would have provided poor families with a guaranteed annual income The move was defeated in the Senate, but it did lead to the Supplemental Security Income program and many other related programs Overall, Nixon’s aim was to reduce inflation by limiting government spending, but from 1971 the government ran up what was then the biggest deficit in U.S history Nixon’s main aim was to achieve an “honorable” settlement to the conflict in Vietnam To achieve this, his first major task was to increase “Vietnamization,” by which the United States reduced the number of its soldiers while increasing the number of South Vietnamese soldiers This became known as the Guam Doctrine, or the Nixon Doctrine With the U.S command worried about the state of readiness of the South Vietnamese troops, Nixon resumed the bombing of North Vietnam, which had been suspended by Lyndon Johnson just before the 1968 elections In fact, Nixon expanded the war by organizing the secret bombing of Cambodia in March 1969, and supporting the overthrow of Cambodia’s ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, in March 1970 Straight after this, the Vietnamese Communists tried to gain control of Cambodia, and soon afterwards Nixon ordered U.S soldiers and South Vietnamese forces to attack Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia nixon and china Nixon also started a series of initially secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese through his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, who met with the North Vietnamese foreign minister, Le Duc Tho As these progressed, Nixon began establishing links with the People’s Republic of China The United States lifted its trade and travel restrictions in 1971 When the Chinese indicated that they would favor high-level contacts, the U.S and Chinese table-tennis teams took part in reciprocal visits, with Kissinger visiting China, and then Nixon making his own visit to China in February–March 1972—the first by a U.S president while in office Nixon felt that better relations with China would put pressure on the Soviet Union Before Nixon left China, the Shanghai Communiqué recorded that Nixon acknowledged the “one China” policy by which the United States accepted that Taiwan is a part of one China In May 1972 Nixon visited the Soviet Union and began détente, with several talks on limiting nuclear weapons such as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) By October 1972 Nixon was close to reaching an agreement with the North Vietnamese, having achieved most of his objectives just before the U.S presidential elections The South Vietnamese raised objections, while Nixon, Richard 317 the North Vietnamese refused to compromise, knowing how much Nixon wanted the agreement No agreement was reached by the elections, with the Christmas bombings of North Vietnam forcing the North Vietnamese back to the negotiation tables, and the final agreement being signed in January 1973 in Paris All U.S military personnel were to be withdrawn, all prisoners of war were to be released, and there would be a ceasefire, along with a heavy rearming of the South Vietnamese Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, but Tho declined to receive it Nixon also was involved in controversial actions around the world He oversaw the channeling of millions of dollars to the Chilean opposition, and supported the military overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, allying itself to the subsequent government of General Augusto Pinochet In the Middle East, Nixon supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War, an action that led to the 1973 oil crisis The administration also supported General Yahya Khan in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, seriously affecting relations between India and the United States for many years In 1972 Nixon was renominated for the presidential election along with Spiro Agnew This led to the formation of the Campaign for the Reelection of the President (CRP), which was nicknamed by his opponents CREEP On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for being involved in a burglary at the Democratic Party national headquarters in the Watergate Hotel complex in Washington, D.C It soon emerged that these men had been hired by the CRP and were charged With no evidence available at the time linking Watergate to Nixon, Nixon easily won the November 1972 elections with 520 electoral college votes the cover-up The Watergate scandal became a major issue in 1973, with Nixon having White House counsel John Dean organize a “cover-up.” Two journalists from the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, felt there was more in the Watergate story than was made out, and started receiving information from a source who went by the code name “Deep Throat,” who later turned out to be Mark Felt, deputy director of the FBI In February 1973 the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin, was established to investigate the Watergate affair, and John Dean was interviewed in televised hearings He started accusing Nixon of involvement in the cover-up of Watergate, with other witnesses testifying