(1918 – 1996) Thirty-ninth vice-president of the United States, under Republican President Richard Nixon (1969–73). A popular figure in the conservative political establishment, Agnew was forced to resign in 1973 amid allegations that he had accepted bribes and kickbacks as vice-president and while in office in Maryland years earlier. The scandal marked the beginning of an era in which Americans’ instinctive mistrust of government reached unprecedented heights. Only a year after Agnew stepped down, President Nixon was forced from office as a result of the Watergate scandal.