In the recorded conversations that Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, had with his White House aides, he reveals his motivations and his assumptions about the American public: “Everybody says we’ve got to protect this one and that one and the other one. The main thing we’ve got to protect is the Presidency”. He felt that the presidency granted him immunity to the law. Under his Presidency, an air of distrust of government gradually grew amongst US citizens. He led a criminal presidency yet was never indicted or prosecuted.
If he were not President of the United States, he would have faced greater consequences for his actions. In this light, perhaps he was right when he claimed, in his 1977 interview with David Frost, “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal”. Richard Nixon is the most glaring example of presidential abuse of power in the history of the United States, considering the Cambodian Incursion, Watergate and his flouting of the law and the US Constitution, among other instances. Richard Nixon had a humble upbringing that did not portend the degree of notoriety he would gain.
He grew up in Yorba Linda, California, where his mother was a Quaker and his father a small lemon farm owner. He was the second of five children, and two of his brothers died from illnesses before he graduated high school. He attended Fullerton High School before transferring to Whittier High School. He graduated high school second in his class and was offered a scholarship to Harvard, but his family could not cover the traveling cost so he attended Whittier College, a Quaker institution. Upon graduating he received a full ride to Duke to study law.
After completing college, he moved back home to study law. Once he settled in at home he realized that he had much larger ambitions. Nixon and his wife Thelma Catherine Ryan then moved to Washington DC to follow those dreams. He joined public service but soon left for the US Navy where he was an aviation ground officer. He earned the rank of lieutenant commander before returning to civilian life and running for Congress. Add conclusion sentence Nixon had incredible political ambitions throughout his career, as he was on a life long power trip.
He earned a seat in the US House of Representatives in November 1946. Nixon beat out Democrat Jerry Voorhis by using a smear campaign claiming Voorhis was a communist. He then cemented his anti-communist views by using his knowledge as a lawyer to cross-examine Alger Hiss who was allegedly spying for the Soviet Union. Hiss was handed a five-year sentence for perjury after many people surrounding the case believed he would get off on all charges prior to Nixon’s cross-examination. Dwight D. Eisenhower was impressed by Nixon and chose him as his running mate.
In the first accusation against Nixon’s abuse of power, the New York Post reported that he had a personal slush fund that was provided by campaign donors that he used for himself. Eisenhower was facing significant political pressure to drop Nixon from the ticket, but he repeatedly defended him. Nixon, trying to fix his image, made the “Checkers Speech”. In this speech, he talked about his childhood including his modest upbringing and how his wife did not own expensive items like a fur coat as many other politically elite families did. Out of over 4 million voters, over 98% believed Nixon.
After his term as Vice President he ran for President in 1960 against John F. Kennedy. Nixon lost by a narrow margin and a large voting fraud investigation was started. Nixon requested that the investigation be dropped as he accepted that he did not win. This move garnered significant respect among civilians and politicians alike. With 20/20 hindsight, many now think that this move may have been a ploy to garner a larger support base for another run at President. Nixon decided to lay low and take almost 8 years off national politics, moving back to Los Angeles and then to New York to quietly study law.
In 1968, Nixon believed that it was his time to make another attempt for the strongest position in the world, the President of the United States. He beat out Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Independent George Wallace by close to 500,000 votes in the 1968 election. Finally achieving his ultimate goal, Nixon began to realize the strength of his new found role. A big part of Nixon’s campaign was his promise to have a quick plan in place to end the Vietnam War, which he made in 1969. While the war did end, it was after he resigned, taking until 1973 to reach a peace agreement, and 1975 to finally end the war.
In the process of ending the Vietnam War, Nixon invaded Cambodia without alerting congress; this event was known as the Cambodian Incursion. Sihanouk was the leader of Cambodia until 1969 when he was overthrown by a coup led by Lon Nol and Sirik Matak. Sirik Matak was a member of Cambodia’s large royal family and Nol was a general who served as prime minister twice. The overthrow was a huge development for the United States as they were planning to rid of the Sihanouk regime anyways, “The coup that overthrew Sihanouk constituted a major turning point in U. S. -Cambodian relations, and, more importantly, the build-up to an invasion.
