The Political Career of Richard Nixon
1. Nixon's Beginning in Politics
2. Emergence in National Politics
A. The Hiss Case
B. Nixon's Political Obituary
C. Resurgence as a presidential candidate
3. The 37th President
A. Nixon's Appointment's
B. Foreign Policy
1. Nixon's plans for Europe
2. Vietnam
C. Domestic Policy
4. Nixon's Second Administration
A. Reelection
B. Watergate
A few weeks after the United States entered World War II a young man named Richard Nixon
went to Washington, D.C. In January 1942 he took a job with the Office of Price
Administration. Two months later he applied for a Navy commission, and in September 1942
he was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade. During much of the war he served as an
operations officer with the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command, rising to the
rank of lieutenant commander.
After the war Nixon returned to the United States, where he was assigned to work on Navy
contracts while awaiting discharge. He was working in Baltimore, Maryland, when he
received a telephone call that changed his life. A Republican citizen's committee in
Whittier was considering Nixon as a candidate for Congress in the 12th Congressional
District. In December 1945 Nixon accepted the candidacy with the promise that he would
"wage a fighting, rocking, socking campaign." Jerry Voorhis, a Democrat who had
represented the 12th District since 1936, was running for reelection. Earlier in his
career Voorhis had been an active Socialist. He had become more conservative over the
years and was now an outspoken anti-Communist. Despite Voorhis' anti-Communist stand the
Los Angeles chapter of the left-wing Political Action Committee (PAC) endorsed him,
apparently without his knowledge or approval. The theme of Nixon's campaign was "a vote
for Nixon is a vote against the Communist-dominated PAC." The approach was successful. On
November, 5 1946, Richard Nixon won his first political election. The Nixons' daughter
Patricia (called Tricia) was born during the campaign, on February 21, 1946. Their second
daughter, Julie, was born July 5, 1948.
As a freshman congressman, Nixon was assigned to the Un-American Activities Committee.
It was in this capacity that in August 1948 he heard the testimony of Whittaker Chambers,
a self-confessed former Communist espionage agent. Chambers named Alger Hiss, a foreign
policy advisor during the Roosevelt years, as an accomplice while in government service.
Hiss, a former State Department aide, asked for and obtained a hearing before the
committee. He made a favorable impression, and the case would then have been dropped had
not Nixon urged investigation into Hiss's testimony on his relationship with Chambers.
The committee let Nixon pursue the case behind closed doors. He brought Chambers and Hiss
face to face. Chambers produced evidence proving that Hiss had passed State Department
secrets to him. Among the exhibits were rolls of microfilm which Chambers had hidden in a
pumpkin on his farm near Westminster, Md., as a precaution against theft. On December 15,
1948, a New York federal grand jury indicted Hiss for perjury. After two trials he was
convicted, on Jan. 21, 1950, and sentenced to five years in prison. The Hiss case made
Nixon nationally famous. While the case was still in the courts, Nixon decided to run
for the Senate. In his senatorial campaign he attacked the Harry S. Truman Administration
and his opponent, Helen Gahagan Douglas, for being "soft" toward the Communists.
Nixon won the election, held on Nov. 7, 1950, by 680,000 votes, and at 38 he became
the youngest member of the Senate. His Senate career was uneventful, and he was able to
concentrate all his efforts on the upcoming 1952 presidential election. The "Secret Fund"
Nixon did his work well. He hammered hard at three main issues--the war in Korea,
Communism in government, and the high cost of the Democratic party's programs. At their
1952 national convention the Republicans chose him as Eisenhower's running mate, to
balance the ticket with a West coast conservative.
Only a few days after the young senator's triumph his political career seemed doomed.
The New York Post printed a story headed "Secret Rich Men's Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in
Style Far Beyond His Salary." The public was shocked. The Republicans were
panic-stricken. Prominent members of the party urged Eisenhower to dump Nixon before it
was too late.
