Nixon
Election of 1968
- November 5, 1968
- Republican
- Spiro Agnew
- Hubert Humphrey
- Nixon: 43.4% Humphrey: 42.5%
Election of 1972
- November 7, 1972
- Republican
- Spiro Agnew
- George McGovern
- Nixon: 60.7% McGovern: 37.5%
Vietnam War under Nixon
- Vietnamization-President Nixon's strategy gradually to withdraw the 540,000 troops from South Vietnam over a period of time; the South Vietnamese could gradually take over the fighting with American money, weapons, training, and advice
- Cambodia-beginning April 1970, US bombed areas in Cambodia and eventually in Laos as well in order to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail, to supply the Viet Cong; the US public did not know of this until 1973
- War Powers Act- November 1973; required the president to report all commitments of the US troops to foreign exchanges within 48 hours
policy of "detente"
- relaxed tensions between the Soviet Union and Beijing from Nixon's visit
the Fall of Nixon
- Watergate break-in- only the tip of an iceberg in a slimy sea of corruption that made the Grant and Harding scandals look almost respectable
- Nixon resignation- announced in a dramatic television appearance on August 8, 1974