How Did Nixon Changed America

Fixin’ Nixon After the infamous Watergate incident, President Nixon was looked at as the worst ever occupant of the white house. Although he had some flaws, Nixon did many good things for America that changed our country for the better. History has definitely not judged him fairly. Nixon, who was the 37th President of the United States, did do a lot of good things while in office. In 1972, he reopened America's relations with China, which was necessary to acquiring the goods our country needed. Secondly, Nixon played a major role in the detente(a period of time characterized by improved relations between the Soviet Union and the US). Finally, he made many beneficial national domestic changes, such as largely ending segregated classes in the
Nixon had good intentions for the country, as he significantly improved relations with China. 1972 was a very important year for the United States and China, because it marked the end of 25 years of separation between the two nations. Prior to the president, Richard Nixon talked of the need for improved relations with the PRC (People’s Republic of China), with which the U.S. did not keep diplomatic relations as it solely recognized the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan as the government of China (Nixon, 2). Nixon visited February 21 to 28, 1972, which presented an opportunity for the American public to see pictures involving China for the first time in more than twenty of isolation from them, along with many other benefits (Relations, 1). Nixon even had a meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong, while the First Lady at the time, Pat Nixon, toured schools, factories and hospitals in the city of Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou with the large American press corps in town. Nixon coined the visit "the week that changed the world” in his parting toast, in Shanghai, which described it
Nixon went out of his way to give minorities more rights than they had before he initially took office. In 1956, as vice president, Nixon went to Harlem to declare, “America can’t afford the cost of segregation.” The following year, Nixon got a personal letter from Dr. King thanking him for helping to persuade the Senate to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Nixon supported the civil rights acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968. In August 1969, President Nixon issued Executive Order 11478, which required all federal agencies to adopt "affirmative programs for equal employment opportunity." These programs were imposed in order to increase access to education and employment for historically underrepresented minorities, including blacks, Latinos, Asians, women, and disabled persons. During Nixon’s presidency, the civil rights enforcement budget rose 800 percent. Record numbers of blacks were appointed to federal office. An Office of Minority Business Enterprise was created. SBA loans to minorities soared 1,000 percent. Aid to black colleges doubled. Nixon won the South not because he agreed with them on civil rights—he never did—but because he shared the patriotic values of the South and its antipathy to liberal hypocrisy (Richard, 1-3). When Johnson departed from office, 10 percent of Southern schools were desegregated. When Nixon left, on the other hand, the figure was 70 percent.