Nixon took office after the 1968 presidential election, in which he defeated incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. In 1973, as the Watergate scandal came to light, Nixon accepted the resignations of Haldeman, Erlichman, and Mitchell's successor as Attorney General, Richard Kleindienst. The U.S. had instead supported the Republic of China (ROC), which controlled Taiwan. By the time Nixon took office, many leading foreign policy figures in the United States had come to believe the U.S. should end its policy of isolating the PRC.