He was permanently appointed to the post in April On October 10, , the U. Known as the Naval School until , the curriculum included mathematics and navigation, gunnery and steam, chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French.
On October 10, , the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro reaches a dramatic climax when U. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault.
World War II. The program called for replacing bureaucratically administered programs such as Aid to Families With Dependent Children, Food Stamps and Medicaid with direct cash payments to those in need, including single-parent families and the working poor.
Conservatives disliked the plan for guaranteeing an annual income to people who didn't work, the labor movement saw it as a threat to the minimum wage and federal caseworkers saw the program as a threat to their jobs. Many Americans complained that adding the working poor to Welfare would expand the program rather than reduce it. Though initially not showing much interest in environmental concerns, after the Earth Day, with millions of demonstrations across the country, President Nixon sensed a political opportunity and a need.
Keeping true to his New Federalism principles of less government and fiscal responsibility, Nixon insisted that all environmental proposals meet the cost-benefit standards of the Office of Management and Budget.
Congress overrode his veto, and in retaliation, Nixon used his presidential powers to impound half the money. Nixon often adopted a stance of confrontation rather than conciliation and compromise. In his ambition to push through his agenda, he sought to consolidate power within the presidency and took the attitude that the executive branch was exempt from many of the checks and balances imposed by the Constitution. This attitude would later turn on him during the Watergate scandal.
Though achieving some success in domestic politics, most of President Nixon's first term was dominated by foreign affairs and, most notably, the Vietnam War. Nixon also reestablished American influence in the Middle East and pressured allies to take more responsibility for their own defense.
Since the mids, tensions between China and its main ally, the USSR, had increased, causing a breach in their relationship by Nixon sensed an opportunity to shift the Cold War balance of power toward the West, and he sent secret messages to Chinese officials to open a dialogue.
The visit ushered in a new era of Chinese-American relations and pressured the Soviet Union to agree to better relations with the United States. In Latin America, the Nixon administration continued the long-standing policy of supporting autocratic dictatorships in lieu of socialist democracies.
Most notably, he authorized clandestine operations to undermine the coalition government of Chile's Marxist president, Salvador Allende, after he nationalized American-owned mining companies. Nixon restricted Chile's access to international economic assistance, discouraged private investment, increased aid to the Chilean military and funneled covert payments to Allende opposition groups.
In September , Allende was overthrown in a military coup, establishing Chilean army general Augusto Pinochet as dictator. But the foremost issue on Nixon's plate was Vietnam. When he took office, American soldiers were dying per week in Vietnam.
The Johnson administration had escalated the war to involve over , American troops and expanded operations from the defense of South Vietnam to bombing attacks in North Vietnam. Nixon faced the decision of either escalating the war further to secure South Vietnam from communism or withdrawing forces to end involvement in an increasingly unpopular war. Nixon proposed a controversial strategy of withdrawing American troops from South Vietnam while carrying out Air Force bombings and army special-ops operations against enemy positions in Laos and Cambodia, both of which were officially neutral at the time.
He established what became known as the Nixon Doctrine also called "Vietnamization" , replacing American troops with Vietnamese soldiers. From to , troop withdrawals were estimated to be , soldiers. While Nixon's campaign promise in was to draw down the size of the U. When Nixon made a televised speech announcing the movement of U. Beyond all the strife, the war in Vietnam had caused domestic inflation to grow to nearly 6 percent by To address the problem, Nixon initially tried to restrict federal spending, but beginning in , his budget proposals contained deficits of several billion dollars, the largest in American history up to that time.
Though defense spending was cut almost in half, government spending on benefits to American citizens rose from a little over 6 percent to nearly 9 percent. To control increasing inflation and unemployment, Nixon imposed temporary wage and price controls, which achieved marginal success, but by the end of , inflation returned with a vengeance, reaching 8. With the war in Vietnam winding down, Nixon in defeated his Democratic challenger, liberal senator George McGovern, in a landslide victory, receiving almost 20 million more popular votes and winning the Electoral College vote to Nixon looked invincible in his victory.
It seems odd, in retrospect, that his re-election campaign, the Committee to Re-Elect the President also known as CREEP was so concerned about Democrats opposition that it reverted to political sabotage and covert espionage. Public opinion polls during the campaign indicated President Nixon had an overwhelming lead.
The entry of independent candidate Wallace ensured some Democratic support would be taken from McGovern in the South, and for most of the American public, Senator McGovern's policies were just too extreme. During the campaign in June , rumors began to circulate about White House involvement in a seemingly isolated burglary of the Democratic National Election Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.
Initially, Nixon downplayed the coverage of the scandal as politics as usual, but by , the investigation initiated by two cub reporters for the Washington Post , Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had mushroomed into a full-scale inquest.
White House officials denied the press's reporting as biased and misleading, but the FBI eventually confirmed that Nixon aides had attempted to sabotage the Democrats during the election, and many resigned in the face of criminal prosecution. A Senate committee under Senator Sam Ervin soon began to hold hearings. Eventually, White House counsel John Dean gave evidence that the scandal went all the way to the White House, including a Nixon order to conceal wrongdoing. Nixon continued to declare his innocence, though, repeatedly denying previous knowledge about the campaign sabotage and claiming to have learned about the cover-up in early Nixon responded directly to the nation by staging an emotional televised press conference in November , during which he famously declared, "I'm not a crook.
Nixon also promised the American people that the United States would continue to oppose communist expansion around the world. Nixon won the election of He carried Ohio with just forty-five percent of the state's vote.
As president, Nixon's greatest accomplishments occurred in foreign affairs. Nixon did reduce the number of Americans in Vietnam from , men and women to fewer than , by Nevertheless, Nixon faced pressure from opponents to the Vietnam War for authorizing the bombing and invasion of Cambodia. Nixon also improved relations with China, a communist country, and increased communication with the Soviet Union.
With these foreign policy successes, Nixon won reelection to the presidency in He won Ohio by more than , votes. However, in this election, Nixon was involved in a scandal known as the "Watergate Break-in. By , it had become obvious that Nixon had lied to Congress, intentionally obstructed justice, and authorized the payment of hush money to the thieves.
But I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced by Americans. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men.
Here the people rule. Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. Ford earned a degree from Yale Law School before serving in the U. Navy in World War II.
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