, which came in 1960, making him the first incumbent vice president to run for the top job in a century. This resulted in a surprise loss to UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, and while many blamed Nixon's defeat on a combination of bad luck and strategic errors -- particularly his poor performance in the first presidential debate (Nixon had suffered a bout of flu prior to the debate, and was still running a low fever during it, making him look rather pale and sweaty, which made him come across as nervous and uncomfortable -- Kennedy, on the other hand, had just returned home from a vacation, and as such had a healthy light tan and appeared energized and confident) [[note]]though the perception that he had performed poorly was made by people who ''watched'' the debate, which was the first to be televised; people who ''heard'' the debate on the radio actually felt he won[[/note]], and an AwesomeButImpractical attempt to campaign equally in all 50 states -- Nixon himself believed that the Kennedy family, along with Democratic running mate UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and Chicago mayor Richard Daley, had all conspired to commit electoral fraud. While he certainly wasn't the only person to believe this,[[note]](In fact, many historians concur in retrospect that Daley almost certainly '''did''' engage in unethical, if not outright illegal actions in order to help Kennedy out, though it's debated as to whether or not this made the difference between Kennedy's winning or losing the state given that Kennedy was a Catholic, and thus would almost certainly have done well in Chicago anyway due to its high Catholic population. Evidence for Johnson rigging the result in Texas is far sketchier, and without that state, Nixon would have lost the election whether or not he had won in Illinois. For what it's worth, while Nixon thought Johnson had cheated, he also believed he'd have lost Texas regardless, due to a Republican congressman organizing a protest which ended up turning violent and resulted in Johnson's wife being assaulted)[[/note]] in retrospect it's often pointed to as his StartOfDarkness, with many close to him later saying it just made him more determined to win the White House than ever. Nixon was further humiliated in 1962, when he ran for governor of California and lost by 5 points to popular incumbent Pat Brown (father of future California governor UsefulNotes/JerryBrown). He capped off his defeat with a long tirade [[NeverMyFault blaming the press for his defeat]], termed his "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon%27s_November_1962_press_conference last press conference]]" (a term he ''actually used'' during said event) as everyone assumed that Nixon self-sabotaged his own career.

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', a newspaper from 1985-A says Nixon has served at least four terms (and was seeking a ''fifth'' term!) and plans to end UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar "by 1985". Richard Nixon's alma mater, Whittier High School, was used as Hill Valley High School in [[Film/BackToTheFuture Parts I]] and II.

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, [[TheSeventies from 1969 to 1974]]. The 14th President from the Republican Party, Nixon served between UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and UsefulNotes/GeraldFord. Prior to that he was the Vice President under President UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower from [[TheFifties 1953–61]].

Already in early 1949, Nixon began to consider running for the United States Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Sheridan Downey, and entered the race in November. Downey, meanwhile, having fought in a bitter primary against challenger Helen Gahagan Douglas, decided to retire from politics and forfeited the nomination to Douglas. Once again using plenty of red baiting, some underhanded tactics, and quite a bit of not-so-subtle sexism against Douglas, Nixon eventually won the election with 20 percent point, and earned himself the nickname of "Tricky Dick" in the process. As a Senator, Nixon was an outspoken anti-communist, having already involved himself with the House Committee on Un-American Activities, in early 1947; as a result, he early on established friendly relations with the controversial UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy (but true to form, he was careful to keep some distance between himself and [=McCarthy=]'s allegations, which probably helped to save him from a lot of the later fallout when [=McCarthy=]'s witchhunting eventually backfired on him).

