Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon
Born	Richard Milhous Nixon 9 1, 1913
Birthplace	Yorba Linda, California, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Politician, lawyer
Known for	37th President of the United States; Watergate scandal; opening diplomatic relations with China
Education	Juris Doctor (Duke University School of Law)
Spouse(s)	Template:Marriage
Children	2
Awards	Navy Letter of Commendation, Presidential Medal of Freedom (proposed but declined)
Website	[https://www.nixonfoundation.org Official site]

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 37th president of the United States from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, Nixon is the only president in American history to have resigned from the office, doing so in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Before his presidency, he represented California in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and served as the 36th vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His political career, spanning nearly three decades, was marked by dramatic rises, devastating defeats, and an improbable comeback that culminated in a landslide reelection victory in 1972 — followed by an equally dramatic fall. Nixon's presidency produced significant achievements in foreign policy, including the historic opening to China in 1972 and détente with the Soviet Union, as well as domestic initiatives such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet these accomplishments were overshadowed by the constitutional crisis of Watergate, which led to his resignation on August 9, 1974, and reshaped American attitudes toward the presidency and government trust for generations.

Early Life

Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, a small agricultural community in Orange County, Southern California. He was the second of five sons born to Francis Anthony Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon. His father, Francis, was of Scots-Irish descent and had worked at various occupations including streetcar operator, carpenter, and farmer before opening a gas station and grocery store in East Whittier. His mother, Hannah, came from a family of Quakers, and Richard was raised in the Quaker faith, which emphasized pacifism, hard work, and personal integrity.

The Nixon family faced considerable hardship during Richard's youth. The lemon grove his father operated in Yorba Linda failed, and the family relocated to Whittier, California, where Francis opened a combination gas station and general store. Two of Nixon's brothers died during his childhood — Arthur in 1925 from tubercular encephalitis and Harold in 1933 from tuberculosis. These losses had a profound effect on the family and on young Richard, who later recalled the deaths as formative experiences in his life.

Despite the family's financial difficulties, Nixon was an academically gifted student. He was known for his debating skills and excelled in school from an early age. He was offered a tuition grant to attend Harvard University, but the family could not afford the additional costs of room, board, and travel to the East Coast. He instead enrolled at Whittier College, a local Quaker institution, where he could live at home and help at the family store.

Education

Nixon attended Whittier College, where he was an active student, participating in debate, theater, and student government. He was elected president of the student body during his senior year and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934. His academic record at Whittier was strong enough to earn him a full scholarship to the newly established Duke University School of Law in Durham, North Carolina.

At Duke, Nixon was a diligent and competitive student. He graduated third in his class with a Juris Doctor degree in 1937. After graduation, he applied to several prestigious law firms in New York City, including Sullivan & Cromwell, but was not hired. He returned to California and was admitted to the California bar in 1937, joining the law firm Wingert and Bewley in Whittier, where he practiced law for the next several years, handling a range of cases including municipal law, civil litigation, and estate work.

Career

Early Political Career

In 1942, Nixon and his wife Pat moved to Washington, D.C., where he took a position with the Office of Price Administration, a federal wartime agency. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Naval Reserve and served during World War II in the Pacific theater as a logistics officer. He earned the rank of lieutenant commander and received a Navy Letter of Commendation for his service.

After the war, Nixon returned to California and entered politics. In 1946, he ran for the United States House of Representatives in California's 12th congressional district against incumbent Democrat Jerry Voorhis. Nixon ran an aggressive campaign, linking Voorhis to communist-sympathizing organizations, and won the election decisively. As a freshman congressman, Nixon gained national attention through his work on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), particularly his role in the investigation of Alger Hiss, a former State Department official accused of being a Soviet spy. Nixon's persistent pursuit of the Hiss case — which resulted in Hiss's conviction for perjury in 1950 — established his reputation as one of the leading anti-communist voices in American politics.

In 1950, Nixon ran for the United States Senate against Democratic Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas. The campaign was noted for its combative tone; Nixon characterized Douglas as sympathetic to communism, earning her the nickname "the Pink Lady." Nixon won the election by a substantial margin.

Vice Presidency (1953–1961)

In 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower selected the 39-year-old Nixon as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket. During the campaign, Nixon faced a crisis when allegations surfaced that he had maintained a secret political fund provided by supporters. Nixon responded with the nationally televised "Checkers speech" on September 23, 1952, in which he defended himself and famously declared that his family would keep a cocker spaniel named Checkers that had been given to his daughters as a gift. The speech generated an outpouring of public support and Eisenhower retained Nixon on the ticket. The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket won the 1952 election in a landslide.

