The Soviet Union dissolved, removing a strong ally for Vietnam.
Vietnam and China normalized relations as two of the few remaining communist states.
Japan resumed its aid program and other countries began investing in Vietnam.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank removed lending restrictions, leading to Vietnamese economic growth in the early 1990s.
US businesses advocated for the removal of the economic embargo to participate in Vietnam's economy.
European and Japanese investors poured capital into the country.
In 1991, President George H. W. Bush authorized an informal agreement with Vietnam to lead to diplomatic ties.
Vietnam became a significant agricultural exporter (third-largest oil producer in Asia) and an important manufacturer of clothing, textiles, and computer components.
Vietnam's population more than doubled but the CPV maintains strict controls, censoring the media, internet, and regulating religions.
Repercussions on the Home Front
American disgust with the government became an enduring legacy of the Vietnam War.
Ronald Reagan's statement that "government was not the solution to our problem; government was the problem" resonated deeply due to Vietnam.
The Vietnam War led to an "age of diminishing expectations" due to presidents breaking trust with the American people.
People expected less from the government and were less tolerant of interference and intervention.
American idealism was discouraged after Americans lost the war and became disillusioned with the political, economic, and social situation.
Nixon's actions to conceal lies regarding Vietnam led to increased mistrust of the government.
Watergate Scandal
In the early hours of 06/17/1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic Party national headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.
The burglars were connected to the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP).
Revelations of a conspiracy surrounding the Nixon White House led to Nixon's resignation.
Three Conspiracies
Plumbers Conspiracy: Related to the Pentagon Papers leak and discrediting Nixon's political enemies.
Reelection Conspiracy: Illegal efforts to extort and launder money, sabotage the electoral process, spy, commit fraud, forgery, burglary, and play dirty tricks to knock out stronger Democratic candidates.
Cover-Up Conspiracy: Efforts to cover up evidence of complicity in the Nixon administration, including misleading law enforcement, destroying evidence, committing perjury, obstructing investigations, and defying subpoenas.
The Palmer Conspiracy
Nixon saw adversaries as enemies and the leaking of information to the press helped create a siege mentality in the White House.
Nixon ordered investigations, lie detector tests, sworn affidavits, depositions, and wiretapping to stop the leaks.
In 1969, The New York Times published an article about the secret bombing of Cambodia, leading Nixon and Kissinger to institute wiretaps without warrants.
List of suspected leakers was supplied to the FBI, but the listing devices were installed before the attorney general signed authorizations.
In June 1970, Nixon ordered a reassessment of the domestic intelligence gathering capability.
Tom Houston oversaw this project.
The Houston Plan called for opening mail, tapping phones, and the sign on student groups. After being advised that some or most of these activities were illegal, Nixon still approved the plan.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover objected, deeming it too risky, and Nixon rescinded his approval but still implemented something.
Nixon later defended his approval by the "everybody does it" defense claiming his actions were for national security reasons, and if the president did that, his actions were not illegal.
Nixon wanted to increase aggressive behavior and felt that people were acting for national security reasons.
As anti-war demonstrations increased in 1971, a fortress was erected around the White House.
A tape recording of a 05/05/1971 conversation reveals Nixon endorsed the idea of using thugs from the Teamsters Union to assault protesters.
Nixon was abusing prescription medication and drinking.
Nixon thought maybe we should get what he called a "goat squad" together to start rubbing up Democrats but ultimately, nothing has ever been tied to Nixon or Halliburton.
In order to discredit Daniel Ellsberg (who leaked the Pentagon Papers), Charles Colson (special counsel to the president), contacted an old former CIA agent.
Nixon was frustrated and distrustful of the FBI, CIA, and other government agencies so his administration took matters into its own hands with the plumbers.
The plumbers expanded activities beyond just plugging leaks, which then went into more extensive break ins.
They were supposed to take pictures of all the files of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatric sessions to try to discredit him and make him out to be crazy.
Ellsberg had been indicted for theft of government property and violations of the Espionage Act, but Nixon also wanted to link him to the Democrats with the 1972 election on the horizon.
Nixon defended the break-in on national security grounds, even though he denied knowing about it in his memoirs, and set the tone for this behavior in his administration.
Colson later commented that after the Pentagon Papers were released, people were pressured to get results, even if they had to cross the line into illegality to do so.
The Reelection Conspiracy
Democrats were eliminated, and this was due to Nixon's campaign strategy, giving him an edge in the next election.
Strategy had a couple of elements, proactive and predatory. The predatory was designed to attack and destroy democratic front runners.
Nixon had lost several close elections, and he feared losing urged his campaign to make sure that he won big.
Senator Edmund Muskie was a Democratic front runner in the nineteen seventy two election.
The Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) was run by former Attorney General John Mitchell.
CREEP also ran a secret operation that had illegal money.
They pressured donors and even extorted funds by saying if companies did not give them money, they were gonna start working against them.
In 1971, a memo by Nixon's counsel John Dean mentions selling bogus tickets and sending the cash to CREEP.
The most common way of laundering money was through Mexico.
Nixon became involved in a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice after the break-in to protect the money laundering operation.
The cover-up wasn't actually; Nixon sold ambassadorships to those wanting to obtain it.
The Enemies Project (or Enemies List) was kept by Colson that contained 575 names.
The Cover-Up Conspiracy
After the break-in, the White House worked to cover up the crime and minimize political damage to the president.
It was also carried out to safeguard too many damaging things.
John Mitchell, the head of CREEP and former Attorney General, was informed and immediately started the cover-up.
Files of the gemstone operation from White House offices were removed.
Liddy removed files from the CREEP headquarters.
Incriminating documents were shredded.
There were meetings with CREEP employees before FBI investigators spoke to them to coordinate their stories, with John Dean present as a lawyer for CREEP.
White House counsel John Dean was assigned to keep the cover on the story but also work to do as much damage control as possible.
During a few days, there were several meetings held with Nixon, Dean, Mitchell, another advisor, and Haldeman. The tapes of these conversations were never recovered.
The deputy director of the CIA told FBI to stop their investigation so they did not reveal the money from the burglars with the excuse it was a national security thing.
There was criminal activity to obstruct justice in the White House, involving the payoff of Watergate burglars to keep their silence.
Senate Involvement
The Senate subcommittee, along with a grand jury, tried to obtain Nixon's tapes.
John Dean, significantly involved in many efforts, decided to tell all at the Senate hearings on television.
Nixon hired a special prosecutor to investigate, then fired the special prosecutor.
The case about the tapes went to the Supreme Court.
In the summer of 1974, the judge who presided over the Watergate trials and the grand jury ruled that Nixon had to turn over all the tapes.
This situation came on the heels of the Vietnam War, leading to significant public disillusionment with the presidency and the government.
Voter participation declined rapidly after Vietnam.
This past election, 36% by 1988, only 40% actually voted.
I think it had gone up to about 48 in '2 in the year February.