Nixon's rise to the vice-presidency under [[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower Dwight Eisenhower]] in 1953 was a decision made mostly out of pragmatism. When his campaign was under way in 1952, Eisenhower had no strong feelings about what kind of vice-president he wanted, and the Republican Party eventually selected Nixon for the post based on his relatively young age of 39, his record as an anti-communist, and his strong base in California. Nixon, however, ran into trouble during the campaign, when it was revealed that he maintained a political fund supported by his backers, which reimbursed him for political expenses. While such a fund was not strictly speaking illegal, it still exposed Nixon to allegations of possible conflicts of interest and corruption, and resulted in calls for him to resign from the campaign. Nixon, however, once again revealing his talent for propaganda and spin, decided to address the issue himself, through a public speech to the nation, which was broadcasted on radio and television, and as such was heard by about 60 million Americans. In the speech, Nixon overtly played to the audience's emotions, claiming that the fund was no secret, but that it was all above board and subject to oversight, and that he was nothing but an honest American patriot and a family man who lived within modest means. The clincher of the speech, however, was his insistence that the only really questionable gift he had received through the fund was "a little cocker spaniel dog ... sent all the way from Texas", and since his young daughter, Tricia, had taken a likening to it and even named it "Checkers", he refused to give it back. The "Checkers speech", as it would be nicknamed, prompted a huge public outpouring of support for Nixon, and Eisenhower ultimately decided to retain him on the ticket.

During his time as vice-president, Nixon avoided falling into VicePresidentWho due to a combination of him turning out to know how to use the position to effectively assert influence and Eisenhower personally entrusting him with a somewhat unusual amount of responsibility in regards to both domestic and foreign policy -- in fact, he was in hindsight the perhaps most influential veep until UsefulNotes/DickCheney came along. Nixon would dutifully attend both Cabinet and National Security Council meetings and chaired them when Eisenhower was absent. However, when the Democrats took both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections of 1954, it caused a great crisis of faith in Nixon, who considered resigning once his term as vice-president was up. However, on September 24, 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution had not yet been proposed, so Nixon was instead asked by the cabinet to act as an unofficial interim president for six weeks, while Eisenhower recovered from his health scare. The event convinced Nixon to join Eisenhower's re-election campaign in 1956.

This would all set the stage for Nixon's actual first run for the White House, which came in 1960, making him the first incumbent vice-president to run for the top job in a century. This resulted in a surprise loss to UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, and while many blamed Nixon's defeat on a combination of bad luck and strategic errors -- particularly his poor performance in the first presidential debate (Nixon had suffered a bout of flu prior to the debate, and was still running a low fever during it, making him look rather pale and sweaty, which made him come across as nervous and uncomfortable -- Kennedy, on the other hand, had just returned home from a vacation, and as such had a healthy light tan and appeared energized and confident) [[note]]though the perception that he had performed poorly was made by people who ''watched'' the debate, which was the first to be televised; people who ''heard'' the debate on the radio actually felt he won[[/note]], and an AwesomeButImpractical attempt to campaign equally in all 50 states -- Nixon himself believed that the Kennedy family, along with Democratic running-mate UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and Chicago mayor Richard Daley, had all conspired to commit electoral fraud. While he certainly wasn't the only person to believe this,[[note]](In fact, many historians concur in retrospect that Daley almost certainly '''did''' engage in unethical, if not outright illegal actions in order to help Kennedy out, though it's debated as to whether or not this made the difference between Kennedy's winning or losing the state given that Kennedy was a Catholic, and thus would almost certainly have done well in Chicago anyway due to its high Catholic population. Evidence for Johnson rigging the result in Texas is far sketchier, and without that state, Nixon would have lost the election whether or not he had won in Illinois. For what it's worth, while Nixon thought Johnson had cheated, he also believed he'd have lost Texas regardless, due to a Republican congressman organizing a protest which ended up turning violent and resulted in Johnson's wife being assaulted)[[/note]] in retrospect it's often pointed to as his StartOfDarkness, with many close to him later saying it just made him more determined to win the White House than ever. Nixon was further humiliated in 1962, when he ran for Governor of California and lost in a landslide to popular incumbent Pat Brown (father of future California governor UsefulNotes/JerryBrown). He capped off his defeat with a long tirade [[NeverMyFault blaming the press for his defeat]], termed his "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon%27s_November_1962_press_conference Last Press Conference]]" (a term he ''actually used'' during said event) as everyone assumed that Nixon self-sabotaged his own career.

