Richard M. Nixon was elected the 37th President of the United States (1969-1974) after previously serving as a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from California. After successfully ending American fighting in Vietnam and improving international relations with the U.S.S.R. and China, he became the only President to ever resign the office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.
From 1969 to 1972, the United States viewed Iran as one of its staunchest friends in the Middle East and Iraq as a potentially dangerous opponent. Since Iran and Iraq were rivals, Washington’s close ties to Tehran only widened the gap with Baghdad. President Richard Nixon, like previous U.S. Presidents, regarded Iran under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as a stable pillar of U.S. security in the Middle East. The main point of contention in congenial U.S.-Iranian relations was the Shah's appetite for expensive, but unnecessary, high-technology weapons. Concerned that an arms build-up might imperil Iranian internal stability by diverting funds for social efforts and complicate regional relations, U.S. officials were torn between satisfying and restraining the Shah. As for Iraq, the Nixon administration viewed with suspicion if not hostility the Iraqi Ba'athist regime, which had severed relations with the United States in 1967.
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