History UsefulNotes / RichardNixon

->''"[The American] people look at [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy you]] and they see who they want to be. [[{{Eagleland}} They look at me and they see what they are.]]"''

-->-- To a portrait of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, ''Film/{{Nixon}}''

As far as domestic issues go, the Nixon presidency is usually associated with the start of the "stagflation" of the 1970's, where the economy simultaneously stopped growing ''and'' prices kept rising. When he entered office, unemployment was very low, but inflation was steadily rising. Starting in 1970, though, a recession began and the post-war economic boom finally came to an end. The main causes for this economic downturn can be summed up as followed: Johnson spent billions on both Vietnam and his domestic programs, and it caused federal deficits to rise significantly; the consequences of America's massive post-WWII population growth came due as Baby Boomers began to enter the workforce, and way more people than usual were looking for jobs, leading to a spike in unemployment; this was coupled with a cultural shift as more minorities, young people, and women also entered the workforce, and the job training for those groups wasn't as good as it was for the traditional workforce of adult white males; finally, American factories and companies did not update equipment for much of the 1950's and 60's, while foreign competitors like Germany and Japan – which had been bombed to smithereens and had to rebuild industrial infrastructure from the ground up – were using more advanced technology. His deals with the USSR also led to food prices at home increasing. To combat the inflation crisis, Nixon first took the dollar off the gold standard in 1971 (an event often called the "Nixon Shock"), which temporarily made inflation a bit worse, but in the long run made it easier for the dollar to float against foreign currencies. He also announced in 1972 a temporary 90-day price freeze; this was very unpopular at home, but businesses reluctantly followed along.[[note]] This was just a policy to temporarily stop inflation in time for his reelection; he knew it was only going to work for a short time.[[/note]] By the end of 1972 a turnaround was beginning. But then, in 1973, the oil-producing countries of the Arab world raised their oil prices for the United States by '''400 percent''' in retaliation for America sending aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War.[[note]] The OPEC embargo also affected Europe badly, but they were insulated slightly due to better public transportation and less blatantly pro-Israel foreign policy (indeed, many European countries have increasingly turned against Israel's government since then). The effect on America, however, was nothing short of catastrophic.[[/note]] Until negotiations resulted in an end to the oil embargo the next year, Americans had to lower temperatures in their house, drive at slower speeds, and deal with long lines at the gas pumps, which were eventually rationed. This caused wild inflation for the rest of the decade, a stock market crash which saw the Dow Jones decrease by about 45% in just over a year, and another recession in mid-1974. The United States, realizing that other countries could hurt the economy by controlling the oil supply, began to search for alternative energy sources, a search which continues to this day. The recessions also helped fuel the growing crime wave which started in the 1960's, though they still weren't anywhere near their ludicrous highs during the 80's and early 90's.

As far as domestic issues go, the Nixon presidency is usually associated with the start of the "stagflation" of the 1970's, where the economy simultaneously stopped growing ''and'' prices kept rising. When he entered office, unemployment was very low, but inflation was steadily rising. Starting in 1970, though, a recession began and the post-war economic boom finally came to and end. The main causes for this economic downturn can be summed up as followed: Johnson spent billions on both Vietnam and his domestic programs, and it caused federal deficits to rise significantly; the consequences of America's massive post-WWII population growth came due as Baby Boomers began to enter the workforce, and way more people than usual were looking for jobs; this was coupled with a cultural shift as more minorities, young people, and women also entered the workforce, and the job training for those groups wasn't as good as it was for the traditional workforce of adult white males; finally, American factories and companies did not update equipment for much of the 1950's and 60's, while foreign competitors like Germany and Japan – which had been bombed to smithereens and had to rebuild industrial infrastructure from the ground up – were using more advanced technology. His deals with the USSR also led to food prices at home increasing. To combat the inflation crisis, Nixon first took the dollar off the gold standard in 1971 (an event often called the "Nixon Shock"), which temporarily made inflation a bit worse, but in the long run made it easier for the dollar to float against foreign currencies. He also announced in 1972 a temporary 90-day price freeze; this was very unpopular at home, but businesses reluctantly followed along.[[note]] This was just a policy to temporarily stop inflation in time for his reelection; he knew it was only going to work for a short time.[[/note]] By the end of 1972 a turnaround was beginning. But then, in 1973, the oil-producing countries of the Arab world raised their oil prices for the United States by '''400 percent''' in retaliation for America sending aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War.[[note]] The OPEC embargo also affected Europe badly, but they were insulated slightly due to better public transportation and less blatantly pro-Israel foreign policy (indeed, many European countries have increasingly turned against Israel's government since then). The effect on America, however, was nothing short of catastrophic.[[/note]] Until negotiations resulted in an end to the oil embargo the next year, Americans had to lower temperatures in their house, drive at slower speeds, and deal with long lines at the gas pumps, which were eventually rationed. This caused wild inflation for the rest of the decade, a stock market crash which saw the Dow Jones decrease by about 45% in just over a year, and another recession in mid-1974. The United States, realizing that other countries could hurt the economy by controlling the oil supply, began to search for alternative energy sources, a search which continues to this day. The recessions also helped fuel the growing crime wave which started in the 1960's, though they still weren't anywhere near their ludicrous highs during the 80's and early 90's.

On other foreign policy fronts, however, Nixon got much higher ratings from both the public and historians. His policy of détente with RedChina and the Soviet Union earned praise. In order to successfully remove Americans troops without (immediately) losing South Vietnam, he tried to make both major communist powers promise to reign in North Vietnam. He also wished to play them against each other, since relations between the two had been deteriorating for some time. In 1972, Nixon announced that he and Kissinger were going to travel to China to visit MaoZedong. This ''shocked'' the public, since not only did the United States not have diplomatic relations with mainland China (only with Taiwan, a.k.a the Republic of China, which had recently been stripped of its UN representation in favor of mainland China), but Nixon was the President making the visit. Any politician with fewer anti-communist credentials making the trip would have been blasted by the media as a secret communist sympathizer; due to his past (see above), ''no one'' could make these claims against Nixon. This led to the proverb, "Only Nixon could go to China." It paved the way for formal relations being established between the two in 1979. Brilliantly arousing Soviet suspicions with this trip, Nixon then traveled to Moscow, becoming the first American President to visit ''that'' country as well since the start of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar (UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt visited in 1945 to plan post-WWII conditions). He negotiated several deals with the Soviets, which can be summed up as "Both of us will stop producing certain types of missiles, and in return we'll ship to you nearly a billion dollars worth of wheat so your people won't starve." While these Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) didn't really end the Cold War, it was the beginning of détente, which came to be the rule of the day for diplomatic relations before ending in the late 70s, due largely to the UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan. Less helpfully, Nixon also sent the CIA to help UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet lead a coup in Chile in 1973. Best to not bring that one up around Isabel Allende.

The 1968 election was one of the most unusual in American history. LBJ announced in early 1968 that he wasn't going to seek the Democratic nomination, which led to party leaders scrambling to win the open ticket. UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy, John's brother, then appeared to be a lock for the nomination, but he was shot and killed the night he won the California primary. At the Democratic convention in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, Johnson's own VP, UsefulNotes/HubertHumphrey, finally won the ticket. However, anti-war protestors held a massive demonstration outside the building that turned into a violent clash when Chicago's mayor Richard J. Daley ordered the police to break it up. Broadcast live on television, the images gave the appearance that the Democrats had quite literally lost control and were unable to manage the fallout of the Vietnam War. Also fracturing the Democrats was the issue of civil rights. Since its founding in the 1830's, the Democrats' power base had always been the DeepSouth, but after Johnson passed his [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights bills]], Southern whites grew uneasy with their party. Nixon tapped into their feelings and drew them into the Republican Party, promising them he would support vague things like "states' rights" – which was code for "no more federal help for blacks". This was the start of the Republican's "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy Southern Strategy]]", where Southern states flipped their partisan leanings to become a dead lock for Republicans, who could then concentrate on winning other states to gain a victory in presidential elections. This directly led to the Republicans becoming the dominant party in the country.[[note]] Technically, despite their dominance at all levels of government for most of the period since 1968, Republicans have not been the ''majority'' party in the USA, or even the plurality party, since the Great Depression. This is because (as of 2014) they have never had a nationwide registration edge over the Democrats; the only times they came close were in the mid-1980's and in 2004. The discrepancy is explained by the fact that there's still millions of White Southerners registered as Democrats who vote Republican, plus the GOP's longstanding dominance among unaffiliated voters.[[/note]][[note]] In hindsight, the Southern Strategy may have only helped the Republicans temporarily. UsefulNotes/BarackObama won both the 2008 and 2012 elections despite losing almost every Southern state, which may signify that the Republicans have become a "Southernized" party incapable of winning the rest of the country. Time will tell.[[/note]] Nixon also appealed to what he deemed the "SilentMajority" – the majority of Americans who were not protesting on the streets or attacking long-held social values. While the popular vote that year was almost as close as 1960 (Nixon won 43.4%, Humphrey won 42.7%, and infamous racist George Wallace won 13.5% by campaigning as a third party nominee in the South), Nixon won a landslide in the Electoral College. His running mate was Spiro Agnew, an outspoken and boorish rightwing populist politician who served as Nixon's [[PsychoSidekick attack dog]].