His reputation damaged by these defeats, Nixon held off on immediately running again in 1964 on the grounds that he could tell that running against Johnson (who replaced Kennedy after his assassination) would be futile. He spent the next several years rebuilding his reputation as a statesman and campaigning for Republican candidates in off-year elections, allowing him to present himself as a pragmatist who could act as a conciliator between the party's conservative and moderate wings, which had bitterly divided during UsefulNotes/BarryGoldwater's 1964 campaign. Nixon easily won the Republican nomination in 1968, and crushed Democratic nominee UsefulNotes/HubertHumphrey in the general election; Humphrey, as Johnson's Vice President, suffered from public backlash towards the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar, a divided opposition vote with segregationist candidate George Wallace, and his nomination being seen as a [[ConsolationAward shoo-in]] after the assassination of UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy. Nixon is the most recent President to be elected after having previously been defeated, the last before him being UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland in 1892.

In foreign policy, Nixon worked with his National Security Adviser, UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger, to wind down UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, greatly reducing conscription (and abolishing it completely in 1973, making military service entirely voluntary) while turning over the defense of South Vietnam to their own forces in a process termed "Vietnamization". Although many of Nixon's tactics, such as increased bombing of North Vietnam and his 1970 invasion of Cambodia, were (and remain) extremely controversial, he was able to conclude American involvement in the war by the end of his first term.[[note]]It remains a point of considerable debate whether the Communist conquest of South Vietnam in 1975 would have happened had Nixon not been driven from office, though by that point Congress had severely limited the President's ability to with the War Powers Act anyway[[/note]] Most notable was Nixon's historic 1972 visit to China where he established US relations with Chairman UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's Communist regime for the first time. It earned widespread media coverage and coined the[[labelnote:*]]allegedly [[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry Vulcan]][[/labelnote]] phrase "only Nixon could go to China", to describe how a politician with an unassailable reputation on a certain cause can take action that would seem contrary to it without drawing criticism -- such as how Nixon could be trusted to visit and establish relations with Communist China given his unquestionable anti-Communist credentials[[note]]That might apply to American politics, but the firmly liberal Prime Minister of Canada, UsefulNotes/PierreTrudeau, defied his neighboring country's foreign policy and beat Nixon to it years earlier[[/note]]. The China visit had the side effect of reducing tensions with the Soviet Union, as Soviet Premier UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev was so shaken by the idea of the Chinese moving closer to America that it moved him to invite Nixon to Moscow to work out their differences. Together they agreed to two landmark arms control treaties, SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The two leaders emerged from their meeting to announce the treaties and a new shared foreign policy goal of peaceful coexistence between the two nations, an objective that became known as "détente". He is also remembered as the American President under which the CIA plotted to support the overthrow of the socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, by the Chilean military under general [[UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet Pinochet]], in the larger context of "Operation Condor", a political repression campaign organized by right-wing authoritarian regimes in South America with aid from the United States (and allegedly France) aimed at stopping [[RedScare "the spread" of socialism and communism]] in South American countries. His administration took the US' support for Pakistan's military dictatorship to a new low, supporting General Yahya Khan's regime of West Pakistani racists as it committed genocide against its country's Bengali majority in today's Bangladesh, even attempting to deter India's military intervention by sending an American fleet into the Bay of Bengal.[[note]]Bangladesh (initially called East Bengal, then "East Pakistan") was part of Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 even though it was separated from West Pakistan by a vast stretch of Indian territory. Bengalis were the country's majority but were marginalised politically and economically by a West Pakistan-dominated elite which ruled East Bengal as an internal colony.[[/note]] Nixon's personal racism influenced his foreign policy heavily across the board, contributing to his willingness to support authoritarian regimes in Africa while treating India, the world's largest democracy, with disdain. While the US and its Western European allies remained democracies in their domestic politics, whatever moral dimension there had been to the Cold War as it impacted other countries during the Kennedy administration was completely lost under Nixon and Kissinger, whose foreign policy was in moral terms barely distinguishable from and in some ways even worse than that of Brezhnev's Soviet Union.

Given all of his achievements, Nixon enjoyed high approval ratings throughout his first term to the point that his re-election in 1972 appeared a given. His major foreign policy breakthroughs during the election year prevented the Democrats from launching any meaningful campaign against him, easily trouncing opponent UsefulNotes/GeorgeMcGovern in one of the biggest landslide victories in history. Nixon won every state except for Massachusetts, which lead to "Don't Blame Me, I'm From Massachusetts" bumper stickers becoming popular as Nixon's support cratered. Another notable event of this election was when [[InnocuouslyImportantEpisode five men were arrested in June 1972 after being caught breaking into the Watergate hotel to bug the Democratic National Committee's offices]].

