Richard Nixon

Richard M. Nixon
File:Nixon.jpg
37th President of the United States
In office January 20 1969 – August 9 1974
President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President	Spiro Agnew (1969-1973), Gerald R. Ford (1973-1974)
Preceded by	Lyndon B. Johnson
Succeeded by	Gerald Ford
36th Vice President of the United States
In office January 20 1953 – January 20 1961
Preceded by	Alben Barkley
Succeeded by	Lyndon Johnson
Personal details
Born	January 9 1913 Yorba Linda, California
Died	April 22 1994 New York, New York
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Thelma Catherine Patricia Ryan (Pat) Nixon
Signature

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9 1913 – April 22 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He is the only American President to have resigned from office. His resignation came in the face of imminent impeachment related to the Watergate first break-in and the subsequent Watergate scandal. 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 high visibility platform and base for a presidential candidacy.

Nixon is noted for his diplomatic accomplishments in foreign policy, especially Détente with the Soviet Union and China, and ending 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 environmental policy.

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 advocated gun control and eradicated the last remnants of the gold standard. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the first significant federal affirmative action program. 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.

Early years

Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California to Francis A. Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon in a house his father built from a kit purchased from Sears, Roebuck. 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's parents had five children:

• Harold Samuel Nixon (June 1 1909 – March 7 1933)
• Richard Nixon
• Francis Donald Nixon (November 23 1914 – June 27 1987)
• Arthur Burdg Nixon (May 26 1918 – August 10 1925)
• Edward Calvert Nixon (May 3 1930)

The young Lt Commander Richard Nixon of the US Navy 1945

Nixon attended Fullerton High School from 1926-28 and Whittier High School from 1928-30. He graduated first in his class; showing a penchant for Shakespeare and Latin. He won a full tuition scholarship from Harvard; but since it did not cover living expenses, Nixon's family was unable to afford to send him away to college. Nixon attended Whittier College, a local Quaker school where he co-founded the Orthogonian Society, a fraternity that competed with the already established Franklin Society. Nixon was elected student body president. A lifelong football buff, 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.

In 1937 Nixon returned to California, passed the bar exam, and began working in the small-town law office of a family friend in nearby La Mirada. The work was mostly routine, and Nixon generally found it to be dull, although he was entirely competent. 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.

It was during this period that he met his wife Pat, 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 an officer in the Navy. He received his training at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and Ottumwa, Iowa, before serving in the supply corps in the South Pacific. There he was known as "Nick" and for his prowess in poker, banking a large sum that helped finance his first campaign for Congress.

House and Senate: 1946-1952

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 a senior FDR advisor, could have been a Soviet spy, thrust Nixon into the public eye and made him the hero to FDR's many enemies. In reality, Nixon's moderate position on domestic economic policies, and his support for internationalism put him in the left wing of the Republican party, often closer to liberal Democrats than to conservative Republicans. However conservatives ignored that because of his success in attacking Communist sympathizers. (Democrats too ignored his basic support for New Deal foreign and domestic policies.)

In 1950, Nixon was elected to the United States Senate over Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas. Alluding to her supposed 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."

Vice Presidency

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Order:	36th Vice President
Term of Office:	January 20 1953 – January 20 1961
Preceded by:	Alben Barkley
Succeeded by:	Lyndon B. Johnson
President:	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Political party:	Republican

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

During the campaign, Nixon was accused by nameless sources of misappropriating money out of a business funding fund for personal use. He went on TV and defended himself in an emotional speech, where 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", and it resulted in a flood of support, prompting Eisenhower to keep Nixon on the ticket.

Nixon reinvented the office of Vice President. Although he had no formal power, he had the attention of the media and the Republican party. He demonstrated for the first time that the office could be a springboard to the White House; most Vice Presidents since have followed his lead and sought the presidency (exceptions being Nelson Rockefeller and Spiro Agnew). Nixon was the first Vice President to actually 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. His 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 election and post-Vice Presidency

Main article: United States presidential election, 1960

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Vice President Nixon, right, and Senator John F. Kennedy during their TV debate prior to the 1960 presidential election

In 1960, he ran for President on his own but lost to 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 been soft on defense. It also did not help that when asked of major policy decisions that Nixon had helped make, Eisenhower responded: "Give me a week and I might think of one". This hurt his standing early in the campaign, showing that he did not necessarily have the experience to be President or Eisenhower's firm backing. It is also believed that Nixon's chances were further damaged by the televised debates. While Nixon was visibly sweaty and even stumbled from nervousness, Kennedy looked handsome and very confident to TV viewers.

