How Did Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal Affect The United States?

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Richard Nixon is the 37th president of the United States and a very controversial one at that. President Nixon was best known for his biggest failures as a result of how bad they were. Nixon had been connected to the Watergate Scandal. It was several burglars who had been arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in Washington, D.C.The prowlers had been connected to President Nixon’s reelection campaign where they had been stealing important documents. Nixon aggressively took action in order to cover the crime. This really affected Americans to question their leaders. In 1971, Nixon prompted the situation with OPEC by removing the United States from the gold standard. This affected the US because countries could no longer redeem the U.S. dollars in their foreign …show more content…

In 1973, Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act. The goal was to prevent the extinction of animal and plant life. It was also to eliminate threats towards them. Vietnamization was a strategy that helped reduce American involvement in the Vietnam war by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. President Nixon really believed in his Vietnamization strategy, which was to build South Vietnam’s armed forces and withdrawing U.S. troops. He believed that it would prepare the South Vietnamese to act in their own defense against a North Vietnamese takeover and allow the US troops to leave Vietnam with its honor intact. Nixon visiting china was a way for Nixon to normalize relations with the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) by traveling to Beijing for a week of talks. Due to the Watergate Scandal, on August 9, 1974, he resigned before almost being impeached out of office. After his resignation, Gerald Ford came in the picture. Detente was a French word that meant a release from tension. The pardon for nixon was a pardon that was issued in September 8, 1974, by president Gerald