'''Richard Milhous Nixon''' (January 9, 1913 -- April 22, 1994) was the 37th President ([[TheSeventies 1969-1974]]). A Republican, he served between UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and UsefulNotes/GeraldFord. Probably the least popular President among the general public, he is [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] for his role in the Watergate scandal which led to his resignation. Nixon remains the only President so far to resign from the office.

Born in UsefulNotes/{{California}}, Nixon was raised in the Quaker faith (aka the pacifistic, egalitarian Society of Friends) and came from a very poor childhood. His father, a gas station attendant, barely scraped enough to support his family. He was named after RichardTheLionheart, interestingly. He met his future wife, Pat, in 1938, and they married two years later. After serving as a naval commander during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Nixon pursued a political career. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946, representing his home state, and was elected to the Senate in 1950. During his congressional years, he gained nationwide attention as a [[RedScare leading anti-communist]], criticizing the UsefulNotes/HarryTruman administration for being too "soft" on communism. In 1952, he ran on UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower's presidential ticket and was elected as Vice President in a landslide. Just a few months before election day, a scandal erupted when it leaked to the press that Nixon was given funds from political backers, which is illegal. Nixon went on air to defend himself, claiming that all he received was a pet dog for his little daughter. The dog was named Checkers by the Nixons, and the "Checkers speech" quickly turned public opinion around in Nixon's favor. (Fun fact, the 60 million people who watched his speech was the largest television audience up to that point in history.) It's worth mentioning that Nixon's infamous nickname, "Tricky Dicky," was already attached to his name long before he was President. Nixon played a very active role during his eight years as Eisenhower's VP, and served as acting President when Eisenhower was in the hospital for a few weeks because of a heart attack. Eisenhower actually wanted to place Nixon in his Cabinet for his second term and have someone else serve as Vice President, but Nixon persuaded him to change his mind.

In 1960, Nixon ran as the Republican presidential nominee, up against Democrat UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. He narrowly lost that election, with people usually calling the definitive factor the televised debates between the two nominees. The first televised presidential debates, they are most well-known for the handsome Kennedy's suave, TV-friendly appearance and demeanor and the nervous, sweaty, and tired Nixon looking bad in comparison. While Nixon's actual performance was good (the majority of people who just listened to the debates on the radio thought Nixon won), this was enough to swing just enough votes to Kennedy.[[note]]That and because the JFK campaign probably used some questionable methods of winning votes in some swing districts. Nixon himself felt another reason he lost was that the Federal Reserve had tinkered with the money supply to reduce growth in the months before the election, which later led him to try to dominate his Fed Chairman William F. Burns. This just ended up making Dick even more enemies, [[TheDogBitesBack just in time]] for Watergate.[[/note]] Nixon was also recovering from a cold at the time, and he refused to wear TV make-up, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain claiming it was for gays]]. After that, Nixon would always wear [[UncannyValleyMakeup a thick mask of makeup]] whenever he went on TV. He then tried to run for his state's governorship in 1962, but lost, leading him to declare "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." HilariousInHindsight, indeed.

Then UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson happened. While the Democrats won a landslide in the 1964 elections, discontent at home and general unease over the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar caused a massive backlash. Sensing an opportunity, Nixon decided to run for President again. Nixon, one of the few Republicans not associated with the humiliating defeat of 1964, easily won his party's ticket.[[note]]Although he did notably receive some competition from Nelson Rockefeller and a then-political novice UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan.[[/note]]

The 1968 election was one of the most unusual in American history. LBJ announced in early 1968 that he wasn't going to seek the Democratic nomination, which led to many party leaders scrambling to win the open ticket. When it looked like UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy, John's brother, was going to win, he was shot and killed. At the Democratic convention in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, Johnson's own VP, UsefulNotes/HubertHumphrey, finally won the ticket. However, anti-war protestors held a massive demonstration outside the building that turned into a violent clash when Chicago's mayor ordered the police to break it up. Broadcast live on television, the images gave the appearance that the Democrats had quite literally lost control and were unable to control the fallout of the Vietnam War. Also fracturing the Democrats was the issue of civil rights. Previously, the Democrats' main power base was the DeepSouth, but after Johnson passed his [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights bills]], Southern whites grew uneasy with their party. Nixon tapped into their feelings and drew them into the Republican Party, promising them he would support vague things like "states' rights" which were code for "no more federal help for blacks." This was the start of the Republican's "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy Southern Strategy]]," where the Southern states became a dead lock for them and they could concentrate on winning others to gain a victory in presidential elections. This directly led to the Republicans becoming the majority party in the country.[[note]]In hindsight, this may have only helped the Republicans temporarily. UsefulNotes/BarackObama won both the 2008 and 2012 elections despite losing almost every Southern state, which may signify that the Republicans have become a "Southernized" party incapable of winning the rest of the country. Time will tell.[[/note]] Nixon also appealed to what he deemed the "SilentMajority" - the majority of Americans who were not protesting on the streets or attacking long-held social values. While the popular vote that year was close (Nixon won 43.4%, Humphrey won 42.7%, and infamous racist George Wallace won 13.5% by campaigning as a third party nominee in the South), Nixon won a landslide in the Electoral College. His running mate was Spiro Agnew, an outspoken and boorish populist politician who served as Nixon's [[PsychoSidekick attack dog]].

Vietnam was the main issue of the day when Nixon entered office, with American troops dying there at the rate of 300 a week.[[note]]It was later revealed that Nixon sent some of his campaigners over there to convince the North Vietnamese not to accept any peace offers from the Johnson administration, which technically means [[{{Foreshadowing}} he sabotaged the election to win]][[/note]] In 1969, nearly two million people marched in cities across the country demanding an end to the war. Nixon promised to "Vietnamize" the war, in which responsibility was slowly shifted into the hands of the South Vietnamese and Americans troops were simultaneously removed. Nixon didn't really want to withdraw from Vietnam, thinking that it would make America look weak and knowing the South Vietnam could not defend itself for long, but he accepted that the war was a losing cause and National Security Adviser (and later Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger, began to conduct secret talks with North Vietnam to end the war. More importantly, he also ordered the secret bombing of Laos and Cambodia (and, later, an invasion of the latter) in an attempt to cut off supplies for the North Vietnamese; this is usually considered to have helped a cruel dictator named Pol Pot gain power in Cambodia, and he would [[NiceJobBreakingItHero go on to kill a quarter of his country's population in less than four years]]. These events eventually leaked to the public, along with the "Pentagon Papers", which proved that for years military leaders had known the war was practically an un-winnable quagmire, but had continually lied about this knowledge to the press and public. Other war-related controversies included the My Lai massacre and the Kent State shooting. As an outraged public became even more against the war, Nixon continued to send troops home. While he continued bombing North Vietnam (notably a massive bombing campaign when they North Vietnamese attacked just before the 1972 elections), peace talks between both halves of Vietnam in Paris permitted a cease-fire to be negotiated. By 1973, all American ground troops were withdrawn and both sides began to exchange [=POW=]s. Two years later, when he was out of office, South Vietnam fell to Northern invaders. This feeling that the President had gained too much control over foreign affairs let to Congress passing the War Powers Resolution over Nixon's veto, which mandated that the President must report to Congress within 48 hours of committing troops abroad and that he must send them back in 60 days time.

He was helped tremendously by his détente policies with RedChina and the Soviet Union. In order to successfully remove Americans troops without (immediately) losing South Vietnam, he tried to make both communist powers promise to reign in North Vietnam. He also wished to play them against each other, since relations between the two had been deteriorating for some time now. In 1972, Nixon announced that he and Kissinger were going to travel to China to visit MaoZedong. This ''shocked'' the public, since not only did the United States not have diplomatic relations with mainland China (only Taiwan, aka the Republic of China), but Nixon was the President making the visit. Any politician with fewer anti-communist credentials making the trip would have been blasted by the media as a secret communist sympathizer; since it was Nixon, no one could make these claims. This led to the proverb "Only Nixon could go to China." It paved the way for formal relations being established between the two in 1979. Brilliantly arousing Soviet suspicions with this trip, Nixon then traveled to Moscow, becoming the first American President to visit ''that'' country as well since the start of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar (UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt visited in 1945 to plan post-WWII conditions). He negotiated several deals with the Soviets, which can be summed up as "both of us stop producing certain types of missiles, and in return we'll ship to you nearly a billion dollars of wheat so your people won't starve." While these Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) didn't really end the Cold War, it was the beginning of détente, which proved to be the rule of the day for diplomatic relations before it started to end in the late 70s, most due to the SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan. Nixon also sent the CIA to help UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet lead a coup in Chile in 1973.

