Nixon Essay, Research Paper

According to a famous quote ?People do not shape destiny, destiny shapes the person of the hour.? There are three people I feel had something happen to them which made them the man of the hour. These men are Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon, all presidents of the United States.

Ronald Reagan was the man of the hour when he felt that the U.S. needed to have more missiles, bombers, and other weapons to be the strongest nation in the world. Some people told him that this was totally uncalled for, but he didn?t care. He still thought that the Soviet Union had military advances over the U.S. So the U.S. and the Soviet Union had a meeting to reduce nuclear arms, but they couldn?t come to and agreement. Reagan thought it would be a good idea to supply nuclear missiles to U.S. allies in western Europe to help equalize power. When the Soviet Union found out it worsened U.S. Soviet relations. The Reagan administration tried to stop the fighting in Lebanon in the early 80?s but they were unsuccessful. About two years passed and everyone was fed up with all the fighting that a group of terrorists set of explosives and dropped a four-story marine headquarters building at the airport of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. A total of 241 U.S. soldiers died. This made Ronald Reagan the man of the hour do to his stupidity with the weapons race.

Another man that was man of the hour do to his demands of civil rights for the blacks was John F. Kennedy. In 1961, a group of white and black freedom riders entered Montgomery, Ala. by bus to test local segregation laws. Rioting broke out, and Kennedy sent out U.S. marshals to the city to help restore peace. Because of this more than 200,000 people staged a freedom march in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate their demands for equal rights for blacks. To meet the growing demands of the blacks for equality Kennedy asked Congress to pass legislation requiring hotels, motels, and restaurants to admit customers regardless of race. Kennedy also asked Congress to grant the attorney general authority to desegregate schools on behalf of private citizens who were unable to start legal action themselves. This was a great step for the human race.

Last but not least Richard Nixon was the man of the hour when he resigned from office after the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal hit the Nixon Administration during 1973. This scandal arose from a burglary of Democratic party headquarters in the Watergate building complex in Washington, D.C. Employees of Nixon’s 1972 reelection committee were arrested in the break-in and convicted of burglary. Early in 1973,evidence was uncovered that linked several top White House aides with either the break-in or later attempts to hide information related to it. Nixon insisted that he took no part in the break-in or the cover-up and promised a full investigation of the case. During the investigation they found out that Nixon was making tape recordings of his conversations in his White House offices since 1971. Nixon refused to give those tapes to investigators. On October 19, Nixon offered to supply summarized versions of the tape conversations. but they said that that wouldn?t be proper evidence. And that is what later called for Nixon’s impeachment.

As I said in the Beginning ?People do not shape destiny, destiny shapes the person of the hour.? And according to my research this three men were the man of the hour. Even if you were involved in foreign affairs, fought for civil rights, or in the biggest scandal in the White House.