Figure 1.--This is the best known boyhood picture of Richard Nixon. He is at right. His older brother Harold is at left and his younger brother Donald in the center on their mother's lap. |
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Richard Milhous Nixon was the 36th president of the United States. Nixon was an inteligent, experience man when he became president. His essential amprality, however, was to result uin a failed presidency. He is most remembered for his Vietnam War policies and the Watergate scandal which resulted in his resignation, the only president ever to do so. Nixon was a highly competent negotiator with considerable understanding of world affairs. Nixon and his foreign affairds adviser Henry Kissinger ended the participation of U.S. combat troops in the Vietnam War by pulling out U.S. forces. They initiated relations with Mainland China and at the same time the Soviet Union--an impressive achievement. They helped end a war between Israel and
the Arab countries. The oil embargo placed by the Arabs on America had a major impact on the resulting recession.
Richard was the second of five children of Francis A. and Hannah Milhous
Nixon. The Nixons lost two of their boys. Francis Nixon was quite severe with the boys, strapping them on numerous occassioins. Francis' fathrer did odd jobs, including building their house from a kit. Francis had a small 12-acre lemon grove in Yorba Linda, California, but had to give it up when he couldn't make a profit out of it. He was of Irish ancestry. He took the family Whittier where he operated a gasoline station and country store. Richard's gentle, more nuturing mother was a staunch Quaker. Her family had been Quakers for more than 200 years. Richard attended the Friends Meeting with his mother. Hannah looked after the boy's studied. Richard could read before he began school. She would often give food to beggers who his father called "bums".
The Nixon family consisted of four boys (Harold, Richard, Donald, and Arthur) and a daughter. Arthur (1922)the youngest and Harold (1933) the oldest died of tuberculosis. Some speculate that their father's preference for raw milk could have been the reason.
Richard was born in Yorba Linda, Orange county, California in 1913. Richard grew up in California. The Nixons moved to Whittier when he was 9 years old. Their father severely disciplined the boys with numerous strappings which was not all that unusual at the time. There father was not mean, he was a loving man but expected the boys to behave and went after them when they failed to do so. The family lost Anthony (1922) when the boys were young and then Harold (1933) when they were young adults. Their father was also very demanded. He virtually insisted that Richard play football at Whitier College even though he was not a great athelete and got battered quite a bit. Looking back though he thought the experience a valuable lesson in competition. In partricular he remembered his Native American coach, Chief Wallace Newman.
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Richard attended public schools. After graduating from highschool at age 17, he entered Whittier College, a small Quaker institution. He was active in student politics and very successful in intercollegiate debates. Nixon graduated from Whittier in 1934, winning a scholarship to the Duke University Law School in Durham, North Carolina. At Duke he had little money and
worked part-time in a National Youth Administration job. He graduated third in his class of 25 (1937).
Hannah had wanted Richard to be a mussionary, but he was drawn to politics by his mother. One of his earliest memories was his father scolding his mother for because she voted for the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wiolson in 1916. Richard became very active in school politics and found that he was good at it.
After service in World War II, Nixon was elected to the U.S. House of Represenatives from California, defeating a prominent New Dealer. He made a name for himself in the anti-Communist hysteria developing in Washington at the time. Nixon then ran for the Senate against a liberal woman senator. It is at this time that Nixon begins to attract the ire of many liberals for what they saw as a dirty campaign. Picking up on the growing anti-Communism in America, Nixon question his opponents patriotism with remarks like "The lady is pink down to her underwear." He became a prominent young spokesman for the resurgent Republican Party.
