The Democratic Congress and the media, along with the anti-war movement, faced severe criticism but gained widespread public support and saved the lives of American and South Vietnamese citizens. This was achieved through the bombing of North Vietnam in May 1972 and again in December, as well as the Cambodian incursion in May 1970. These actions made Hanoi pay a significant price for their aggression and, when necessary, strengthened South Vietnam’s ability to defend itself. In addition, the President initiated the withdrawal of U.S. Troops while ensuring that an ally would not be abandoned to certain defeat by the communist armies of North Vietnam. As President Nixon took office in January 1969, he took on the responsibility of safeguarding the lives of 540,000 young Americans who had been deployed to Indochina during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
Recent scholarship suggests that the peace talks in Paris and the war policies of the Nixon Administration resulted in the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, with the goal of preserving the freedoms of the people of Cambodia and South Vietnam if the United States had kept its promises. The Accords paved the way for the return of many prisoners of war who had been brutally tortured by the communist U.S. And ended direct U.S. Military involvement in the war, while pledging to continue supporting South Vietnam with economic and military assistance if the communists violated the terms of the treaties by using air power.
The investigation ordered by the Secret Service into President Nixon’s personal residences and Mrs. Nixon’s expenditures has been broadened to include a wide range of matters, ranging from the President’s conduct during the Vietnam War to the deepening economic woes and energy supply issues in the nation. The residual tension over Vietnam, along with the corrosive atmosphere created by the Democratic-controlled Congress, made the political atmosphere even more toxic. In June 1972, the FBI’s investigation into the Watergate break-in, with charges of complicity in the blocking of the investigation, ultimately led to the end of President Nixon’s presidency just a few months after the war ended.
On August 9, 1974, he made the decision to step down after the House Judiciary Committee approved three Articles of Impeachment in July 1974 and the Supreme Court mandated the release of White House tapes that seemed to implicate the President further in the Watergate scandal, prior to being impeached by the full House and facing a Senate trial. Gerald R. Ford, his second Vice President, was inaugurated as President on the same day. Although he had the right to a trial conducted in accordance with the rules of evidence as per the Constitution, he stated that he did not want the nation to be consumed by the Watergate issue for months to come.
In 1981, they relocated to the northern part of Bergen County, New Jersey. In 1980, President and Mrs. Nixon went back to their residence in San Clemente, where they resided until shifting to New York City following his resignation from the Presidency.
During his sixth visit to China in October 1989, June publicly expressed his outrage over the government crackdown in Tiananmen Square, which led to the American people’s anger. Later, analysts credited him with bringing the Soviet leaders, Gorbachev and the Reagan Administration, together to eventually limit the intermediate-range nuclear forces in Europe. In 1986, he returned to the Soviet Union to meet with Mikhail Gorbachev. In the fall of 1985, he undertook a five-week fact-finding trip, meeting with top leaders in Great Britain, Turkey, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and China. Throughout his retirement, President Nixon traveled to dozens of countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Starting in 1992, he started making yearly trips to non-communist Russia, providing guidance to the Bush and Clinton Administrations, delivering speeches, and penning articles as part of his work. With the aim of promoting political and economic freedom, he strongly recommended that the United States and its allies take decisive actions to assist Russia during its monumental transition following the collapse of Soviet communism. Following his initial encounter with Boris Yeltsin in Moscow in the spring of 1991, he openly opposed any additional assistance to Gorbachev’s regime.
In 1985, he made history by becoming the initial ex-President to willingly relinquish lifelong Secret Service protection, resulting in an annual savings of $3 million for the taxpayers. His most recent publications, Beyond Peace (May 1994) and RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, consist of Six Crises (1962), all of which were highly successful, along with his collection of ten books.
He was laid to rest at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda on April 27, 1994, alongside his First Lady, who had passed away on April 22, 1994, in New York City. The speakers at his State Funeral included President Bill Clinton, Senator Robert Dole, California Governor Pete Wilson, and his former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.