The Watergate break-in itself was the doing of Nixon's privately-run "intelligence" agency known as the "Plumbers." After Daniel Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers detailing government lies about Vietnam[[note]]which were effectively declassified to the American public after Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel read them into the Senate record, rendering Nixon's attempts to suppress them moot[[/note]], Nixon became obsessed with stopping leaks and felt the FBI wasn't responsive to his orders. The Plumbers[[note]]Officially known as the "Special Investigations Unit," nicknamed after one of their members told his mother that his job at the White House was to "stop leaks" and she assumed he was a literal plumber[[/note]] (among them ex-FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy and former CIA officer E. Howard Hunt) almost immediately descended into illegal behavior. Among their activities: a break-in at the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to find damaging information, intimidating witnesses in an anti-trust action against ITT (a major donor to Nixon's campaign), spying on and planting damaging stories about UsefulNotes/TedKennedy and other Democrats in the media, and beating up antiwar demonstrators. Which isn't to mention Liddy's proposals to firebomb the liberal Brookings Institution and assassinate journalist Jack Anderson, which were (thankfully) [[EveryoneHasStandards vetoed by his superiors]].

Through these means (which collectively became known as the "White House horrors"), Nixon and his campaign then worked to sabotage the campaigns of Democratic presidential candidates to ensure that they nominated [=McGovern=], the candidate Nixon thought he could most easily defeat in the general election.[[note]]While Nixon's reelection is sometimes considered a ForegoneConclusion, his other potential opponents - notably Edmund Muskie of Maine - led Nixon in many early polls, and the event that completely destroyed any remote chance that [=McGovern=] had of winning the election -- namely throwing his initial running mate Thomas Eagleton off the ticket because of his past mental health issues after earlier saying he stood by his choice -- didn't happen until nearly two months after the Watergate break-in[[/note]] While Nixon likely didn't order the Watergate break-in personally, his White House staff - including chief of staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman and domestic adviser John Ehrlichman, known as the "Berlin Wall" for their closeness to the President - provided the Plumbers with a long leash to engage in ''any'' activities, legal or otherwise, which might help the President's reelection chances. Nixon was at least broadly aware of the Plumbers' activities[[note]]Ehrlichman, for instance, informed Nixon about the break-in against Ellsberg's psychiatrist soon after it happened despite Nixon's later denials; Attorney General John Mitchell also hosted a meeting where Liddy outlined his "Operation Gemstone" plan which led to the break-in, though it's still unclear if he told Nixon about it at the time[[/note]] and raised no objection until they were caught in the act.

Although Nixon's cover-up was initially successful, information slowly became public through a long series of explosive reports in ''The Washington Post'' as reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein corresponded with a source high-up in the federal government known as "Deep Throat", revealed decades later to be deputy FBI director Mark Felt.[[note]]Felt largely served as a source because [[ItsPersonal he resented Nixon]] passing him over for promotion after J. Edgar Hoover's death. Nixon knew, or at least guessed, that Felt was the leaker as he and Haldeman are heard discussing Felt's identity on a White House tape[[/note]] Nixon was forced to appoint a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who began aggressively investigating the scandal. As the investigations grew closer to the White House, Nixon tried to do whatever he could to stymie or even shut them down completely, firing Haldeman, Ehrlichman and other aides who became implicated in the scandal while paying hush money to Hunt, Liddy and the other burglars to prevent them from talking. Responding to Watergate bogged Nixon's attention from other issues and he became increasingly ineffective as President.

