Nixon Agnew 72

Nixon Agnew ’72 was President Nixon’s successful re-election campaign which leveraged the ‘now more than ever’ tagline. In hindsight, the magnitude of Richard Nixon’s reelection victory in 1972—the largest Republican landslide of the Cold War—leads some to ask why the President ever got involved in the Watergate cover-up. Nixon won 49 out of 50 states, taking all but Massachusetts. He established an early lead over the Democratic nominee, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, and never lost it. For Nixon, it was the best year of his political life. His diplomatic opening to China reached fruition with a widely televised trip to Beijing. Détente bore fruit with the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and a summit in Moscow. And Nixon’s decision to bomb North Vietnam and mine Haiphong Harbor to stop a Communist offensive proved highly popular. When Henry Kissinger announced shortly before the election that he had resolved most major negotiating issues with North Vietnam and that therefore “Peace is at hand,” it was only icing on the cake. During most of this outwardly triumphant year, however, a scandal of epic proportions was quietly growing within the administration.