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Richard Nixon

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Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Order:37th President
Term of Office:January 20, 1969 - August 9, 1974
Predecessor:Lyndon Johnson
Successor:Gerald Ford
Date of BirthThursday, January 9, 1913
Place of Birth:Yorba Linda, California
Date of Death:Friday, April 22, 1994
Place of Death:New York City, New York
First Lady:Thelma "Patricia" Catherine Ryan
Profession:Lawyer
Political Party:Republican
Vice President:
SSN:567-68-0515

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 - April 22, 1994) was the thirty-sixth (1953-1961) Vice President, and the thirty-seventh (1969-1974) President of the United States. He is the only President to have resigned from office. His resignation came in response to the complex of scandals called the Watergate conspiracy.

Birth and early years

Nixon was born to Francis Nixon and Hannah Milhous. He was raised as an Evangelical Quaker by his mother, who hoped he would become a Quaker missionary. His upbringing is said to have been marked by such conservative Evangelical Quaker observances as refraining from drinking, dancing, and swearing.

His father was less religious, focusing on the family business, a store that sold groceries and gasoline. There is much debate as to whether Nixon went through the expected Quaker soul-searching regarding whether to become a conscientious objector in World War II.

During the period of his political career, however, he was not a practicing Quaker. Further discussion about Nixon's relationship with the Quakers can be found at [1].

He attended Whittier College (a Quaker school), graduating second in his class, and Duke University Law School, where he received a full scholarship. He served as a noncombatant officer in the US Navy in World War II, and was a lawyer for PepsiCo.

Early political career

Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives from California in 1946, in a class of freshman war veterans that included his future rival John F. Kennedy, of Massachusetts.

Nixon climbed the ladder swiftly, making his name as an anti-Communist and a rough, no-holds-barred campaigner. He became a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee and was instrumental in the trial of the ex-government official Alger Hiss for perjury as a part of the accusation that he was a Soviet spy.

Nixon was elected to the Senate in 1950, defeating actress/congresswoman Helen Gahagan, who Nixon accused during the campaign of having communist sympathies.

Vice Presidency

In 1952 he was elected Vice President on Dwight Eisenhower's ticket, although he was only 39 years old.

One notable event of the campaign was Nixon's innovative use of television. Nixon was accused of having been financed by a slush fund provided by business supporters. He went on TV and defended himself in an emotional speech in which he stated that his wife Pat did not wear mink, but rather "a respectable Republican cloth coat", and stated that although he had been given a cocker spaniel named "Checkers", he was not going to give it back because his daughters loved it. This broadcast resulted in a flood of support that required Eisenhower to keep Nixon on the ticket.

As Vice President, Nixon journeyed to South America and was praised for his courage in facing angry mobs protesting US foreign policy.

Nixon was notable among Vice Presidents in having actually stepped up to run the government three times when Eisenhower was ill: on the occasions of Eisenhower's heart attack on September 24, 1955; his ileitis in June 1956; and his stroke in November 1957. He also proved to be able to quickly think on his feet which was demonstrated on July 24, 1959 at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow where Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had an impromptu "kitchen debate" about the merits of capitalism vs communism.

1960 election and post-Vice Presidency

In 1960, he ran for President on his own but lost to John F. Kennedy, ironically a friend of Nixon's (Kennedy, in fact, was one of the first to congratulate Nixon when he was chosen as Eisenhower's running mate). Many observers believe that a crucial factor in his loss was the first televised presidential debate. Despite his five o'clock shadow, Nixon refused television makeup and was feeling sick, having injured his knee on the way to the studio. He expected to win voters with his foreign-policy expertise, but people only saw a sickly man sweating profusely and wearing a gray suit that blended into the scenery; while his rival, Kennedy, looked great. It has since been widely suggested, with some support from research, that those who had listened to the debate on radio thought Nixon had won, but that the television audience gave the win to Kennedy.

On November 7, 1962, he lost a race for Governor of California. In his concession speech, Nixon stated that it was his "last press conference" and that "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more".

Presidency

The defeated mood did not last. He moved to New York City and worked as a prominent lawyer, and in the election of 1968 completed a remarkable political comeback by defeating Hubert H. Humphrey to become the 37th U.S. President.

Major initiatives during his presidency:

Nixon appealed to what he claimed was the "silent majority" of moderate Americans who disliked the "hippie" counterculture and civil rights and anti-war demonstrators. Nixon also promised "peace with honor" by his "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War. He proposed the Nixon Doctrine to establish a strategy of turning over the fighting of the war to the Vietnamese. During the war, on July 30, 1969, Nixon made an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam, and met with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with US military commanders. The war ended during Nixon's term, but only after four more years of strategic bombing and defeat on the ground, and the withdrawal of US troops, leaving the battle to the South Vietnamese army.

Nixon's administration secretly began a massive bombing campaign against Cambodia in March, 1969 (code-named Menu) in order to flush out North Vietnamese guerrillas using Cambodian territory to cover ground and strike South Vietnamese targets. In ordering the bombings, Nixon realised he would be seen to extend a domestically unpopular war as well as breaching Cambodia's official neutrality. For this, and other reasons, the details of the bombing were kept even from high ranking officials such as Secretary of State William P. Rodgers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During the deliberations over Nixon's impeachment, his unorthodox use of executive powers over the ordering of these bombings were considered as an article of impeachment, but the charge was dropped. This bombing (and an "incursion" by US forces into Cambodian territory in April 1970) added to the administration's tacit support for the overthrow of the neutralist royal government of Norodom Sihanouk by the rightist military dictator Lon Nol, created chaos, and drove much of the peasant population of that country into the arms of the Khmer Rouge, a Maoist revolutionary movement that would kill 1.7 million Cambodians after taking power.