In 1962, Nixon lost a race for Governor of California. In his concession speech, Nixon accused the media of favoring his opponent Pat Brown and stated that it was his "last press conference" and that "You don't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more".

1968 Election

Main article: United States presidential election, 1968

Nixon moved to New York City where he became a well-paid senior partner in a 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 without claiming to be able to win the war, Nixon claimed 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, leading Democratic nominee Hubert H. Humphrey and the media to allege that he must have some "secret plan." Nixon did not use the phrase, and stated in his memoirs that he had no such plan. He defeated Humphrey and independent candidate George Wallace to become the 37th President of the United States.

Presidency 1969-1974

Foreign policies

Once in office, he proposed the Nixon Doctrine to establish a strategy of turning over the fighting of the war to the Vietnamese. In July 1969, he visited South Vietnam, and met with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with U.S. military commanders. American involvement in the war declined steadily until all American troops were gone in 1973. After the withdrawal of U.S. troops, fighting was left to the South Vietnamese army, which was well supplied with modern arms, but whose fighting capability was in question because of inadequate funding, low morale, and corruption. The lack of funding was primarily because of large funding cutbacks by the U.S. Congress.

Nixon ordered secret bombing campaigns in Cambodia in March 1969 (code-named Operation Menu) to destroy what was believed to be the headquarters of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam.

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President Nixon greets released POW (and future Republican Senator) Navy officer John McCain (on crutches) after years of imprisonment in North Vietnam, 1973

In ordering the bombings, Nixon realized he would be extending an unpopular war as well as breaching Cambodia's "official" (but false) neutrality. During deliberations over Nixon's impeachment, his unorthodox use of executive powers in ordering the bombings was considered as an article of impeachment, but the charge was dropped as not a violation of Constitutional powers.

On July 20 1969, Nixon addressed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin live via radio during their historic moonwalk. Nixon also made the world's longest distance phone call to Neil Armstrong on the moon. On January 5, 1972, Nixon approved the development of the Space Shuttle program, a decision that profoundly influenced U.S. efforts to explore and develop space for several decades thereafter.

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President Nixon greets Communist Party of China Chairman Mao (left) in a visit to China, 1972

Relations between the Western and Eastern power blocs changed dramatically in the early 70s. In 1960, the People's Republic of China ended the alliance with its biggest ally, the Soviet Union, in the Sino-Soviet Split. As tensions between the two communist nations reached its peak in 1969 and 1970, Nixon decided to use their conflict to shift the balance of power towards the West in the Cold War. In what later would be known as the "China Card", Nixon deliberately improved relations with China in order to gain a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, but giving Moscow a chance to imporve relations so as not to be squeezed bu a US-China detente. In 1971, a move was made to improve relations when China invited an American table tennis team to China; hence the term "Ping Pong Diplomacy". In October 1971, The People's Republic of China entered the United Nations. Nixon sent Henry Kissinger on a secret mission to China in July 1971, and in 1972 Nixon stunned the world by himself going [[Nixon visit to China 1972|to China] to negotiate directly with Mao. Fearing the possibility of a Sino-American alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to American pressure for détente. The first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were finally concluded the same year with the SALT I treaty. To win American friendship both China and the Soviet Union agreed to cut back on their support for North Vietnam. Nixon later explained his strategy:

I had long believed that an indispensable element of any successful peace initiative in Vietnam was to enlist, if possible, the help of the Soviets and the Chinese. Though rapprochement with China and détente with the Soviet Union were ends in themselves, I also considered them possible means to hasten the end of the war. At worst, Hanoi was bound to feel less confident if Washington was dealing with Moscow and Peking. At best, if the two major Communist powers decided that they had bigger fish to fry, Hanoi would be pressured into negotiating a settlement we could accept.

Nixon was vocal in supporting General Yahya Khan of Pakistan despite escalating violence in East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War. Subsequently declassified documents reveal the extent of support offered by Nixon to the dictator notwithstanding the widespread human rights violations.

