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Death and funeral

Nixon suffered a severe stroke on April 18, 1994, while preparing to eat dinner in his Park Ridge, New Jersey home. A blood clot resulting from the atrial fibrillation he had suffered for many years had formed in his upper heart, broken off, and traveled to his brain. He was taken to New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, initially alert but unable to speak or to move his right arm or leg. Damage to the brain caused swelling (cerebral edema), and Nixon slipped into a deep coma. He died at 9:08 p.m. on April 22, 1994, with his daughters at his bedside. He was 81 years old.

Nixon's funeral took place on April 27, 1994, in Yorba Linda, California. Eulogists at the Nixon Library ceremony included President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, California Governor Pete Wilson, and the Reverend Billy Graham. Also in attendance were former Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and their wives.

Richard Nixon was buried beside his wife Pat on the grounds of the Nixon Library. He was survived by his two daughters, Tricia and Julie, and four grandchildren. In keeping with his wishes, his funeral was the first state funeral not to include any events in the nation's capital, though his body did lie in repose in the Nixon Library lobby from April 26 to the morning of the funeral service. Mourners waited in line for up to eight hours in chilly, wet weather to pay their respects. At its peak, the line to pass by Nixon's casket was three miles long with an estimated 42,000 people waiting.

Upon Nixon's death, almost all of the news coverage mentioned Watergate, but for the most part, the coverage was favorable to the former president. Historian Stephen Ambrose said of the reaction to Nixon's death, "To everyone's amazement, except his, he's our beloved elder statesman."The Dallas Morning News stated, "History ultimately should show that despite his flaws, he was one of our most farsighted chief executives." But not all concurred; columnist Russell Baker complained of "a group conspiracy to grant him absolution" in death. Perhaps taking a broader view, cartoonist Jeff Koterba of the Omaha World-Herald depicted History before a blank canvas, his subject Nixon, as America looks on eagerly. The artist urges his audience to sit down; the work will take some time to complete, as "this portrait is a little more complicated than most".

Legacy

Richard Nixon in life left a legacy of significant consequences, one enhanced by his sheer time on the national stage. His legacy is overarching across cultural, political and historical facets of American life --- and around the world.

While Nixon's premature departure from office tends to dominate contemporary assessments of his presidency and his larger legacy, his presidency has undergone reevaluation in the more than 40 years since his resignation. Political historian and pollster Douglas Schoen argues that Nixon was the most important American figure in post-war U.S. politics, while constitutional law professor Cass Sunstein wrote in 2017, "If you are listing the five most consequential Presidents in American history, you could make a good argument that Nixon belongs on the list."

In a career that spanned five decades, Nixon played a role in everything from the implementation of the Marshall Plan in 1947 to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the development of Bill Clinton's policies toward its successor state, the Russian Federation, in 1994. Longtime CBS Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer said after Nixon's death, "Richard Nixon had been around so long, he had become as much a part of the American landscape as the Washington Monument. Now that he's gone, it's a little like looking out the window and discovering the Monument is no longer there. It's going to take all of us a little while, I suspect, to adjust to the new landscape."

Foreign policy

The impacts of Nixon's foreign policies largely remain in place today. Historians and political scientists tend to give him high marks for his foreign policies.

Kissinger said in 2013 that Nixon's most important legacy was his "ability to think of foreign policy beyond

HAK quote about RN redefining foreign policy.

Because of this "courage to make tough decisions," Nixon developed and directed the American rapprochement with China, from which sprang significant changes to ---and advances in--- global economic markets, global trade and economic development within China and Asia at large. America's bilateral relationship with China has since developed into one of its most important.

Nixon reduced heightened Cold War tensions by becoming the first president to visit the Soviet Union, and his administration negotiated the first Soviet-American arms control agreements, which he signed in Moscow in 1972.

