US Presidency: Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Milhous Nixon - Essay Example

THE US PRESIDENCY by The of the class The name of the professor The name of the school The city and state where it is located Date Has anyone ever ruminated about the fact what factors actually determine the successful positions of a state in the international arena? Who or what is to blame for some horrible failures or to be praised for prosperity or wise decision-making? Since the time immemorial the U.S. citizens cherished their history, treating it with interest and concern. America has particular interest in life and work of its presidents, now living and already departed. Any sane resident of the United States knows for sure that the history of presidential authority had known 44 American presidents, that the first U.S. president was George Washington, "the father of all Americans," who ruled the country from 1789 to 1797, that the current State President, Barack Hussein Obama, was elected in 2009 from the Democratic Party and is the 44th the president, in general, and the first black leader in the states’ history. The past twentieth century presented the United States with Vivid, unforgettable leaders. In the face of the presidents of the twentieth century, from William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, at the beginning of last century, to George Herbert Walker Bush (1989-1993) and William Jefferson Clinton (1993-2001) at the end, the state had talented, intelligent, energetic leaders. However, their acts were not always beneficial for the state and sometimes brought evil and suffering to peoples all over the world. This paper will discuss two leaders of the American people, who were destined to govern the largest state in the world in a bygone age, democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-1969) and republican Richard Milhous Nixon (1969-1974). Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) began his political career in 1931 as secretary of Congressman R. Kleberg. By 1948, held the chair of senator and in 1955, he became the first leader of the Democratic Party. In 1960, Johnson decided to run for president. However, an election victory in 1960 was won by John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1961-1963), and Johnson preceded the powers of the Vice President on January 20, 1961. In 1963, Kennedy was assassinated on the 22 of November, and since that day Johnson began to serve as president. The end of the presidency of Lyndon Johnson was the 20th of January, 1969, when Nixon was inaugurated. After this event, the 36th U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson went to his ranch in Texas. He dropped out of high policy, wrote memoirs, and occasionally lectured at the University of Texas. He died on January 22, 1973, in his hometown of Stonewall of a third heart attack, caused by long smoking (Evans & Novak 1964). Richard Milhous Nixons (1913-1994) became the youngest partner in the oldest law firm of Whittier’s "Wingert and Bewley" after graduating the Law School at Duke University in Durham (North Carolina) in 1934. And at age of 26 - became the youngest trustee of Whittier College. In August, 1942, he became a lieutenant of the Navy. He served as an officer in the aviation ground services in the Pacific. He was retired from the army in 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1946, Nixon became a congressman. In 1950 - a senator. During the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961), Richard Nixon served as vice president. Eisenhower delegated much more power to his vice president, contrary to any of his predecessors. Nixon attended the majority of meetings between the president and the Cabinet of Ministers or Congressional leaders. When being a chairman of the Presidential Commission for Public Contracts, Nixon took much pain to eliminate discriminatory hiring system. As a chairman of the Committee for Economic Development under the Cabinet of Ministers, he played an important role in ceasing the strike of steel workers in 1959. In three cases (1955, 1956 and 1957) he assumed the administrative functions of the president (during President’s illness) (Bumiller 2009). In 1960, Nixon was nominated for the presidency by the Republican National Convention (as is known, it was John F. Kennedy who became the president), in 1968, Nixon was re-nominated as a candidate for the U.S. presidency and won. Richard Nixon was the 37th in the list of U.S. presidents, but the only president, resigned voluntarily after the so-called Watergate scandal. Even during the election campaign of 1972, when in the headquarters of the Democratic Party, police detained a group of intruders trying to install eavesdropping equipment. This episode did not prevent Richard Nixon from winning and take his place in the White House for the second. But soon a new scandal broke out. It was connected with Vice President Spiro Agnew who was charged with racketeering, corruption and tax evasion. Although it was clearly exaggerated by the media and those circles, interested in Nixon administration addressing, Congress started the preparations for impeachment. In August, 1974, Nixon resigned, as had lost all his allies (Mason 2004). Nixon retired to his mansion in Saint Clement (Calif.). In 1976 he was deprived of right to practice law in New York, which put an end to his legal career. In the late 1970s and 1980s, trying to restore the reputation, Nixon wrote a series of memoirs and several books on international relations, often traveled abroad. Nixon died in New York on April 22, 1994. It has