The Commonwealth Reorganization Act was considered one of the most controversial and overarching acts during the term of President Richard Nixon. The main goal of the Commonwealth Reorganization Act was designed to do a variety of things, but most importantly to reorganize the states into a series of thirteen commonwealths so as to assure that each regional concern could be answered by the Commonwealth's government. In addition, each Commonwealth was given control of its own forces; to make sure that any Communist threat could be dealt with quickly. Each Commonwealth's borders were based on former state borders. State governments were usually replaced by a central capital, with most of the previous governments either being dismissed or absorbed into the new Commonwealth government.