He

Nixon ended American involvement in the Vietnam War ---which had started in the 1950s--- and ended the [[Conscription in the United States |American draft (conscription) system]], which had been instituted five separate times in American history. In 2014, future Secretary of Defense James Mattis said, "

Yom Kippur War / Middle East peace process

It was Nixon, too, who gave Israel nuclear weapons, which was publicly confirmed in 2015.

Indeed, Nixon saw his policies on Vietnam, China, and the Soviets as central to his place in history.

Historian Christopher Andrew concludes that "Nixon was a great statesman on the world stage... Nixon's inspirational statesmanship was establishing new working relationships with both Communist China and the Soviet Union."

Domestic policy

Nixon's legacy on domestic affairs includes the passage and enforcement of profoundly impactful environmental and regulatory legislation. In a 2011 paper on Nixon and the environment, historian Paul Charles Milazzo points to Nixon's creation of the EPA and his authorization and enforcement of legislation including the 1971 Clean Air Act, 1973 Endangered Species Act and 1973 Marine Mammal Protection Act, stating that "though unsought and unacknowledged, Richard Nixon's environmental legacy is secure".

It also includes the establishment and implementation of many of the most prominent government initiatives today, including the first federal affirmative action programs; the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which, through enforcement of approved safety plans, regularly impacts most private and public sector employers in the U.S.; and the signing and implementation of Title IX, which has had substantial results in equaling the playing field for women and girls in college sports.

Though perhaps eclipsed by the related controversies of the 1960 campaign and LBJ's authorization of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Nixon played a key role in the advancement of civil rights throughout his time in government. As Vice President, Nixon personally drove the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, earning the accolades ---and friendship--- of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Fifteen years later, he would personally direct his administration's efforts to desegregate schools in the South. Nixon biographer Tom Wicker wrote in One of Us, "it was Richard Nixon personally who conceived, orchestrated and led the administration's desegregation effort. Halting and uncertain before he finally asserted strong control, that effort resulted in probably the outstanding domestic achievement of his administration."

Political legacy and impact on the American presidency

Nixon's political legacy is incredibly vast; his stunning series of political comebacks throughout his 50 years on the political scene, most notably in the 1968 presidential election, stand in contrast to the trauma that was Watergate. On one hand, Nixon proved and embodied the most basic of the idyllic merits of the American system of government; a poor grocer's son from rural Yorba Linda, California ascended to the nation's highest office. On the other hand, the turbulence of his presidency ---and its ignoble ending--- contributed mightily to Americans' mistrust in their government, which has not recovered.

His special appeal to what he termed "the great Silent Majority" of Americans, fueled and propelled his political career. Historian Richard Norton Smith said in 2014 that there was a "special emotional and cultural bond that existed between Richard Nixon and millions and millions of people who might not think of themselves as card-carrying Republicans, but who were part of the Silent Majority."

With the support of the Silent Majority, Nixon changed the game of American politics. While John F. Kennedy is perhaps better remembered for his successful use of television in the 1960 presidential debates (ironically, against Richard Nixon), it was Nixon who pioneered the use of television as political tool, beginning with the Checkers Speech of 1952, the first time that a political candidate ever addressed the country on television.

Norton Smith said, "Richard Nixon was the television president. Richard Nixon's career was made by that one speech in 1952 which did something overnight that no vice president ever did. Richard Nixon had a constituency. Richard Nixon invented the modern vice presidency that night, because millions and millions of Americans bonded with him... Come full circle, that's 'The Forgotten Man.' That's the 'Silent Majority.' It was born that night in a television studio in Los Angeles. It's much more than Checkers; it was until the end of his career."

The Nixon campaign of 1968 was the first to develop a comprehensive media strategy and "package" the candidate to appeal through television to wide audiences.

Later, as president, Nixon used new forms of media to his advantage. He delivered 37 prime-time addresses to the American public on television, vaulting over the press corps and right into the living rooms of American citizens. These addresses were overwhelmingly effective for creating or maintaining support for Nixon's policies, especially his Vietnam policies.