already been said about the early political career and its end of prominent figures of the twentieth century - the U.S. Presidents, democrat Lyndon Johnson and republican Richard Nixon. Each of them also led specific domestic and foreign policy. In January 1964, Lyndon Johnson declared, - "This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty", in August the same year, Johnson signed one of the most important laws against poverty - the Economic Opportunities Act. The law included four types of measures to combat poverty: training and education, Community Action Program (implemented by local authorities), special programs supporting small farming businesses and patronage of missionary organizations, such as Volunteers in Service to America, War on Poverty, which became basic for soon declared program of Great Society (Mason 2004). In addition to this law, during the Johnson presidency there were 207 laws adopted - the "building stones of a better America," as the president himself called them. Johnson personally initiated the adoption of acts on primary and secondary education, higher education, the Medicare Act, the Voting Rights Act, which provide the Negro population of the U.S. the possibility of participation in the elections. In 1966, Johnson took steps to establish teacher corps program, program of housing subsidies for Needy Families, the "model city" program, developing a system of measures to combat water and air pollution, initiated a program of improvements in highway building. During the administration of Lyndon Johnson the social security payments were increased. The mandatory condition of the "Great Society" was economic growth. During the 60-ies (1961 to 1969) American economy was booming. Industrial manufacturing was increased by 60%. Still, a powerful factor in long-term economy dynamics was the scientific and technological progress. It is worth noting that Johnsons policy was favorable to both chambers of Congress. Amid the unprecedented rise of anti-racist movement the Johnson administration made a lot of efforts to eliminate African Americans disparities. Besides the mentioned electoral law, civil laws were adopted in 1964 and 1968, prohibiting discrimination in hiring and firing workers, as well as some laws on education, sale and rental housing. The country has not experienced such scale of democratic reforms since the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt. Further development of the STR directly affected the rise of the U.S. economy of 1960-ies. There was a qualitative transformation of the basic manufacturing components, its automation, in particular. Use of computer technologies was significantly increased. Scientific and technological revolution allowed the U.S. to surpass the Soviet Union in the field of space exploration, closely related to military production. The U.S. mission of the spacecraft Apollo-11 to the moon, with three astronauts on board, also contributed to the country’s success. The industries related to the latest achievements of science and technology: electricity, radio engineering, chemical industry, modern engineering played the main part in U. S. economy of that period. Thus, agriculture also underwent complete technical reorganization. The STR spread rapidly over non-productive spheres - commerce, service, credit and financial system, management. What are the results of Jones war on poverty "? The number of Americans living below the poverty line decreased from 36.4 to 25.4 million. The most optimistic prospects included the final elimination of poverty by 1976, i.e. to the 200th anniversary of the United States. But 10 million people, torn out of poverty embrace, certainly cost perennial efforts of the Government; considering such outspoken results, it is difficult to assert that the war was lost. In the late 60s the economic growth slowed significantly. Large-scale federal expenses for the "war on poverty" caused the destabilization of the budget, the public debt increase. Main item of federal spending was a real war - the war in Indochina. The problems associated with the rights of black Americans began to worsen once again. In August 1965, in the Negro district of Los Angeles riots occurred; that time 35 people were killed. In the summer of 1967, there was the largest African-American manifestation. In the Newark (NJ) 26 people died, 40 were killed in Detroit. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, the leader of the civil rights movement, was killed. There was the African American agitation in 125 cities, including Washington. In addition, another loud political murder thundered - that time, Senator Robert Kennedy, brother of slain president John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. The 37th U.S. President Republican Richard Nixon had to deal with deteriorating economic conditions, weakening the U.S. in the global economy and with active social movement in its higher phase of. All the attempts, aimed at cooling down the economy, by means of high interest bank rates, did not yield the desired results, did not lower the inflation in the country. In summer, 1970, Richard Nixon started the revision of economic policies, culminated in the announcement of the "new economic policy ". In order to encourage various investments, the tax on excess profits was repealed, income taxes were also reduced; there were tax breaks for companies, which made investments to industry. Stimulating demand, the government raised the salaries of civil servants, increased payments for the social insurance system. The state resorted to prices and income control. Nixon began an