In what ways did the Vietnam War affect Richard Nixon's campaign for re-election in 1972?

Richard Nixon was born to a family of modest means in California in 1913. Many of Nixon's biographers believe that because he was not born into a wealthy or well-connected family, he felt like an outsider. They further believe that he was unable to shed these feelings of inferiority and distrust even after he became a famous politician. In spite of his election to the office of president of the United States, Nixon still felt somehow that his enemies were determined to defeat and destroy him.

After earning a law degree and serving in World War II, Nixon became a congressman from California in 1947. He rose to national political prominence in the Alger Hiss case (1948-1949). As a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Nixon doggedly pursued accusations that Hiss was a former Communist, even though most of his colleagues assumed that Hiss was innocent. When Hiss was convicted of two counts of perjury (lying under oath), Nixon was vindicated.

In 1950, Nixon was elected to the U.S. Senate. From 1953-1961 Nixon served as Dwight D. Eisenhower's vice president. In 1960, he was defeated by Democrat John F. Kennedy in one of the closest presidential elections in American history. Two years later, he ran for governor in California, but was again defeated. From 1963 to 1968, Nixon practiced law in New York City. In 1968, once again the Republican nominee for president, Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey in another extremely close election.

Nixon's first term as president was dominated by the Vietnam War and Americans' growing opposition to it. As a presidential candidate, Nixon suggested that he would find a way to end the war. As president, he sought ways to reduce the number of American troops stationed in Vietnam, but at the same time escalated the war and increased American bombing of the Communist nation of North Vietnam.

Nixon's decisions to bomb North Vietnam fueled the growing antiwar movement. His decision to extend the war into two of Vietnam's neighboring countries, Cambodia and Laos, in May 1970, provoked widespread protests, especially on college campuses. On May 4, 1970 four protesters were killed by National Guardsmen sent to patrol the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. Ten days later, two African-American students were killed during protests at Jackson State University in Mississippi.

In 1971, a government employee, Daniel Ellsberg, leaked a secret government report on the conduct of the Vietnam War to the press. The New York Times (and, later, other newspapers) published these so-called "Pentagon Papers." The documents revealed that government officials had repeatedly misled the American public by exaggerating the successes of the war effort. In an effort to obtain information that could be used to discredit Ellsberg, Nixon aides E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy burglarized the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

The Vietnam War and Nixon's anger toward those who disagreed with his conduct of the war set the scene for the 1972 presidential election. In his re-election bid of 1972, Nixon wanted not merely to retain the White House but to win by the largest possible margin. His campaign organization was known as the Committee to Re-Elect the President; the organization was abbreviated as CRP, but Nixon's critics soon dubbed it CREEP. The committee sought ways not only to enhance Nixon's popularity, but also to undermine his opponents.