Richard Nixon came out of the sudden announcement of Lyndon B. Johnson not running for another term, and Robert Kennedy being assassinated. A Republican, Nixon believed that he could end the Vietnam War and look good doing it. Nixon won the 1968 election by a close margin to Democrat and former vice president Hubert Humphrey, with 301 electoral votes, but only leading the popular vote by 0.7%.
When Nixon was in office, he was often with his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger. The two men thought up plans for Vietnamese, Russian, and Chinese diplomacy, and created backchannels to accomplish their goals. When looking closely at Nixon's presidency and approval ratings over the years, it is clear that successful Vietnam War efforts correlated directly to soaring approval ratings. During the bombing campaigns in Vietnam, Nixon promised to end the war and bring the troops home, a popular opinion with most Americans (but the bombings were not).
Nixon's downfall came after the 1972 election. In the beginning of 1973, his approval rating was an astounding 67%, but this would not last. After receiving criticism for the "Christmas Bombing" and the Watergate trials, Nixon's popularity diminished. As members of Nixon's cabinet and team began being indicted for Watergate crimes, the American people began to understand that the man who said proudly, "I am not a crook," was indeed a crook.
Finally, in 1974, Nixon's approval rating dropped to 24%, the lowest approval rating of a president, second only to Harry Truman at one point during his presidency. Overall, Nixon's presidency started as a bright glimmer of hope, but quickly spiraled down into a disappointing and corrupt administration that would not tell the American people the truth.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon#1968_presidential_election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_approval_rating
https://historyinpieces.com/research/nixon-approval-ratings
I fond the end results of the Nixon presidency interesting, especially regarding American distrust in the government following the downfall of Nixon. Prior to the Nixon presidency and Watergate Scandal, American trust in government peaked around 73%. Following the presidency, however, this value plunged to less than 30%. Unsurprisingly, this percentage has fluctuated based on the presidency and ability for government to act successfully. During economic hardships of the 1980s, Americans initially rated the government with a 29% trust rating. After Reagan's revitalization success however, this value increased to nearly 50%. Furthermore, immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, governmental decision to take action caused for an approval increase to 60%. However, following numerous drawn out conflicts, approval plunged to around its current ranking today. Upon looking at wider approval ratings, public trust has not been only limited to the government. Public institutions, from banks to schools, have all faced a similar decline in trust since the 1960s.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/upshot/the-long-decline-of-trust-in-government-and-why-that-can-be-patriotic.html
I found it interesting how Richard Nixon accomplished so much in office like getting the US out of Vietnam with honor, drastically improving relations with the US and China, and improving relations and detente with the Soviet Union, but was also very deceitful and distrusting. His paranoia of everyone causing him to install security cameras in his office eventually lead to his downfall in Watergate and severely harmed his popularity with his people. It is interesting to see how people focus a lot about how Nixon's approval ratings were extremely low but many presidents past Nixon had lower approval ratings. These included Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.
ReplyDeletehttps://news.gallup.com/poll/116677/presidential-approval-ratings-gallup-historical-statistics-trends.aspx
It was fascinating to learn about how one lowly crime and scandal tore down what was otherwise a successful presidency. Nixon's legacy is often overshadowed by the events of Watergate, and people forget how much he was able to achieve in his time as President. Although Nixon did indeed commit an awful crime, it is interesting to think about the dynamics of how our country works in comparison to others worldwide, especially taken into account the Soviet official's reactions when discovering Nixon's resignation.
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