Richard Nixon: biography

Richard Nixon (born Jan. 9, 1913, Yorba Linda, Calif., U.S.died April 22, 1994, New York, N.Y.) He was vice president to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961 and the 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1973 when he resigned facing almost certain impeachment for his role in the Watergate Scandal. He was the first American president to resign from office. Richard Nixon was the second of five children born to Frank Nixon and Hannah Milhouse Nixon. His father was a service station owner and grocer, who also owned a small lemon farm in Yorba Linda, California. His mother was a Quaker exerted a strong influence on her son. Richard Nixons early life was hard, as he characterized by saying, We were poor, but the glory of it was we didnt know it. The family experienced tragedy early in Richards life when his younger brother died in 1925 after a short illness and later when he was 20, his older brother, whom he greatly admired, died of tuberculosis in 1933. Richard Nixon attended Fullerton High School but later transferred to Whittier High School. There he ran for student body president, but lost to a more popular student. The loss would be his last for 31 years. Nixon graduated high school second in his class and was offered a scholarship to Harvard. But his family couldnt afford the travel and living expenses so he attended local Whittier College, a Quaker institution, where he earned a reputation as a formidable debater and standout in college drama productions as well as successful athlete. Upon graduation from Whittier in 1934, Nixon received a full scholarship to Duke University Law School in Durham, N.C. Returning to Whittier to practice law at the firm of Kroop & Bewley, he met Thelma Catherine (Pat) Ryan, a teacher and amateur actress, after the two were cast in the same play at a local community theatre. The couple married in 1940 and had two daughters, Tricia and Julie. A career as a small town lawyer was not enough for a man with his ambition, so in August 1942, Richard Nixon and his wife moved to Washington D.C., where he took a job in Franklin Roosevelts Office of Price Administration (OPA) in Washington, D.C. He soon became dissolution with the New Deals biggovernment programs and bureaucratic red tape. Though eligible for an exemption from military service as a Quaker and in his job with OPA, Nixon joined the navy, serving as an aviation ground officer in the Pacific. Though he saw no actual combat, he returned to the United States with two service stars and several commendations, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant commander. He resigned his commission in January, 1946. Following his return to civilian life Richard Nixon was approached by a group of Whittier Republicans who encouraged him to run for Congress. He was up against five-term liberal Democratic Congressman Jerry Voorhis. Nixons campaign exploited notions about Voorhiss alleged communist sympathies. This would become a Nixon campaign tactic throughout his political life. Nixon was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November, 1946. During his first term, Richard Nixon was assigned to the Select Committee on Foreign Aid and went to Europe to report on the newly enacted Marshall Plan. There he quickly established a reputation as an internationalist in foreign policy. As a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAAC) in 194850, he took a leading role in the investigation of Alger Hiss, a former State Department official with a previously stellar reputation. While many believed Hiss, Nixon believed the allegations that Hiss was spying for the Soviet Union to be true. In dramatic testimony before the committee, Hiss vehemently denied the charge and his accuser Whittaker Chambers. Nixon brought Hiss to the witness stand and under stinging cross-examination, Hiss admitted he had known Chambers but under a different name. This brought Hiss a perjury and five

years in prison. Nixon's hostile questioning of Hiss during the committee hearings did much to make his national reputation as a fervent anticommunist. In 1950, Nixon successfully ran for the United States Senate against Democratic Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas. She had been an outspoken opponent of the anti-Communist scare and the actions of the HUAAC. Employing previous campaign tactics, Nixons people distributed flyers on pink paper unfairly distorting Douglas's voting record as left-wing. The Independent Review, a small Southern California newspaper, nicknamed Nixon Tricky Dick, a derogatory nickname that would remain with him for the rest of this life. Richard Nixons fervent anti-communist reputation earned him the notice of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Republican Party, believing he could draw valuable support in the West. At the Republican convention in 1952, Nixon won the nomination as vice president. Two months before the November election, the New York Post reported that Nixon had a secret slush fund provided by campaign donors for his personal use. Some within Eisenhowers campaign called for removing Nixon from the ticket. Realizing that he might not win without him, Eisenhower was willing to give Nixon a chance to clear himself. On Sept. 23, 1952, Nixon delivered a nationally televised address in which he acknowledged the existence of the fund but denied that any of it had been used improperly. He turned the speech back on his political enemies, claiming that unlike the wives of so many Democratic politicians, his wife, Pat, did not own a fur coat but only a respectable Republican cloth coat. The speech was perhaps best remembered for its conclusion in which Nixon admitted accepting one political gifta cocker spaniel that his six-year-old daughter, Tricia, had named Checkers. Although Nixon initially thought that the speech had failed, the public responded to what became known as the Checkers Speech. None the less, the experience embedded a deep distrust of mainstream media in Nixon. The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket defeated the Democratic candidates, Adlai E. Stevenson and John Sparkman and Richard Nixon had avoided a political disaster. http://www.biography.com/people/richard-nixon-9424076

Richard Nixon's 'Secret Fund' 1952

Richard M. Nixon, then a U.S. senator from California and the Republican vice presidential nominee, was accused of maintaining a hidden political fund of about $18,000 collected from home-state supporters. The Democratic-leaning New York Post carried the first reports of the fund somewhat sensationalized accounts that, in Nixon's words, "let me have it with both barrels." An avalanche of coverage followed, and soon the "secret fund" was the central issue of the presidential campaign. Though legal, the previously undisclosed nest egg caused such a stir that Nixon was nearly forced from GOP presidential nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower's ticket. Some of Eisenhower's staff and key party elders wanted Nixon to step down; former GOP presidential nominee and New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey personally urged Nixon to resign. Nixon saved himself with a dramatic if maudlin television appeal that became known as the "Checkers speech", so named because of a cocker spaniel dog given by a supporter to his young daughters which Nixon swore never to give up, come what may in the political wars.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/nixon.htm