Nixon supported the wave of military "golpes de Estado" in South America. Through Henry Kissinger, he gave at least an implicit help to Augusto Pinochet's coup, in 1973, and then helped set up operation Condor (as evidenced by CIA documents released in 2000, following Pinochet's arrest in 1998). A U.S. intelligence base in Panama Canal coordinated the acts of the various Latin American secret services, such as DINA and Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención.

Domestic policies

He established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 2, 1970.

On January 2, 1974, Nixon signed a bill that lowered the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 miles per hour (90 km/h) in order to conserve gasoline during the 1973 energy crisis. This law remained in effect until 1995.

Major initiatives

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Mobutu Sese Seko and Richard Nixon at Washington D.C. 1973

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

• Normalizing of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and partially abandoning the Republic of China on Taiwan as part of Realpolitik, a foreign policy eschewing moral considerations. In the short term Nixon was successful in playing the "China card" against the Soviet Union and its client state North Vietnam.
• Détente, or the peaceful pause in the Cold War; détente ended in 1979, replaced by another phase of the Cold War.
• Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.
• Establishment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• Establishment of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.
• Establishment of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
• Establishment of the Supplemental Security Income program.
• Establishment of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise
• Post Office Department abolished as a cabinet department and reorganized as a government owned corporation, the U.S Postal Service.
• SALT I, or Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, led to the signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
• "Vietnamization": the training and arming of South Vietnamese forces to allow the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam.
• Suspension of the convertibility of the US dollar into gold, a central point of the Bretton Woods system, allowing its value to float in world markets.
• Space Shuttle program started.
• Endorsed an enlightened self-determination policy for Native Americans that changed the direction of policy as continued from the New Deal through the Great Society.

On April 3, 1974, Nixon announced he would pay $432,787.13 in back taxes plus interest after a Congressional committee reported that he had inadvertently underpaid his 1969 and 1972 taxes.

In light of the near certainty of both his impeachment (due to the Watergate scandal) by the House of Representatives and his conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned on August 9 1974.

Administration and Cabinet

The Nixon Administration was comprised of an impressive array of talent both in the cabinet and in the White House staff. Among the many people who came to Washington to serve in the administration were one future President (George H. W. Bush); a Vice President (Dick Cheney); six secretaries of state (Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, George Shultz, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, and Colin Powell); five secretaries of defense (James Schlesinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Casper Weinberger, Frank Carlucci, and Cheney); a chairman of the joint chiefs of staff (Powell), two secretaries of the treasury (William Simon and Baker); a secretary of energy (Schlesinger); and three chiefs of staff (Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Baker). Indeed a member of the Nixon Administration has held a cabinet post or been a senior advisor within the subsequent six administrations. That so many key figures of the Ford, Reagan, Bush (41), and Bush (43) Administrations first entered government service in the Nixon White House is arguably the most profound and long-lasting legacy of Richard Nixon.

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Official Portrait of President Richard Nixon.

OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Richard Nixon	1969–1974
Vice President	Spiro T. Agnew	1969–1973
	Gerald R. Ford	1973–1974
State	William P. Rogers	1969–1973
	Henry A. Kissinger	1973–1974
Treasury	David M. Kennedy	1969–1971
	John B. Connally	1971–1972
	George P. Shultz	1972–1974
	William E. Simon	1974
Defense	Melvin R. Laird	1969–1973
	Elliot L. Richardson	1973–1973
	James R. Schlesinger	1973–1974
Justice	John N. Mitchell	1969–1972
	Richard G. Kleindienst	1972–1973
	Elliot L. Richardson	1973–1974
	William B. Saxbe	1974
Postmaster General	Winton M. Blount	1969–1974
Interior	Walter J. Hickel	1969–1971
	Rogers C. B. Morton	1971–1974
Agriculture	Clifford M. Hardin	1969–1971
	Earl L. Butz	1971–1974
Commerce	Maurice H. Stans	1969–1972
	Peter George Peterson	1972–1973
	Frederick B. Dent	1973–1974
Labor	George P. Shultz	1969–1970
	James D. Hodgson	1970–1973
	Peter J. Brennan	1973–1974
HEW	Robert H. Finch	1969–1970
	Elliot L. Richardson	1970–1973
	Caspar W. Weinberger	1973–1974
HUD	George Romney	1969–1973
	James T. Lynn	1973–1974
Transportation	John A. Volpe	1969–1973
	Claude S. Brinegar	1973–1974

Administration notables

Chiefs of Staff

• H. R. Haldeman - Chief of Staff (1969 - 1973)
• Alexander Haig - Chief of Staff (1973 - 1974)

Undersecretaries

• Frank Carlucci - undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare
• Dick Cheney - special assistant to the Director of the OEO, White House staff assistant, assistant director of the Cost of Living Council, and Deputy Assistant to the President.