Nixon served two terms as vice president from 1953 to 1961, a period during which the visibility and significance of the office increased substantially. Eisenhower delegated significant responsibilities to Nixon, including diplomatic missions abroad. Nixon's 1959 visit to the Soviet Union, during which he engaged in the impromptu "Kitchen Debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at a model American kitchen exhibit in Moscow, further raised his international profile.

1960 and 1962 Elections

Nixon secured the Republican presidential nomination in 1960 and faced Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts in the general election. The campaign featured the first-ever televised presidential debates, which proved pivotal. Nixon, who had recently been hospitalized and appeared pale and perspiring on camera, was generally considered to have lost the first debate to the more telegenic Kennedy, though radio listeners often judged the debate differently. Nixon lost the election by one of the narrowest margins in American presidential history, receiving 49.5 percent of the popular vote to Kennedy's 49.7 percent.

Following this defeat, Nixon returned to California and ran for governor in 1962 against incumbent Democrat Pat Brown. He lost the race, and in a widely reported post-election press conference, he bitterly told reporters: "You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." Many political commentators considered his career finished.

Political Comeback and 1968 Election

Despite his declaration of retirement, Nixon spent the mid-1960s rebuilding his political standing. He moved to New York City, joined a prominent law firm, and traveled extensively, cultivating relationships with Republican leaders and party faithful across the country. As the Democratic Party fractured over the Vietnam War and domestic unrest, Nixon positioned himself as a unifying figure who could restore "law and order" to a nation rocked by assassinations, race riots, and antiwar protests.

Nixon won the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and selected Spiro Agnew, the governor of Maryland, as his running mate. In the general election, he faced Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee, and third-party candidate George Wallace of Alabama. Nixon won the election with 301 electoral votes to Humphrey's 191 and Wallace's 46, though his popular vote margin was narrow — approximately 43.4 percent to Humphrey's 42.7 percent.

Presidency (1969–1974)

Foreign Policy

Nixon's presidency was defined in large part by its foreign policy achievements. Working closely with Henry Kissinger, who served first as National Security Advisor and later as Secretary of State, Nixon pursued a strategy of détente — the easing of tensions — with both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

Nixon's visit to China in February 1972 was a watershed moment in Cold War diplomacy. The trip, which involved meetings with Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, ended more than two decades of diplomatic isolation between the United States and the People's Republic of China. The opening to China was a strategic masterstroke that altered the global balance of power and gave the United States greater leverage in its negotiations with the Soviet Union. The phrase "Only Nixon could go to China" entered the American political lexicon as shorthand for the idea that sometimes only a politician with strong credentials on one side of an issue can make a dramatic move in the opposite direction.

With the Soviet Union, Nixon negotiated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) agreement, both signed in 1972. These accords represented the first significant efforts by the two superpowers to limit the nuclear arms race.

On the Vietnam War, Nixon pursued a policy he called "Vietnamization," which involved gradually withdrawing American combat troops while transferring responsibility for fighting to South Vietnamese forces. At the same time, he escalated the air war, ordering extensive bombing campaigns in Cambodia and Laos to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. These operations were controversial and provoked widespread domestic protest. Nixon ended American combat involvement in Vietnam with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 and ended the military draft the same year.

In 1971, Nixon covertly supported Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War, dispatching a naval task force to the Bay of Bengal in a show of support for Pakistani President Yahya Khan, despite reports of Pakistani military atrocities in East Pakistan.

Domestic Policy

Nixon's domestic record included several initiatives that expanded the role of the federal government. He signed executive orders creating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). He signed into law the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Nixon presided over the implementation of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1971, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. In economic policy, he took the dramatic step in August 1971 of ending the direct international convertibility of the United States dollar to gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system and moving the country to a fiat currency regime. He also imposed a 90-day freeze on wages and prices to combat inflation, an unusual intervention for a Republican president.

Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act into law in 1970, which established the framework for federal drug policy, and in 1971 he declared a "War on Drugs," identifying drug abuse as "public enemy number one." He also launched the "War on Cancer" with the signing of the National Cancer Act of 1971, which significantly increased federal funding for cancer research.

Nixon's presidency also coincided with the final stages of the Space Race. The Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first humans on the Moon on July 20, 1969, took place during his first year in office, and he spoke to astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin by telephone during their time on the lunar surface.

1972 Reelection

Nixon won reelection in 1972 by one of the largest margins in American presidential history, defeating Democratic nominee George McGovern in a landslide. Nixon carried 49 of 50 states, winning 520 electoral votes to McGovern's 17, and received approximately 60.7 percent of the popular vote. His coalition drew significant support from traditionally Democratic constituencies, including blue-collar workers and Southern voters, a realignment that would reshape American electoral politics for decades.