At the 1952 Republican national convention, a young Senator from California, Richard M. Nixon, was chosen to be the running mate of presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon had enjoyed a spectacular rise in national politics. Elected to Congress in 1946, he quickly made a name for himself as a militant anti-Communist while serving on the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1950, at age 38, he was elected to the Senate and became an outspoken critic of President Truman's conduct of the Korean War. He also cited wasteful spending by the Democrats, and alleged that Communists had infiltrated the U.S. government. But Nixon's rapid rise in American politics nearly came to a crashing halt after a sensational headline appeared in the New York Post stating, "Secret Rich Men's Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary." The headline appeared just a few days after Eisenhower had chosen him as his running mate. Amid the shock and outrage that followed, many Republicans urged Eisenhower to dump Nixon from the ticket before it was too late. Nixon, however, in a brilliant political maneuver, took his case directly to the American people via the new medium of television. During a nationwide broadcast, with his wife Pat sitting stoically nearby, Nixon offered an apologetic explanation of his finances, including the now-famous lines regarding his wife's "respectable Republican cloth coat." Additionally, he told of a little dog named Checkers that was given as a present to his young daughters. "I want to say right now that regardless of what they say, we're going to keep it." He turned the last section of his address into a political attack, making veiled accusations about the finances of his political opponents and challenging them to provide the same kind of open explanation. Although it would forever be known as Nixon's "Checkers Speech," it was actually a political triumph for Nixon at the time it was given. Eisenhower requested Nixon to come to West Virginia where he was campaigning and greeted Nixon at the airport with, "Dick, you're my boy." The Republicans went on to win the election by a landslide. http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/nixon-checkers.htm

The 1952 Checkers Speech: The Dog Carries the Day for Richard Nixon

The speech now seems quaint at best, humorous at worst. Richard Nixon was baring his finances and using a family dog, Checkers, to paint himself as an Everyman wrongly accused of tainted wealth. For one looking back, the 1952 Checkers speech may seem mawkish, syrupy, and the height of insincerity. But that perception risks missing the speech's power. That TV address not only saved Nixon's career and vice presidential candidacy, it also launched American politics on a path that still guides it today. Nixon sensed the power of TV to shape a politician's image and how image would shape politics. He also obsessed over the public's perception of him. "And it has to be called an obsession," says David Greenberg, author of Nixon's ShadowThe History of an Image. Unprecedented talk. That fixation made him a singular force in early television. The 1952 Checkers speech came after press reports, stirred by supporters of a Republican opponent, that Nixon had personally profited from a secret, though legal, political slush fund. Nixon went to a Hollywood theater, where TV admen constructed a faux, middle-class den for him to take his case directly to the American people. The unprecedented spectacle of a potentially disgraced man talking live drew Americans to stores, bars, and the homes of neighbors who had the new tubes. Viewers heard only a brief discussion of the fund. Nixon instead detailed his meager beginnings and still-tight finances. He owned a 1950 Oldsmobile and two houses with mortgages and made regular payments on a $3,500 loan from his parents, among other debts. The Great Depression was still a fresh wound, and the financial disclosures riveted the nation in a way not understood today, says Thomas Doherty, an American studies professor at Brandeis University. Nobody then talked about his or her bank accounts in public. "His revelations came across as painful, anguishing for everyone watching," Doherty says. People cried as they listened, even in the studio. Then came the title line about Checkers. A Texas supporter had sent the cocker spaniel weeks earlier after reading that Nixon's daughters wanted a dog. "Regardless of what they say about it, we're going to keep it." After the speech, calls supporting Nixon jammed switchboards. Today, voters expect to know the inner politician as issues become more complex. "So you look for personal qualities," says Greenberg. By invoking a dog that proved to be his best friend, Nixon sealed that role for television in politics. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/01/17/the-dog-carries-the-day-for-nixon

Richard Nixon and His "Checkers" Speech

In 1952, Richard Nixon was accused of giving special favors to those who contributed to a political fund that was being used to reimburse him for political expenses. Even though the fund was not illegal at the time, Nixon had run for political office and gotten placed on the Republican ticket for president based partially on attacking corruption. On September 23, 1952, Nixon went on television to give a speech in his defense. This speech became known as the "Checkers speech" because of the following excerpt:

"One other thing I probably should tell you, because if I don't they'll probably be saying this about me, too. We did get something, a gift, after the election. A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore, saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he'd sent all the way from Texas, black and white, spotted. And our little girl Tricia, the six year old, named it "Checkers." And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog, and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it." Nixon would go on to win the vice presidency with running mate Dwight Eisenhower. He would later be elected as president in 1968. http://americanhistory.about.com/b/2009/09/23/richard-nixon-and-his-checkers-speech.htm

Works Cited "The History Place - Great Speeches Collection: Richard Nixon Checkers Speech." The History Place. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/nixon-checkers.htm>. Kelly, Martin. "Richard Nixon and His "Checkers" Speech." American History. About.com, 23 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://americanhistory.about.com/b/2009/09/23/richard-nixon-and-his-checkersspeech.htm>. LaGesse, David. "The 1952 Checkers Speech: The Dog Carries the Day for Richard Nixon." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 17 Jan. 2008. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2008/01/17/the-dog-carries-the-day-for-nixon>. "Richard Nixon Biography." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/richard-nixon-9424076>. Sabato, Larry J. "Richard Nixon's "Secret Fund" - 1952." Washington Post. 1998. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/nixon.htm>.