One of my favorite conversation starters has always been "Who is your favorite president?" because I know that my answer is unique. Not many people can say that their favorite president is the only president who has ever resigned from office. However, Richard Nixon was more than just the Watergate Scandal and his 18 and a half minutes of missing tape.
The summer before my senior year of high school, I was required to write a 4,000-word research paper on a topic of my choosing. As I sat in the depths of the VCU library searching for a topic, I stumbled upon a book about the Watergate Scandal. Intrigued by the subject, I went to the world's most well-respected information source: Wikipedia. I started reading up on the president for whom we have all been raised to look down upon. And as I did this, I realized something: he really wasn't a bad president. In fact, he was a really good one.
First of all, throughout his presidency, Richard Nixon was wildly popular. In the 1970's, Nixon boasted over a 70 percent approval rating. Additionally, during his re-election, Nixon won the electoral votes of every single solitary state except for Massachusetts, and the city of Washington DC. Maybe it is just me, but I think 520 electoral votes is pretty impressive.
Richard Nixon had good reason to be popular; he did a whole lot for the nation.
One of Richard Nixon's greatest accomplishments throughout his presidency was the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Today, the idea of a Republican creating a government organization that regulates big business on behalf of the environment is kind of baffling. However, during Nixon's 1969 State of the Union address, he brought up all sorts of issues regarding the environment, ranging everywhere from ceasing dumping in the Great Lakes to creating emission standards for motor vehicles. These ideas as well as Nixon’s desire to help the environment served as key components for the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency by executive order during the second year of Nixon’s presidency. Political moves such as this one could very well explain why he was so wildly popular throughout his re-election in 1972. Richard Nixon was able to make the Liberals happy, without compensating the desires of his own political party and belief system.
In addition to Richard Nixon's care for the environment, he was also known as a master of foreign policy. One of his major contributions to American foreign policy was ending the Vietnam War. This incredibly unpopular war caused demonstrations at over 70 percent of United States colleges, including the infamous riots at Kent State University in Ohio which lead to four deaths and 13 injuries of students. In 1970, Nixon claimed that he would rather not be re-elected and serve as a one term president than to accept a “peace of humiliation” with the Vietnamese. So in 1972, The Paris Peace Accords were signed, and all American troops were removed from Vietnam. President Richard Nixon, despite much criticism during the war, handled the conflict in Vietnam effectively. He was able to please the American public as much as he could while still doing what is best for the South Vietnamese; an incredibly difficult medium to find.
Another example of Richard Nixon's proficiency in foreign affairs was his creation of economic ties with China. A little-known fact about Nixon is that he was the first President of the United States to ever visit China. Creating relations with China was not an easy task; many Americans were actually incredibly opposed to the idea. One great problem was the long history of American unwillingness to recognize the potential of a convergence of interests with the Chinese Communist government, despite many opportunities for trade. Regardless of this opposition, Nixon visited China in February of 1972, and it proved to be a successful move in the long run. Nixon's visitation of China opened up many new trade windows that still exist today. In 2015 alone, China exported $481,880,800,000 worth of goods to the United States. However, none of this economic activity may have existed without Nixon's bravery in visiting China and working with the Chinese government, despite the many consequences and disapproval by Americans at the time.
The general opinion of Richard Nixon by most people in the United States is that he was a bad president. The first reaction, by most people, is “Wasn’t he the president who was impeached?”. This assumption, however, is extremely inaccurate regarding his presidency as a whole. First of all, Richard Nixon was never impeached. On the contrary, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were, in fact, impeached. When he resigned, Nixon was pardoned by his former Vice President, Gerald Ford. Richard Nixon never went to jail for anything involving Watergate; he never went to jail throughout his entire life. Nixon made the tactical decision to resign in order to avoid impending impeachment so he could allow the American public to move on from Watergate and worry about other issues.
Unfortunately, my favorite president will always have a bad reputation. However, I do want to spend this time surrounding the 22nd anniversary of his death on April 22nd to talk about why I believe he deserves more recognition than he has received. So thank you, Richard Milhous Nixon, for all you did for our country, and I'm sorry that no one will ever remember it was you.