On January 5, 1972 Nixon ordered the development of a space shuttle program. Nixon's name appears alongside former UN Secretary General U Thant's on a special plaque that was placed on the moon's surface.

In 1972 Nixon was re-elected in one of the most massive landslide elections in U.S. political history, defeating George McGovern and garnering over 60% of the popular vote. He carried 49 of the 50 states, trailing only in Massachusetts.

On January 2, 1974 Nixon signed a bill that lowered the maximum US speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during the first OPEC oil embargo.

Nixon departing the White House on August 9


Watergate

Nixon was eventually investigated for the instigation and cover-up of the burglary of the Democratic Party offices at the Watergate office complex, one of a series of scandals involving CREEP (the Committee to Re-Elect the President), which also included the enemies list and assorted "dirty tricks." His secret recordings of White House conversations were subpoenaed, and revealed details of his complicity in the cover-up. Nixon, however, was named by the grand jury investigating Watergate as "an unindicted co-conspirator" in the Watergate Scandal. He lost support from his own party as well as the country in the Saturday Night Massacre in which he ordered Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor in the Watergate case fired, as well as firing several of his own subordinates who objected to this move. The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opened formal and public impeachment hearings against Nixon on May 9, 1974. Rather than face impeachment by the House of Representatives and a conviction by the Senate, he resigned, effective August 9, 1974.

His successor Gerald R. Ford issued a pre-emptive pardon, ending the investigations.

Nixon's presidency was frequently dogged by Nixon's personality, and the public perception of it. Editorial cartoonists and comedians had fun exaggerating Nixon's appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human president and the caricature version of him became increasingly blurred. He was usually portrayed as a sullen loner, with unshaven jowels, slumped shoulders, and a furrowed, sweaty brow. He was, to some, especially the younger generation, the very epitome of a "square," and the personification of unpleasant adult authority. Nixon tried to shed these perceptions by staging photo-ops with young people, and even appearing on popular TV shows such as Laugh-In and Hee Haw. He also frequently brandished the two-finger V sign (alternately viewed as the "Victory sign" or "peace sign"), an act which became one of his best-known trademarks.

Last Years and Death

In his last years Nixon succeeded in rehabilitating his public image to some extent, and gained respect as an elder statesman in the area of foreign affairs, being consulted by both Democratic and Republican successors to the Presidency. Further tape releases, however, removed all doubt as to Nixon's involvement both in the Watergate cover-up and also the illegal campaign finance and intrusive government surveillance that were at the heart of the scandal.

In July 2003, Jeb Stuart Magruder alleged that Nixon had personally ordered the Watergate break-in by phone. Previously the only guilt that was alleged was his role in the cover up of the break-in.

Nixon wrote many books after his departure from politics, including a history of the Vietnam war and his own personal memoirs.

Nixon died on April 22, 1994 at the age of 81, from complications related to a stroke, and was buried beside his wife Pat Nixon in the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California. President Clinton spoke at the funeral, and former Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush and their respective First Ladies were also in attendance: this will probably be the last gathering of these presidents in view of Reagan's health.

The Nixon Library contains only Nixon's pre- and post-Presidential papers, as his Presidential papers have been retained as government evidence. Nixon's attempts to protect his papers and gain tax advantages from them had been one of the important themes of the Watergate affair. The library is unique in that it is privately funded; other presidential libraries receive support from the National Archives.

Key appointments

Major legislation signed

Supreme Court appointments

Quotations

  • "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." 1962 after losing race for Governor of California.
  • "This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely." (concerning the Apollo Moon landing)

On Watergate

  • " I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well I'm not a crook." November 17, 1973 Televised press conference at Walt Disney World, Florida.
  • "I don't give a shit what happens. I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up or anything else, if it'll save it, save this plan. That's the whole point. We're going to protect our people if we can." (to Haldemann, tapes ordered released for the trial of Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell)
  • "I recognize that this additional material I am now furnishing may further damage my case," (after the ordered release of the White House tapes August 5 1974)
  • "When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal." (explaining his interpretation of Executive Privilege)
  • "I was under medication when I made the decision not to burn the tapes."
  • "Well, I screwed it up real good, didn't I?"

On Peace

  • "Any nation that decides the only way to achieve peace is through peaceful means is a nation that will soon be a piece of another nation." (from his book No More Vietnams)
  • "The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker." (From his 1969 innagural; later used as Nixon's epitaph)

Misc

  • "Sock it to me?" (said by Nixon on the television comedy series Laugh-In)
  • "I don't know a lot about politics, but I do know a lot about baseball."
  • "Solutions are not the answer."
  • "I would have made a good Pope."
  • "Let me say this about that."

Nixon in the media

Richard Nixon has appeared as a character (with varying degrees of verisimilitude), both major and minor, in a variety of movies and productions:

Further reading

  • For an interesting discussion of Richard Nixon, see the chapter, "The Birth of Culture', pages 257-289, Cultural Selection: Why Some Achievements Survive the Test of Time - And Others Don't, Gary Taylor, Basic Books, ISBN 0465044883
  • Seymour M. Hersh. "The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House." 1983. Summit Books. ISBN 0671447602
  • Elizabeth Becker. "When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution. 1986. Public Affairs. ISBN 1891620002
  • Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan, Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon.
Preceded by:
Lyndon Johnson		 Presidents of the United States Succeeded by:
Gerald Ford
Preceded by:
Alben Barkley		 Vice Presidents of the United States Succeeded by:
Lyndon Johnson
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