The investigation took a dramatic turn in the summer of 1973 as the [[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee Senate Watergate Committee]] held open hearings into the scandal, with numerous Nixon aides (notably [[HeelFaceTurn John Dean]], his former counsel) revealing presidential involvement in the cover-up. The committee learned from a seemingly minor witness, Alexander Butterfield, that there was a system in the White House that recorded Nixon's conversations.[[note]]While previous presidents had recorded some of their conversations, Nixon used a self-operating system that recorded ''every'' conversation in the White House, including the SmokingGun tape that implicated him[[/note]] Pressure mounted on Nixon to turn the tapes over to Congress and Archibald Cox, but he refused on the grounds on executive privilege, offering to hand over redacted transcripts instead (and later offering to have them verified by longtime Senator John Stennis, who was both a Nixon supporter and partially deaf), which he said was necessary to prevent the exposure of sensitive info on national security. When Cox subpoenaed the White House for the tapes, Nixon moved to have him fired in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre", which also forced Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, to resign for refusing to fire Cox. Around the same time, Vice President UsefulNotes/SpiroAgnew [[FromBadToWorse resigned]] on unrelated charges of bribery and tax evasion, further eroding Nixon's credibility; Agnew was soon replaced by UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, the House Minority Leader. Ironically, Ford's appointment made Nixon's impeachment more likely, as Congress viewed him more favorably than the controversial Agnew.[[note]]Agnew, who was mostly known for colorfully insulting Nixon's political opponents, was called by many (including Nixon himself) as the President's "impeachment insurance", assuming Democrats would rather have the corrupt but competent Nixon as President than the corrupt ''and'' incompetent Agnew.[[/note]]

Nixon would undergo his final RedemptionQuest to salvage his legacy through the famous ''Frost/Nixon'' interviews and his expertise of foreign affairs, which made him a sought-after commentator and valued, informal foreign policy adviser to succeeding administrations. Nixon urged Reagan to collaborate with the Soviets on space travel as a peace gesture, met UsefulNotes/DengXiaoping after Tiananmen Square to reiterate the U.S. government position, and while originally critical of UsefulNotes/BillClinton, congratulated the new President on his well-run campaign. Clinton was a CountryMouse and Southern governor who just arrived with his team from Arkansas, and his administration was facing [[FirstDayFromHell a rough start]] with the bulk of it, including the President himself, being novices to Washington. An OddFriendship began, where Nixon advised Clinton on how to handle a volatile situation in Russia concerning American support for Boris Yeltsin (Nixon told Clinton to support him). Clinton began to consult more frequently with Nixon. The FallenHero and BrokenAce would mentor the new President, and the two grew so close, a visibly distraught Clinton presided over Nixon's funeral services in 1994.

The combination of Nixon's many positive achievements with his abuses of power and the resulting distrust in government institutions has left him with a very complicated legacy. Reactions to his death in 1994 further illustrated how historians and the public had been struggling to understand how to view the disgraced President. It has been repeatedly expressed that had Watergate not occurred, Nixon could be easily ranked as one of America's ''greatest'' Presidents, especially with his achievements in foreign policy. Had Watergate not happened, his approval ratings were high enough that it is very likely [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat he would have been elected anyway]] - the ultimate irony being that [[SelfFulfillingProphecy he would most likely never have been removed from power had he not been so desperate to ensure that didn't happen.]] However, opinion of him skews strongly negative and he has been consistently ranked as one of the worst Presidents in surveys of both scholars and the public. Posthumous allegations from one of his associates claiming that he wanted to suppress liberals and African-Americans via [[https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html the war on drugs]] certainly didn't help, nor did recent confirmation of the long-standing rumors that [[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/politics/nixon-tried-to-spoil-johnsons-vietnam-peace-talks-in-68-notes-show.html he sabotaged the Paris Peace Talks]] to secure his election, and increased public knowledge and scholarly debate about his expansion of American military operations in Vietnam to Cambodia (where the North Vietnamese had already been basing themselves for years) and the lasting effects it had on the southeast Asian nation (some, mostly journalists without formal historical credentials, claim that it helped bring the Khmer Rouge to power, while historians [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Freedom_Deal#Outcome emphasize the military situation]], which was objectively unfavorable for the Khmer Rouge before the withdrawal and the subsequent March 1970 North Vietnamese invasion in support of their fellow communists). He has also been credited, or blamed depending on one's perspective, with cementing the conservative takeover of the Republican Party while pioneering the divisive rhetoric endemic to modern politics. He is effectively a persona non grata in American politics and being a Nixon supporter today is about as socially acceptable as supporting the Westboro Baptist Church.

