After World War II, the United States of America became the most powerful nation on the planet, and therefore the decisions of those who led this country had a profound impact on the fate of millions of people around the world. One of them was Richard Nixon (1913-1994). In 1968, he won the US presidential election and for five and a half years governed a great country as it endured a period of severe economic and political crisis, exacerbated by the long, grueling and futile war in Vietnam. This experienced politician was guided in his actions by purely pragmatic considerations. This approach allowed Nixon to stop the war in Vietnam and become one of the architects of détente. That the former Communist hunter tried to mend relations with both Communist powers and, in 1972, was the first American president to visit China and the Soviet Union was unquestionably the most important U.S. foreign policy turn since the Cold War. The premise of Nixon's realpolitik was, first of all, an understanding of the need for reconciliation with the Soviet Union, and the “China card” was cleverly brought into play. The external results of this policy were the Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Arms and Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems (SALT I and ABM) concluded in 1972, which slowed down the arms race, as well as the expansion of trade relations. However, the institution of presidents under Richard Nixon fell, without a doubt, into the worst crisis of confidence in its history. Watergate has become an example of a typical political scandal that is mentioned at every opportunity. The myth of the most powerful man in the world showed its downside, and the need to limit and control this power became obvious. The reign of conservatism in America, which began with Nixon's election in 1968, was briefly interrupted by Ford's failure to re-elect a second term. In the Republican Party after Nixon and Ford, religious fundamentalists and laissez faire ideologists took over. Even such a critic of Nixon as his biographer Stephen Ambrose, looking back into the past, sees the actual tragedy of his resignation in the missed chances of continuing a moderate social-state orientation and pragmatic internationalism.