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Opening day at the Nixon
Library
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was the only American President to have resigned from office. His resignation came in the face of imminent impeachment related to the Watergate scandal, which encompassed numerous crimes and misconduct beginning with the Watergate first break-in, the follow-up burglary, and the cover-up. He was also the 36th Vice President (1953–1961), serving under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon is the only American to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to the Presidency, and is given credit for redefining the office of Vice President, making it for the first time a highly visible platform and base for a presidential candidacy. He is also known for creating the so-called Imperial Presidency, expanding the power of the Executive branch of government.
Nixon is noted for his diplomatic accomplishments in foreign policy, especially détente with the Soviet Union and China, and ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. He is also noted for his middle-of-the-road domestic policy that combined conservative rhetoric and, in many cases, liberal action, as in his civil rights, environmental and price control policies.
As President, Nixon imposed wage and price controls, indexed Social Security for inflation, and created Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The number of pages added to the Federal Register each year doubled under Nixon. He eradicated the last remnants of the gold standard. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the first significant federal affirmative action program, and dramatically improved salaries for U.S. federal employees worldwide. As a party leader, Nixon helped build the Republican Party (GOP), but he ran his 1972 campaign separately from the party, which perhaps helped the GOP escape some of the damage from Watergate. The Nixon White House was the first to organize a daily press event and daily message for the media, a practice that all subsequent staffs have performed.
Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California to Francis A. Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon. He was raised by his mother as an evangelical Quaker. His upbringing is said to have been marked by conservative evangelical Quaker observances such as refraining from drinking, dancing and swearing. His father (known as Frank) was a former member of the Methodist Protestant Church who had sincerely converted to Quakerism but never fully absorbed its spirit, retaining instead a volatile temper. Richard Nixon's great-grandfather George Nixon III had been killed at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War while serving in the 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Nixon attended Fullerton High School from 1926-1928 and Whittier High School from 1928-1930. He graduated first in his class; showing a penchant for Shakespeare and Latin. He declined a full-tuition scholarship to Harvard and attended Whittier College, a local Quaker school where he co-founded the Orthogonian Society, a fraternity. Nixon was a formidable debater and was elected student body president. A lifelong American football fan, Nixon practiced with the team assiduously but spent most of his time on the bench. In 1934, he graduated second in his class from Whittier and went on to Duke University School of Law, where he received a full scholarship and excelled academically.
In 1937, Nixon returned to California, was admitted to the bar, and began working in the law office of a family friend in a nearby small-town. The work was mostly routine, and Nixon generally found it to be dull. He later wrote that family law cases caused him particular discomfort, since his reticent Quaker upbringing was severely at odds with the idea of discussing intimate marital details with strangers.
He met Thelma "Pat" Ryan, a high school teacher; they were married on June 21, 1940. They had two daughters, Tricia and Julie.
During World War II, Nixon served as a reserve officer in the Navy. He received his training at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and Ottumwa, Iowa, before serving in the supply corps on Nissen Island in the South Pacific
commanding cargo handling units in SCAT. There he was known as "Nick" and for his prowess in poker, banking a large sum that helped finance his first campaign for Congress.
Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1946, defeating Democratic incumbent Jerry Voorhis for California's 12th congressional district. Nixon's campaign alleged that his opponent's CIO PAC support showed that Voorhis was collaborating with Communist-controlled labor unions.
Nixon's first major breakthrough came in his two terms in Congress, where his dogged investigation on the House Un-American Activities Committee broke the impasse of the Alger Hiss spy case in 1948. Nixon believed Whittaker Chambers, who alleged that Hiss, a high State Department official, was a Soviet spy. Nixon discovered that Chambers had saved incriminating documents (hiding them in a pumpkin) which were alleged both to be accessible only by Hiss, and to be typed on Hiss's personal typewriter. The discovery that Hiss, who had been an adviser to FDR, could have been a Soviet spy, thrust Nixon into the public eye and made him the hero to FDR's many enemies. In reality, his support for internationalism put him closer to the center of the Republican party, often closer to liberal Republicans than to conservatives.
In 1950, Nixon was elected to the United States Senate over Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas. Accusing her of Communist or fellow traveler sympathies, Nixon called her "the Pink Lady" and said she was "pink right down to her underwear." Gahagan, meanwhile, gave Nixon one of the most enduring nicknames in politics: "Tricky
Dick". In 1952, he was elected Vice President on Dwight D. Eisenhower's ticket. He was 39 years old.
