37th President of the USA (1969–74). He served as Vice-President under Eisenhower (1953–61), narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. In his first term of office he sought to resolve the Vietnam War; the negotiations were brought to a successful conclusion by his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, in 1973. Nixon also restored Sino-American diplomatic relations by his visit to China in 1972. He was elected for a second term in November of that year, but it soon became clear that he was implicated in the Watergate scandal, and in 1974 he became the first President to resign from office, taking this action shortly before impeachment proceedings began. He was granted a pardon by President Ford for any crimes he may have committed over Watergate. He returned to politics in 1981 as a Republican elder statesman.