Richard Nixon (1913)/Biography
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| Richard Milhous Nixon | |
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| In office January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974 | |
| Vice President(s) | Spiro Agnew (1969–1973) vacant (Oct.–Dec. 1973) Gerald Ford (1973–1974)
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| Preceded by | Lyndon B. Johnson
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| Succeeded by | Gerald Ford
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| In office January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961 | |
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Preceded by | Alben W. Barkley
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| Succeeded by | Lyndon B. Johnson
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| | |
| In office December 1, 1950 – January 1, 1953 | |
| Preceded by | Sheridan Downey
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| Succeeded by | Thomas Kuchel
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| In office January 2, 1947 – December 1, 1950 | |
| Preceded by | Jerry Voorhis
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| Succeeded by | Patrick J. Hillings
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| Born | January 9, 1913 Yorba Linda, California
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| Died | April 22, 1994 (age 81) New York City |
| Political party | Republican
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| Spouse | Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan
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| Alma mater | Whittier College Duke University School of Law
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| Occupation | Lawyer
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| Religion | Quaker
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| Signature | 
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Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President of the United States, and was the only U.S. President to resign the office. Elected twice to the presidency, he served from 1969 to 1974. He was also the thirty-sixth Vice President of the United States, serving in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961). During the Second World War, he served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific, before being elected to the Congress, and later serving as Vice President. After an unsuccessful presidential run in 1960, Nixon was elected in 1968.
Under President Nixon, the United States followed a foreign policy marked by détente with the Soviet Union and by the opening of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. His centrist domestic policies combined conservative rhetoric and liberal action in civil rights, environmental and economic initiatives. As a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned the presidency in the face of likely impeachment by the United States House of Representatives. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a controversial pardon for any federal crimes Nixon may have committed.
Nixon experienced a stroke on April 18, 1994 and died four days later at the age of 81.
[edit] Early years
Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. His father was Francis "Frank" A. Nixon and his mother was Hannah M. Nixon (born Hannah Milhous). She was a Quaker, and his upbringing is said to have been marked by conservative Quaker observances such as refraining from drinking, dancing and swearing. His father converted from Methodist to Quaker after his marriage. 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. Through his mother, he was a second cousin of the writer Jessamyn West.
Nixon's parents had five children, all boys:
- Harold Nixon
(June 1, 1909–March 7, 1933)
- Richard (January 9, 1913–April 22, 1994)
- Donald Nixon (November 23, 1914–June 27, 1987)
- Arthur Nixon (May 26, 1918–August 10, 1925)
- Edward Nixon (May 3, 1930)
Nixon attended Fullerton High School, from 1926 to 1928, in Fullerton, California, and later, Whittier High School, from 1928 to 1930, in Whittier, California. He graduated second in his class from Whittier, showing a penchant for Shakespeare and Latin. Although he was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to Harvard University, he declined, due to insufficient financial means for attendance. Instead, he chose to enroll at Whittier College, a local Quaker school, where he co-founded a fraternity called the Orthogonian Society. Nixon was a formidable debater, a stand out in collegiate drama productions, and was elected student-body president. While at Whittier, he taught Sunday school at East Whittier Friends Church, where he remained a member all his life. 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 graduated third in his class.
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.
During the Second World War, Nixon served as a reserve officer in the Navy. He received his training at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island and Ottumwa, Iowa, before serving in the supply corps on several islands in the South Pacific, commanding cargo handling units in the SCAT.[1] There he was known as "Nick" and for his prowess in poker, banking a large sum that helped finance his first campaign for Congress.
[edit] Marriage and children
Richard Nixon met Thelma "Pat" Ryan, a high school teacher native to California. The two became acquainted at a Little Theater group when they were cast in the same play. Nixon asked Pat Ryan to marry him the first night they went out, and they were married on June 21, 1940. "I thought he was nuts or something," she recalled.[2] The Nixons had two daughters: Tricia, born in 1946, and Julie, born two years later.
[edit] House and Senate: 1946–1952
Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1946, defeating Democratic five-term incumbent Jerry Voorhis in the 12th Congressional district in southern California. 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 microfilm reproductions of incriminating documents by hiding the film in a pumpkin (these became known as the "Pumpkin Papers"). These documents were alleged both to be accessible only by Hiss, and to have been typed on Hiss's personal typewriter. The discovery that Hiss, who had been an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, could have been a Soviet spy, thrust Nixon into the public eye and made him a hero to many of FDR's enemies, and an enemy to many of FDR's supporters. In reality, his support for internationalism put him closer to the center of the Republican party.
In the 1950 mid-term elections, Nixon defeated Democratic Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas to win a seat in the United States Senate. Accusing her of being a fellow traveler with Communist sympathies, Nixon called her "the Pink Lady" and said she was "pink right down to her underwear." Gahagan, for her part, bestowed upon Nixon one of the most enduring nicknames in American politics: "Tricky Dick".
[edit] Vice Presidency
In 1952, Nixon was elected Vice President on Dwight 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 "slush 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 a famous 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 noted that the Democratic Presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, also had a similar 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 an American 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 little 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 temporarily to 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.
[edit] 1960 election and post-Vice Presidency
In 1960, Nixon ran for President against John F. Kennedy in a race that remained close all year.[3] Nixon campaigned on his experience, but Kennedy called for new blood and claimed that the Eisenhower-Nixon administration had allowed the Soviet Union to overtake the U.S. in offensive missiles (the "missile gap"). Kennedy also made much of the stagnant American economy of 1960, telling voters it was time to "get the country moving again." Nixon's frosty relationship with Eisenhower also hurt him. When asked about major policy decisions that Nixon had helped shape, 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's performance in the debate was perceived to be mediocre only in the visual medium of television, though; many people listening on the radio considered that Nixon had won).[4]
Nixon lost the 1960 election narrowly. It is often argued by American historians that Nixon in fact lost primarily due to the invention of the televised debate. There were charges of vote fraud in Texas and Illinois, and Nixon supporters 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 a greater number of electoral votes than he had held after Election Day.
