Richard milhous nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th president of the United States (1969-1972), was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. Nixon was one of the most controversial politicians of the twentieth century. He built his political career on the communist scare of the late forties and early fifties, but as president he achieved d'tente with the Soviet Union and opened relations with the People's Republic of China. His administration occurred during the domestic upheavals brought on by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. He was re-elected in 1972 by an overwhelming margin, but less than two years later he was forced to become the first man to resign the presidency amid the scandal and shame of Watergate. He staged a difficult political comeback in 1968, after purportedly retiring from politics, and by the end of his life, he had shed some of the scourge of Watergate and was once again a respected elder statesman, largely because of his record on foreign policy. He died on February 22, 1994. His writings include three autobiographical works, Six Crises (1962), RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon (1978), and In the Arena (1990).

Early Political Career

Nixon came from a southern-California Quaker family, where hard work and integrity were deeply-rooted and heavily emphasized. Always a good student, he was invited by Harvard and Yale to apply for scholarships, but his older brother's illness and the Depression made his presence close to home necessary, and he was attended nearby Whittier College, where he graduated second in his class in 1934. He went on to law school at Duke University, where his seriousness and determination won him the nickname "Gloomy Gus." He graduated third in his class and applied for jobs with both large Northeastern law firms and the FBI His applications were all rejected, however, and he was forced to go home to southern California, where his mother helped get him a job at a friend's local law firm.

At the outbreak of World War Two, Nixon went to work briefly for the tire-rationing section the Office of Price Administration in Washington, DC, and eight months later, he joined the Navy and was sent to the Pacific as a supply officer. He was popular with his men, and such an accomplished poker player that he was able to send enough of his comrades-in-arms' money back home to help fund his first political campaign. Shortly after returning from the war, Nixon entered politics, answering a Republican party call in the newspaper for someone to run against the five-term Democratic Congressman, Jerry Voorhis. Nixon seemed the perfect man for the job, and he was welcomed generously by the California Republican party, who considered him "salable merchandise."

The style of Nixon's first campaign set the tone for the early part of his political career, where he achieved national renown as a fierce anti-Communist. He accused Congressman Voorhis of being a communist, and even went so far as to have campaign workers make anonymous calls to voters stating that as a fact and advising that a vote for Nixon was therefore the best move. This sort of straightforward communist-baiting was new at the time, and fear of the Soviet Union, who appeared to be spreading its influence throughout Asia (China fell to Mao Tse-tsung's communist forces in 1949), made it a particularly persuasive tactic. "Of course I knew Jerry Voorhis wasn't a communist," Nixon later said, "but I had to win."

Nixon defeated Voorhis with sixty percent of the vote, and upon taking his seat in Congress, he became the junior member of the infamous House Committee on un-American Activities. Nixon's dogged pursuit of Alger Hiss, a former adviser to Franklin Roosevelt and one of the organizers of the United Nations, brought him national exposure. Hiss had been accused of being a communist and of transmitting secret State Department documents to the Soviets, and though many believed him innocent, Nixon fiercely pushed the case forward, eventually getting Hiss convicted of perjury and jailed. At the age of thirty-five, Nixon was a national figure, and he rode this fame to an easy victory in his senate race against three-term Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950, once again adopting a communist-baiting campaign strategy. He accused Ms. Douglas, who opposed the activities of the House un-American Activities Committee, of being "pink right down to her underwear." In return, Douglas dubbed Nixon with his long-time nickname, "Tricky Dick."

Nixon was only in the US Senate for a year-and-a-half when, in 1952, the Republican national convention selected him to be General Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate. Much of Nixon's success and notoriety up to that point had been built on the political and personal ruination of his honest Democratic foes, and Nixon was expected to do much of the dirty work of campaigning, leaving Eisenhower to take the "high road," remaining pure and untarnished by messy politicking. Nixon performed his task admirably, casting doubt on the abilities and patriotism of his and Eisenhower's Democratic opponent, Adlai Stevenson.

Nixon himself had to face close scrutiny during the campaign, and when the New York Post announced that he had received secret campaign contributions from wealthy sources, he was nearly pushed off the ticket. Instead of giving up, Nixon went on national, prime-time television and appealed directly to the voters. He delivered what has come to be known as the "Checkers Speech," fully exposing his financial situation and revealing that he was not a wealthy man. The speech was an unprecedented success, and thousands of telegrams of support were received by the Republican National Committee. Nixon remained on the ticket and became vice-president when Eisenhower overwhelming defeated Stevenson.

When Eisenhower decided to run again in 1956, Nixon's presence on the ticket was not assured; however, Nixon pressured the president into making a decision, refused Eisenhower's offer of a cabinet position, and the Republican ticket once again contained Richard Milhous Nixon as the vice-presidential candidate. In the second campaign, Nixon moved away from his muck-raking, communist-baiting techniques, and the press began speaking of a "New Nixon." Because of Eisenhower's apparent support, Nixon was considered by many the Republican heir-apparent, and he became more active in his second term. Eisenhower sent him on tours of South America, where his motorcade was spat upon and attacked, and the Soviet Union, where Nixon challenged Nikita Kruschev to an impromptu debate, known as the "Kitchen Debates."

Nixon was unanimously nominated at the Republican convention in 1960, and only fourteen years after first running for office, he was one election away from the presidency. Many were confident of Nixon's ability to win the election easily, being a prominent, national figure running against the young, inexperienced John F. Kennedy, who was little known nationally and had a reputation as a playboy inside Washington circles. Kennedy, however, took advantage of modern campaigning techniques, which employed the television more than personal contact, and he was given a big push by the first-ever televised presidential debates. The healthy, attractive, charming Kennedy came off as strong, confident, and in control, while Nixon, who refused to wear make-up, looked haggard, almost ghost-like. The election was one of the closest in history, with Kennedy winning by only 100,000 votes nationwide. Some of the most crucial votes came in Cook County, Illinois, which was controlled by party boss Richard Daley, and many suspected election fraud, but Nixon refused to demand a recount, stating that it would be political suicide if he lost.

Nixon ran for governor of California in 1962, but he had never been a locally active politician and his years in Washington had made him out of touch with the situation in California. He lost soundly to incumbent Pat Brown. In a press conference shortly after the results were announced, Nixon berated the media for giving him a hard time since the Hiss case, urged greater fairness in political coverage, and claimed that this would be his last press conference. "You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore," he said. He took a job as a Wall Street lawyer, but soon tired of private life and took to the campaign trail in 1966, stumping successfully for Republican congressional candidates and bringing himself once again into the heart of Republican party affairs.

After a grueling four-continent tour during ...

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