Assistants

• Lamar Alexander - Counselor to the President
• Alexander Butterfield - Deputy Assistant to the President
• Dwight Chapin - Special Assistant to the President (1968-71) and then Deputy Assistant (1971-73)
• Lawrence Eagleburger - Assistant to National Security Advisor
• John Ehrlichman - Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs
• Jeb Stuart Magruder - Special Assistant to the President
• Brent Scowcroft - Military Assistant and Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
• John Whitaker - Principal Advisor on the Environment

White House Counsel

• John Dean - White House Counsel
• Charles Colson - White House Special Counsel

Communications Office

• Ken Clawson - Director of White House Communications
• Herbert G. Klein - Communications Director for the Executive Branch

Press Secretary

• Ron Ziegler - White House Press Secretary (1969 - 1974), Assistant to the President (1974)

Speech Writers

• Aram Bakshian, Jr - speech writer
• Patrick Buchanan - speech writer
• David Gergen - speech writer
• Lee Heubner - special assistant to the president and associate director, White House writing and research staff
• Jim Keogh - speech writer
• John McLaughlin - speech writer
• Ray Price - speech writer [first and second inaugural addresses]
• William Safire - speech writer
• Ben Stein - speech writer

Others

• Robert Bork - Solicitor General
• Richard Darman
• Carla Hills
• E. Howard Hunt - "Plumber"
• G. Gordon Liddy - "Plumber"
• Ann Dore McLaughlin
• Henry Paulson, Jr. - assistant to John Ehrlichman
• Colin Powell - White House Fellow
• William Ruckelshaus - Deputy Attorney General

Supreme Court appointments

Nixon appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• Warren E. Burger (Chief Justice) – 1969
• Harry Andrew Blackmun – 1970
• Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. – 1972
• William Rehnquist – 1972

Nixon also made the following unsuccessful Supreme Court nominations:

• Harrold Carswell - rejected by the United States Senate
• Clement Haynesworth - rejected by the United States Senate
• Hershel Friday - passed over in favor of Lewis Powell after the American Bar Association found Friday "unqualified"
• Mildred Lillie - passed over in favor of William Rehnquist after the American Bar Association found Lillie "unqualified"

Watergate

Main article: Watergate scandal

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Nixon's letter of resignation

Nixon departing the White House on August 9 1974

In October 1972, The Washington Post reported 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. His supporters noted that the abuses of the Nixon presidency were but a logical extension of partisan abuses by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson such as use of the IRS against political opponents. Unlike the tape recordings by those 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. The pardon hurt Ford politically, and it was one of the major reasons cited for Ford's defeat in the election of 1976.

Later years and death

In his later years Nixon worked 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.

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. 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. 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.

Legacy

Presidential scholars, both liberal and conservative, rank him near the bottom of the list because of the scandals, but most agree that Nixon presents a special problem because his foreign policy and domestic policy successes stands in dramatic contradiction to the corruption of his top aides and Nixon himself. Political scientist Walter Dean Burnham noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles. On some very important dimensions both Wilson and L.B. Johnson were outright failures in my view; while on others they rank very high indeed. Similarly with Nixon." Historian Alan Brinkley said: "There are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Wilson, Johnson, Nixon)." James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?"