His impact on the voting trends of the American South remains of considerable debate. Some historians argue that alleged racial appeals of the Nixon campaign's "Southern Strategy" converted the South into a Republican stronghold; others deem economic factors more important in the change and contend that both Presidents Hoover and Eisenhower won states in the South long before 1968.

In 2007, biographer Conrad Black credited Nixon with being ---along with Ronald Reagan--- the "chief builder of the modern Republican party." Indeed, throughout his career, Nixon moved his party away from the control of isolationists, and as a Congressman he was a persuasive advocate of containing Soviet communism. According to his biographer Herbert Parmet, "Nixon's role was to steer the Republican party along a middle course, somewhere between the competitive impulses of the Rockefellers, the Goldwaters, and the Reagans."

The American presidency as an institution was affected tremendously by Nixon, from the impacts that a special counsel can have on public opinion, to the explicit confirmation of the principle of executive privilege in the now-landmark United States v. Nixon Supreme Court ruling, to the strained relationship between the media the executive branch, to curbs on the president's war-making powers and his ability to conceal documents, as Congress passed restrictive legislation in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate (it is arguable that such legislation has since been restored, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.)

Nixon also changed the way that Americans viewed their elected leaders. The unfiltered language used by Nixon and his top aides in everyday conversation that was captured on the Nixon tapes gave Americans the ability to see their president ---for the first time--- without the scripting of a prepared statement or through a media lens.

Ultimately, Nixon redeemed much of his once-tattered reputation in the 20 years after his resignation. John F. Stacks of Time magazine said of Nixon shortly after his death:

An outsize energy and determination drove him on to recover and rebuild after every self-created disaster that he faced. To reclaim a respected place in American public life after his resignation, he kept traveling and thinking and talking to the world's leaders ... and by the time Bill Clinton came to the White House , Nixon had virtually cemented his role as an elder statesman. Clinton, whose wife served on the staff of the committee that voted to impeach Nixon, met openly with him and regularly sought his advice.

"the media's all purpose bad guy" -- Carol Swain, professor of history at Vanderbilt University.

Cultural impact

Nixon also leaves a continued legacy on American culture. For decades, he was a regular subject of political cartoons, the most well-known the Washington Post's Herblock series. Editorial cartoonists and comedians often exaggerated his appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human and the caricature became increasingly blurred. He was often portrayed with unshaven jowls, slumped shoulders, and a furrowed, sweaty brow.

Dozens of songs contain references to his career or presidency, including many from the Vietnam War era; Fortunate Son by Credence Clearwater Revival, one of the most well known protest songs, was written about Nixon's daughter Julie and her husband, David Eisenhower. Even in death, Nixon continues to appear on the big screen, including as "President of the World" on the hit cartoon television series Futurama, as a recurring character on the The Simpsons, and as the subject of several feature-length films, and Nixon in China, one of the most successful operas ever created.

His 1970 chance meeting with Elvis Presley in the Oval Office was one of the most iconic images not only of the Nixon presidency, but of the 20th century. It remains the most requested photograph from the National Archives.

Nixon had a complex personality; biographer Conrad Black described him as being "driven" though also "uneasy with himself in some ways". According to Black, Nixon

thought that he was doomed to be traduced, double-crossed, unjustly harassed, misunderstood, underappreciated, and subjected to the trials of Job, but that by the application of his mighty will, tenacity, and diligence, he would ultimately prevail.

He was known for physical awkwardness, likely a result of extreme shyness. In his account of the Nixon presidency, author Richard Reeves described Nixon as man of "uncomfortable shyness, who functioned best alone with his thoughts". Nixon's presidency was doomed by his personality, Reeves argues:

He assumed the worst in people and he brought out the worst in them ... He clung to the idea of being 'tough'. He thought that was what had brought him to the edge of greatness. But that was what betrayed him. He could not open himself to other men and he could not open himself to greatness.