However, it did not lead to the immediate use of U. S. forces in Cambodian territory. Instead, it set off a deliberate and, at times, heated and contentious decision-making process. The decision to invade Cambodia ultimately resulted from this process”. After the overthrow, Nixon decided to help Cambodia behind the scenes. Sirik Matak, Lon Nol and the coup who overthrew Sihanouk made a cry for help to the United States as they were outnumbered more than 5-1 in troops and were without the sufficient arms to successfully fight off the Viet-Cong’s. The Viet-Cong’s had so many weapons because they were supplied by Soviet Russia and the Chinese.
Nixon replied by giving them 3,000 AK-47’s that were taken from North Vietnam to help the fight. As if fighting off the Viet-Cong’s was not a big enough issue for the new regime, Sihanouk vowed to fight back for his thrown. Sihanouk almost immediately declared war on the new coup and it left Nixon with an incredibly tough and quick decision to make, “When Sihanouk declared war on the new government on March 20 by calling for a ‘sacred struggle,’ a clear message was sent as to the viability and neutrality of a government with Sihanouk at its head, should he return to power.
Nixon decided that it was necessary to invade Cambodia, “The choice to invade was ultimately Nixon’s”, and bomb the sanctuaries and base areas of the “People’s army of Vietnam”. These bases were used as the bases for training, resupplying ammunition and resting between campaigns across the border in South Vietnam. These bombings were known as the “secret MENU bombings”, as they were not approved by congress. The invasion and bombings of Cambodia sparked even larger protests than ever before. Many of these protests were made across college campuses.
In a protest at Kent State University, 4 students were killed by the Ohio State National Guard. More deaths followed, “Less than two weeks later, James Earl Green and Phillip Lafayette Gibbs were killed by police during antiwar protests at Jackson State College in Mississippi. Across the country, from the University of Maryland at College Park to Illinois State, and from Columbia University to Williams College, campus disturbances were reported, and thousands converged on Washington for a major protest on May 9.
The Nixon administration’s ten-day-old invasion of Cambodia had reinvigorated the Vietnam protest movement”. The deaths from these protests sparked an even larger political mutiny within the United States against the invasion, bombings and co-operation in Vietnam and Cambodia. Following the invasion, 250 state department signatures were reached condemning the invasion showing the general dislike for the situation. The Cambodian bombings were followed by an attempt by North Vietnam to overrun Cambodia and South Vietnam, which was met with United States, Cambodian and South Vietnamese troops.
After another few years of fighting, a peace agreement was reached on January 27th, 1973, called the “Paris Peace Accords”. The Cambodian Incursion was met with many strong opinions, which were strengthened by the fact that Nixon opted not to clear the MENU bombings or the invasion with congress. The public condemned the action, mainly citing the fact that the United States did not have to be involved. The Vietnam War was already heavily disliked by civilians, which was a main reason Nixon was elected.
Getting more involved with the invasion, supplying arms and the MENU bombings were not what the public believed they had signed up for by electing Nixon. One of his claims when winning the presidential bid was to pull a hundred thousand troops out of Cambodia and Vietnam, instead, more troops were sent in and the war ended up taking 6 long years. As the negative public opinion grew and Anti-War organizations formed, Nixon took it as his obligation to destroy these organizations, “the White House launched an anti-Moratorium Plan B: leaking word that they were responding to demonstrations.
The New York Times printed the testimony of an anonymous ‘critic’ within the administration that there would soon be ‘a temporary suspension of the draft for an unspecified time’ and that when conscription resumed men would only be eligible for a year after their 19th birthday instead of the present six, and only professional soldiers and draftees who volunteered would be sent to Vietnam”. This information was false and Nixon replied with very arrogant comments to reporters.
