Does Nixon deserve to be remembered as a criminal failure?

        The public reaction to this was understandable, how could the leader of their entire nation lie to them so blatantly, thinking he could get away with it. They protest along the streets holding signs saying ‘honk to impeach’- Nixon was clearly crushed by the scandal, however it seems that his foolishness crushed him more than the actually events! The outcome of the scandal was a record low 17% approval rating!

        Another epic fail which happened thanks to Nixon, was the bombing raids over Cambodia- he tried to cover the mission up by making the pilots plot false bombing co-ordinates into their planes to hide the event. This was a disaster, as again the media caught onto it pretty fast. Nixon gets tonnes of criticism from this as it again showed how he was not only a liar and a scammer but also a murderer, he attacked a neutral nation, killing innocent harmless civilians. America was again disgusted, how could they trust a man who lied to his countrymen so blatantly, to rule their country!

         Other issues were also sweeping through America; Nixon couldn’t handle the American economy- it was stuck in a phase known as ‘stagflation’ and nothing he did had any major effect on it, it hence caused unemployment and high inflation! Nixon also was caught not paying enough taxes, which is a crime. This would clearly cause anger amongst the people as even the poorest of the poor were forced to pay these taxes. Goldwater ( an ex-supporter of Nixon) was one of many fed up of this man shouting ‘act like a president’ after he was caught not paying sufficient taxes, and also ‘get you ass out of the white house’ after the Watergate scandal.

        Nixon however, wasn’t a complete failure during his presidency; although the ‘nam war made Nixon look foolish and collectively destroyed his reputation, Nixon did manage to end the war, after endless destruction and loss of life, he still did manage to make peace! Law and order was another parial succces under Nixon- yes there was the kent state massacre under his rule where un armed college students were shot, but other that this it was rather calm under Nixon, compared to the previous years

        Also, Nixon did succeed in a few areas: he opend the china door, by visiting the country for the first time by an American president for ages, opening up industry and trade between the countries leading to slight détente between the USSR. He also succeeded in the SALT agreements, which would lesson tensions. Also his huge win in his second presidential election could be seen as a massive success to Nixon.

        In conclusion, I feel that yes Nixon should be labelled as a criminal failure, he committed several serious criminal offence during his time in office, from tax evasion to the Cambodian bombing incidence. Nixon's reign was one dominated by his failures in foreign to internal politics. Nixon was a pathetic drunk, a man who could never accept he was wrong, still to this day he has refused to apologise for his failures throughout the world! Nixon was the first president ever to resign from power- again highlighting how much of a failure he was, and to many he is regarded as one of the worst presidents in American history. He certainly deserves the title – a criminal failure!