A major facet of Nixon's legacy is his endurance as the face of political corruption in America, as the Watergate scandal and his numerous abuses of power it revealed continue to [[OvershadowedByControversy outweigh any and all of his administration's positive achievements in the public consciousness]]. Successor UsefulNotes/GeraldFord's pardon of him generated widespread outrage and while Nixon again achieved good things as an elder statesman in TheEighties, such as his role in arranging the historic [[UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev Gorbachev]]-[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] talks (accompanied by this [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dwprnp62YFs/Uo5Q93C__FI/AAAAAAAAd8Y/ym3Rhc0JhAI/s1600/IMG_6759.JPG famous cover of a 1986 issue of Newsweek]] declaring "He's Back"), he never managed to shake off the legacy of Watergate. He has continued to serve as the prototype for a corrupt President in popular culture with the term "Nixonian" being been coined to describe behavior and abuses of power by politicians that are reminiscent of his. Likewise, virtually every major scandal in the Anglosphere (political or otherwise) will eventually be referred to with the suffix "-gate" as part of the snowclone {{Scandalgate}}, in reference to the Watergate scandal. Whenever a President is embroiled in a scandal, Nixonian comparisons are almost mandatory. This was particularly the case when he served as the linchpin of the national debate over the impeachment of his friend UsefulNotes/BillClinton in 1998: Allies argued that his misdeeds were petty when compared to Nixon's while opponents argued that Clinton was undermining the rule of law in a manner just as severe as Nixon's. Later on, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's many scandals and his two impeachments brought Nixon once again at the forefront with many stating that Trump makes Nixon look tame.

Nixon's equally popular for fictional portrayals. One can even make the case that he and his Presidency is the most frequently depicted in popular culture as HistoricalDomainCharacter, far more than any office-holder other than Lincoln. One reason for this is that his presidency coincided with the politically charged period of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood, where films like ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen'' that were released during Watergate and in its aftermath cemented him in popular memory before the setting-in of the halo that earlier scandal-plagued presidents underwent. This ensured that film critical of Nixon established itself as a market for Hollywood. Ironic, since Nixon -- a Southern California native (indeed, he was the first person born on the West Coast to be President)[[note]]The only other one is UsefulNotes/BarackObama, born in Hawaii. The two other Presidents who had California as their home state were born in the Midwest (UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover was born in Iowa; UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan was born in Illinois).[[/note]] -- was [[TheMovieBuff a huge movie buff]] and [[http://articles.latimes.com/2003/aug/17/entertainment/ca-dargis17 indeed provided tax cuts]] to the motion picture industry during the same period, which helped create the very conditions for this politically charged era of film history. While Nixon's unique appearance and idiosyncrasies make him such an appealing subject for caricature, it also makes it hard to find an actor who actually resembles him, at least by conventional standards of leading men.

[[caption-width-right:322:''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem "Well, when the President does it, that means that\\
it is NOT illegal."]]'']]

Cox's firing brought America to the edge of a constitutional crisis and became a PR disaster for Nixon. The tug-of-war for the tapes reached the Supreme Court in July 1974, who ordered they be released to investigators. The tapes gave Nixon the old one-two punch: first, by being the SmokingGun which revealed that he was behind the obstruction surrounding Watergate; second, by revealing his private tendency of being a SirSwearsALot who insulted his opponents, media figures and a variety of minority groups - most infamously African-Americans and Jews. With Nixon's involvement now confirmed, the House Judiciary Committee voted in July to introduce three articles of impeachment, making him the third of only theee presidents to have an impeachment resolution brought against him (the only two presidents were UsefulNotes/JohnTyler and UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan). Knowing he was doomed, Nixon resigned the office on the morning of August 9, 1974, famously departing the White House via helicopter. Shortly thereafter, successor Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon of any and all crimes he committed during his own administration, a move that garners controversy to this day. In October 1974, after resigning from office, Nixon fell ill with phlebitis; after consulting his doctors, who told him that if he didn't undergo surgery, he could die from the illness, Nixon reluctantly went under the knife and chose surgery, which extended his lifespan.

