Nixon and Ford

His accomplishments while in office included:

• revenue sharing
• the end of the draft
• new anticrime laws
• a broad environmental program

As he had promised, he appointed Justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. One of the most dramatic events of his first term occurred in 1969, when American astronauts made the first moon landing.

Some of his most acclaimed achievements came in his quest for world stability. During visits in 1972 to Beijing and Moscow, he reduced tensions with China and the U.S.S.R. His summit meetings with Russian leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. In January 1973, he announced an accord with North Vietnam to end American involvement in Indochina. In 1974, his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria.

“Watergate” is a general term used to describe a complex web of political scandals between 1972 and 1974. The word specifically refers to the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C.

Early in the morning of June 17, 1972, several burglars were arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), located in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. This was no ordinary robbery: The prowlers were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign, and they had been caught while attempting to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. While historians are not sure whether Nixon knew about the Watergate espionage operation before it happened, he took steps to cover it up afterwards, raising “hush money” for the burglars, trying to stop the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from investigating the crime, destroying evidence and firing uncooperative staff members. In August 1974, after his role in the Watergate conspiracy had finally come to light, the president resigned. His successor, Gerald Ford, immediately pardoned Nixon for all the crimes he “committed or may have committed” while in office. Although Nixon was never prosecuted, the Watergate scandal changed American politics forever, leading many Americans to question their leadership and think more critically about the presidency.

July, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes. While the president dragged his feet, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, criminal cover-up and several violations of the Constitution. Finally, on August 5, Nixon released the tapes, which provided undeniable evidence of his complicity in the Watergate crimes. In the face of certain impeachment by the Senate, the president resigned on August 8.

Ford became the first unelected president in the nation’s history. A longtime Republican congressman from Michigan, Ford had been appointed vice president less than a year earlier by President Nixon. He is credited with helping to restore public confidence in government after the disillusionment of the Watergate era.

Ford faced a domestic energy crisis and a weak economy marked by high inflation and unemployment. He also struggled to work effectively with a heavily Democratic Congress. In fact, Ford vetoed 66 pieces of legislation that conflicted with his basic philosophy of fiscal conservatism.

Ford’s foreign policy generated both successes and failures. Unable to convince Congress to approve further military aid to South Vietnam, he could only watch as the country fell to North Vietnamese Communist forces in 1975. Later that year, however, Ford helped reduce tensions with the Soviet Union by signing the Helsinki Accords, which were meant to strengthen the relationship between Western nations and the communist countries of Europe.

To do:

1. Activity on Watergate

2. Pg 689- on separate sheet of paper (to be turned in!) Answer questions 1-4 ALL PARTS

Nixon and Ford

Watergate Scandal

Nixon as President

Ford as President

60 Second President

Richard Nixon

# 38 Gerald Ford

Nixon in 7 Minutes

Nixon Resigns

Open and Honest