Popular culture

Nixon's career was frequently dogged by Nixon's personality, and the public perception of it. Editorial cartoonists such as Herblock and comedians had fun exaggerating Nixon's appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human and the caricature version of him became increasingly blurred. He was often portrayed as a sullen loner, with unshaven jowls, slumped shoulders, and a furrowed, sweaty brow. He was also characterized as the 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 cameo appearances on popular TV shows such as Laugh-In and Hee Haw (before he was President). He also frequently brandished the two-finger V sign (alternately viewed as the "Victory sign" or "peace sign") using both hands, an act which became one of his best-known trademarks. Due to his uptight image, many Americans were shocked to hear that the president had a much gruffer, aggressive side, revealed by the sheer amount of swearing and vicious comments seen on the transcripts of the the president's White House tapes. This did not help the public perception and fed the comedians even more. Nixon's sense of being persecuted by his "enemies," his grandiose belief in his own moral and political excellence, and his commitment to utilize ruthless power at all costs led some experts to describe him as having a narcissistic and paranoid personality. During the Watergate Scandal, Nixon's approval rating had fallen to 25%.

Nixon meets Elvis Presley in December 1970

Media inspired by the Nixon Presidency

• The book and movie All the President's Men tell Woodward and Bernstein's story of the Watergate affair.
• Best-selling historian-author Stephen Ambrose wrote a three-volume biography (Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962, Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962-1972, Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990) considered the definitive work among many Nixon biographies. The detailed accounts were mostly favorably regarded by both liberal and conservative reviewers.
• Conservative author Victor Lasky published a book in 1977 called It Didn't Start With Watergate. The book points out that past presidents may have used wiretaps and engaged in other activities that Nixon was accused of, but were never pursued by the press or the subject of impeachment hearings.
• Chuck Colson gives an insider account of the Watergate affair in Born Again.
• H.R. Haldeman also provides an insider's perspective in the books The Ends of Power and The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House
• G. Gordon Liddy, gives his version of the Watergate Scandal in his autobiography Will.
• The movie Nixon directed by Oliver Stone.
• Nixon in China is an opera dealing with Nixon's visit there.
• The comedy Dick (film) tells the tale of the Watergate scandal by saying that Deep Throat (Watergate) was two teenage girls. They choose the name because their older brother saw Deep Throat (film) at the theater. They get in the White House since they are presidential dogwalkers.
• The 2004 movie The Assassination of Richard Nixon starring Sean Penn as a salesman who become disillusioned by the American dream and eventually decides to crash a plane into the White House in protest, killing the President. While not appearing as a character, Nixon (through television interviews and clips) is used to represent the American establishment and its use of capitalism to control the country.
• From 1976 to 1979, Nixon was portrayed on NBC's Saturday Night Live by Dan Aykroyd.
• Richard Nixon was elected President of Earth in Matt Groening's cartoon series Futurama, claiming that the Constitution stated that nobody may be elected more than twice, and he is now just a head in a jar and was then using a robot body. Many other people are heads in jars on Futurama, but Nixon's is the one with the biggest role. He also appears in The Simpsons in flashbacks or on television. The actual text of the 22nd Amendment states that no person may run for President more than twice, or serve more than ten years as President.
• The Manic Street Preachers offered a rare sympathetic look at Nixon during their song The Love of Richard Nixon
• Many have said that the character of Charles Logan, as portrayed by Gregory Itzin on 24 (TV series), is based on Nixon. Besides the Watergate implications of working with the terrorists, Logan also asked assistant Mike Novick to "pray with me." This was a clear parallel to when Nixon asked Henry Kissinger to pray with him in the White House.
• The late folk singer Phil Ochs changed his earlier song "Here's to the State of Mississippi", to "Here's to the State of Richard Nixon" in which the last line of every verse is "Here's to the land you torn out the heart of, Richard Nixon (Mississippi) find yourself another country to be part of". It is then met with large cheers.
• In issue #83 of the DC Comics-published comic book, Green Lantern/Green Arrow (April/May 1971), Green Lantern and Green Arrow encountered a little girl with great psychic capabilities. Artist Neal Adams gave the little girl a strong resemblance to Nixon, whom Adams was not fond of.
• In Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, President Nixon sends the superhuman Dr. Manhattan to win the Vietnam War, which he does in just three months. In the afterglow of Dr. Manhattan's triumph, the 22nd Amendment is repealed, and Nixon is reelected in 1976, 1980, and 1984 (and is still serving at the time of the story, in 1985).
• The Simpsons character Milhouse Van Houten was named, in part, after Richard Milhous Nixon.
• Nixon is mentioned twice in Billy Joel's history themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire", as are many Presidents before and after him. The Watergate scandal is mentioned as well.

