The Cold Warrior who opened détente with Moscow and Beijing, then became the only U.S. president to resign
At the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, standing before a model kitchen, Nixon told Khrushchev, "There may be some instances, for example, color television, where we are ahead of you," in an impromptu debate that became known as the Kitchen Debate.
A tenacious politician who rose from anti-communist congressman to vice president, Nixon overcame two bitter defeats to capture the presidency in 1968. The quintessential Cold Warrior, he unexpectedly became the architect of détente, visiting Moscow in May 1972 to sign the ABM Treaty and the SALT I Interim Agreement with Leonid Brezhnev; the first legally binding limits on the superpowers' nuclear arsenals. He ended U.S. combat involvement in Vietnam and opened relations with Mao's China, yet his presidency collapsed in the Watergate scandal; on August 9, 1974, he became the only U.S. president to resign. He spent his final decades rehabilitating his image as an elder statesman, but his legacy remains suspended between the achievement of détente and the crimes that destroyed his presidency.
Career Timeline
- 1946–1950U.S. Representative (CA-12); gained national fame through the Alger Hiss case on HUAC
- 1950–1953U.S. Senator from California
- 1953–1961Vice President of the United States (Eisenhower administration); 1959 Moscow 'Kitchen Debate'
- 1961–1968Law practice, writing; lost 1962 California gubernatorial race, then rebuilt politically
- 1969–197437th U.S. President; signed SALT I and ABM Treaty at the 1972 Moscow Summit, ended Vietnam War, visited China; resigned 1974 over Watergate