American History: A Survey 10/e   Alan Brinkley
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Summary

Opposition to the war in Vietnam became the centerpiece of a wide-ranging political and cultural challenge to traditional American society. During this turbulent era, blacks, women, Hispanics, and Indians organized to assert their rights. Richard Nixon inherited the war in Vietnam, and he did bring it to an end. The cost of Nixon's four years of war was thousands of American lives and many more thousands of Asian lives, plus continued social unrest at home and an enduring strain on the economy. The end of American involvement did not mean that the goal of an independent, noncommunist South Vietnam had been secured. Nixon was more successful in his other foreign policy initiatives, opening meaningful contacts with China and somewhat easing tensions with the Soviet Union. He managed to stake out a solid constituency of conservative voters with his attacks on liberal programs and ideas. However, he never quite decided how to deal with a troubled economy that faced the unusual dual problems of slowed growth and rapidly rising prices. Less than two years after his overwhelming reelection in 1972, Nixon resigned from office under fire from a nation horrified by the Watergate affair and his arrogant misuse of presidential power for personal political purposes.

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