When the public found out that the draft would not be suspended, the eligibility rules would not be changed and all soldiers were still eligible to be sent to Vietnam, the public blew up. Life Magazine subsequently labeled the following protests, “the largest expression of public dissent ever seen in this country”, as more than two million Americans protested, most of which had never protested in their lives. After another blatant abuse of power, Richard Nixon was given the nickname “Tricky Dick” by the media.
Even though the decision to invade Cambodia and to bomb the base of the Viet-Cong’s was thought out by Nixon and a few contemporaries, not asking permission for the invasion or bombings and arrogantly lying to the public about new military rules to try to silence the protests continued his track record for an abuse of power, which started with the allegations of a slush fund as Vice President. During the early morning of June 17th, 1972, 7 burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee, 5 of which were immediately arrested at the scene.
The Democratic National Committee was located in the Watergate hotel in Washington D. C. , which is why the break-in was named the “Watergate Scandal”. The break-in was coordinated to steal classified documents from the Democratic National Committee, wire-tap their phones and to find out information regarding the knowledge of “The Plumbers” within other parts of the government. The burglars were connected to the Committee to Reelect the President known as “CREEP” and “The Plumbers”. The Plumbers were Nixon’s secret White House Special Investigations Unit who would do his bidding.
They were originally organized on July 24th, 1971 to stop leaks into other parts of government about his illegal practices on Nixon’s request, “Do whatever has to be done to stop these leaks and prevent further unauthorized disclosures; I don’t want to be told why it can’t be done… I don’t want excuses; I want results. I want it done, whatever the cost”, Nixon proclaimed to White House Counsel Charles Colson. Two of the known Plumbers were George Gordon Liddy, who worked as the chief operative within the Plumbers and Everette Howard Hunt.
Both Liddy and Hunt were part of Nixon’s reelection campaign and spearheaded the break-in. Liddy was a former FBI agent while Hunt was ex-CIA. James Mccord was another burglar who was ex-CIA and specialized in wire tapping and electronics. Mccord served as the chief security officer at CREEP prior to the incident. His job in the operation was to bug the phones within the Democratic Committee. The remaining four burglars were Cuban Exiles and former government employees who served as lookouts, document photographers and lock pickers.
Another immediate link between CREEP and the Watergate Scandal was a $25,000 cashier’s check from CREEP found in one of the burglar’s bank accounts. Even though all of these immediate connections were made, the President at first was very intelligent about covering up the scandal and keeping it from blowing up in the media. Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were two reporters that found legitimate information regarding Watergate. They listed their primary source as “Deep Throat”, who they named after a controversial pornography at the time.
For over thirty years this source remained unknown until Mark Felt revealed his identity on May 31st, 2005 via Vanity Fair. Mark Felt was the FBI’s deputy director during the Watergate investigation. Bernstein and Woodward provided vital information throughout the investigation, but no one, including them, could ever prove that Nixon knew about the break-in in advance. However, they did prove that Nixon and his administration paid up to one million dollars’ worth of hush money to the burglars.
Hunt orchestrated a blackmail scheme which rewarded the burglars with the money. Once Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward started to leak accurate information to the media Nixon started to become sloppy in the cover-up. Nixon in his defense made one his biggest mistakes claiming the right as President to order his subordinates to mislead congress when he believed it necessary to national security, and he insisted that he could exercise an “executive privilege” to order executive department employees to refuse to give information to congressional investigating committees.
Nixon has shown countless reasons as to why he was an unfit president, utterly abused his power and should have been prosecuted. Breaking any law in his way and covering it up with miss-interpreted constitutional rights while also using his power as the President to fire anyone in his path of retaining presidency highlights the massive abuse of power.
On top of this, he manages to invade and bomb a country without informing congress, intimidate fellow candidates and maintained a secret White House Special Investigations Unit to do his illegal bidding. While Nixon attempted to explain his acts individually, with the amounted facts and proof against his actions, no conclusion can be drawn besides that he was an incredibly motivated, power seeking individual that worked his way into an astronomical amount of power which he used in a plethora of terribly wrong and abusive ways.
