1. Nixon: Foreign Policy and Watergate Mr. Brandenburg

2. THE FOREIGN POLICY OF RICHARD NIXON “Publicly, we say one thing….Actually, we do another.” -Richard Nixon

3. Richard Nixon President of the U.S. from 1969-1974. Vice President under Eisenhower from 1953- 1961. Served in the Congress from 1946-1952. Only President to resign from office (after Watergate Scandal). Strict Republican and Anti-Communist.

4. Henry Kissinger National Security Advisor from 1969-1975, and Secretary of State from 1973-1977. Key contributor to the foreign policy decisions of the Nixon Administration. Created the concept of “Shuttle Diplomacy.” This involved travel between conflicting nations to settle disputes. It was best applied in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

5. FOREIGN POLICY GOALS: 1969-1974 “After a period of confrontation, we are entering an era of negotiation.” -Richard Nixon’s 1st Inaugural Address

6. Realpolitik US foreign policy decisions would be made on practical US interests, not on moral or political ideals. German term meaning “actual politics”

8. CHINA

9. Two Chinas After the Chinese Civil War of 1949, the Communists under Chairman Mao Zedong had created the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. The Nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek had fled to Taiwan (Formosa) and established the non- Communist Republic of China (ROC). Before Nixon’s administration, the ROC had held China’s seat on the UN General Assembly, and the United States had cut off diplomatic relations with the PRC.

10. Rapprochement Nixon began to consider a reopening of relations, or “rapprochement,” with the PRC. Reasons for rapprochement:  Trade with China— huge market  Main reason: increase Sino-Soviet tension  “Growing dissidence between the U.S.S.R. and China has limited both countries in the pursuit of policies basically antagonistic to U.S. interests.” -Richard Nixon 1972

11. Question? What do you think the national sport of China is?

12. Ping-Pong Diplomacy The American ping-pong team received a surprise invitation to visit the PRC in April, 1971. Their acceptance made them the first Americans to be allowed into communist mainland China since the Chinese Civil War of 1949. Ten journalists accompanied them; Americans eagerly followed the team’s progress in the news media. The trip was a diplomatic success!  The American public became more willing to open up relations with the PRC.  America lifted its 20-year trade embargo on mainland China.

13. NIXON GOES TO CHINA (1972)

14. NIXON GOES TO CHINA Goals:  Attempt to pave the way for a formal opening of diplomatic relations with the mainland (rapprochement).  Also want to impress the Chinese and make them a potential trade partner and possibly ally vs. the U.S.S.R.

15. NIXON GOES TO CHINA Nixon and Kissinger met with Chairman Mao and Prime Minister Chou En-Lai several times from February 21-28. Results:  The leaders discussed policy and philosophy, and made a favorable impression on each other.  Immediately after the trip, Kissinger moved to establish regular contact with the PRC.  However, formal diplomatic relations were not established until January 1, 1979, under the Carter administration.

16. SOVIET UNION “The issue of war and peace cannot be solved unless we in the United States and the Soviet Union demonstrate both the will and the capacity to put out relationship on a basis consistent with the aspirations of mankind.” -Richard Nixon’s Address to the U.N. General Assembly, October 23, 1970

17. Detente After years of hostility and tension between the U.S.S.R and the U.S., Nixon instituted a policy of détente.  Détente focused on less hostile relations between the two nations. Unlike previous administrations, Nixon and Kissinger hoped to negotiate for the mutual benefit of both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. as opposed to demanding that the U.S.S.R. give into U.S. demands.

18. SALT I One of the major components of détente was the creation of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I).  Talks took place from Nov., 1969-May, 1972.  During this time two treaties were produced.  One treaty limited anti-ballistic defensive missiles while the other restricted the nations’ most critical offensive missiles.

19. ARAB-ISRAELI RELATIONS

20. The Six-Day War (1967) Israel had won a crushing victory against the Arabs in the Six-Day War of 1967, which expanded the nation’s borders to include the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula.  Therefore, they assumed that the Arabs would not dare to attack them again so soon.  But the Arabs were as determined as ever to reclaim their territory and eliminate the Jewish state.