Nixon was inclined to distance himself from people and was formal in all aspects, even wearing a coat and tie at home. Bebe Rebozo, by some accounts his closest friend, did not call him by his first name. Nixon stated of this,

Even with close friends, I don't believe in letting your hair down, confiding this and that and the other thing—saying, 'Gee, I couldn't sleep' ... I believe you should keep your troubles to yourself. That's just the way I am. Some people are different. Some people think it's good therapy to sit with a close friend and, you know, just spill your guts ... reveal their inner psyche—whether they were breast-fed or bottle-fed. Not me. No way.

Because Nixon was a central figure ---indeed, some argue the central figure--- in American politics for nearly 50 years of the 20th century, he remains a prominent figure in American pop culture. Like Winston Churchill, he continues to be identified with the trademark V-for-victory sign, and nearly every political controversy or scandal since 1974 has been branded with the "-gate" suffix.

But after his death in 1994, a number of prominent journalists commented on his enduring career, and its impact on American culture. Tom Wicker of The New York Times wrote:

Richard Nixon's jowly, beard-shadowed face, the ski-jump nose and the widow's peak, the arms upstretched in the V-sign, had been so often pictured and caricatured, his presence had become such a familiar one in the land, he had been so often in the heat of controversy, that it was hard to realize the nation really would not 'have Nixon to kick around anymore'.

Meg Greenfield of the Washington Post concurred, writing after Nixon's death that she defined herself and many others as being of "the Nixon generation, too young to remember a time when he was not on the political scene, too old to expect to see a time when he is not."

Similarly, in a reference to his longevity on the national scene, the Washington Post's David Broder wrote, "now that he has gone, many of us are experiencing a sense of loss we did not expect to feel."

Contemporary issues and changing views

Nixon continues to cast a shadow across contemporary American political discourse. His legacy and reputation continue to evolve based on contemporary circumstances. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998, both Republicans and Democrats tried to use Nixon's fate to their advantage. The 30th and 40th anniversaries of his trip to China saw positive comparisons by the media, while the IRS targeting scandal of the Obama administration and the conduct of the Trump administration have drawn negative comparisons.

In public opinion polls since 1974, Nixon has fared low, despite high marks for his foreign policies. His strained relationship with the American press corps in life has continued after death, and may contribute to such sentiments.

That said, Nixon scholarship has advanced markedly since his resignation and death, as papers and resources have become available through releases of the National Archives, and debate continues over how much Watergate and his resignation should be weighted in considering Nixon's larger legacy. In 2016, the same year that Nixon's presidential library underwent a $15 million privately-funded renovation, there were nearly three dozens books published that dealt with Nixon, including two full-scale biographies, and another the following year.

In 2014, former Nixon speechwriter and political commentator Bruce Herschensohn said, "the opinion of President Nixon varies considerably year to year. He went through a period where he was going around the world after the resignation talking to foreign Chiefs of State. The American opinion seemed to go quite high up, then down, then up... some Republicans want to prove their nonpartisanship, and to do it, they'll compare with President Nixon and Watergate."

Nixon's biographers ---and American historians more broadly--- continue to disagree on how he will be perceived by posterity. Ambrose matter-of-factly proclaimed in 1991, "What he will be remembered for is the nightmare he put the country through in his second term and for his resignation." But other elements of his vast legacy have been more thoroughly examined in the nearly 25 years since his death. Irwin Gellman, who chronicled Nixon's Congressional career and Vice Presidency, suggests that "he was remarkable among his congressional peers, a success story in a troubled era, one who steered a sensible anti-Communist course against the excess of McCarthy". Clare Boothe Luce famously noted that each person in history can be summed up in one sentence; she simply said of Nixon, "He went to China."

Perhaps Aitken best sums up all sides of the debate: "Nixon, both as a man and as a statesman, has been excessively maligned for his faults and inadequately recognised for his virtues. Yet even in a spirit of historical revisionism, no simple verdict is possible."

Regarding his impact on the American culture, Smith said of Nixon's life, "It's our story. It's the country's story. Obviously, it's a story with a global implication. It's an unfinished story."

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