Cox's firing brought America to the edge of a constitutional crisis and became a PR disaster for Nixon. The tug-of-war for the tapes reached the Supreme Court in July 1974, who ordered they be released to investigators. The tapes gave Nixon the old one-two punch: first, by being the SmokingGun which revealed that he was behind the obstruction surrounding Watergate; second, by revealing his private tendency of being a SirSwearsALot who insulted his opponents, media figures and a variety of minority groups - most infamously African-Americans and Jews. With Nixon's involvement now confirmed, the House Judiciary Committee voted in July to introduce three articles of impeachment, making him the second of only two presidents to have an impeachment resolution brought against him (the only other president was UsefulNotes/JohnTyler). Knowing he was doomed, Nixon resigned the office on the morning of August 9, 1974, famously departing the White House via helicopter. Shortly thereafter, successor Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon of any and all crimes he committed during his own administration, a move that garners controversy to this day. In October 1974, after resigning from office, Nixon fell ill with phlebitis; after consulting his doctors, who told him that if he didn't undergo surgery, he could die from the illness, Nixon reluctantly went under the knife and chose surgery, which extended his lifespan.

The investigation took a dramatic turn in the summer of 1973 as the [[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee Senate Watergate Committee]] held open hearings into the scandal, with numerous Nixon aides (notably [[HeelFaceTurn John Dean]], his former counsel) revealing presidential involvement in the cover-up. The committee learned from a seemingly minor witness, Alexander Butterfield, that there was a system in the White House that recorded Nixon's conversations.[[note]]While previous presidents had recorded some of their conversations, Nixon used a self-operating system that recorded ''every'' conversation in the White House, including the SmokingGun tape that implicated him[[/note]] Pressure mounted on Nixon to turn the tapes over to Congress and Archibald Cox, but he refused on the grounds on executive privilege, offering to hand over redacted transcripts instead (and later offering to have them verified by longtime Senator John Stennis, who was both a Nixon supporter and partially deaf), which he said was necessary to prevent the exposure of sensitive info on national security. When Cox subpoenaed the White House for the tapes, Nixon moved to have him fired in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre", which also forced Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, to resign for refusing to fire Cox. Around the same time, Vice President UsefulNotes/SpiroAgnew [[FromBadToWorse resigned]] on unrelated charges of bribery and tax evasion, further eroding Nixon's credibility; Agnew was soon replaced by UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, the House Minority Leader. Ironically, Ford's appointment made Nixon's impeachment more likely, as Congress viewed him more favorably than the controversial Agnew.[[note]]Agnew, who was mostly known for colorfully insulting Nixon's political opponents, was called by many (including Nixon himself) as the President's "impeachment insurance", assuming Democrats would rather have the corrupt but competent Nixon as President than the corrupt ''and'' incompetent Agnew.[[/note]]

--->'''JFK:''' I would like to take this opportunity, er, express my fondness for, ah, Duff Beer!\\
''(Audience claps and cheers)''\\

Through these means (which collectively became known as the "White House horrors"), Nixon and his campaign then worked to sabotage the campaigns of Democratic presidential candidates to ensure that they nominated [=McGovern=], the candidate Nixon thought he could most easily defeat in the general election.[[note]]While Nixon's reelection is sometimes considered a ForegoneConclusion, his other potential opponents - notably Edmund Muskie of Maine - led Nixon in many early polls, and the event that completely destroyed any remote chance that [=McGovern=] had of winning the election -- namely throwing his initial running mate Thomas Eagleton off the ticket because of his past mental health issues after earlier saying he stood by his choice -- didn't happen until nearly two months after the Watergate break-in[[/note]] While Nixon likely didn't order the Watergate break-in personally, his White House staff - including chief of staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman and domestic adviser John Ehrlichman, known as the "Berlin Wall" for their closeness to the President - provided the Plumbers with a long leash to engage in ''any'' activities, legal or otherwise, which might help the President's reelection chances. Nixon was at least broadly aware of the Plumbers' activities[[note]]Ehrlichman, for instance, informed Nixon about the break-in against Ellsberg's psychiatrist soon after it happened, despite Nixon's later denials; Attorney General John Mitchell also hosted a meeting where Liddy outlined his "Operation Gemstone" plan which led to the break-in, though it's still unclear if he told Nixon about it at the time[[/note]] and raised no objection until they were caught in the act.