unprecedented centralization of executive power. He kept the Congress on the course, using the apparatus of White House staff as a shield, and virtually ignored it, while carrying out foreign policy. Nixons propensity to bypass traditional channels of accountability manifested in his attempts to reorganize the executive branch. In 1972 he proposed replacing the seven existing ministries with four new ones, but Congress denied taking an appropriate decision. Nixon announced his plans for the implementation of governing policy over the ministries through the "super cabinet", which would consist of several White House advisers. He created new administration and budget management, which enjoyed more rights in comparison with the old Budget Bureau, and the Board of Internal Affairs, which usurped, in the opinion of many critics, the cabinet’s authorities. Nixon was forced to devalue the U.S. currency, temporarily suspend the dollar into gold conversion, which undermined confidence in the dollar. He introduced a restrictive budget and monetary policy. In August 1971, the president established state control over wages and prices, starting with their freezing for 90 days. Inflation fell slightly, but in 1973 gave its place to rapid increase, primarily due to price rising for food products. In 1971, the U.S. economy was revived, but 1973 was a period of a new, more powerful blow, when the Arab countries, in response to pro-Israel stance of the West, raised oil prices by 70%. That event was followed by the world energy crisis. The U.S. gross national product fall totaled 4.3% and industrial production - 13, 2%. The number of unemployed dramatically increased. The leaders of the aviation industry “Lockheed” and “Pan-American” found themselves on the bankruptcy verge. Economic blow was accompanied the political, i.e. previously mentioned Watergate scandal. Watergate became synonymous with power abuse, synonymous with political scandal and had a negative impact on the entire situation in the country, particularly on the institute of presidency. The U.S. Congress adopted several resolutions limiting the powers of the state head. The foreign policy of the 36th and 37th U.S. presidents also deserve to be spoken about. About the policy, which often leads to nullifying all the achievements in the economy, contributes to the global economic crisis and leads to the outbreak of the most sordid, hateful wars. The foreign policy of Lyndon Johnsons, basically built on the principles of "flexible response", was put forward by his predecessor John F. Kennedy. However, the successor retreated from one of the key theses by Kennedy - not to get involved in military solutions of the Third World problems. In 1965 American troops participated in the overthrow of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Dominican Republic. But a disaster for foreign policy and, as it turned out, for the idea of ​​"Great Society" was the war in Vietnam. Kennedy, illustrating the danger of being drawn into the conflict in Indochina, by such comparison, - “Its like drinking a glass. The effect falls and you need to drink another one”. Johnson, unlike Nixon, made a bet to force (after obtaining congressional authorization – so-called “Tonkin Resolution”), sacrificing 50,000 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. The war was very cruel. The world community was shocked at the American platoon actions, when its soldiers burned down a Vietnamese village of My Lai and shot all of its inhabitants. The platoon commander was convicted by the United States for this crime. Chemical toxic substance "orange" was used for green jungle destruction. Serious environmental consequences are still being felt. Neighboring Laos and Cambodia were drawn in the war. ​​The world community condemned the U. S. actions in Vietnam. In the U.S. passed an anti-war campaign. The President was in a very difficult situation. Opponents accused him of aggression in the conduct of imperialist policy, and the right - in indecision and inability to bring the war to end. This influenced the decision of the administration of President Johnson to cease the bombing of North Vietnam, and begin a phased withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. Large-scale anti-war campaigns were deployed in the USA. The President was in extremely difficult situation. Opponents accused him of aggression and imperialist policy, and the right-wing parties - of indecision and inability to bring the war to end. This influenced the decision of President Johnson’s administration to cease the bombing of North Vietnam, and to start a phased withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. With regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the administration of President Johnson, in contrast to his followers, did not take a pro-Israel position, which kept the West from the price hike of petroleum products. In June 1967, when the famous Six-Day Arab-Israeli war began, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, the Arab part of Jerusalem and the Golan height; all permanent members of UN Security Council, including the USA, condemned Israels actions. U.S. foreign policy of the 60ies caused social movements within the country. These movements, on the one hand, made ​​their adjustments to the democratic structure (civil rights movement), to the foreign policy (peace movement), to the education system (student unrest). On the other hand, they shook the foundations of healthy American society, enticing Americans with unrealistic collectivist utopias (movement "hippies") and short-term radical solutions. Riots, pogroms, the