Trivia

• When Nixon was younger, he was once caught sneaking into the Duke University law school to peak at grades.
• The first Kennedy-Nixon debate took place on April 21 1947, when Democratic Congressman Frank Buchanan selected freshman congressmen Nixon and John F. Kennedy to debate the Taft-Hartley Act at a public meeting.
• In 1952, Nixon became the first native of California to appear on a major-party presidential ticket when he was chosen as Dwight Eisenhower's running mate. (The same year, the Democratic Presidential nominee was Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, who was born in Los Angeles, California. The 1952 Democratic National Convention which nominated Stevenson took place after the Republican convention which chose Nixon).
• On June 14 1959, Vice-President Nixon and his family inaugurated the Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail in the western hemisphere.
• At the time of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Nixon was attending a Pepsi convention in Dallas, Texas. Nixon Mudge Rose Guthrie & Alexander, the law firm of which he was senior partner, was in charge of managing the Pepsi account.
• On December 22 1968, Julie Nixon (Richard's daughter) and David Eisenhower (Dwight's grandson) were married.
• From January 22 1973, when his predecessor Lyndon Johnson died, until his resignation on August 9, 1974, Nixon was the only living current or former U.S. President.
• Nixon was an accomplished pianist.
• Nixon was the second U.S President to visit the Soviet Union (the first was President Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference in 1945).
• Nixon is one of only two men to have run on five National tickets for a major party (the other is FDR) for Vice President in 1952 and 1956 and for the presidency in 1960, 1968 and 1972. He was nominated as a resident of two different states: between his 1960 and 1968 presidential campaigns, he moved from California to New York.
• Nixon was granted a coat of arms by the short-lived American College of Heraldry and Arms.
• Nixon was an avid bowler and allegedly once bowled a perfect game.
• Nixon was a knowledgeable sports fan, with a particular interest in football and baseball. During his presidency, he even had the odd habit of calling the losing team after the Super Bowl to offer his condolences and support.
• Nixon took a particular interest in the NFL's 1971 season. During the playoffs, he contacted George Allen to suggest he tell his Washington Redskins team that Nixon designed a play for them. He did not actually design the play. Once the Redskins were eliminated, he began to root for the Miami Dolphins. He called Dolphins coach Don Shula on January 3, 1972 to suggest the team use a quick slant pass in the Super Bowl.
• Nixon was the first President to visit all 50 states.
• Nixon played golf frequently.
• Nixon's last public appearance was at a Conestoga High School performance of Into the Woods. His granddaughter Jennie Eisenhower, great-granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower, played the role of Little Red Riding Hood.
• Nixon applied for the Special Agent position in the FBI.

Quotations

• "You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." (1962 after losing the 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)
• "That sonofabitch stole it from me." (referring to his narrow 1960 election defeat to John F.Kennedy)
• "I would have made a good pope."

Foreign policy

• "People react to fear, not love—they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true." (concerning fear and paranoia in the Cold War)
• "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now." (1985 looking back at the Vietnam War)
• "Publicly, we say one thing....Actually, we do another." (On his secret war in Cambodia even after it became public knowledge.)
• "North Vietnam cannot humiliate and defeat America - only Americans can do that."

On race and religion

• "But by God, they're exceptions. But Bob, generally speaking, you can't trust the bastards. They turn on us." (On Jews, to Bob Haldeman)
• "Jewish families are close, but there's this strange malignancy that seems to creep among them - radicalism."
• "You can never put, John, any person who is a Jew on a civil rights kind of case, or freedom of the press kind of case, and get even a ten percent chance.... Basically, who the hell are these people that stole the papers? It's too bad. I'm sorry. I was hoping one of them would be a gentile."
• "You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists." 26th May 1971
• “What about the rich Jews? The IRS is full of Jews, Bob." 14th of September 1971
• "The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards." 1st of February 1972, Nixon telling Bob Haldeman
• “I have the greatest affection for them [African-Americans], but I know they're not going to make it for 500 years. They aren't. You know it, too. The Mexicans are a different cup of tea. They have a heritage. At the present time they steal, they're dishonest, but they do have some concept of family life. They don't live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do live like."

