Nixon - Agnew United States

Map of the U.S. in the shape of an elephant under black text over yellow background. 

The button is from the 1968 US Presidential campaign. The Republican Party ran Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) and Spiro T. Agnew (1918-1996) against the Democrats, Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (1911-1978) and Edmund S. Muskie (1914-1996). The 1968 campaign was about international affairs—Nixon had a history of taking a hardline against communism and had a clear advantage with the general public. The Nixon-Agnew ticket soundly beat Humphrey-Muskie by a margin of 110 Electoral College votes.

During his first term, Nixon worked to deescalate the Vietnam War; became the first US President in office to visit China; attempted to stop the spread of communism in Latin America; advanced nuclear peace talks with the USSR; and began aiding US allies in the Middle East without direct military operations.