Richard Nixon Essay free essay sample

American public, saying that by Working together, we will break the back of inflation. Another large part of Nixons plan was the detachment of the dollar from the gold standard. By the time Nixon took office, U. S. gold reserves had declined from $25 billion to $10. 5 billion. Gold was an underpriced commodity, as the dollar was overpriced as a currency. Nixon removed to gold standard in the U. S. and as a result, he prevented other countries from being able to claim gold in exchange for their dollar reserves. At the same time, this action weakened the exchange rate of the dollar against other currencies. Nixon’s plan to reduced inflation seemed to back fire on him, since the inflation only went up by driving up the cost of imports. Nixon’s reasoning behind these decisions was that he felt the dollar should float freely like other currencies. As far as Nixon’s presidency goes in the economic department, it wasn’t as successful as he wanted he wanted it to be. Nixon’s overall goal was to reduce the inflation while stimulating the economy at the same time; however he was not able to accomplish this feat and actually raised the inflation rather than bring it down. A Pay Board set wage controls limiting increases to 5. % per year, and the Price Commission set a 2. 5% annual limit on price increases. The limits did help to control wages, but not inflation. These limits were viewed as successful in the short term and were popular with the public. The public felt that Nixon had been rescuing them from price-gougers and from a foreign-caused exchange crisis. So at least from the public’s perspective, Nixon managed to clear up a few problems citizens were asking to get fixed at that very moment, but he failed to achieve anything important in the long run. When it comes to civil rights, Nixon did make some strives for bettering the education of he children. He started with the integration of public school in the South. Strategically, Nixon sought a middle way between the segregationist George C. Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern white Democrats. As a Quaker, Nixon felt that racism was the greatest moral failure of the United States and concentrated on the principle that the law must be color-blind. Nixon had intended to do exactly what the court had ordered: desegregation. Nixons Cabinet Committee on Education, under the leadership of Labor Secretary George P. Shultz, quietly set up local biracial committees to assure smooth compliance without violence or political grandstanding. In this sense, Nixon was the greatest school desegregator in American history, historian Dean Kotlowski stated. Author Conrad Black also said: In his singular, unsung way, Richard Nixon defanged and healed one of the potentially greatest controversies of the time. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Nixons presidential counselor, commented in 1970 â€Å"There has been more change in the structure of American public school education in the last month than in the past 100 years. † In that sense, Nixon has been very successful when it comes to the civil rights of the American nation. He managed to greatly change the American school systems by removing all segregation and began to slowly integrate colored schools in the South together. These decisions were definitely best for the country as a whole, since segregation was holding many people back from realizing that justice is color blind and that race does not matter. As Nixon’s presidency drew to a close, he has had his most infamous event yet: The Watergate Scandal. This became one of a series of scandalous acts involving the Committee to Re-Elect the President. Nixon downplayed the scandal as mere politics, and his White House denounced the story as biased and misleading. As the FBI eventually confirmed that Nixon aides had attempted to sabotage the Democrats, many began resigning and senior aides faced prosecution. The more Nixon tried to cover this scandal up when it first arrived only made him seem more and more suspicious until the truth finally came out. The resignation speech was delivered on August 8, 1974, at 9:01 p. m. Eastern time from the Oval Office of the White House and was carried live on radio and television. The core of the speech was Nixons announcement that Gerald Ford, as Vice President, would succeed to the presidency, effective at noon Eastern Time the next day. Around this announcement, he discussed his feelings about his presidential work and general political issues that would need attention once he left. He never admitted to criminal wrongdoing, although he conceded errors of judgment. The Watergate Scandal really has nothing to do with Nixon’s overall presidency, but this event is just too large to overlook. Nixon had betrayed the American people’s trust and he was looked at with hate as he grew more unpopular as time went by. However Nixon’s presidency as a whole was more or less very well done. While he could not fix the problems with the economy and in fact made them worse, it managed to end the problems with North Vietnam. Where he managed to improve school systems by banning segregation and utilized desegregation, he tarnished his image with the Watergate Scandal. Nixon’s presidency had many pros and cons, with an equal amount of good decisions to balance out the bad. However I feel that without Nixon, America would not have the privileges it has today which we take for granted. Thus, cementing the grade he had previously received, a B-.