There was really nothing secret about the fund. Nixon was a man of limited means, and
when he won his Senate seat a group of businessmen had publicly solicited funds to enable
him to keep in touch with the voters in his home state while he served in the Senate.
Nixon took his case directly to the people in a nationwide television hookup. He invited
investigation of his finances and explained that no donor had asked for or received any
favors. The best-remembered part of his speech was his admission that an admirer had
once sent the Nixons a small cocker spaniel named Checkers. "The kids love that dog, and
I want to say right now that regardless of what they say, we're going to keep it," he
declared. The speech was a political triumph. Eisenhower asked Nixon to come to Wheeling,
W. Va., where he was campaigning. The president-to-be met his running mate at the airport
with the words "Dick, you're my boy." The Republicans won by a landslide.
The only duties listed for the vice-president in the Constitution are to preside over
the Senate and to vote if there is a tie. Eisenhower, however, groomed his vice-president
for active duty. Nixon regularly attended Cabinet meetings and meetings of the National
Security Council. In the absence of the president he presided over these sessions. Thus
Nixon was able to assume the president's duties when Eisenhower was incapacitated by
illness--after a major heart attack in 1955, abdominal surgery in 1956, and a mild stroke
in 1957. During his eight years as vice-president Nixon made a series of goodwill tours
that took him to every continent. In 1958 he faced rioting, rock-throwing mobs in Peru
and Venezuela. In 1959 he engaged the Soviet Union's premier, Nikita Khrushchev, in an
impromptu debate in Moscow.
In 1960 the Republican party chose its seasoned vice-president to run for the nation's
highest office. His running mate was Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., a veteran of eight years as
ambassador to the United Nations. Voters turned out in record numbers. When the 68
million votes were counted John F. Kennedy had become the nation's first Roman Catholic
president, and Richard Nixon had lost the presidential race by the narrow margin of about
100,000 votes. Nixon got 49.55 percent of the vote; Kennedy, 49.71 percent. Nixon carried
26 states for a total of 219 electoral votes. Kennedy carried 22 states and received 303
electoral votes.
Although defeated in 1960, Nixon reemerged as the Republican presidential candidate in
1968. For his running mate Nixon chose Spiro T. Agnew, the governor of Maryland, a man
little known outside his own state. The choice was a surprise to political forecasters
and a disappointment to some Republicans. Nixon realized, however, that a conservative
Southern candidate would have lost him badly needed big-city and liberal votes in the
North and that a liberal Northern Republican would have alienated the South, which backed
him solidly at the convention. Agnew was a compromise choice acceptable to both the North
and the South. Throughout the election campaign Nixon directed his attacks against the
failures of the Democratic Administration. He deplored the growing rate of crime in the
streets, called attention to the high cost and the limitations of the Democrats' welfare
programs, and denounced their inaction against inflation. Early in the campaign the
Republican candidates announced that they would refrain from comments on the settlement
of the Vietnamese conflict. The policy was adopted to prevent interference with peace
negotiations begun in May between government representatives from the United States and
from North Vietnam in Paris, France. Nixon emphasized his determination to curb violence
in the cities. At the same time he proposed a program of increased "black capitalism" and
of tax incentives for private investors locating in the cities. On November 5, 1968,
Nixon's long and loyal support of his party was repaid, and he was elected the 37th
president of the United States. About a month before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 1969,
his younger daughter, Julie, was married to David Eisenhower, the grandson of former
President Eisenhower.
In his inaugural address President Nixon emphasized his determination to seek peace
abroad, especially in Vietnam, and to bring about a reconciliation of the differences
that divided the United States. All the men nominated by the president for Cabinet
posts were approved by the Senate. William P. Rogers was Nixon's choice as secretary of
state. David M. Kennedy became secretary of the treasury; Melvin R. Laird, the secretary
of defense. Clifford M. Hardin was named the new secretary of agriculture; Walter J.