As far as domestic issues go, the Nixon presidency is usually associated with the start of the "stagflation" of the 1970's, where the economy simultaneously stopped growing ''and'' prices kept rising. When he entered office, unemployment was very low, but inflation was steadily rising. Starting in 1970, though, a recession began and the post-war economic boom came to and end. The main causes for this economic downturn can be summed up as followed: Johnson spent so much on both Vietnam and his domestic programs and it caused federal deficits to rise significantly; more minorities, young people, and women were entering the workforce, and the job training for those groups wasn't as good as it was for the traditional workforce of adult white males; the Baby Boomers began to enter the workforce, and way more people than usual were looking for jobs; finally, American factories and companies did not update equipment for much of the 1950's and 60's, while foreign competitors like Germany and Japan were using more advanced technology. His deals with the USSR also led to food prices at home increasing. To combat the inflation crisis, Nixon first took the dollar off the gold standard in 1971 (an event often called the "Nixon Shock"), which temporarily made inflation a bit worse, but this made it easier for the dollar to float against foreign currencies. He also announced in 1972 a temporary 90-day price freeze; this was very unpopular at home, but businesses reluctantly followed along.[[note]]This was just a policy to temporarily stop inflation in time for his reelection; he knew it was only going to work for a short time.[[/note]] By the end of 1972 a turnaround was beginning. Then, in 1973, the oil-producing countries of the Arab world raised their oil prices for the United States by '''400 percent''' in retaliation for America sending aid to Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Until negotiations resulted in an end to the oil embargo the next year, Americans had to lower temperatures in their house, drive at slower speeds, and deal with long lines at the gas pumps, which were eventually rationed. This caused wild inflation for the rest of the decade, a stock market crash which saw the Dow Jones decrease by about 45% in just over a year, and another recession in mid-1974. The United States, realizing that other countries could hurt the economy by controlling the oil supply, began to search for alternative energy sources, a search which continues to this day. The recessions also helped fuel the growing crime wave which started in the 1960's, though they still weren't anywhere near their ludicrous highs during the 80's and early 90's.

He had a lot of other notable domestic policies, too. Many people today would be surprised to see that a Republican would pass so many bills which are, to modern sensibilities, liberal; domestic spending surpassed defense spending for the first time since the start of the Cold War. Noam Chomsky has gone so far as to call Nixon the last true liberal President. While this is partially because moderate-at-heart Nixon did have some liberal sympathies, it was also because Democrats controlled Congress for most of his presidency. He expanded and increased spending for the Great Society programs created under Johnson, increased Social Security payments, and created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to provide benefits for the elderly, blind, and handicapped. After Rachel Carson's book ''Literature/SilentSpring'' started the modern environmental movement, Nixon supported environmental initiatives, created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and passed the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was signed by Nixon, mandating safe working conditions for factories, construction, and other potentially dangerous jobs. {{UsefulNotes/Amtrak}} was also founded during his presidency. While he did cozy up to segregationists for votes, Nixon expanded "affirmative action" to make companies create goals and timetables for hiring acceptable numbers of minorities. More schools were desegregated under Nixon than under any previous President, even though he actually opposed bussing children to separate school districts to desegregate schools. The Native American policies were drastically reformed under Nixon, with the unfortunate termination policy (basically, forced assimilation) put to an end, and he helped save many reservations. Nixon also supported the failed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that feminists supported. He created the Drug Enforcement Administration and started the War on Drugs, and also called for more research for cancer and sickle cell disease, declaring a War on Cancer. Nixon also wanted to reform health care and extend it to every American; he won the latter but couldn't manage the former when Democrats, led by Ted Kennedy, opposed his proposals. Ted later called it the greatest mistake of his career. Ironically, Republican Nixon's proposals were actually more liberal than the universal health care reforms finally passed under Democrat UsefulNotes/BarackObama. Nixon's reforms are a bit divisive, some maintaining that it made health care in America better performing, while others say he simply made it more expensive and more difficult for poor people to buy good health care. Still, his conservative principals shined every now and then; he usually tried to shift more power for these programs to the states, and he nominated the moderate Warren E. Burger to the Supreme Court after the very liberal Earl Warren retired. The Apollo moon landing happened months into his presidency, but he would go on to cut spending for UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} because he thought space exploration was too costly.

Nixon went into the election of 1972 with great odds. With the end of Vietnam in sight, landmark successes with China and the USSR, the economy seemingly under control, domestic program expansions, and a general appearance of being a good political moderator, Nixon was pretty popular, and his approval ratings in the months before the election were around 60%. However, remembering how close the elections of 1960 and 68 were, a paranoid Nixon was not willing to take any chances. He created two groups to help him win: The first, the "White House plumbers," which secretly went after possible government leaks to prevent future scandals, and the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, his fundraising campaign. While the actual initials for that group were "CRP," people today widely remember it as [[FunWithAcronyms CREEP]]. Both groups used "dirty tricks" to help Nixon win the election. Notably, they sabotaged the campaigns of Democrats trying to win their party's ticket; the Nixon staff wanted George [=McGovern=], who they perceived as the weakest candidate, to win, and their efforts succeeded. They continued to interfere with his campaign for the rest of the election season. It also helped that [=McGovern=]'s original running mate, Thomas Eagleton, was revealed to have undergone psychiatric care; he had to be replaced. Nixon won the election by a landslide, with over 60% of the popular vote and every state except Massachusetts voting for him. Worth mentioning, this was the first election after the passage of the 26th amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. The argument was that if you are old enough to fight for your country, you're old enough to vote. Most people in that age group actually stayed home. It also helped that Wallace, who planned on running again that year, was shot, paralyzing him from the waist down. With him gone, most of the hardcore segregationists in the South voted for Nixon, and they stayed in the Republican Party. Early into his second term, Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign when it was revealed that he evaded paying taxes. Nixon then submitted the House Minority Leader, UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, to be Vice President for the remainder of his second term.

All of this probably would have not been known until after his presidency if it wasn't for one thing. On June 17, 1972, five members of CREEP were caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., where the Democratic National Committee was headquartered. They were there in order to bug the rooms with wires so that they could eavesdrop on Democrat leaders. At the time, most people just thought Nixon had nothing to do with it, if his landslide election is any indication, and that it was just his campaign staff getting out of control. In fact, they were right. Nixon actually didn't know about this (emphasis, ''this'') break-in until ''after'' it happened. However, [[MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot worried that the full-extent of his illegal activities would be known]], Nixon tried to cover up information about the break-in. He also went before the public and assured them that he had no knowledge of the attempted sabotage of the Democrat campaign. The resulting scandal, forever known as the Watergate scandal, ended up being his undoing. Several investigations began, ranging from a congressional committee chaired by Sam Ervin, to the FBI, to the [[IntrepidReporter press]], notably the ''Washington Post''. Two reporters from the ''Post'', Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, were told by a mysterious insider informant codenamed "Deep Throat" (years later revealed to be Associate Director of the FBI Mark Felt) that the burglars had received money from the Nixon campaign and that government officials were involved. As investigations went deeper and deeper, it became clear that high-ranking government officials were involved in this and many other scandals. Notably, when Nixon nominated L. Patrick Gray as Director of the FBI, Gray eventually made it clear during his Senate hearings that the FBI was indeed involved in a cover-up, that evidence had been destroyed, and that presidential aides participated in the break-in. They not only knew what was going on, but it was clear that they were active participants. [[CaptainObvious Unsurprisingly]], he was not confirmed as director by the Senate. At this point, the public began to realize that there was way more to this than initially apparent. Nixon's approval ratings began to plummet, standing at 66% during his second inauguration and falling below 30% approval by the end of the year.

Then things got worse for Nixon for the rest of 1973. On April 30, the two heads of the "plumbers," Chief of Staff H. R. "Bob" Haldeman and White House Counsel John Erlichman, resigned, Attorney General Richard Kleindienst quit, and White House Counsel John Dean was fired. On July 16, Alexander Butterfield, a White House aide, revealed that Nixon was secretly taping conversations in the Oval Office as well as his telephone calls.[[note]]Ironically, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Nixon himself had ordered the taping and documenting of all his conversations]] in order to preemptively prevent his enemies from making up lies about the things he said.[[/note]] Both the Senate committee and Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox subpoenaed the tapes, but Nixon refused to release them, citing "executive privilege." Nixon wished to fire Cox, but only the head of the Department of Justice could do that. On October 20, Nixon asked his new Attorney General to fire Cox; when he refused, Nixon demanded his resignation. When the Deputy Attorney General also refused, Nixon forced him to resign as well. The third-highest-ranking official, Assistant Attorney General Robert Bork, then reluctantly fired Cox. This shocking turn of events, known as the "Saturday Night Massacre," was widely seen by the general public as proof that Nixon had to be guilty. Nixon tried to prove his innocence by releasing some minor tapes that didn't really reveal much, but the Senate committee demanded all of the tapes. In November, it was revealed that one tape contained nothing less than a 18-½-minute gap, clearly erased. On November 17, Nixon infamously declared during a press conference "People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, [[BlatantLies I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.]]" Those four words, "I'm not a crook," are forever associated with Nixon.

