Nixon Dies: Watergate's Shadow Outlasts the Statesman
Richard Nixon opened China to the United States in 1972. No Democratic president could have done it — the political cost of looking soft on Communism would have been fatal. Nixon had built his career on anti-Communism, which gave him cover. The same president who expanded the Vietnam War and carpet-bombed Cambodia also created the EPA, signed the Clean Air Act, and established the first diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China in 25 years. Then Watergate. He resigned August 9, 1974. He died April 22, 1994.
April 22, 1994
32 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on April 22
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