When voters went to the polls on November 5, 1968, America was consumed by the chaos and tumult of the 1960s. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy; segregation, Selma, and the Freedom Riders; the rise of feminism, the birth of the environmental movement. And, looming largest of all, the Vietnam War.
The question facing Americans: who could lead the nation through multiple crises? Who would want to?
In 1968, facing Vice President Hubert Humphrey and third-party challenger George Wallace, Richard Nixon mounted one of the greatest political comebacks in American history. Americans knew him and trusted he was the right man to lead through chaos at home and war abroad.
President Nixon led with boldness at home and abroad. His policies reshaped America’s role in the world, strengthened its institutions, and left a legacy that still endures.
In 1972, President Nixon became the first American president to visit the People’s Republic of China. The visit broke a 25-year diplomatic freeze and reshaped the global balance of power, laying the groundwork for a new era of U.S.–China relations.
— Richard Nixon, February 1972
Operation Homecoming returned 591 American prisoners of war — including heroes held in the Hanoi Hilton — back to their families. President Nixon greeted many personally upon their return.
In 1970, President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, establishing the federal government’s first unified environmental mission. That same year, he signed the landmark Clean Air Act, setting national standards for pollution control and public health.
In February 1972, President Richard Nixon stepped off Air Force One and onto Chinese soil, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit the People’s Republic of China.
At the height of the Cold War, with no formal diplomatic relations between the two nations, the world watched in disbelief.
— Ambassador Winston Lord, Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor
Since the Communist revolution in 1949, the U.S. and China had been locked in isolation and mutual suspicion. President Nixon believed it was time to break that silence.
He understood that engaging China would reshape the global balance of power and provide new leverage against the Soviet Union.
— Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State
The stakes were enormous. Nixon was risking political backlash at home and geopolitical consequences abroad. But he believed the future required new thinking and new relationships.
Nixon’s visit was carefully choreographed yet deeply substantive. He met with Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, stood atop the Great Wall, and dined in the Forbidden City.
Every moment — every handshake, every toast — carried global meaning.
— President Nixon
The trip concluded with the Shanghai Communiqué — a historic joint statement that acknowledged each nation’s differences while pledging mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and future engagement.
It did not resolve every issue. But it redefined diplomacy: not as a reward for friends, but as a necessity between rivals.cc
A Presidency Tested
In the early morning hours of June 17, 1972, five men were arrested with electronic surveillance equipment inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
Nixon’s second term unraveled amid the political fallout from what became known as the Watergate scandal. Months of investigations by Congress and federal prosecutors gradually eroded Nixon’s political support. Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974.
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18001 Yorba Linda Blvd,
Yorba Linda, CA 92886
18001 Yorba Linda Blvd,
Yorba Linda, CA 92886
18001 Yorba Linda Blvd,
Yorba Linda, CA 92886