After more subpoenas from the Senate committee, on April 29, 1974, Nixon reluctantly disclosed more than 1,200 pages of transcripts of the tapes. It was widely acknowledged that these transcripts left out important information, and they strongly suggested that he was involved. Humorously, they were also edited to replace any use of profanity by the President with "[EXPLETIVE DELETED]" - White House protesters then held up signs saying "Impeach the [EXPLETIVE DELETED]." On May 9, the House Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings, voting on July 27 to impeach him for obstruction of justice. On July 24, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in ''United States v. Nixon'' that Nixon must hand over the unedited tapes. After the tapes were reviewed, it was released to the public on August 5 that one of the tapes from just days after the break-in showed that he was told about the break-in and that he ordered the FBI to coverup important information. With what was called the "Smoking Gun Tape" proving his guilt, pretty much everyone agreed that Nixon was guilty and should be removed from office. Surprisingly, Nixon still thought he could win this battle and told his Cabinet the next day that he wouldn't resign. However, important Republican leaders (including Barry Goldwater and UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush) then met with Nixon and told him that he no longer had enough votes in Congress to prevent his impeachment and/or removal and that, for the sake of the party, it was best that he resign rather than drag this out any further. On August 8, he went on television and announced to the American people that he was going to resign at noon tomorrow. UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, declaring that "our long national nightmare is over," was now President, the first time someone not on the presidential ballot was in charge of the country. The next day, as he prepared to fly back to California, he turned to the cameramen, smiled, and made V signs with both his hands, which has been ''widely'' parodied ever since. On September 8, Ford announced a sweeping pardon of Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while President.[[note]]It's usually accepted that this was part of a deal between Nixon and the party leaders - he resigns, and Ford pardons him. This way, Nixon doesn't go to jail. Either way, it is still divisive as to whether Ford was right to have done this. They say that Nixon was out of office now, so there wasn't really a point in impeaching him, and all it would have done was further divide the country. Others, however, argue that it led to an increased willingness of future Presidents to break the law.[[/note]]

It is widely accepted that Nixon was at least partially paranoid. While a skilled politician and a pragmatic leader, he was so worried about his legacy that he was willing to do almost anything he thought would help him. He was also worried that just about everyone was somehow out to get him. This is most apparent with his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon%27s_Enemies_List Enemies List]], a (eventually very lengthy) list of public figures who Nixon considered to be his enemies and who were, therefore, subjected to the 'ratfucking' techniques of his operatives. It included people from a wide range of areas, such as politics, organized labor, the media, entertainment, business and academia. Some particular notable people on the list included Ted Kennedy, Creator/JaneFonda, Music/JohnLennon and the entirety of the ''New York Times'' and the ''Washington Post''. Creator/PaulNewman considered his inclusion to be a [[InsultBackfire triumphant achievement]], while Creator/HunterSThompson reportedly felt [[AwardSnub disappointed]] to not be on it. Subsequent tapes have also revealed that Nixon was a bit of an [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain anti-Semite]], with Billy Graham usually agreeing with him about how the Jews controlled the media. Due to the Watergate scandal, Nixon is widely considered to be an AcceptableTarget, and media portrayals of him will usually consider him to be a DesignatedEvil. At best, he'll be portrayed as a JerkassWoobie. It doesn't help that many of his sayings and actions are so very easily parodied. It also didn't help that, in 1977, Nixon stated "If the President does it, that means it is not illegal." in a series of interviews with David Frost where he partially confessed to his crimes. The NixonMask is just one notable example of how his image has been dragged through the mud ever since he left office. Also, thanks to Watergate, you will see [[{{Scandalgate}} every scandal label "Something"-gate by the press]]. Oh, and during Watergate, it was revealed that Nixon [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking did not pay all of his taxes while he was in the White House]].[[note]]A rather more serious offense than the ArsonMurderAndJaywalking tag would lead one to believe, as income tax evasion for a public official is given '''much''' more scrutiny by the IRS.[[/note]] Given his obsession with his legacy, it is rather ironic that Nixon may have been the one politician closest to a ZeroPercentApprovalRating in history: a Survey by Gallup in early August 1974 asked "Did you vote for Richard Nixon in 1972?" Recall he won in a huge landslide, mentioned above. However, not a single respondent admitted to voting for him. [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain An actual 0% survey response.]]

Nixon spent the rest of his years with speaking engagements, writing books, and traveling around the world to meet foreign leaders. In fact, just months after he resigned, he was already telling people around him that he planned to make a political comeback. He gained some respect as [[TheAtoner an elder statesman]], traveling around the world and meeting with foreign dignitaries at the request of whoever was the incumbent President. Initially, many foreign politicians from allied countries refused to meet with him (UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, in her time before becoming Prime Minister, being an exception), but eventually people warmed up to him. In 1986, he visited the Soviet Union again and gave UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan advice on how to get along with UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev; that year, a Gallup poll showed that Nixon was one of the ten most admired men in the world. He outlived his wife Pat by less than a year, dying on April 22, 1994. He didn't have a state funeral (at his own request, actually), but UsefulNotes/BillClinton and all of the former Presidents attended the funeral. You'd probably be surprised to hear that a lot of people still admire Nixon, but these people are clearly in the minority. Polls usually show that over 60% of the American public considers him to be a bad President, higher than those of any other former President.

Nixon has long been a subject of particular interest for presidential historians, and serves as the canonical example of a deeply conflicted leader who "could be considered ''both'' a failure ''and'' great or near great" (Alan Brinkley). Thanks to his particular brand of paranoid neuroses (his tapes include lengthy rants about people -- mainly part of the 'liberal east-coast establishment' -- plotting against him), he's also been quite the fertile figure of study for psychologists. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, he famously added a bowling alley to the White House]].

* The play (and subsequent film) ''FrostNixon'' dramatize the disgraced former President's 1977 television interviews with David Frost. Michael Sheen portrayed Frost and Frank Langella Nixon in both stage and screen productions. (And no, you are not immature for [[IThoughtItMeant thinking the play was about]] [[SlashFic something else]].)

He was helped tremendously by his détente policies with RedChina and the Soviet Union. In order to successfully remove Americans troops without (immediately) losing South Vietnam, he tried to make both communist powers promise to reign in North Vietnam. He also wished to play them against each other, since relations between the two had been deteriorating for some time now. In 1972, Nixon announced that he and Kissinger were going to travel to China to visit MaoZedong. This ''shocked'' the public, since not only did the United States not have diplomatic relations with mainland China (only Taiwan, aka the Republic of China), but Nixon was the President making the visit. Any politician with fewer anti-communist credentials making the trip would have been blasted by the media as a secret communist sympathizer; since it was Nixon, no one could make these claims. This led to the proverb "Only Nixon could go to China." It paved the way for formal relations being established between the two in 1979. Brilliantly arousing Soviet suspicions with this trip, Nixon then traveled to Moscow, becoming the first American President to visit ''that'' country as well since the start of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar (UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt visited in 1945 to plan post-WWII conditions). He negotiated several deals with the Soviets, which can be summed up as "both of us stop producing certain types of missiles, and in return we'll ship to you nearly a billion dollars of wheat so your people won't starve." While these Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) didn't really end the Cold War, they were the first step in the eventual end to both it and the arms race. For the rest of the 1970's, détente was the rule of the day when it came to diplomatic relations. Nixon also sent the CIA to help UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet lead a coup in Chile in 1973.

Nixon went into the election of 1972 with great odds. With the end of Vietnam in sight, landmark successes with China and the USSR, the economy seemingly under control, domestic program expansions, and a general appearance of being a good political moderator, Nixon was pretty popular, and his approval ratings in the months before the election were around 60%. However, remembering how close the elections of 1960 and 68 were, a paranoid Nixon was not willing to take any chances. He created two groups to help him win: The first, the "White House plumbers," which secretly went after possible government leaks to prevent future scandals, and the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, his fundraising campaign. While the actual initials for that group were "CRP," people today widely remember it as [[FunWithAcronyms CREEP]]. Both groups used "dirty tricks" to help Nixon win the election. Notably, they sabotaged the campaigns of Democrats trying to win their party's ticket; the Nixon staff wanted George [=McGovern=], who they perceived as the weakest candidate, to win, and their efforts succeeded. They continued to interfere with his campaign for the rest of the election season. It also helped that [=McGovern=]'s original running mate, Thomas Eagleton, was revealed to have undergone psychiatric care; he had to be replaced. Nixon won the election by a landslide, with over 60% of the popular vote and every state except Massachusetts voting for him. Worth mentioning, this was the first election after the passage of the 26th amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. The argument was that if you are old enough to fight for your country, you're old enough to vote. Most people in that age group actually stayed home. It also helped that Wallace, who planned on running again that year, was shot, paralyzing him from the waste down. With him gone, most of the hardcore segregationists in the South voted for Nixon, and they stayed in the Republican Party. Early into his second term, Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign when it was revealed that he evaded paying taxes. Nixon then submitted the House Minority Leader, UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, to be Vice President for the remainder of his second term.

