Richard Milhous Nixon

Nixon, Richard Milhous 

Born Jan. 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, Calif. American statesman.

Nixon studied law. He graduated from Whittier College (California) in 1934 and from Duke University (Durham, N.C.) in 1937. From 1937 to 1942 he practiced law as a partner in a law firm. During World War II he worked in a government administrative body for implementing emergency measures (January-August, 1942) and served in the US Navy as a lieutenant commander. He began his political career in California. In 1946 and 1948 he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1950 he was elected a senator from California. (Nixon was a member of the Republican Party.)

From 1953 to 1961, Nixon served in the Eisenhower administration as vice-president. He was defeated in the presidential election of 1960. In 1961 he returned to law practice in California, but in 1963 he moved to New York, joining a leading American law firm—Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander, and Mitchell. At the same time, he joined the boards of directors of a number of large firms. He continued to participate in US politics, working for the Republican Party. In 1968, Nixon won the presidential election, and in 1969 he took office as president of the United States. In 1972 he was elected to a second term.

The initial period of Nixon’s presidency coincided with an economic recession, which gave way to a depression from which the USA did not begin to recover until 1972. Responding to the acute currency and financial crisis that gripped world capitalism in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Nixon administration devalued the dollar twice (in 1971 and 1973).

In foreign policy the Nixon administration continued to pursue a course of strengthening and expanding the global position of American imperialism and did not refrain from the direct use of military force, as was evident in US attempts to win an aggressive war against the peoples of Indochina. However, under the influence of changes in the world balance of forces as a result of the growth of the power of the USSR and of the entire socialist commonwealth, the Nixon administration arrived at a more realistic evaluation of American potential in the international arena and reviewed many of its foreign policy positions. The “Nixon doctrine,” which was promulgated in 1969–70, envisioned a reduction in direct participation by American armed forces in “local wars.” The burden of material expenditures in the struggle against liberation movements would shift to America’s allies. However, America would continue to fulfill its international obligations within the scope of military blocs and bilateral agreements. With regard to US relations with socialist states, Nixon introduced the concept of a transition from an “era of confrontation to an era of negotiations.” The final failure of attempts to achieve a military resolution of the Vietnam conflict impelled the Nixon administration to sign an accord (January 1973) putting an end to the war and providing for the establishment of peace in Vietnam.

Beginning in the 1970’s, under the impact of factors that have already been mentioned, a shift toward a more positive attitude was observed in the Nixon administration’s approach to relations between the USA and the USSR. As a result of Soviet-American summit meetings held between 1972 and 1974, the two countries signed a number of important agreements based on the principle of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems and directed at the prevention of nuclear war, as well as at the limitation of strategic arms and the development of broad economic and scientific and technological cooperation between the USSR and the USA.

On Aug. 9, 1974, Nixon resigned from office under the pressure of internal political circumstances associated with the Watergate affair.