extremes of "sexual revolution" caused serious damage to American morality. Blanket criticism of the army and government was flagrant with patriotism erosion. A series of political assassinations, mentioned above, also contributed to the chaos. The country was in need of stabilization, but people doubted whether democrats would be able to provide them with this stability. Unsuccessful foreign policy of Lyndon Johnson was the main reason why the presidents popularity was so low; he did not even propose his candidacy for elections in 1968. Trust in democracy was undermined, so that the victory of republican candidate Richard Nixon that year was not a surprise. "Partnership, military force and negotiation" - that triad framework of foreign policy was formulated by Richard Nixon. This mature partnership referred to Western Europe and Japan. United States sought to share responsibility with them for the fate of the free world. In 1973, U.S. intelligence agencies participated in the overthrow of the government of Salvador Allende in Chile. In the Middle East a key strategic partner of the U.S. was Israel. This partnership was quite topical in connection with adverse for the U.S. changes in Libya, Iraq, Syria, Algeria. In 1972 a very important step was taken by Richard Nixon: he paid a visit to Beijing, where he met Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlanem. The visit marked the beginning of normalization of the relations with China. Establishing relations with "Red" China, U.S. diplomacy and President Nixon personally sought to improve relations with the USSR. Afterwards, a series of US-Soviet summits, which resulted in the signing of important documents, were held. During Nixon’s rule, there was the transition from the "era of confrontation to the "era of negotiation" (according to Nixon). Nixon administration’s waiver from the doctrine of nuclear superiority played an important role in the process of establishing US-Soviet relations, as well as the transition to a strategy of "sufficiency", based on the recognition of exemplary military balance between the USSR and the U.S., did. Nixon and his team got the war in Indochina, which was inherited from the democrats. The President immediately set course to the "Vietnamization" of the conflict. In January 1973, representatives of the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the Peoples Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam signed the Paris Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam. It seemed that the foreign policy activity of Richard Nixon was quite successful, if there was no Arab-Israeli war. Thus, the fourth Arab-Israeli war was started, in which Richard Nixon and his administration took the outright pro-Israel stance. After losing the war, Egypt started looking for peaceful ways of resolving the Middle East problem. But this situation did not save Western countries, including the U.S., from oil, energy, and general economic crises, which were caused by this particular war. As it was mentioned earlier, in 1973, Arab countries raised oil prices by 70%, which was an assault on the U.S. economy. On July 27, 1974, Judiciary Committee House of Representatives voted to impeach. But President Richard Nixon resigned voluntarily (Dallek 2007). Gerald Ford (1974-1979) preserved the continuity of internal and external policies of his predecessor. Ford continued the Nixon’s case in general relaxing the international tension. Two of these presidents made quite an impact during their time as presidents. Both presidents made their mark in the history of the USA. Johnson’s and Nixon’s governance had both positive (democracy development, the progress in scientific and technological revolution, international detente) and negative (interference in the internal affairs of the Dominican Republic, in the Middle East conflict, war with Vietnam) consequences. Their imperialistic policies aroused resignation throughout the world. The presidents were committed to their cause, they made brilliant careers, but both finished them unsuccessfully. References Bumiller, E 2009, "Inside the Presidency". National Geographic, 215 (1): 130–149. Bundy, W 1998, A Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency. 5 May 2011 from < http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3332 > Evans, R. & Novak, R. (1966). Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power. Rockwood Press. Florence, J 2009, "Reforming the State Secrets Privilege". American Constitution Society, 25 (6): 23 -32. Kimball, J 2002, Nixons Vietnam War. Oxford Press: NY. Lang, J. S 2001, The Complete Book of Presidential Trivia. Pelican Publishing. Savage, C 2010, "Court Dismisses a Case Asserting Torture by C.I.A.". New York Times. 5 May 2011 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/us/09secrets.html How To Address The President; He Is Not Your Excellency Or Your Honor, But Mr. President". The New York Times. 5 May 2011 from Dallek, R 2007, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power. Harper Collins. Mason, R 2004, Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority. Tucker, N 2005,"Taiwan Expendable? Nixon and Kissinger Go to China" Journal of American History, 92 (1): 109–135. Hood, J. L 1993,"The Nixon Administration and the Revised Philadelphia Plan for Affirmative Action: A Study in Expanding Presidential Power and Divided Government" Presidential Studies Quarterly 23(3): 145–67. Kotlowski, D. J 2001, Nixons Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy. Sussman, G. & Daynes 2004, B. W. 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