Presidency of Richard Nixon

Historical Context Note

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)
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Richard M. Nixon, former vice-president and U.S. senator, won the 1968 presidential election by cobbling together a coalition of Southern conservatives. Nixon's vice-president was Maryland governor Spiro Agnew. Their opponents were Democrat Hubert Humphrey and third-party candidate George Wallace. Nixon promised to end the war in Vietnam and restore law and order at home. Nixon also stated he would lead a crackdown on illegal drugs and end the military draft (conscription). This platform proved successful, although Humphrey rapidly made up ground near the end of the campaign. In the end, however, Nixon won by a narrow margin, taking 31.7 million votes compared to Humphrey's total of 30.9 million votes. The electoral college tally was 301 to 191. Following his election, Nixon adopted a…

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Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "Presidency of Richard Nixon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=960, accessed 19 March 2024.]

960 Presidency of Richard Nixon 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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