On Watergate

File:Pres38-42.jpg

Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton watched over Nixon's funeral in 1994. He was the first president to die since Lyndon Johnson in the 70's while Nixon was still president

• "When you get in these people when you...get these people in, say: 'Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that' ah, without going into the details... don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, 'the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again.' And, ah because these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case, period!" The 'smoking gun tape' on June 23 1972. Nixon was telling Haldeman to tell the CIA to stop the FBI investigation, by telling the CIA that it would 'open the whole Bay of Pigs thing.' Haldeman did give Nixon's order to the CIA's Richard Helms, who exploded into a rage of fury when told, according to Haldeman. Haldeman would later write that Nixon used the expression 'the Bay of Pigs thing' when he was referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
• "I want to say this to the television audience. I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service. I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got." November 17 1973 Televised press conference with 400 Associated Press Managing Editors at Walt Disney World, Florida, Nixon summarized his responses to journalists' questions regarding speculation and criticism of his personal finances and the Watergate scandal.
• "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 Haldeman, 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)
• "Well, when the President does it, that means that it's not illegal." (explaining his interpretation of Executive Privilege to interviewer David Frost on television, May 19 1977)
• "I was under medication when I made the decision not to burn the tapes."
• "Well, I screwed it all up real good, didn't I?"
• "The greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes and you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain... Always remember, others may hate you. Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself." Farewell to White House staff August 8 1974.
• "I think that the ability of the American people to review all that there is to know about their President using a microscope is wonderful. Still, I think some people get a little carried away when they take out their proctoscopes." (regarding the intense scrutiny which he was forced to endure.)

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 inaugural, later used as Nixon's epitaph)

Miscellaneous

• "Sock it to me?" (cameo on the television comedy series Laugh-In during the 1968 election)
• "Let me make this perfectly clear!!"

See also

Main page: Category:Richard Nixon

• U.S. presidential election, 1952
• U.S. presidential election, 1956
• U.S. presidential election, 1960
• U.S. presidential election, 1968
• U.S. presidential election, 1972
• History of the United States (1964–1980)
• Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California

References

Primary sources

• Nixon, Richard. (1960). The Challenges We Face: Edited and Compiled from the Speeches and Papers of Richard M. Nixon ISBN 0195457626.
• Nixon, Richard. (1962). Six Crises. Doubleday. ISBN 0385001258.
• Nixon, Richard. (1978). RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (Reprint). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671707418.
• Nixon, Richard. (1980). Real War. Sidgwich Jackson. ISBN 0283986506.
• Nixon, Richard. (1982). Leaders. Random House. ISBN 0446512494.
• Nixon, Richard. (1987). No More Vietnams. Arbor House Publishing. ISBN 0877956685.
• Nixon, Richard. (1988). 1999: Victory Without War. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671627120.
• Nixon, Richard. (1990). In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671723189.
• Nixon, Richard. (1992). Seize The Moment: America's Challenge In A One-Superpower World. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671743430.
• Nixon, Richard. (1994). Beyond Peace. Random House. ISBN 0679433236.

Other Memoirs

• John D. Ehrlichman, Witness to Power. The Nixon Years (1982)
• H. R. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries. Inside the Nixon White House (1994), abridged version; complete diaries were published on CD-ROM by SONY.
• Kissinger, Henry. Memoirs. 2 vols. (1979-1982).
• Raymond Price, With Nixon (1977)
• William Safire, Before the Fall. An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House (1975)
• Maurice H. Stans, One of the President's Men: Twenty Years with Eisenhower and Nixon (1995)

Secondary sources

Biographies

• Aitken, Jonathan. Nixon: A Life (1993), generally favorable
• Ambrose, Stephen E. Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913–1962 (1987); Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972 (1989); Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973–1990 (1991). The nost detailed study; generally hostile
• Greenberg, David. Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image (2003).
• Hoff, Joan. Nixon Reconsidered (1994). quite favorable
• Morris, Roger. Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician (1990).
• Iwan Morgan. On Nixon (2002), favourable British view
• Parmet, Herbert S. Richard Nixon and His America. (1990).
• Reeves, Richard. President Nixon: Alone in the White House (2002).
• Wicker, Tom. One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream (1991).

