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President Nixon established the [[Environmental Protection Agency]] (EPA) and was the first President to visit the People's Republic of [[China]]. He appointed a conservative ([[William Rehnquist]]), two moderates ([[Warren Burger]] and [[Lewis Powell]]) and a liberal ([[Harry Blackmun]]) to the U.S. Supreme Court. Nixon was from a [[Quakers|Quaker]] family. His foreign policy as president was marked by détente with the [[Soviet Union]] and the opening of diplomatic relations between the United States and the [[People's Republic of China]]. [[Conscription]] into the U. S. military also ended early in Nixon's second term, when he supported abolishing the [[Selective Service Administration]].  This was somewhat controversial at the time, but can be seen as a vote of great confidence in our system as against that of the Soviets, to the extent that our army, like our society, didn't need to be bigger as long as it was better.  

President Nixon established the [[Environmental Protection Agency]] (EPA) and was the first President to visit the People's Republic of [[China]]. He appointed a conservative ([[William Rehnquist]]), two moderates ([[Warren Burger]] and [[Lewis Powell]]) and a liberal ([[Harry Blackmun]]) to the U.S. Supreme Court. Nixon was from a [[Quakers|Quaker]] family. His foreign policy as president was marked by détente with the [[Soviet Union]] and the opening of diplomatic relations between the United States and the [[People's Republic of China]]. [[Conscription]] into the U. S. military also ended early in Nixon's second term, when he supported abolishing the [[Selective Service Administration]].  This was somewhat controversial at the time, but can be seen as a vote of great confidence in our system as against that of the Soviets, to the extent that our army, like our society, didn't need to be bigger as long as it was better.  

His centrist domestic policies combined conservative rhetoric and liberal action in civil rights, environmental and economic initiatives. Nixon considered himself to be a Keynesian, that is, his economic views were shaped by economist [[John Maynard Keynes]]. [http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/hein6.html] As a result of the Watergate affair, Nixon resigned the presidency in the face of likely impeachment by the United States [[House of Representatives]]. His successor, [[Gerald Ford]], issued a controversial [[pardon]] that allowed Nixon to avoid prosecution. Speaking in later life, Ford stated that he felt the pardon was needed to stop a terrible rift developing in American social life.

His centrist domestic policies combined conservative rhetoric and liberal action in civil rights, environmental and economic initiatives. Nixon considered himself to be a Keynesian, that is, his economic views were shaped by economist [[John Maynard Keynes]]. <ref>http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/hein6.html</ref> As a result of the Watergate affair, Nixon resigned the presidency in the face of likely impeachment by the United States [[House of Representatives]]. His successor, [[Gerald Ford]], issued a controversial [[pardon]] that allowed Nixon to avoid prosecution. Speaking in later life, Ford stated that he felt the pardon was needed to stop a terrible rift developing in American social life.

Nixon inherited the Vietnam war with a promise to bring "peace with honor," one of his 1968 campaign slogans.  His Vietnam strategies included "Vietnamization," a policy aimed at reducing U.S. casualties and troops, while also convincing the American public that the Vietnamese people could assume the primary responsibility of waging war.  To win support for the war among the [["silent majority,"]] Nixon pursued the [["politics of polarization."]]  Instrumental to this cause was Nixon's first vice president [[Spiro T. Agnew]], who criticized opponents of the war as "nattering nabobs of negativism," and an "effete corps of impudent snobs."  Nixon also sought to instill in the North Vietnamese the belief that he was volatile and unstable, and willing to use nuclear weapons in the war, a strategy known as the "madman scenario."

Nixon inherited the Vietnam war with a promise to bring "peace with honor," one of his 1968 campaign slogans.  His Vietnam strategies included "Vietnamization," a policy aimed at reducing U.S. casualties and troops, while also convincing the American public that the Vietnamese people could assume the primary responsibility of waging war.  To win support for the war among the [["silent majority,"]] Nixon pursued the [["politics of polarization."]]  Instrumental to this cause was Nixon's first vice president [[Spiro T. Agnew]], who criticized opponents of the war as "nattering nabobs of negativism," and an "effete corps of impudent snobs."  Nixon also sought to instill in the North Vietnamese the belief that he was volatile and unstable, and willing to use nuclear weapons in the war, a strategy known as the "madman scenario."