In 1968 President Richard Nixon, accepting the largely bipartisan Cold War consensus, continued the American role in Vietnam. By the standards of his later Republican successors, Nixon was a center or even liberal Republican. Nixon won easily in 1972 against George McGovern, but was ruined by revelations over the next two years that he had known of a break-in of McGovern's campaign headquarters and had tried to orchestrate a cover-up. He resigned in disgrace in 1974.