Hickel, secretary of the interior; Maurice H. Stans, secretary of commerce; George P.
Shultz, secretary of labor; John A. Volpe, secretary of transportation. Robert H. Finch
was designated to head the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; George Romney,
Housing and Urban Development. John N. Mitchell was appointed attorney general; Winton M.
Blount, postmaster general. The first changes in the original Cabinet were made in
mid-1970. Elliot L. Richardson replaced Finch. James D. Hodgson succeeded Shultz, who
became head of the Office of Management and Budget, a new agency created to replace the
Bureau of the Budget. Later in 1970 Nixon dismissed Hickel, with whom he had differences,
and appointed former Republican national chairman Rogers C.B. Morton in his stead. Early
in 1971 John B. Connally, Jr., a former governor of Texas, replaced Kennedy as secretary
of the treasury. When the Post Office Department was reorganized in 1971, Blount lost his
Cabinet status. Also in 1971, Earl L. Butz succeeded Hardin. Early in 1972 Mitchell
resigned to head Nixon's reelection campaign; Deputy Attorney General Richard G.
Kleindienst replaced him. Mitchell left the campaign in early July. Peter G. Peterson
replaced Stans, who also resigned to work for the campaign. Shultz succeeded Connally.
Nixon's most important selection, perhaps, was that of a successor to retiring Chief
Justice of the United States Earl Warren. The Senate approved his nominee, Warren E.
Burger, a district judge in the federal court system. He had difficulty, however, in
getting Senate approval of an associate justice to fill a later vacancy on the Supreme
Court. After rejecting Nixon's first two nominees--both Southerners--the Senate accepted
Harry A. Blackmun of Minnesota, a United States court of appeals judge. Two more Nixon
nominees, William H. Rehnquist and Lewis F. Powell, were accepted as associate justices
to replace Hugo L. Black and John M. Harlan, who retired in 1971.
Upon becoming president, Nixon turned his attention primarily to foreign affairs. In
February 1969 he visited Belgium, England, West Germany, Italy, and France in an effort
to strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). To assure non-Communist
Asian nations of continued United States support, Nixon embarked in late July on a tour
of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, and South Vietnam. Nixon then
visited Romania. He was the first American president to enter a Soviet-bloc nation since
World War II.
In the fall of 1970, to underscore United States determination to maintain peace in the
Mediterranean area, Nixon traveled to Italy, Spain, and Yugoslavia, and visited the
United States Sixth Fleet, stationed in the area. The tour included meetings with NATO
commanders, an audience with Pope Paul VI, and visits to England and Ireland. The change
in administrations had little initial effect on the Vietnam peace talks being conducted
in Paris. However, in June 1969 President Nixon announced that he would begin a phased
withdrawal of American forces. The first contingent of some 25,000 men returned to the
United States in July. In April 1970 Nixon announced that United States troops had been
sent into Cambodia to seek out and destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong supply bases.
This extension of the war effort in Indochina aroused strong opposition. On June 29 the
last United States ground troops were withdrawn from Cambodia. In 1971 and 1972 Nixon
continued his efforts to "Vietnamize" the war. By autumn 1972, United States troop
strength in Vietnam--which in April 1969 had reached a peak of 543,000 men--was 32,200
men.
Early in 1972 the North Vietnamese mounted an offensive against the South, which had
uneven success in defending itself. In a move to cut off military supplies to Hanoi,
Nixon ordered the mining of North Vietnamese ports and the bombing of overland supply
routes from China. In October 1972 an accord for ending the war was reached with North
Vietnam, but South Vietnam's government opposed it.
Despite the continuing conflict in Vietnam, Nixon remained determined to inaugurate an
era of negotiation with the Communist countries that were supporting North Vietnam. He
attended summit meetings in the People's Republic of China in February 1972 and in the
Soviet Union in May. Tensions were lessened between mainland China and the United States.