21. Israeli Territorial Gains

22. The Yom Kippur War (1973) On October 6, 1973, the Arab nations of Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel.  The Arabs chose the date with a very specific reason in mind: it coincided with Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest holiday.  The Arabs correctly assumed that Israel would be most vulnerable on this day.  Indeed, for the first two days of the war, the Israelis could not stop their enemies’ advance. The war lasted a mere 20 days, but thousands were slain. Israel again wins.

23. American Involvement America actively supported Israel, both politically and militarily, from the beginning of the war.  Nixon personally ordered that American arms be airlifted to Israel. The conflict also had the feel of a proxy war, since it pitted America-friendly Israel vs. Egypt and Syria, long under Soviet influence.

24. Where does most of the oil in the world come from?

25. The Oil Crisis As a response to highly effective American involvement in the war, Arab nations declared on October 19 that they would not sell oil to the U.S., because of its support for Israel.  They later cut exports to the Netherlands and other nations backing Israel. Within a few months, the price of a barrel of oil quadrupled!  This marked the first time Arab nations would use oil as a political and economic weapon.

26. Nixon and Watergate

27. The Election of 1968 Richard Nixon only narrowly won the 1968 election, but the combined total of popular votes for Nixon and Wallace indicated a shift to the right in American politics. The 1960's began as an era of optimism and possibility and ended in disunity and distrust.

28. The Election of 1968 Nixon campaigned as a champion of the "silent majority," the hardworking Americans who paid taxes, did not demonstrate, and desired a restoration of "law and order.”

29. Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers Daniel Ellsberg was an employee of the Defense Department who leaked a classified assessment of the Vietnam War in 1971 known as the Pentagon Papers. They cast doubt on the justification for entry into the war and revealed that senior government officials had serious misgivings about the war.

30. The White House Plumbers After the release of the Pentagon Papers, the White House created a unit to ensure internal security. This unit was called the Plumbers because they stopped leaks. Howard HuntG. Gordon Liddy James McCordChuck Colson

31. The Watergate Break-in When initial polls showed Nixon behind in the Election of 1972, the Plumbers turned their activities to political espionage. On 17 June 1972, 5 men were arrested while attempting to bug the headquarters of the Democratic Party inside the Watergate building in Washington D.C. One of the men arrested, James McCord, was the head of security for the Republican Party. The Nixon campaign denied any involvement.

32. Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post Watergate came to public attention largely through the work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, investigative reporters from the Washington Post an informant named “Deepthroat”.

33. Watergate Enters the Nixon Campaign The break-in was eventually tied to the Nixon reelection campaign through a $25,000 check from a Republican donor that was laundered through a Mexican bank and deposited in the account of Watergate burglar Bernard Barker. Later it was discovered that Former Attorney General John Mitchell, head of Nixon’s “Committee to Re- Elect the President,” (CREEP) controlled a secret fund for political espionage. Mitchell would later go to prison for his role in the scandal

34. The Election of 1972 Despite the growing stain of Watergate, Nixon won by the largest margin in history to that point.

35. Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes The Administration was eager to discredit Dean and his testimony so it began to release factual challenges to his account. When former White House aide Alexander Butterfield was asked about the source of the White House information, he revealed the existence of an automatic taping system that Nixon had secretly installed in the Oval Office. These tapes would become the focus of the investigation.

36. The Smoking Gun Tapes When the Supreme Court forced Nixon to surrender the tapes. Nixon was implicated from the earliest days of the cover-up:  authorizing the payment of hush money  attempting to use the CIA to interfere with the FBI investigation. One tape has an 18 ½ minute gap. Nixon’s secretary Rosemary Woods demonstrated how she could have inadvertently erased the tape, but no one bought it. “The smoking gun tapes,” were released in August 1974, just after the House Judiciary Committee approved Articles of Impeachment against Nixon.

37. Nixon Resigns On 27 July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved Articles of Impeachment against Nixon. On 5 August 1974, when the “smoking gun tape” became public, a delegation from the Republican National Committee told Nixon that he would not survive the vote in the Senate. On 9 August 1974, Richard Nixon became the first American president to resign.

38. Aftermath More than 30 government officials went to prison for their role in Watergate. Richard Nixon was not one of them. In September 1974, President Gerald Ford gave Nixon a full pardon. Woodward and Bernstein won the Pulitzer Prize. The identity of Deepthroat was kept secret until W. Mark Felt unmasked himself in 2005. Ford announcing the pardon