'''Richard Milhous Nixon''' (1913-1994) was the 37th President ([[TheSeventies 1969-1974]]). A Republican, he served between UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and UsefulNotes/GeraldFord. Probably the least popular President among the general public, he is [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] for his role in the Watergate scandal which led to his resignation. Nixon remains the only President so far to resign from the office.

-->--To a portrait of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, ''Film/{{Nixon}}''

* He is seen briefly in the film ''CSAConfederateStatesOfAmerica''. Even if the film's AlternateHistory, he still loses presidency to UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. Whether or not he wins it later is never said.

* Nixon is mentioned several times in ''AllInTheFamily'', where his policies are matters of debate between Archie and Mike. In the episode "Writing the President", after Archie learns that Mike wrote a critical letter to him, he writes a praising letter, and [[ImagineSpot imagines]] Nixon reading his letter out on national television.

* The ManicStreetPreachers song "The Love of Richard Nixon" takes a very sympathetic look at Nixon's life and career, pointing out triumphs of his presidency, and moaning about "death without assassination".

* He's mentioned in ''{{Grease}}'' (set in the '50s); when the principal makes a speech, she says: "among you young men, there may be a Joe [=DiMaggio=], a President Eisenhower, or even a Vice-President Nixon", creating an intentional example of HilariousInHindsight.

* Despite being a pot-smoking ex-hippie, [[TheBigLebowski Jeffrey Lebowski]] aka "The Dude" has a framed photo of Nixon on his wall. Nixon, like the Dude, was an avid bowler.

It is widely accepted that Nixon was at least partially paranoid. While a skilled politician and a pragmatic leader, he was so worried about his legacy that he was willing to do almost anything he thought would help him. He was also worried that just about everyone was somehow out to get him. This is most apparent with his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon%27s_Enemies_List Enemies List]], a (eventually very lengthy) list of public figures who Nixon considered to be his enemies and who were, therefore, subjected to the 'ratfucking' techniques of his operatives. It included people from a wide range of areas, such as politics, organized labor, the media, entertainment, business and academia. Some particular notable people on the list included Ted Kennedy, Creator/JaneFonda, Music/JohnLennon and the entirety of the ''New York Times'' and the ''Washington Post''. Creator/PaulNewman considered his inclusion to be a [[InsultBackfire triumphant achievement]], while Creator/HunterSThompson reportedly felt [[AwardSnub disappointed]] to not be on it. Subsequent tapes have also revealed that Nixon was a bit of an [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain anti-Semite]], with Billy Graham usually agreeing with him about how the Jews controlled the media. Due to the Watergate scandal, Nixon is widely considered to be an AcceptableTarget, and media portrayals of him will usually consider him to be a DesignatedEvil. At best, he'll be portrayed as a JerkassWoobie. It doesn't help that many of his sayings and actions are so very easily parodied. It also didn't help that, in 1977, Nixon stated "If the President does it, that means it is not illegal." in a series of interviews with David Frost where he partially confessed to his crimes. The NixonMask is just one notable example of how his image has been dragged through the mud ever since he left office. Also, thanks to Watergate, you will see [[{{Scandalgate}} every scandal label "Something"-gate by the press]]. Oh, and during Watergate, it was revealed that Nixon [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking did not pay all of his taxes while he was in the White House]].[[note]]A rather more serious offense than the ArsonMurderAndJaywalking tag would lead one to believe, as income tax evasion for a public official is given '''much''' more scrutiny by the IRS.[[/note]] Given his obsession with his legacy, it is rather ironic that Nixon may have been the one politician closest to a ZeroPercentApprovalRating in history: a Survey by Gallup in early August 1974 asked "Did you vote for Richard Nixon in 1972?" Recall he won in a huge landslide, mentioned above. However, not a single respondent admitted to voting for him. An actual 0% survey response.

* Nixon appears in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' two-parter "The Impossible Astronaut" / "Day of the Moon" as a hard, paranoid man being followed by the voice of a CreepyChild. He enlists the Doctor and Canton to help him. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation He comes off as a very charming man]] [[WeirdAlEffect which is weird compared to so many other media that vilify him.]] Of course, it happened early in his presidency, and it turns out that some of his habits -- paranoia and taping everything he did -- may have been [[ProperlyParanoid prompted or encouraged by their encounter]].

->''"[The American] people look at [[JohnFKennedy you]] and they see who they want to be. [[{{Eagleland}} They look at me and they see what they are.]]"''
-->--To a portrait of JohnFKennedy, ''Film/{{Nixon}}''

'''Richard Milhous Nixon''' (1913-1994) was the 37th President ([[TheSeventies 1969-1974]]). A Republican, he served between UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and GeraldFord. Probably the least popular President among the general public, he is [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] for his role in the Watergate scandal which led to his resignation. Nixon remains the only President so far to resign from the office.

Then UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson happened. While the Democrats won a landslide in the 1964 elections, discontent at home and general unease over the VietnamWar caused a massive backlash. Sensing an opportunity, Nixon decided to run for President again. Nixon, one of the few Republicans not associated with the humiliating defeat of 1964, easily won his party's ticket.[[note]]Although he did notably receive some competition from Nelson Rockefeller and a then-political novice RonaldReagan.[[/note]]

He was helped tremendously by his détente policies with RedChina and the Soviet Union. In order to successfully remove Americans troops without (immediately) losing South Vietnam, he tried to make both communist powers promise to reign in North Vietnam. He also wished to play them against each other, since relations between the two had been deteriorating for some time now. In 1972, Nixon announced that he and Kissinger were going to travel to China to visit MaoZedong. This ''shocked'' the public, since not only did the United States not have diplomatic relations with mainland China (only Taiwan, aka the Republic of China), but Nixon was the President making the visit. Any politician with fewer anti-communist credentials making the trip would have been blasted by the media as a secret communist sympathizer; since it was Nixon, no one could make these claims. This led to the proverb "Only Nixon could go to China." It paved the way for formal relations being established between the two in 1979. Brilliantly arousing Soviet suspicions with this trip, Nixon then traveled to Moscow, becoming the first American President to visit ''that'' country as well since the start of the ColdWar (FranklinDRoosevelt visited in 1945 to plan post-WWII conditions). He negotiated several deals with the Soviets, which can be summed up as "both of us stop producing certain types of missiles, and in return we'll ship to you nearly a billion dollars of wheat so your people won't starve." While these Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) didn't really end the Cold War, they were the first step in the eventual end to both it and the arms race. For the rest of the 1970's, détente was the rule of the day when it came to diplomatic relations. Nixon also sent the CIA to help AugustoPinochet lead a coup in Chile in 1973.

He had a lot of other notable domestic policies, too. Many people today would be surprised to see that a Republican would pass so many bills which are, to modern sensibilities, liberal; domestic spending surpassed defense spending for the first time since the start of the Cold War. Noam Chomsky has gone so far as to call Nixon the last true liberal President. While this is partially because moderate-at-heart Nixon did have some liberal sympathies, it was also because Democrats controlled Congress for most of his presidency. He expanded and increased spending for the Great Society programs created under Johnson, increased Social Security payments, and created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to provide benefits for the elderly, blind, and handicapped. After Rachel Carson's book ''Literature/SilentSpring'' started the modern environmental movement, Nixon supported environmental initiatives, created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and passed the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was signed by Nixon, mandating safe working conditions for factories, construction, and other potentially dangerous jobs. {{UsefulNotes/Amtrak}} was also founded during his presidency. While he did cozy up to segregationists for votes, Nixon expanded "affirmative action" to make companies create goals and timetables for hiring acceptable numbers of minorities. More schools were desegregated under Nixon than under any previous President, even though he actually opposed busing children to separate school districts to desegregate schools. The Native American policies were drastically reformed under Nixon, with the unfortunate termination policy (basically, forced assimilation) put to an end, and he helped save many reservations. Nixon also supported the failed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that feminists supported. He created the Drug Enforcement Administration and started the War on Drugs, and also called for more research for cancer and sickle cell disease, declaring a War on Cancer. Nixon also wanted to reform health care and extend it to every American; he won the latter but couldn't manage the former when Democrats, led by Ted Kennedy, opposed his proposals. Ted later called it the greatest mistake of his career. Ironically, Republican Nixon's proposals were actually more liberal than the universal health care reforms finally passed under Democrat BarackObama. Nixon's reforms are a bit divisive, some maintaining that it made health care in America better performing, while others say he simply made it more expensive and more difficult for poor people to buy good health care. Still, his conservative principals shined every now and then; he usually tried to shift more power for these programs to the states, and he nominated the moderate Warren E. Burger to the Supreme Court after the very liberal Earl Warren retired. The Apollo moon landing happened months into his presidency, but he would go on to cut spending for UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} because he thought space exploration was too costly.

