RICHARD M. NIXON
Biography
Richard M. Nixon’s political career was marked by extraordinary contradictions. Many people believed that his career had come to an end in 1960, after he narrowly lost the presidential election to John F. Kennedy. Two years later, in 1962, he again suffered defeat, this time in the race for governor of California, and Nixon himself announced that his days in politics were over. However, a combination of events pushed him to the political forefront once more, and his election as President in 1968 was one of the most remarkable political comebacks of modern times.
Congressman and Senator
After his discharge from the Navy in early 1946, Nixon ran as a Republican for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from California. Although given little chance to win, he defeated a veteran Democratic congressman, Jerry Voorhis, by waging the kind of hard, aggressive campaign that became a Nixon characteristic. After winning re-election in 1948, he was appointed to the House Un-American Activities Committee. That year the committee began its investigation of Alger Hiss, a U.S. State Department official who was accused of passing secret documents to a Soviet spy ring. Nixon gained fame for his role in the case, in which Hiss was convicted of perjury, or lying under oath.
In 1950, Nixon ran for the U.S. Senate. In what was called one of the roughest, most bitter campaigns in political history, he accused his Democratic opponent, Helen Gahagan Douglas, of ignoring the threat of Communist subversion and defeated her by a wide margin.
By 1952, Nixon had become a nationally known figure. He had attracted the attention not only of the voters but also of Dwight D. Eisenhower. When Eisenhower was nominated by the Republicans for the presidency that year, he asked that Nixon be made his vice-presidential running mate.
Nixon's rising career received a temporary setback when he was accused of having improperly accepted campaign contributions from wealthy Californians. Amid demands from his opponents that he leave the race, Nixon delivered an emotional speech defending himself. Known as the Checkers speech, because of his reference in it to his dog, Checkers, it was received favorably by the public, and Eisenhower kept him as his vice-presidential candidate.
Vice President
The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket was swept into office in the Republican landslide of 1952. Nixon received the vice-presidential nomination again in 1956, easily winning re-election with Eisenhower.
During Nixon's eight years in the office, he altered the traditional role of the vice president from a passive figurehead to an active participant in the business of government. He served as “acting” president during President Eisenhower's three illnesses and visited 56 countries and five continents as the president's personal representative.
Two were particularly notable. In 1958, while in Caracas, Venezuela, on a goodwill tour of Latin America, he was the object of violent anti-U.S. demonstrations. In 1959, he was in Moscow to open a U.S. exhibition of home equipment. There he engaged in a sharp debate—the famous “kitchen” debate—with the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, over the merits of the free-enterprise and Communist systems.
The 1960 Campaign
With Eisenhower's second term coming to an end, Nixon was the overwhelming choice of his party for the presidency in 1960. His Democratic opponent was the young Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Campaigning at top speed for nine weeks, Nixon drove himself, his staff, and his wife, Pat, who accompanied him, to the edge of exhaustion. The campaign was unique for the four television debates between Kennedy and Nixon, which played a crucial part in what proved to be one of the closest elections in U.S. history. Kennedy won 303 Electoral votes to Nixon's 219, but Kennedy's margin of victory in the popular vote was only about two-tenths of 1 percent.
From Defeat to the Presidency
Following his defeat, Nixon returned to California and practiced law in Los Angeles. He won the Republican nomination for governor of California in 1962, but after losing the election by a wide margin, he told reporters that he was leaving the political arena. He moved to New York, where he became a partner in a prominent law firm. But he also kept a close eye on the course of Republican politics.
Two occurrences were to restore him once again to the top of his party. The first was the shattering defeat of conservative Republican Barry Goldwater by Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 election. The second was Nixon's successful campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates for Congress, who won an increased number of seats in 1966 elections.
Announcing his candidacy for the 1968 presidential nomination, Nixon proceeded to win most of the state primary elections he entered. He thus accumulated so much strength among the delegates at the Republican Convention that his nomination was a foregone conclusion. His vice-presidential running mate was Governor Spiro T. Agnew of Maryland. Their Democratic opponents in the 1968 election were Lyndon Johnson's vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, who was running for president, and Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, for vice president. Nixon won 301 electoral votes to Humphrey's 191. Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama, running on the American Independent Party, won 46 electoral votes. The popular vote, again, was exceedingly close.
His First Term
As he took office as president in 1969, Nixon was faced with a number of problems, both abroad and at home. These included the war in Vietnam, and the opposition of many Americans to the war; the economy; and the continuing struggle over civil rights.
The Vietnam War
Probably the most difficult issue was the Vietnam War. Peace talks had begun in Paris in 1968 but showed little sign of success. In 1969, Nixon announced a policy of gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam, accompanied by “Vietnamization” of the conflict, under which South Vietnam would be responsible for its defense against Communist North Vietnam and its guerrilla allies in the South.
The president's plan was criticized by some, but it was generally approved of by most Americans. However, a military strike by U.S. and South Vietnamese troops against North Vietnamese bases in Cambodia in 1970 led to widespread protests, particularly on university campuses. The most serious incident took place at Kent State University in Ohio, where four students were killed and others wounded when national guardsmen fired into a group of demonstrators.
Meanwhile, the Vietnam conflict continued, at times escalating. In 1971 it spilled over into neighboring Laos. Although the last U.S. ground combat troops departed from Vietnam in 1972, the signing of a cease-fire would not take place until Nixon's second term of office.
China and the Soviet Union
Among Nixon's foreign policy aims was improved relations with the People's Republic of China, with whom the United States had long been at odds. He eased trade restrictions with China and, in 1972, made a historic trip to that country. It was the first visit by a U.S. president since a Communist government had come to power on the mainland of China in 1949, and it marked the beginning of a new era in relations between the two countries.