With United States flags waving over the Kremlin, Nixon and his Soviet hosts signed
accords that had long been in preparation. The most important agreement limited the
manufacture of nuclear weapons. Plans were made also for pooling resources in space
exploration and in medical and environmental research. A joint commission was established
to effect trade agreements. From the Kremlin, Nixon made a televised speech to the Soviet
people. He visited Iran and Poland before returning home.
In the summer of 1969 Nixon requested legislation to improve urban transportation, raise
social security benefits, combat crime, and reorganize the postal service. He also urged
the establishment of national minimum standards for welfare payments and the sharing of
federal revenue with the states.
Nixon's request fora multibillion-dollar antiballistic-missile defense system met with
strong Congressional opposition. The 91st Congress, controlled by the Democrats, enacted
a modified version of his recommendations by a narrow margin. In the fall 1970 elections
the Democrats retained control of both houses of Congress.
In June 1970 Nixon signed into law a bill lowering the voting age in federal elections
from 21 to 18. In mid-1971 the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, extending the
franchise to citizens 18 years of age in all elections, was ratified. In his January
1971 State of the Union message to Congress, Nixon outlined six sweeping proposals. He
again called for the sharing of federal revenues with state and local governments. Nixon
also sought a deficit federal budget designed to spur the lagging economy; the reform of
welfare programs; a federal guarantee of adequate health care for all citizens; new
measures to preserve natural resources; and revision of the structure of the federal
government.
In August 1971 Nixon imposed mandatory wage and price controls and a 10 percent import
surcharge to strengthen the economy. The Nixon Administration applied pressure to
encourage foreign governments to help resolve the international monetary crisis by
realigning their currencies. Foreign governments, in turn, urged Nixon to devalue the
dollar. This he did in December 1971, by ending the long-standing convertibility of the
dollar into gold. Shortly afterward he rescinded the import surcharge.
Under a Supreme Court decision of 1969, communities had been required to start busing
students from one school district to another to achieve racial balance as soon as so
ordered by a federal district court. Congressional approval was given in June 1972 to
legislation that would delay for up to 18 months the implementation of those court
orders. The bill also contained Nixon's program to contribute 2 billion dollars over a
two-year period to communities in the process of desegregating their schools.
Nixon conducted his campaign for a second term by surrogate. While he seldom left his
White House office, the vice-president and other associates campaigned for him.
Supporters interpreted his landslide vote as a mandate for his programs. Soon after
reelection, Nixon requested the resignations of some 2,000 presidential appointees in a
reorganization designed to streamline the federal bureaucracy. Nevertheless, Nixon had
broken all records for presidential Cabinet appointments by mid-1974.
Kleindienst resigned his Cabinet post in April 1973. He was replaced by Richardson, who
was succeeded as secretary of defense by James R. Schlesinger, former head of the Central
Intelligence Agency and of the Atomic Energy Commission. In August Rogers resigned as
secretary of state and was replaced by Henry A. Kissinger, Nixon's top national security
adviser. By mid-1974 Nixon had made 30 Cabinet appointments, breaking Jall records for an
American president.
On October 10, 1973, Vice-President Agnew resigned from office and was convicted in
federal court on a felony charge of income tax evasion. Nixon chose Representative Gerald
R. Ford of Michigan as Agnew's successor, and Congress confirmed him.
On January 27, 1973, a Vietnam cease-fire agreement was signed by negotiators in
Paris. In March Nixon welcomed home the last American ground troops and prisoners of war
from Vietnam. American military involvement continued with bombing raids over Cambodia
until mid-August.
In June 1973 Nixon hosted a visit from Leonid I. Brezhnev, general secretary of the
Soviet Communist party. The two leaders signed a friendship agreement. They also
instituted accords for the expansion of scientific, technical, educational, and cultural
exchanges, and for accelerated negotiations to limit nuclear arsenals.