Specialized studies

• Hal W. Bochin; Richard Nixon: Rhetorical Strategist Greenwood Press, 1990
• Friedman, Leon and William F. Levantrosser, eds. Richard M. Nixon: Politician, President, Administrator (1991), essays.
• Genovese, Michael A. The Nixon Presidency: Power and Politics in Turbulent Times (1990).
• John Robert Greene. The Limits of Power: The Nixon and Ford Administrations (1992)
• Gellman, Irwin. The Contender: Richard Nixon: The Congress Years, 1946 to 1952 (1999).
• Reichley, A. James. Conservatives in an Age of Change: The Nixon and Ford Administrations (1981), detailed narrative.
• Small, Melvin. The Presidency of Richard Nixon (2003).
• Summers, Anthony. The Arrogance of Power The Secret World of Richard Nixon (2000).
• White, Theodore. The Making of the President 1968 : A narrative History of American politics in Action (1969)
• White, Theodore. The Making of the President, 1972 (1973)

Foreign Policy and Vietnam

• Andreas W. Daum et al., eds. America, the Vietnam War, and the World : Comparative and International Perspectives (Publications of the German Historical Institute) (2003)
• John Lewis Gaddis. Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy 1982.
• Jeffrey P. Kimball. Nixon's Vietnam War (2002
• Levantrosser, William F. ed. Cold War Patriot and Statesman, Richard M. Nixon (1993), essays by scholars and senior officials.
• Thornton, Richard C. The Nixon-Kissinger Years: Reshaping America's Foreign Policy (1989).

Domestic Policy

• Flippen, J. Brooks. Nixon and the Environment (2000).
• Vincent J. Burke. Nixon's Good Deed: Welfare Reform (1974)* J. Larry Hood, "The Nixon Administration and the Revised Philadelphia Plan for Affirmative Action: A Study in Expanding Presidential Power and Divided Government;' Presidential Studies Quarterly 23 (Winter 1993): 145-67;
• Dean J. Kotlowski; "Richard Nixon and the Origins of Affirmative Action" The Historian. Volume: 60. Issue: 3. 1998. pp 523+.
• Lawrence J. McAndrews; "The Politics of Principle: Richard Nixon and School Desegregation" The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 83 #3, 1998 pp 187+
• Kenneth O'Reilly. Nixon's Piano: Presidents and Racial Politics from Washingtion to Clinton (1995)
• Allen J. Matusow. Nixon's Economy: Booms, Busts, Dollars, and Votes (1998)

Watergate

• Friedman, Leon and William F. Levantrosser, eds. Watergate and Afterward: The Legacy of Richard M. Nixon (1992), essays.
• Kutler, Stanley I. "'The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon. (1990).
• Michael Schudson. Watergate in American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past (1993)

Notes

External links

• White House biography
• Works by Richard Nixon at Project Gutenberg
• 1984 audio interview with Richard Nixon by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, RealAudio
• 1992 transcript of Richard Nixon interview with Larry King
• Richard Nixon at IMDb
• United States Congress. "Richard Nixon (id: N000116)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Nixon Presidential Materials at National Archives
• Articles of Impeachment
• Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, Yorba Linda, California
• "Nixon Now" Nixon's 1972 Campaign Jingle video
• "Nervous About Nixon?" 1956 Democratic Campaign Ad video
• The Nixon Center, Washington, D.C.
• whitehousetapes.org: The Nixon Tapes available online
• Judiciary Committee Hearings Appendix I: Presidential Statements on the Watergate Break-in and Its Investigation
• Political Donations Made by Richard Nixon
• Eulogy by Hunter S. Thompson
• yorbalindahistory.org Developed by the Yorba Linda Public Library. Includes newspaper articles about Nixon from theYorba Linda Star.
• Nixon Fun Facts via Nixon Foundation
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part One: Meeting Richard Nixon, or Plumbing on the Brain.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Two: Dinner Chez Nixon.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Three: Digression—Mrs. Nicely and other Niceties of Smith College.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Four: The Squash Connection.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Five: Rocks for Jockettes and Winter Weekend with Jocks.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Six: Catching Rides with Manolo as Nixon Rides to the Presidency.

Speeches

• First Inaugural Address
• Second Inaugural Address
• Audio recordings of Nixon's speeches
• Checkers speech
• Resignation speech

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