He was a president who could philosophically oppose wage and price controls and privately express the conviction that they would not work, while still implementing them for election-year effect. Still his tactical flexibility should not obscure his steadiness of political purpose. He meant to move the country to the right, and he did. Nixon's most celebrated achievments as President- nuclear arms control agreements with the Soviet Union and the diplomatic opening to China- set the stage for the arms reductions pacts and careful diplomacy that brought about the end of the Cold War.