Nixon went into the election of 1972 with great odds. With the end of Vietnam in sight, landmark successes with China and the USSR, the economy seemingly under control, domestic program expansions, and a general appearance of being a good political moderator, Nixon was pretty popular, and his approval ratings in the months before the election were around 60%. However, remembering how close the elections of 1960 and 68 were, a paranoid Nixon was not willing to take any chances. He created two groups to help him win: The first, the "White House plumbers," which secretly went after possible government leaks to prevent future scandals, and the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, his fundraising campaign. While the actual initials for that group were "CRP," people today widely remember it as [[FunWithAcronyms CREEP]]. Both groups used "dirty tricks" to help Nixon win the election. Notably, they sabotaged the campaigns of Democrats trying to win their party's ticket; the Nixon staff wanted George [=McGovern=], who they perceived as the weakest candidate, to win, and their efforts succeeded. They continued to interfere with his campaign for the rest of the election season. It also helped that [=McGovern=]'s original running mate, Thomas Eagleton, was revealed to have undergone psychiatric care; he had to be replaced. Nixon won the election by a landslide, with over 60% of the popular vote and every state except Massachusetts voting for him. Worth mentioning, this was the first election after the passage of the 26th amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. The argument was that if you are old enough to fight for your country, you're old enough to vote. Most people in that age group actually stayed home. It also helped that Wallace, who planned on running again that year, was shot, paralyzing him from the waste down. With him gone, most of the hardcore segregationists in the South voted for Nixon, and they stayed in the Republican Party. Early into his second term, Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign when it was revealed that he evaded paying taxes. Nixon then submitted the House Minority Leader, GeraldFord, to be Vice President for the remainder of his second term.

After more subpoenas from the Senate committee, on April 29, 1974, Nixon reluctantly disclosed more than 1,200 pages of transcripts of the tapes. It was widely acknowledged that these transcripts left out important information, and they strongly suggested that he was involved. Humorously, they were also edited to replace any use of profanity by the President with "[EXPLETIVE DELETED]" - White House protesters then held up signs saying "Impeach the [EXPLETIVE DELETED]." On May 9, the House Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings, voting on July 27 to impeach him for obstruction of justice. On July 24, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in ''United States v. Nixon'' that Nixon must hand over the unedited tapes. After the tapes were reviewed, it was released to the public on August 5 that one of the tapes from just days after the break-in showed that he was told about the break-in and that he ordered the FBI to coverup important information. With what was called the "Smoking Gun Tape" proving his guilt, pretty much everyone agreed that Nixon was guilty and should be removed from office. Surprisingly, Nixon still thought he could win this battle and told his Cabinet the next day that he wouldn't resign. However, important Republican leaders (including Barry Goldwater and GeorgeHWBush) then met with Nixon and told him that he no longer had enough votes in Congress to prevent his impeachment and/or removal and that, for the sake of the party, it was best that he resign rather than drag this out any further. On August 8, he went on television and announced to the American people that he was going to resign at noon tomorrow. GeraldFord, declaring that "our long national nightmare is over," was now President, the first time someone not on the presidential ballot was in charge of the country. The next day, as he prepared to fly back to California, he turned to the cameramen, smiled, and made V signs with both his hands, which has been ''widely'' parodied ever since. On September 8, Ford announced a sweeping pardon of Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while President.[[note]]It's usually accepted that this was part of a deal between Nixon and the party leaders - he resigns, and Ford pardons him. This way, Nixon doesn't go to jail. Either way, it is still divisive as to whether Ford was right to have done this. They say that Nixon was out of office now, so there wasn't really a point in impeaching him, and all it would have done was further divide the country. Others, however, argue that it led to an increased willingness of future Presidents to break the law.[[/note]]

Nixon spent the rest of his years with speaking engagements, writing books, and traveling around the world to meet foreign leaders. In fact, just months after he resigned, he was already telling people around him that he planned to make a political comeback. He gained some respect as [[TheAtoner an elder statesman]], traveling around the world and meeting with foreign dignitaries at the request of whoever was the incumbent President. Initially, many foreign politicians from allied countries refused to meet with him (MargaretThatcher, in her time before becoming Prime Minister, being an exception), but eventually people warmed up to him. In 1986, he visited the Soviet Union again and gave RonaldReagan advice on how to get along with MikhailGorbachev; that year, a Gallup poll showed that Nixon was one of the ten most admired men in the world. He outlived his wife Pat by less than a year, dying on April 22, 1994. He didn't have a state funeral (at his own request, actually), but BillClinton and all of the former Presidents attended the funeral. You'd probably be surprised to hear that a lot of people still admire Nixon, but these people are clearly in the minority. Polls usually show that over 60% of the American public considers him to be a bad President, higher than those of any other former President.

* Nixon is the last real life president known to have existed in ''TheWestWing'' universe.
* Played by AnthonyHopkins in ''{{Nixon}}'' (1995), from [[Creator/{{OliverStone}} Oliver Stone]]. [[SilenceOfTheLambs Which is saying something]].

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part II'', a year-old newspaper from 1985-A says Nixon has served four terms and plans to end TheVietnamWar "by 1985".

* 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 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:[[SociopathicHero the Comedian]] assassinates Woodward and Bernstein.]]
* The 1999 movie ''{{Dick}}'' had a humorous, almost ''Forrest Gump''-like (see above) take on Nixon's administration. KirstenDunst and [[DawsonsCreek Michelle]] [[BrokebackMountain Williams]] played two ditzy hippie girls who ended up influencing governmental policy and [[HistoryMarchesOn becoming Deep Throat]] (named after one of the girls' brother's favorite movie).

** For that matter, at the time that Watergate was going down, CaptainAmerica comics were coming out where Cap was fighting the Secret Empire, a KKK-esque group of super-scientists who were targeting mutants for capture for evil experiments. [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/-=%20page%2018%20=-_edited.jpg When he found the leader, faces weren't shown, names weren't said, but it's blatantly obvious that this was Nixon. Rather than face arrest, he pulled out a ray gun and killed himself]]. These were in the days when if a major public figure like the President cameoed for more than a few panels it always came off as a Kodak moment but this was a major jaw dropper at the time. The shock of finding out that the President was the leader of the KKK's anti-mutant science division had Cap briefly renounce his hero identity and become Nomad.

** Another story, one where the US being neutral in WorldWarI lead to Prussian peacekeeping forces under a League of Nations Mandate occupying the South, had Richard Nixon as TheManBehindTheMan. His plan was simple: get the Democrats attempting to reach out to Martin Luther King's group to establish a political settlement and get the Germans out peacefully set up as assassins of the German Field Marshal Rommel. It works.

** Nixon continues to be Black Dynamite's arch-nemesis in [[WesternAnimation/BlackDynamite the animated series]], much to the chagrin of HenryKissinger, who at one point remarks "Why don't you find another black who isn't Dynamite to have an unhealthy obsession with?"

** A later ''Burkiss'' episode centered around Nixon trying to get back into the public's good books by guest-starring on ''TheMuppetShow''.
* The 1980 short story "A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon" by OrsonScottCard.

* ''TheSylvesterAndTweetyMysteries'', a VillainOfTheWeek disguised himself as WilliamHowardTaft and one of his explanations for this was the costume shop having no Nixon masks.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' contains numerous references to Nixon. Creator MattGroening viewed him as the ultimate villain when he was growing up and has stated that he has the pleasure of being able to poke fun at Nixon thirty or forty years after he was in office.

** Milhouse was named after President Richard Nixon, whose middle name was Milhous. The name was the most "unfortunate name Matt Groening could think of for a kid". Made more obvious in early episodes, when he would be introduced after Bart's [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome now-forgotten friend]], Richard. To twist the knife further, Milhouse is later given the middle name "[[BenitoMussolini Mussolini]]" as well.

* Nixon is the [[MinimalistCast only character on-screen]] in RobertAltman's movie ''SecretHonor''. He is played by Philip Baker Hall, who delivers a lengthy monologue into a tape recorder while pacing around his study.