Nixon wrote Six Crises (1962), a book dealing with his political involvement as a congressman, senator and as Vice-President. The book used six different crises Nixon had experienced throughout his political career to illustrate his political memoirs. It was not supposed to be an academic work on the subject of crises, rather a method of depicting his political biography in a personal manner. The work won praise from many policy experts and critics. Ironically, as Margaret MacMillan would discuss in her book Nixon in China (2006), Six Crises found a favorable critic in Mao Zedong, who referred to the book when in preparation for Nixon's visit in 1972.
In 1962, against the advice of many friends and supporters, Nixon chose to challenge the popular Pat Brown for Governor of California. Nixon had never before shown any interest in the office and biographers still disagree on his precise motive in seeking it. In all likelihood, he was looking for a reason not to run for president again in 1964. With John F. Kennedy's popularity strong, it was likely to be a losing effort. Therefore, if Nixon won in 1962, he would have the excuse that he was too busy running the state. If he lost, he could plead a desire not to campaign again so soon. In either case, Brown won handily.
Nevertheless, years of campaigning and losing had worn Nixon down. In an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon famously blamed the media for favoring his opponent. At a postelection press conference, a bitter Nixon lashed out at reporters who, he said "are so delighted that I have lost." He added:
| “ | For 16 years, ever since the Hiss case, you've had a lot of—a lot of fun—that you've had an opportunity to attack me and I think I've given as good as I've taken.....But as I leave you I want you to know—just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference. [5]
| ” |
| —Richard Nixon 1962 | ||
Nixon's loss in the California gubernatiorial election was widely believed to be the end of his career. However, just one year later, John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The events that defined 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.
[edit] 1968 election
Seeking a fresh start after the 1962 gubernatorial defeat, 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's success in the nomination might be attributed to Robert F. Kennedy's assassination after he won the California Democratic primary in June 1968. Nixon appealed to what he called the "silent majority" of socially conservative Americans who disliked the hippie counterculture and the anti-war demonstrations. 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 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. In a three-way race between Nixon, Humphrey, and independent candidate George Wallace, Nixon defeated Humphrey by less than 1% of the popular vote, along to become the 37th President of the United States.
[edit] The Nixon presidency (1969 – 1974)
s.[edit] Foreign policies
In his book "Real Peace" in 1983 Nixon wrote that: "Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war".[6]
[edit] Vietnam War
Lt. Commander John McCain, future U.S. Senator, upon his return from years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, 1973Once in office, he proposed the Nixon Doctrine, a strategy of replacing American troops with the Vietnamese troops, also called "Vietnamization." 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. Although the South Vietnamese were well supplied with modern arms, their fighting capability was limited by inadequate funding, low morale, and corruption. The lack of funding was primarily because of large funding cutbacks by the U.S. Congress. Nixon was widely praised in the United States for having delivered 'peace with honor', and ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam. However, a part of his strategy was the resumption of the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam should they violate the Peace agreement, which Nixon was confident they would. Watergate, however, made it impossible to carry this out. Nixon, along with his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger also sought a 'decent interval' solution to the problem of South Vietnam, so that the country would survive for long enough for him not to be personally blamed for its ultimate collapse.
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, and later escalated the conflict with secretly bombing Laos before Congress cut the funding for the conflict in Vietnam. Another goal of the bombings was to interdict the Ho Chi Minh trail that passed through Laos and Cambodia. In ordering the bombings, Nixon realized he would be extending an unpopular war as well as breaching Cambodia's stated neutrality. In a televised speech on April 30, 1970, Nixon announced the incursion of U.S. troops into Cambodia to disrupt so-called North Vietnamese sanctuaries.
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.
[edit] China and the Soviet Union
Chairman Mao Zedong (left) in a historic visit to the People's Republic of China, 1972Relations between the Western powers and Eastern Bloc changed dramatically in the early 1970s. In 1960, the People's Republic of China (PRC) publicly split from its main ally, the Soviet Union, in the Sino-Soviet Split. As tension along the border 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", the Nixon administration deliberately improved relations with China in order to gain a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, but also gave Moscow a chance to improve relations so as not to be squeezed by a U.S.-China détente. 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". Nixon sent Henry Kissinger on a secret mission to China in July 1971, after which a stunned world was told that Nixon intended to visit Communist China in 1972. As a result, many countries that had previously opposed the PRC's entry into the United Nations changed their stance. Despite frantic lobbying by the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, George H.W. Bush, in October 1971 the UN General Assembly voted to give to the PRC the seat that had been held since 1945 by America's ally, the Republic of China (ROC), and expel the ROC from the UN. In February 1972 Nixon grabbed the world's attention by himself going to China to have direct talks with Mao. During this visit he privately stated that he believed “There is one China, and Taiwan is a part of China.”[7] Fearing the possibility of a Sino-American alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to American pressure for détente.
Nixon used the improving international environment to address the topic of nuclear peace. 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 cut back on their diplomatic support for North Vietnam and advised Hanoi to come to terms. They did not, however, cut back their military aid to North Vietnam — in fact Chinese military aid to North Vietnam increased during this period.[8] 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 Beijing. 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.[9] | ” |
| —Richard Nixon | ||
[edit] Indo-Pakistan War of 1971
Yahya Khan during the 1971 crisis in East PakistanNixon strongly supported General Yahya Khan of Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 despite widespread human rights violations against the Bengalis, partic