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After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became president of the United States. As a president, Johnson inherited a lot of problems; one of the worst ones appeared to be the war in Vietnam. The war was much inspired by the belief that America had the right to influence the internal affairs of other countries, this assertion came from the growing international power of the USA after World War II. Finally, it led to the longest war in American history – the Vietnam War (1965-1975).
The Vietnam War was essentially a civil war, started by Ho Chi Min, a Vietnamese Communist, who wanted the liberation of his nation from French colonial rule. Despite the help of the USA the French were driven out of the country in 1954, and the country was divided into two parts with communists controlling its northern part.
The USA entered the war in early 1965, beginning air raids on North Vietnam and on Communist-controlled areas in the South; by 1966, there were 190,000 US troops in South Vietnam. North Vietnam, meanwhile, was receiving armaments and technical assistance from the Soviet Union and other Communist countries. Despite massive US military aid and heavy bombing, the growing US troop commitment (which reached nearly 550,000 in 1969) could not subdue Ho Chi Min and North Vietnamese forces.
Under the next president, Richard Nixon, America intensified the bombing of North Vietnam thus expanding the war. Widening the Vietnam War inspired anti-war fever in America, and massive anti-war demonstrations spread across the country. In many cases demonstrators did not find support of the authorities – at Kent State University in Ohio, for example, National Guard troops shot and killed four student demonstrators.
Only in 1973, the USA and North Vietnam started to negotiate troop withdrawals. The peace treaty ended a shameful battle in which over 58,000 Americans were killed and more than 300,000 wounded. America suffered its first serious defeat in a war.
But Vietnam War was not the only problem which Richard Nixon faced when he became a president in 1969 – the country's economy was in bad state, inflation progressed as a result of huge war spending and growing social programs. After the peace settlement with North Vietnam was announced, and Americans began reeling from the Vietnam disaster, the nation was rocked by a huge political scandal, which led to Nixon's resignation.
It was discovered that the Nixon administration ordered secret placement of listening devices in the Democratic Party's headquarters in the Watergate, a hotel/apartment/office building in Washington, D.C. Investigation of the case showed that Nixon's administration illegally wiretapped the phones of their opponents, and on August 8, 1974, Nixon resigned from the office. He became the first, and the only USA president to quit his job.
Cultural Focus: Naming Political Scandals
Political scandal that led to the resignation of President Nixon got the name "Watergate" derived from the Watergate Complex where the scandal started. Since the Watergate scandal the media have started to add suffix – gate to one of the key words used to describe a political scandal.
Today among the words with -gate suffix we can find the names of such political scandals as Monicagate (other variants: Sexgate or Zippergate) – a scandal named after Monica Lewinsky who had "inappropriate" relationship with President Clinton, Irangate or Contragate – a scandal caused by the selling Americans weapons to Iran and the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, Coingate – the mishandling of Ohio government funds entrusted to republican operatives who were rare coin dealers, Camillagate – tape of telephone conversation between Charles, Prince of Wales and Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowless in 1992, and many, many others.
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