Watergate Scandal and Resignation

The Watergate scandal originated with the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Five men connected to Nixon's reelection campaign, the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP), were arrested during the burglary. Although Nixon initially denied any White House involvement, subsequent investigations revealed a pattern of political espionage, sabotage, and obstruction of justice that extended to the highest levels of his administration.

In 1973, White House Counsel John Dean famously warned Nixon that the Watergate cover-up was "a cancer within — close to the presidency, that's growing." Dean later became a key witness before the Senate Watergate Committee. The revelation that Nixon had secretly recorded conversations in the Oval Office led to a protracted legal battle over the tapes. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in United States v. Nixon (1974) that the president had to surrender the tapes, rejecting Nixon's claims of executive privilege.

The tapes revealed that Nixon had participated in efforts to obstruct the FBI's investigation of the break-in within days of its occurrence. Faced with near-certain impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate, Nixon announced his resignation on August 8, 1974, and it took effect the following day. Vice President Gerald Ford succeeded him as president and, on September 8, 1974, granted Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he might have committed while in office.

The administration maintained an "enemies list" of political opponents, journalists, and public figures perceived as hostile to the White House, a practice that further illustrated the culture of political retribution that characterized Nixon's inner circle.

Post-Presidency (1974–1994)

After his resignation, Nixon retreated from public life initially, settling in San Clemente, California, and later moving to New York City and then Park Ridge, New Jersey. Over the following two decades, he undertook a sustained effort to rehabilitate his public image, writing numerous books on foreign policy and international affairs, including RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (1978), The Real War (1980), and Beyond Peace (1994). He traveled extensively, meeting with world leaders and offering counsel on foreign policy matters to subsequent presidents of both parties.

Nixon suffered a major stroke on April 18, 1994, at his home in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and died four days later on April 22, 1994, at the age of 81. His funeral at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda was attended by all five living presidents — Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton — as well as numerous foreign dignitaries.

Personal Life

Nixon married Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan on June 21, 1940, in a Quaker ceremony in Riverside, California. The couple had met while auditioning for a community theater production in Whittier. Together they had two daughters: Tricia (born 1946) and Julie (born 1948). Julie married David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1968.

Pat Nixon was a steady and supportive presence throughout her husband's political career, though she was known to have disliked the demands and scrutiny of political life. She died on June 22, 1993, from lung cancer, ten months before her husband's death.

Nixon was raised as a Quaker and maintained an affiliation with the faith throughout his life, though he also attended services at other churches. He was known for his reserved and sometimes awkward personal manner, which contrasted with his formidable abilities as a political strategist and debater.

Recognition

Nixon's legacy in American politics is complex and remains a subject of extensive debate among historians, political scientists, and commentators. His foreign policy achievements — particularly the opening to China and détente with the Soviet Union — are consistently cited as among the most significant diplomatic accomplishments of the Cold War era. His domestic achievements, including the creation of the EPA and OSHA, are also recognized as consequential, particularly given that they were enacted by a Republican president.

The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, which is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, serves as the repository for Nixon's presidential papers and records and hosts public exhibitions on his life and presidency.

Nixon's name remains closely associated with the Watergate scandal, which led to reforms including the Ethics in Government Act, the War Powers Resolution, and amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act designed to limit the power of the executive branch and increase transparency in government and campaign finance.

Legacy

Nixon's presidency and its aftermath have had a lasting impact on American political culture. The suffix "-gate" became a widely used naming convention for political scandals, derived from the Watergate affair. The case of United States v. Nixon established enduring precedent regarding the limits of executive privilege, affirming the principle that the president is not above the law.

Nixon's use of trade and economic policy powers has continued to figure in legal and political discussions decades after his presidency. The trade laws enacted and used during the Nixon era, including provisions of the Trade Act of 1974, have been cited in subsequent legal debates over presidential authority to impose tariffs and other trade measures.

Historians have consistently ranked Nixon among the more controversial presidents in American history. Surveys of presidential scholars have generally placed him in the lower third of presidential rankings, reflecting the weight of the Watergate scandal against his policy accomplishments. Nonetheless, his role in reshaping American foreign policy — particularly the strategic triangulation between Washington, Beijing, and Moscow — is recognized as having had a transformative effect on international relations in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Nixon's political strategy of appealing to the "Silent Majority" and his use of the "Southern strategy" to attract white voters in the American South to the Republican Party contributed to a fundamental realignment of the American political landscape, the effects of which continued to shape electoral politics well into the twenty-first century.