Nixon in Triumph 787trip also produced striking results. The mere fact that
it took place while war still raged in Vietnam was
remarkable. More important, however, the meeting
resulted in a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
(SALT). The two powers agreed to stop making
nuclear ballistic missiles and to reduce the number of
antiballistic missiles in their arsenals to 200. Nixon
also agreed to permit large sales of American grain to
the Soviet Union.
By the summer of 1972, with the presidential elec-
tion looming in the fall, Kissinger redoubled his efforts
to negotiate an end to the Vietnam war. By October he
and the North Vietnamese had hammered out a settle-
ment calling for a cease-fire, the return of American
prisoners of war, and the withdrawal of United States
forces from Vietnam. Shortly before the presidential
election Kissinger announced that peace was “at hand.”
Nixon in Triumph
A few days later President Nixon was reelected, defeat-
ing the Democratic candidate, Senator George
McGovern of South Dakota, in a landslide—521 elec-
toral votes to 17. McGovern carried only Massachusetts
and the District of Columbia. McGovern’s campaign
had been hampered by his tendency to advance poorly
thought-out proposals, such as his scheme for funneling
money directly to the poor, and by his rather bumbling,
low-key oratorical style. The campaign marked the his-
torical breakdown of the coalition that Franklin
Roosevelt had fashioned and on which he and his
Democratic successors, particularly Truman and
Johnson, had ridden to power. Of that coalition, only
African Americans voted solidly for McGovern.
Nixon understandably interpreted his convinc-
ing triumph as an indication that the citizenry
approved of everything he stood for. He had won
over hundreds of thousands of voters who had sup-
ported Democrats in earlier elections. The “solid
South” was again solid, but this time solidly
Republican. Nixon’s so-called southern strategy of
reducing the pressure for school desegregation and
otherwise restricting federal efforts on behalf of
blacks had a powerful attraction to northern blue-
collar workers as well.
Suddenly Nixon loomed as one of the most pow-
erful and successful presidents in American history.
His tough-minded but flexible handling of foreign
policy questions, even his harsh Vietnamese policy,
suggested decisiveness and self-confidence, qualitiesPresident and Mrs. Nixon dine with Chinese communist officials in Beijing in February 1972. Even Nixon’s harshest critics conceded that his
initiative in reopening United States-China relations was a diplomatic masterstroke.