The China visit was followed by one to the Soviet Union, where Nixon signed an arms-limitation agreement, negotiated earlier, with the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The Soviet government also agreed to purchase large amounts of U.S. wheat.
Major Legislation
Nixon's domestic program had mixed results. His plan for a national welfare system that would provide a minimum standard of payment to the needy failed to gain congressional approval. More favorably received was his proposal, in 1969, for a change in the Selective Service System to allow for a lottery-based military draft. (The draft itself would be abolished in 1973, replaced by an all-volunteer armed forces.)
Congress established the U.S. Postal Service in 1970 as an independent government agency. It also passed a measure the same year lowering the voting age to 18 in federal elections. Ratification of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution in 1971 made 18 the legal voting age in all elections. The administration's project for a supersonic transport (SST) was defeated after lengthy debate in 1971. But one of Nixon's major pieces of legislation, a revenue-sharing plan to provide federal funds for state and local governments, was finally approved in 1972. Congress also passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972, but it would fail to gain approval by the states.
The Economy and the Supreme Court
Nixon took a number of steps to try to improve the nation's economy, which was gripped by high rates of inflation and unemployment.These included a temporary freeze on wages and prices and a devaluation of the dollar, or the lowering of its value in relation to other world currencies. By 1972 the economic climate had improved somewhat.
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two important decisions on civil rights issues during Nixon's presidency. In 1969 it declared that segregated schools must be desegregated ”at once,“ and in 1971, it upheld the busing of students to achieve racial balance. The busing issue was controversial and critics of the administration accused it of purposely slowing efforts at integration.
Nixon twice suffered rebuffs by the Senate on nominations to the Supreme Court in 1970. Three of his candidates for associate justice were eventually approved—Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Harry Blackmun, and William Rehnquist. Warren Burger was named chief justice.
Moon Landing
Perhaps the most widely followed event of 1969 was the Apollo II spaceflight, which carried two U.S. astronauts, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., to the first manned landing on the moon.
The 1972 Election
Nixon easily won renomination in 1972, with Agnew again his vice-presidential running mate. Their Democratic opponents were Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota, for president, and R. Sargent Shriver, former director of the Peace Corps, for vice president. The result was an overwhelming victory for Nixon, who received 520 electoral votes to 17 for McGovern.
Second Term
The Paris peace talks resulted in a cease-fire agreement in Vietnam in early 1973. Henry Kissinger, the president's adviser, had helped negotiate the agreement and was appointed secretary of state soon after. Although the agreement effectively ended the participation of U.S. troops in the war, it did not end the conflict. South Vietnam would later fall to a victorious North, and the country would be united under Communist rule.
Middle East War
Later in 1973, war again erupted in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors Egypt and Syria. Since the United States had traditionally supported Israel and the Soviet Union the Arab states, this fourth Arab-Israeli war threatened the new détente, or easing of relations, between the two superpowers. Nevertheless, U.S. and Soviet representatives were able to work out an agreement, through the United Nations, to end the fighting.
Because of its support of Israel, however, the United States became the major target of an oil embargo by the Arab oil-producing nations. The embargo, by halting oil shipments, produced an energy crisis in the United States and other Western nations and hampered efforts to improve the national economy.
The Watergate Scandal
The event that would bring down the Nixon presidency occurred in 1972, some months before the election. Five men had been caught breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. Arrested and brought to trial, they were revealed to be employees of Nixon's re-election committee. Nixon would be charged not with having authorized the break-in but with attempting to cover it up.
In 1973 a special Senate committee was formed in response to the Watergate affair and accusations of campaign irregularities. A special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, was named to investigate the matter. Nixon asserted that he had no knowledge of a cover-up attempt, but he refused to turn over White House tape recordings to the committee. He later dismissed Cox as special prosecutor. Now under great pressure, which included calls for his impeachment, or formal charges of misconduct, Nixon agreed to turn over the tapes. A new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, was appointed. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives began an inquiry on impeachment.
Resignation of Agnew
The Nixon administration was further jolted by a federal grand jury investigation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. It ended with Agnew's resignation in October 1973 and his plea of no contest to a tax-evasion charge. Nixon named Congressman Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to replace him as vice president.
Nixon's Resignation and Pardon
In 1974 the special prosecutor requested more tapes from the president. Nixon refused, claiming executive privilege. The question was decided by the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously that the president must surrender the tapes. After months of hearings, the House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend three articles of impeachment against the president. Additional tapes revealed that Nixon had ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to limit its investigation of the affair. With the release of this information, impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial by the Senate were certain.
On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced that he would resign from the presidency, effective the following day. He admitted no criminal wrongdoing. Vice President Ford was sworn in as president to succeed him. On September 8, 1974, Ford granted Nixon “a full, free, and absolute pardon” for all offenses he might have committed against the United States.
Later Years
After leaving office, Nixon returned to California, to the family home in San Clemente. He would later establish residences in New York and New Jersey. The former president generally remained out of the public eye, spending much of the time writing an account of his life in politics, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon was published in 1978. Other books on political and world affairs followed. In 1990, the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace was opened in Yorba Linda, California.
In his later years, Nixon became something of an elder statesman. He revisited China and, shortly before his death, traveled to the former Soviet Union. He died in New York City on April 22, 1994, after suffering a stroke. He was buried on the Nixon library grounds at Yorba Linda, next to his wife, Pat, who had died in 1993.
Robert B. Semple, Jr.
The New York TimesWashington Bureau