In September 1952, during the campaign, The New York Post and other publications reported that Nixon had kept a business fund for personal use. Democrats and leading Republicans pressured Eisenhower to remove Nixon from the ticket. Nixon convinced Eisenhower to let him defend himself. Nixon went on TV on September 23 and defended himself in an emotional speech. He provided an independent third-party review of the fund's accounting along with a personal summary of his finances, which he cited as exonerating him from wrongdoing, and he charged that the Democratic Presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, also had a slush fund. This speech would, however, become better known for its rhetoric, such as when he stated that his wife Pat did not wear mink, but rather "a respectable Republican cloth coat," and that although he had been given a cocker spaniel named "Checkers" in addition to his other campaign contributions, he was not going to give it back because his daughters loved it. As a result, this speech became known as the "Checkers speech." At the end of the broadcast, Nixon intended to appeal to viewers to write to the Republican National Committee to voice their support or opposition. Although the broadcast was cut off before he could make this appeal, his speech resulted in a flood of support, prompting Eisenhower to keep Nixon on the ticket.
Nixon greatly expanded the office of Vice President. Although he had no formal power he had the attention of the media and the Republican party. He demonstrated that the office could be a springboard to the White House as it had not been since the 19th century; most Vice Presidents since have followed his lead and sought the presidency. Nixon was the first Vice President to step in to temporarily run the government. He did so 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 on November 25, 1957. Despite this, Nixon was forced to announce his own inclusion on the 1956 Eisenhower re-election campaign, which highlighted the lack of rapport he and Eisenhower shared. Nixon's quick thinking was on display on July 24, 1959, at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow where he and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had an impromptu "kitchen debate" about the merits of capitalism versus communism.
1960, he ran for President against John F. Kennedy. The race was very close all year long. Nixon campaigned on his experience, but Kennedy said it was time for new blood and suggested the Eisenhower-Nixon administration had allowed the Soviet Union to make gains in the arms race. Kennedy also made much of the stagnant American economy of 1960, telling voters it was time to "get the country moving again." It also did not help that when Eisenhower was asked about major policy decisions that Nixon had helped make, the president responded: "Give me a week and I might think of one." In the first of four televised debates, Kennedy not only looked better physically, he also came off as polished, articulate, and mature. The performance dispelled many people's worries that the young senator was too inexperienced to be president. Nixon, for his part, was recovering from an illness and, with the stubble on his face visible, looked unimpressive. Nixon lost the 1960 election narrowly. There were charges of vote fraud in Texas and Illinois, and Nixon and the Republican National committee challenged the results in both states as well as nine others. All of these challenges failed. The Kennedy camp challenged Nixon's victory in Hawaii. That challenge succeeded, and after all the court battles and recounts were done, Kennedy had gained a greater number of electoral votes than he had held after Election
Day. In 1962, Nixon suffered another defeat, this time in a race for Governor of California. Years of campaigning and losing had worn Nixon down. In his concession speech, Nixon blamed the media for favoring his opponent Pat Brown and stated that it was his "last press conference" and that "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore." In just another 12 months though, John Kennedy would be assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The events that define the tumultuous 1960s were beginning, and before the decade closed a "New Nixon," one who was "tanned, rested, and ready," would win the Presidency in another close election.
Nixon moved to New York City where he became a senior partner in the leading law firm, Nixon Mudge Rose Guthrie & Alexander. During the 1966 Congressional elections, he stumped the country in support of Republican candidates, rebuilding his base in the party. In the election of 1968, he completed a remarkable political comeback by taking the nomination. Nixon appealed to what he called the "silent majority" of socially conservative Americans who disliked the hippie counterculture and anti-war demonstrators. Nixon promised peace with honor, and, though never claiming to be able to win the war, Nixon did say that "new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific". He did not explain in detail his plans to end the war in Vietnam, causing Democratic nominee Hubert H. Humphrey to allege that he must have had some "secret plan." Nixon didn't invent the phrase, but because he did not disavow the term, it soon became part of the campaign. In his memoirs, Nixon wrote that he actually had no such plan. He eventually defeated Humphrey and independent candidate George Wallace to become the 37th President of the United States.
The term Watergate has come to encompass a large array of illegal and secret activities undertaken by Nixon or his aides during his administration. Some of these began as early as 1969, when Nixon and Kissinger tapped the phones of numerous journalists and administration officials in an effort to stop leaks. Other major or well-known episodes of wrongdoing included the 1971 burglary of Dr. Lewis Fielding in search of the psychiatric records of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press; Nixon's order to have the FBI investigate CBS News reporter Daniel Schorr after he reported critically on the administration; and talk by G. Gordon Liddy about having the newspaper columnist Jack Anderson assassinated.
