All photographs courtesy of the White House Photographic Office Collection, Richard Nixon Presidential Library, except where otherwise noted

 

Richard Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office.

 

Kissinger and Secretary of State William Rogers.

 

White House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman working at his desk.

 

Nixon and John Connally in the Oval Office just after the Democratic former Texas governor was appointed Nixon’s secretary of the Treasury. Nixon admired Connally more than any other man in his cabinet.

 

Nixon and Governor Ronald Reagan (center) at Nixon’s Western White House, La Casa Pacifica, in San Clemente, California.

 

The famous handshake with Chairman Mao during Nixon’s visit to China in February 1972.

 

Nixon at the Great Wall. A snowfall that morning nearly canceled the visit, but Zhou Enlai (at Nixon’s left) ordered thousands to sweep the streets with rudimentary brooms throughout the night so that Nixon could travel by car from Beijing to the wall. Other faces in the crowd include William Rogers, Bob Haldeman, and advance men Ron Walker and Dwight Chapin.

 

Nixon and Zhou (and Kissinger and Rogers) at one of the many long negotiating sessions during Nixon’s famous trip.

 

The Nixons and Zhou Enlai share a laugh in the Great Hall of the People.

 

Following the visit of the American Ping-Pong team to China in 1971 and Nixon’s visit to Beijing, the United States invited the Chinese team for a reciprocal visit in the spring of 1972. The visit took place in the White House Rose Garden.

 

The first two pandas given by the Chinese government to the National Zoo in Washington, following Nixon’s visit to China.

 

Many conversations with Soviet officials were needed to lay the groundwork for Nixon’s visit to Moscow and for the summit meeting. Here, Nixon meets at the White House with (left to right) Anatoly Dobrynin, Andrei Gromyko, and William Rogers. Henry Kissinger is off camera.

 

On May 22, 1972, Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit Moscow. Here, he and Kissinger take a stroll in Red Square.

 

Inside the Kremlin, Nixon and Kissinger confer between negotiating sessions.

 

On May 26, Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT I agreement.

 

Pat Nixon and Kissinger watch Nixon’s live address to the Russian people from an adjacent holding room.

 

Vietnam was a constant preoccupation during Nixon’s first term. The president visited with troops in 1969, his first year in office, and in private spent many hours reviewing military tactics and, with Kissinger, the protracted peace talks.

 

As antiwar protests grew and Nixon became concerned with John Kerry and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, he met with Charles Colson (right), John O’Neill (center left), and a companion of O’Neill’s. O’Neill helped found Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. Many years later, he would serve as spokesman for Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, opposing Kerry’s presidential campaign.

 

Kissinger and Le Duc Tho in Paris after agreeing to peace in Vietnam, January 1973. Since their talks were almost always secret, this was a rare photo opportunity.

 

By day, Henry Kissinger conducted secret negotiations with American enemies from China, the Soviet Union, and North Vietnam. After hours, the media feasted on the image of Kissinger as a ladies’ man with a string of celebrity companions, in this case Marlo Thomas. A 1972 poll of Playboy bunnies selected Kissinger as the man with whom they would most like to go out on a date.

 

Thanks in part to the historic summit meetings in Beijing and Moscow, Richard Nixon cruised to an overwhelming forty-nine-state victory in the 1972 election. In 1973, inquiries into Watergate began, bringing an end to the taping system and, in August of the following year, an end to his presidency.