->''"[[HilariousInHindsight You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore.]]"''
->''"[[BlatantLies I'm not a crook!]]"''
->''"[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem If the President does it, that means it is not illegal.]]"''
->''"[[SirSwearsALot [EXPLETIVE DELETED]]]"''

He had a lot of other notable domestic policies, too. Many people today would be surprised to see that a Republican would pass so many bills which are, to modern sensibilities, liberal; domestic spending surpassed defense spending for the first time since the start of the Cold War. Noam Chomsky has gone so far as to call Nixon the last true liberal President. While this is partially because moderate-at-heart Nixon did have some liberal sympathies, it was also because Democrats controlled Congress for most of his presidency. He expanded and increased spending for the Great Society programs created under Johnson, increased Social Security payments, and created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to provide benefits for the elderly, blind, and handicapped. After Rachel Carson's book ''Literature/SilentSpring'' started the modern environmental movement, Nixon supported environmental initiatives, created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and passed the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was signed by Nixon, mandating safe working conditions for factories, construction, and other potentially dangerous jobs. While he did cozy up to segregationists for votes, Nixon expanded "affirmative action" to make companies create goals and timetables for hiring acceptable numbers of minorities. More schools were desegregated under Nixon than under any previous President, even though he actually opposed busing children to separate school districts to desegregate schools. The Native American policies were drastically reformed under Nixon, with the unfortunate termination policy (basically, forced assimilation) put to an end, and he helped save many reservations. Nixon also supported the failed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that feminists supported. He created the Drug Enforcement Administration and started the War on Drugs, and also called for more research for cancer and sickle cell disease, declaring a War on Cancer. Nixon also wanted to reform health care and extend it to every American; he won the latter but couldn't manage the former when Democrats, led by Ted Kennedy, opposed his proposals. Ted later called it the greatest mistake of his career. Ironically, Republican Nixon's proposals were actually more liberal than the universal health care reforms finally passed under Democrat BarackObama. Nixon's reforms are a bit divisive, some maintaining that it made health care in America better performing, while others say he simply made it more expensive and more difficult for poor people to buy good health care. Still, his conservative principals shined every now and then; he usually tried to shift more power for these programs to the states, and he nominated the moderate Warren E. Burger to the Supreme Court after the very liberal Earl Warren retired. The Apollo moon landing happened months into his presidency, but he would go on to cut spending for UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} because he thought space exploration was too costly.

Born in UsefulNotes/{{California}}, Nixon was raised in the Quaker faith (aka the pacifistic, egalitarian Society of Friends) and came from a very poor childhood. His father, a gas station attendant, barely scraped enough to support his family. He was named after RichardTheLionheart, interestingly. He met his future wife, Pat, in 1938, and they married two years later. After serving as a naval commander during WorldWarII, Nixon pursued a political career. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946, representing his home state, and was elected to the Senate in 1950. During his congressional years, he gained nationwide attention as a [[RedScare leading anti-communist]], criticizing the HarryTruman administration for being too "soft" on communism. In 1952, he ran on DwightDEisenhower's presidential ticket and was elected as Vice President in a landslide. Just a few months before election day, a scandal erupted when it leaked to the press that Nixon was given funds from political backers, which is illegal. Nixon went on air to defend himself, claiming that all he received was a pet dog for his little daughter. The dog was named Checkers by the Nixons, and the "Checkers speech" quickly turned public opinion around in Nixon's favor. (Fun fact, the 60 million people who watched his speech was the largest television audience up to that point in history.) It's worth mentioning that Nixon's infamous nickname, "Tricky Dicky," was already attached to his name long before he was President. Nixon played a very active role during his eight years as Eisenhower's VP, and served as acting President when Eisenhower was in the hospital for a few weeks because of a heart attack. Eisenhower actually wanted to place Nixon in his Cabinet for his second term and have someone else serve as Vice President, but Nixon persuaded him to change his mind.

In 1960, Nixon ran as the Republican presidential nominee, up against Democrat JohnFKennedy. He narrowly lost that election, with people usually calling the definitive factor the televised debates between the two nominees. The first televised presidential debates, they are most well-known for the handsome Kennedy's suave, TV-friendly appearance and demeanor and the nervous, sweaty, and tired Nixon looking bad in comparison. While Nixon's actual performance was good (the majority of people who just listened to the debates on the radio thought Nixon won), this was enough to swing just enough votes to Kennedy.[[note]]That and because the JFK campaign probably used some questionable methods of winning votes in some swing districts. Nixon himself felt another reason he lost was that the Federal Reserve had tinkered with the money supply to reduce growth in the months before the election, which later led him to try to dominate his Fed Chairman William F. Burns. This just ended up making Dick even more enemies, [[TheDogBitesBack just in time]] for Watergate.[[/note]] Nixon was also recovering from a cold at the time, and he refused to wear TV make-up, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain claiming it was for gays]]. After that, Nixon would always wear [[UncannyValleyMakeup a thick mask of makeup]] whenever he went on TV. He then tried to run for his state's governorship in 1962, but lost, leading him to declare "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." HilariousInHindsight, indeed.

The 1968 election was one of the most unusual in American history. LBJ announced in early 1968 that he wasn't going to seek the Democratic nomination, which led to many party leaders scrambling to win the open ticket. When it looked like RobertFKennedy, John's brother, was going to win, he was shot and killed. At the Democratic convention in Chicago, Johnson's own VP, UsefulNotes/HubertHumphrey, finally won the ticket. However, anti-war protestors held a massive demonstration outside the building that turned into a violent clash when Chicago's mayor ordered the police to break it up. Broadcast live on television, the images gave the appearance that the Democrats had quite literally lost control and were unable to control the fallout of the Vietnam War. Also fracturing the Democrats was the issue of civil rights. Previously, the Democrats' main power base was the DeepSouth, but after Johnson passed his [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights bills]], Southern whites grew uneasy with their party. Nixon tapped into their feelings and drew them into the Republican Party, promising them he would support vague things like "states' rights" which were code for "no more federal help for blacks." This was the start of the Republican's "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy Southern Strategy]]," where the Southern states became a dead lock for them and they could concentrate on winning others to gain a victory in presidential elections. This directly led to the Republicans becoming the majority party in the country.[[note]]In hindsight, this may have only helped the Republicans temporarily. UsefulNotes/BarackObama won both the 2008 and 2012 elections despite losing almost every Southern state, which may signify that the Republicans have become a "Southernized" party incapable of winning the rest of the country. Time will tell.[[/note]] Nixon also appealed to what he deemed the "SilentMajority" - the majority of Americans who were not protesting on the streets or attacking long-held social values. While the popular vote that year was close (Nixon won 43.4%, Humphrey won 42.7%, and infamous racist George Wallace won 13.5% by campaigning as a third party nominee in the South), Nixon won a landslide in the Electoral College. His running mate was Spiro Agnew, an outspoken and boorish populist politician who served as Nixon's [[PsychoSidekick attack dog]].

It is widely accepted that Nixon was at least partially paranoid. While a skilled politician and a pragmatic leader, he was so worried about his legacy that he was willing to do almost anything he thought would help him. He was also worried that just about everyone was somehow out to get him. This is most apparent with his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon%27s_Enemies_List Enemies List]], a (eventually very lengthy) list of public figures who Nixon considered to be his enemies and who were, therefore, subjected to the 'ratfucking' techniques of his operatives. It included people from a wide range of areas, such as politics, organized labor, the media, entertainment, business and academia. Some particular notable people on the list included Ted Kennedy, Creator/JaneFonda, JohnLennon and the entirety of the ''New York Times'' and the ''Washington Post''. PaulNewman considered his inclusion to be a [[InsultBackfire triumphant achievement]], while HunterSThompson reportedly felt [[AwardSnub disappointed]] to not be on it. Subsequent tapes have also revealed that Nixon was a bit of an [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain anti-Semite]], with Billy Graham usually agreeing with him about how the Jews controlled the media. Due to the Watergate scandal, Nixon is widely considered to be an AcceptableTarget, and media portrayals of him will usually consider him to be a DesignatedEvil. At best, he'll be portrayed as a JerkassWoobie. It doesn't help that many of his sayings and actions are so very easily parodied. It also didn't help that, in 1977, Nixon stated "If the President does it, that means it is not illegal." in a series of interviews with David Frost where he partially confessed to his crimes. The NixonMask is just one notable example of how his image has been dragged through the mud ever since he left office. Also, thanks to Watergate, you will see [[{{Scandalgate}} every scandal label "Something"-gate by the press]]. Oh, and during Watergate, it was revealed that Nixon [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking did not pay all of his taxes while he was in the White House]].[[note]]A rather more serious offense than the ArsonMurderAndJaywalking tag would lead one to believe, as income tax evasion for a public official is given '''much''' more scrutiny by the IRS.[[/note]] Given his obsession with his legacy, it is rather ironic that Nixon may have been the one politician closest to a ZeroPercentApprovalRating in history: a Survey by Gallup in early August 1974 asked "Did you vote for Richard Nixon in 1972?" Recall he won in a huge landslide, mentioned above. However, not a single respondent admitted to voting for him. An actual 0% survey response.

** Stone also used some footage of him at the beginning of ''Film/{{JFK}}''. We hear that [[{{JohnFKennedy}} JFK]] got to be president by winning "one of the narrowest election victories in American history over vice-president Richard Nixon".

* The play (and subsequent film) ''[[FrostNixon Frost/Nixon]]'' dramatize the disgraced former President's 1977 television interviews with David Frost. Michael Sheen portrayed Frost and Frank Langella Nixon in both stage and screen productions. (And no, you are not immature for [[IThoughtItMeant thinking the play was about]] [[SlashFic something else]].)

-->'''Eric''':… That Nixon was framed, and [[JohnFKennedy that Kennedy]] was a Communist?