But these episodes did not come to light until several of Nixon's men were caught breaking into Democratic party headquarters in June 1972. In October 1972, The Washington Post reported that the FBI had determined Nixon aides had spied on and sabotaged numerous Democratic presidential candidates as a part of the operations that led to the infamous Watergate scandal. During the campaign five burglars were arrested on June 17, 1972, in the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office complex. They were subsequently linked to the White House. This became one of a series of major scandals involving the Committee to Re-Elect the President (known as CRP but referred to by opponents as CREEP), including the White House enemies list and assorted "dirty tricks." The ensuing Watergate scandal exposed the Nixon administration's rampant corruption, illegality, and deceit.
Nixon himself downplayed the scandal as mere politics, but when his aides resigned in disgrace, Nixon's role in ordering an illegal cover-up came to light in the press, courts, and congressional investigations. Nixon evaded taxes, accepted illicit campaign contributions, ordered secret bombings, and harassed opponents with executive agencies, wiretaps, and break-ins. Unlike the tape recordings by earlier Presidents, his secret recordings of White House conversations were revealed and subpoenaed and showed details of his complicity in the cover-up. Nixon was named by the grand jury investigating Watergate as "an unindicted co-conspirator" in the Watergate Scandal.
He lost support from some in his own party as well as much popular support after what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre of October 20, 1973, in which he ordered Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor in the Watergate case, to be fired, as well as firing several of his own subordinates who objected to this move. The House Judiciary Committee controlled by Democrats opened formal and public impeachment hearings against Nixon on May 9, 1974. Despite his efforts, one of the secret recordings, known as the "smoking gun" tape, was released on August 5, 1974, and revealed that Nixon authorized hush money to Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt, and also revealed that Nixon ordered the CIA to tell the FBI to stop investigating certain topics because of "the Bay of Pigs thing." Such an order was later withdrawn or never carried out. In light of his loss of political support and the near certainty of both his impeachment by the House of Representatives and his probable conviction by the Senate, he resigned on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening. He never admitted criminal wrongdoing, although he later conceded errors of judgment.
On September 8, 1974, a blanket pardon from President Gerald R. Ford, who served as Nixon's second Vice President, effectively ended any possibility of indictment. The pardon was highly controversial and Nixon's critics claimed that the blanket pardon was quid pro quo for his resignation. No evidence of this "corrupt bargain" has ever been proven, and many modern historians dismiss any claims of overt collusion between the two men concerning the pardon. Nixon did not reject the pardon. The pardon of Richard Nixon hurt Ford politically, and it was one of the many reasons cited for Ford's defeat in the election of 1976. The Democratic win in the 1974 mid-term elections was astounding, and provided a governing majority that added an extra two decades to their control of the House of Representatives.
In 1976, Nixon was disbarred by the State of New York, and soon resigned his other law licenses.
In his later years Nixon worked hard to rehabilitate his public image, and he enjoyed considerably more success than could have been anticipated at the time of his resignation. He gained great 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 any doubt of Nixon's involvement both in the Watergate cover-up and also the illegal campaign finances and intrusive government surveillance that were at the heart of the scandal.
Nixon wrote many books after his departure from politics, including his memoirs.
Nixon was also noted to be a firm supporter of the NRA. He hunted on occasion but preferred target shooting as a favorite hobby. He spoke very critically of the gun control laws supported by president Bill Clinton and vice-president Al Gore. He has stated in many private conversations (taped while president) and in many public speeches that "guns are inanimate objects, people make them lethal. You could have a fully automatic rifle in the middle of a room and it would do nothing deadly unless interfered with by an irresponsible person."
On April 18, 1994, Nixon, 81, suffered a major stroke at his home in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and died four days later on April 22. Doctors initially said his stroke was minor, but the damage to the brain caused it to swell inside the skull. Nixon's living will stipulated that he was not to be placed on a respirator to sustain his life. He was buried beside his wife Pat Nixon (who had died ten months earlier, on June 22, 1993, of lung cancer) on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California.
President Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and California Republican Governor Pete Wilson spoke at the April 27 funeral, the first for an American president since that of Lyndon Johnson on January 25, 1973, which, coincidentally, was presided over by Nixon during his presidency. Also in attendance were former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and their respective first ladies. Nixon was survived by his two daughters, along with his four grandchildren.
The Nixon Library contains only Nixon's pre- and post-presidential papers, because 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. Because of disputes over the papers, the library is privately funded and does not, like the other presidential libraries, receive support from the National Archives.