In February 1973 it was revealed that the United States and the People's Republic of
China would set up government liaison offices in Washington, D.C., and in Beijing. In May
Nixon met French President Georges Pompidou in Iceland to discuss military, political,
and economic relations between the United States and its Western European allies.
War erupted in the Middle East in October 1973 when Syria and Egypt attacked Israel
simultaneously. United States mediation led to the disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli
troops in January 1974 and of Syrian and Israeli troops in May. On a goodwill trip to the
Middle East in June, Nixon visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel, and Jordan. To
Egypt and Israel, Nixon offered aid in developing nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
Later in June Nixon flew to the Soviet Union for summit talks.
In his budget message and in a series of State of the Union messages to Congress early
in 1973, Nixon announced the reduction of federal spending for social welfare. He asked
that cities and states be granted funds in a revenue-sharing plan to take over federal
programs in urban development, education, manpower, and law enforcement.
In February 1973 Nixon announced his second devaluation of the dollar. Faced with
rising inflation Nixon in June ordered a 60-day freeze on all retail and wholesale prices
except for raw agricultural commodities. Price controls in some form were in effect until
Congress let them expire on April 30, 1974. Inflation persisted.
In December 1973 Nixon had asked for Congressional review of some of his financial
transactions. (Reports had been circulating about his low tax payments in proportion to
his income.) In 1974 the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation and the Internal
Revenue Service found that Nixon owed more than 400,000 dollars in back taxes.
A major issue at the beginning of Nixon's second term became known as the Watergate
scandal. In June 1972, agents hired by the Committee for the Reelection of the President
had been arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at
the Watergate apartment-office complex in Washington, D.C. Early in 1973 they were
convicted of burglary and political espionage. The Senate held hearings to probe
allegations of attempts by high White House officials to cover up administration
involvement in the case. Several of Nixon's top aides resigned as they became implicated.
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee began an inquiry into whether he had committed
impeachable offenses. On April 30, 1974, Nixon released edited transcripts of White House
conversations that he felt would reassure the public of his innocence regarding the
Watergate break-in and cover-up. Instead, he lost many of his supporters. The Supreme
Court ordered Nixon to surrender additional White House tapes sought by the special
Watergate prosecutor as evidence in criminal proceedings. Three of these recordings
documented Nixon's personal order to cover up the Watergate break-in. The House Judiciary
Committee had already voted in late July to recommend Nixon's impeachment. With
Congressional support destroyed, Nixon chose to resign. Vice-President Ford succeeded him
on Aug. 9, 1974. Within a month President Ford granted Nixon a full pardon for all crimes
he may have committed during his administration. Nixon spent the next 20 years trying to
rehabilitate his domestic reputation, though he never lost the admiration of foreign
leaders. He became a respected elder statesman in foreign affairs. He revisited China in
1976 and 1989 and made several visits to Russia, the last early in 1994. The dedication
of the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda 1991 was attended by all five living
presidents. The 21-million-dollar library and museum was built with private funds.
Nixon's wife, Pat, died in June 1993. Nixon died on April 22, 1994, in a New York City
hospital, four days after suffering a severe stroke. He had just finished writing his
11th book, `Beyond Peace'.
Footnotes
(1) Ryan, James Richard Nixon (Chicago: Childrens, 1985) p. 115
(2) Aithea, Jonathan Nixon: A Life (New York: Regency, 1994) p. 267
(3) Kane, J. N. Facts About the Presidents (Norfolk: Wilson, 1984) p. 1006
(4) Kane, J. N. Facts About the Presidents (Norfolk: Wilson, 1984) p. 1043
(5) Hargrove, Jim Richard M. Nixon: The 37th President (Chicago: Childrens, 1985) p. 553
(6) Aithea, Jonathan Nixon: A Life (New York: Regency, 1994) p. 318
(7) Ryan, James Richard Nixon (Chicago: Childrens, 1985) p. 213
(8) Ibid., p. 214
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