** Which is a {{Retcon}} if Red is a UAW member and thus Democrat, as suggested in an earlier episode, "Streaking" (in which then-[[GeraldFord President Ford]] comes to town and Red chastises him for pardoning Nixon).

* He is seen briefly in the film ''CSAConfederateStatesOfAmerica''. Even if the film's AlternateHistory, he still loses presidency to JohnFKennedy. Whether or not he wins it later is never said.

The 1968 election was one of the most unusual in American history. LBJ announced in early 1968 that he wasn't going to seek the Democratic nomination, which led to many party leaders scrambling to win the open ticket. When it looked like RobertFKennedy, John's brother, was going to win, he was shot and killed. At the Democratic convention in Chicago, Johnson's own VP, HubertHumphrey, finally won the ticket. However, anti-war protestors held a massive demonstration outside the building that turned into a violent clash when Chicago's mayor ordered the police to break it up. Broadcast live on television, the images gave the appearance that the Democrats had quite literally lost control and were unable to control the fallout of the Vietnam War. Also fracturing the Democrats was the issue of civil rights. Previously, the Democrats' main power base was the DeepSouth, but after Johnson passed his [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights bills]], Southern whites grew uneasy with their party. Nixon tapped into their feelings and drew them into the Republican Party, promising them he would support vague things like "states' rights" which were code for "no more federal help for blacks." This was the start of the Republican's "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy Southern Strategy]]," where the Southern states became a dead lock for them and they could concentrate on winning others to gain a victory in presidential elections. This directly led to the Republicans becoming the majority party in the country.[[note]]In hindsight, this may have only helped the Republicans temporarily. BarackObama won both the 2008 and 2012 elections despite losing almost every Southern state, which may signify that the Republicans have become a "Southernized" party incapable of winning the rest of the country. Time will tell.[[/note]] Nixon also appealed to what he deemed the "SilentMajority" - the majority of Americans who were not protesting on the streets or attacking long-held social values. While the popular vote that year was close (Nixon won 43.4%, Humphrey won 42.7%, and infamous racist George Wallace won 13.5% by campaigning as a third party nominee in the South), Nixon won a landslide in the Electoral College. His running mate was Spiro Agnew, an outspoken and boorish populist politician who served as Nixon's [[PsychoSidekick attack dog]].

** Milhouse was named after President Richard Nixon, whose middle name was Milhous. The name was the most "unfortunate name Matt Groening could think of for a kid". Made more obvious in early episodes, when he would be introduced after Bart's [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome now-forgotten friend]], Richard.

* Another RobertZemeckis film, ''Film/ForrestGump'', has Forrest [[SpannerInTheWorks unknowingly]] reporting the original Watergate break-in. Forrest thought the break-in was a power outage, and only reported it because the flashlights were keeping him awake. Ironically, it was Nixon who booked him a room at Watergate.

* The film ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen'' tells the story of the reporters, Carl Bernstein (DustinHoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford), who uncovered the Watergate scandal. It was based on a non-fiction book of the same name written by the actual reporters.

Then UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson happened. While the Democrats won a landslide in the 1964 elections, discontent at home and general unease over the VietnamWar caused a massive backlash for the Johnson administration. Sensing an opportunity, Nixon decided to run for President again. Nixon, one of the few Republicans not associated with the humiliating defeat of 1964, easily won his party's ticket.[[note]]Although he did notably receive some competition from Nelson Rockefeller and a then-political novice RonaldReagan.[[/note]] The 1968 election was one of the most unusual in American history. LBJ announced in early 1968 that he wasn't going to seek the Democratic nomination, which led to many party leaders scrambling to win the open ticket. When it looked like RobertFKennedy, John's brother, was going to win, he was shot and killed. At the Democratic convention in Chicago, Johnson's own VP, HubertHumphrey, won the ticket. However, that very night, a bunch of anti-war protestors held a massive demonstration outside the building. Chicago's mayor ordered the police to break it up, resulting in a violent clash that was broadcast live on television. It was clear Vietnam had broken the Democrats, and Nixon used that as well as another issue - civil rights. Previously, the Democrats' main power base was the DeepSouth, but after Johnson passed his [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights bills]], Southern whites grew uneasy with their party. Nixon tapped into their feelings and drew them into the Republican Party, promising them he would support vague things like "states' rights" which were code for "no more federal help for blacks." This was the start of the Republican's "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy Southern Strategy]]," where the Southern states are a dead lock for them and they can concentrate on winning others to gain a victory in presidential elections. This led to the Republicans becoming the majority party in the country.[[note]]In hindsight, this may have only helped the Republicans temporarily. BarackObama won both the 2008 and 2012 elections despite losing almost every Southern state, which may signify that the Republicans have become a "Southernized" party incapable of winning the rest of the country. Time will tell.[[/note]] Nixon also appealed to what he deemed the "SilentMajority" - the majority of Americans who were not protesting on the streets or attacking long-held social values. While the popular vote that year was close (Nixon won 43.4%, Humphrey won 42.7%, and infamous racist George Wallace won 13.5% by campaigning as a third party nominee in the South), Nixon won a landslide in the Electoral College. His running mate was Spiro Agnew, an outspoken and boorish populist politician who served as Nixon's [[PsychoSidekick attack dog]].

He was helped tremendously by his détente policies with RedChina and the Soviet Union. In order to successfully remove Americans troops without (immediately) losing South Vietnam, he tried to make both communist powers promise to reign in North Vietnam. He also wished to play them against each other, since relations between the two had been deteriorating for some time now. In 1972, Nixon announced that he and Kissinger were going to travel to China to visit MaoZedong. This ''shocked'' the public, since not only did the United States not have diplomatic relations with mainland China (only Taiwan, aka the Republic of China), but Nixon was the President making the visit. Any politician with fewer anti-communist credentials making the trip would have been blasted by the media as a secret communist sympathizer; since it was Nixon, no one could make these claims. This led to the proverb "Only Nixon could go to China." It paved the way for formal relations being established between the two in 1979. Brilliantly arousing Soviet suspicions with this trip, Nixon then traveled to Moscow, becoming the first American President to visit ''that'' country as well since the start of the ColdWar (FranklinDRoosevelt visited in 1945 to plan post-WWII conditions). He negotiated several deals with the Soviets, which can be summed up as "both of us stop producing certain types of missiles and slow the arms race, and in return we'll ship to you nearly a billion dollars of wheat so your people won't starve." While these Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) didn't really end the arms race, they were an important step towards ending the Cold War and he succeeded in his goal of preventing both communist powers from interfering in Vietnam. For the rest of the 1970's, détente was the rule of the day when it came to diplomatic relations. Nixon also sent the CIA to help AugustoPinochet lead a coup in Chile in 1973.

As far as domestic issues go, the Nixon presidency is usually associated with the start of the "stagflation" of the 1970's, where the economy simultaneously stopped growing ''and'' prices kept rising. When he entered office, unemployment was very low, but inflation was steadily rising. Starting in 1970, though, a recession began and unemployment began to rise as well; thus, the post-war economic boom came to and end. The main causes for this economic downturn can be summed up as followed: Johnson spent so much on both Vietnam and his domestic programs and it caused federal deficits to rise significantly; more minorities, young people, and women were entering the workforce, and the job training for those groups wasn't as good as it was for the traditional workforce of adult white males; the Baby Boomers began to enter the workforce, and way more people than usual were looking for jobs; finally, American factories and companies did not update equipment for much of the 1950's and 60's, while foreign competitors like Germany and Japan were using more advanced technology. His deals with the USSR also led to food prices at home increasing. To combat the inflation crisis, Nixon first took the dollar off the gold standard in 1971 (an event often called the "Nixon Shock"), which temporarily made inflation a bit worse, but this made it easier for the dollar to float against foreign currencies. He also announced in 1972 a temporary 90-day price freeze; this was very unpopular at home, but businesses reluctantly followed along.[[note]]This was just a policy to temporarily stop inflation in time for his reelection; he knew it was only going to work for a short time.[[/note]] By the end of 1972 a turnaround was beginning. Then, in 1973, the oil-producing countries of the Arab world raised their oil prices for the United States by '''400 percent''' in retaliation for America sending aid to Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Until negotiations resulted in an end to the oil embargo the next year, Americans had to lower temperatures in their house, drive at slower speeds, and deal with long lines at the gas pumps, which were eventually rationed. This caused wild inflation for the rest of the decade, a stock market crash which saw the Dow Jones decrease by about 45% in just over a year, and another recession in mid-1974. The United States, realizing that other countries could hurt the economy by controlling the oil supply, began to search for alternative energy sources, a search which continues to this day. The recessions also helped fuel the growing crime wave which started in the 1960's, though they still weren't anywhere near their ludicrous highs during the 80's and early 90's.

->''[[HilariousInHindsight You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore.]]''
->''[[BlatantLies I'm not a crook!]]''
->''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem If the President does it, that means it is not illegal.]]''
->''[[SirSwearsALot [EXPLETIVE DELETED]]]''