World War II hero General Dwight Eisenhower was the overwealming choice for president in 1952. He could have had the nomination in either party. As a military commander, he had not been involved in politics until the both parties began courting him for the 1952 election. Eisenhower let the Republican Convention choose his running mate. At the time Senator Joseph McCarthy had become a major figure in the Republican Party with his red-baiting and had demonstrated the effectiveness of the tactic in elections. As a result, the Convention chose one oif the most prominent anti-Communists in the party, the young U.S. Senator from California--Richard Nixon.and the U.S. Senate and as vice president. An articulate spokesman for
Vice President Nixon was the overwealming choice of Republicans in 1960 to repalce President Eisenhower. He was to be selected to the GOP national ticket a record five times. Nixon lost in a very close election to the charismatic Senator John F. Kennedy. Noth men believed in the need for a more energetic confrontation with the Soviet Union which had launched Sputnik--the first satellite (1959). Nixon had a initial advantage in that he was familar with the public and associated with the emensely popular President Eisenower. Eisenhowe played a strange role in the election. He did not appear overly supportive of his Vice-President. When the issue of Nixon's role in his administration came up, he failed to provide any confirmation of an important contribution. Nixon's role as Vice-President meant, however, that he had to defend the Administration. Just as Nixon had tapped into anti-Communism to make his career, Kennedy tapped into a feeling that America was falling behind in to the competition with the Soviet Union. Nixon's performance or more accurately appearance in the televised debates was a major factor. Also his loss of the Black vote in the North and his failure to take more Southern states were also major reasons for his defeat. Kenndy's running-mate, Sentaor Lyndon Johnson from Texas played a key role of keeping much of the South in the Democratic column.
Much of Nixon's presidency was dominated by the Vietnam War. Nixon had not involved the United States in the War and wisely avoided comment on the validity of the War. He insisted that he had a secret plan to end the War. When he did not immediately end the War after becoming president, he became a target for anti-War protestors, much as President Johnson had been. He assessed that the American public would not tolerate a continued American pressence in Vietnam. He thus continued the withdrawl of American forces, but tried to support South Vietnam and negotiate an arrangement with North Vietman that would enable the continued presence of South Vietnam. Here he failed. Some analysts havd blamed Nixon, but any negotiation once the American public turned against the War would have been unlikely to have scored a diplomatic success. Nixon and his foreign affairds adviser Henry Kissinger ended the participation of U.S. combat troops in the Vietnam War by pulling out U.S. forces. They initiated relations with Mainland China and at the same time the Soviet Union--an impressive achievement. They helped end a war between Israel and
the Arab countries. The oil embargo placed by the Arabs on America had a major impact on the resulting recession.
Nixon's presidency was shattered when evidence conclusively established that he along with key staff members had played major roles in trying to cover up the Watergate break-in aimed at the Democratic Natical Commottee. The investigation into the Watergate break-in and cover up took 2 years. Although the President was reelected with overwealming majorities, his popularity began to decline as one relevation of misconduct after another on the nightly news. Some of the most serious were covert actioins against oppones, the enemies list, missing segments of tape, firing investigators, crude language, and other matters. Nixon's decline and fall spanned two years as the truth slowly unfolded before an incredulous nation. Along with Nixon, government officials, campaign aides, and financial contributors were implicated in the Watergate and related scandals. Many went to jail. One historian wrote, "When Nixon resigned, the nation lost more than it gained." [Ambrose]
The Nixon had two daughters. They are best known for their "little dog Checkers".
As a small child, their father then Vice-President, used their pet Checkers to deflect a scandal avout campaign funds. Tricia came to value her privacy and did not especially enjoy White House functions. She tutored inner-city children. She was, however, married in the White House Rose Garden in 1971. Her husband was Ed Cox, a corporate attorney in New York. Tricia became a housewife and devoted her energies to raising her son Christopher (1979- ) who is in Law School. She actively promotes medical reserch. Currently she and her sister have serious differences over their father's Presidential Library.
Julie met Dwight David Eisenhower II, President Eisenhower's grandson, in the White House while still a child. Her father was Vice President at the time. Their marriage joined two of the most famoous American political families. Savid studied law and has become a respected historian. Julie wrote an interesting book about people she met whike acciompanying her father. She also wrote a biography ofher mother, Pat Nixon: The Untold Storu. They have three children: Jennie, Alex, and Melanie.
Nixon was concerned about actually going to jail and developed plebitus. President Ford insured that this would not happen when he provide a full pardon. It was a brave action on Ford's part and probably cost him the 1976 election. Nixon as tempers cooled attempted to rehabilitate his tattered image. He lecturing in the United States and made several foreign trips. He published several books on U.S. foreign policy.
Ambrose, Stephen. Ambrose was a great admirer of Dwight Eisenhower and wrote an excellent biography of Ike. Perhps for that reason his publisher convinced him to do a biography of Nixon. It took some convincing because Ambrose disliked Nixon, but came to admire some of his qualities while working on the book.
Wead, Doug. All the President's Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Families (Atria: New York, 2003), 456p.
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