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Richard M. Nixon. WWII Vet E lected House of Representatives 1946 Elected Senate 1950 Elected V.P. 1952 Runs for President 1960. Election of 1960. Contributing Factors: g enerational shift c ivil r ights movement f irst televised debate Kennedy mystique.
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Richard M. Nixon • WWII Vet • Elected House of Representatives 1946 • Elected Senate 1950 • Elected V.P. 1952 • Runs for President 1960
Election of 1960 Contributing Factors: • generational shift • civil rights movement • first televised debate • Kennedy mystique
Loses run for California Governor (1962) • Retires from political life. • “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore!”
Wins 1968 Presidential Election Contributing Factors: • chaos of Democratic Party nomination • frustration with Vietnam • frustration with youth movement • Silent Majority wanting a return to law and order • Political realignment ongoing following Civil Rights Act of 1964
Characteristics as President • Sense of being an “outsider.” • Suspicious of Jewish financial and media conspiracy • Lacks social graces (still being compared to Kennedy/ Camelot) • Paranoid (taping of conversations)
A political moderate who successfully met challenges previous Presidents had failed to by substituting pragmatism for zealotry. • Clean Air Act/ EPA • Deficit Spending (“I’m a Keynesian Now”) • Integration of Public Schools • Détente w/ China & Russia
A morally bankrupt individual who abused the powers of the Presidency to the detriment of America’s general sense of optimism about itself and the future. • Secret bombing Cambodia (1970) • PENTAGON PAPERS (1971) • WATERGATE (1973) • Resignation (1974)
Watergate Scandal • Democratic National Committee headquarters (@ Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C.) broken into. • Washington Post series exposes financial connections between break-in and CREEP • Secret Source: Deep Throat • Congress investigates Nixon’s role break-in/ attempting to cover it up • Facing possibility of impeachment, resigns August 1974. (First ever to do so)