He won the republican nomination for President of the United States. He defeated Vice President Hubert Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace and became our 37th President. .
Some people get surprised when they read of his accomplishments because so much focus of his career is put on the Watergate scandal. While he was in office Nixon worked with China and the Soviet Union to increase stability and decrease tensions between the "super powers". He held summit meetings with the Soviets which yielded a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. He ended United States involvement in Indochina. In 1974 he had Henry Kissinger, his Secretary of State, negotiate disengagement agreements between Israel, Egypt and Syria which eventually laid the groundwork for the Mideast peace process. Other less notable accomplishments include such things as revenue sharing, ending the draft, passing new anti-crime laws and broadening his environmental program. The first moon landing also happened under President Nixon's first term. .
One thing that engulfed the President was the Vietnam War. This should be considered the central point of focus during his term. Every decision he made regarding foreign and domestic policy was based on the war. Over half a million American soldiers were in Vietnam fighting and Nixon wanted to bring them home by ending the conflict. He began to end the war slowly by withdrawing troops while assisting South Vietnam with the ability to defend it self. Meanwhile criticism from the anti-war movement and the media was increasingly growing with such things as the Cambodian incursion in 1970 and the bombing of North Vietnam in May and December of 1972. In January 1973 President Nixon ordered a halt to all offensive operations in North Vietnam after representatives from all sides of the war met in Paris France and signed the Paris Peace Accords. .
In 1972 President Nixon was re-elected with an overwhelming support from the voters.