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Richard Nixon: Hero or villain?

The only US President ever forced to abdicate from the White House, Richard Nixon will always be known for his role in the Watergate scandal. And there are those who remember “Tricky Dicky” as a divisive, foul-mouthed drunk, who brought the world to the verge of a nuclear war. Yet many of Nixon’s achievements rank him alongside the better presidents: he took America out of Vietnam ; he defused the Cold War; he pioneered important social reforms and, when nobody thought it possible, he travelled to Beijing and forged a new era of diplomacy with China.

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