Richard M. Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the United States , was born in Yorba Linda , California , in Orange County , on January 9, 1913.  He died in New York City on April 22, 1994. Many consider President Nixon to be one of the most complex and controversial figures in American history. One thing is certain: he was an important product of Southern California , representing (along with another Republican president, Ronald Reagan), the region's great political and economic influence in the second half of the twentieth century.

When Nixon was nine, his parents and four brothers moved to Whittier , California . His father managed a grocery and gas station and his mother was a devout member of the local Quaker community. At 17 he entered Whittier College , a small Quaker institution, where he was known for his academic accomplishment, student political activities, and his award-winning skills as a member of the debate team.

In 1934 Nixon received a scholarship to Duke University where he graduated with honors. Afterward he returned to Whittier and joined one of the town's oldest law firms. It was during the try-outs for a community theater group that he met Patricia Ryan, a school teacher. The couple married in 1940. World War II drew the young lawyer and his new wife to Washington where he worked for the government. In 1942 he joined the Navy and served in the South Pacific as lieutenant, junior grade.

Nixon was a part of a generation of young GI's who grew up fast during the hard realities of World War II. After the War, many returning veterans decided to make Southern California their home. While in west coast training camps, or in transit to action in the Pacific Theater, they experienced the region's casual lifestyle and balmy climate, and they liked what they saw.  After the war, the result was another Southern California Boom, and the beginning of the region's emergence as a major force in American politics and economics.

In 1946 a group of Southern California Republicans was looking for a Congressional candidate for this new post-war world. Nixon, then working as a local lawyer, was their man. He ran against liberal Democratic incumbent Jerry Voorhis and won in a hard-fought race. In his first campaign Nixon proved himself to be a skilled politician who never hesitated to capitalize on his opponent's real or perceived weaknesses. As a vehement anti-Communist, Nixon attacked Voorhis as benefiting from the support of leftist organizations, perhaps with Communist ties. This hardball, some said ruthless, tactic worked.

Riding the crest of the "Red Scare" era, Nixon rapidly rose to national prominence as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and especially for his pursuit of Alger Hiss, a respected former State Department official. Nixon accused Hiss of being a Communist and Soviet spy. Hiss was indicted and convicted of perjury for his testimony. Ever afterward, Nixon was anathema to American liberals.

When he ran for the Senate in 1950 Nixon faced another Southern California liberal Democrat, Helen Gahagan Douglas. His campaign advertising dubbed his opponent "the Pink Lady," accusing Douglas of extreme leftist politics. Such bare-knuckle tactics weren't pretty, but again, they worked. Nixon won, but he'd acquired a nickname that would haunt him for the rest of his life: "Tricky Dick."  

During the early decades of the 20th Century California led a national progressive movement with leaders such as Governor Hiram Johnson, and the state spawned ideas that were considered Socialist by many. But at the same time, Southern California also had deep conservative roots, expressed by powerful forces such as the Los Angeles Times, beginning at the turn of the century with the influence of Times Publisher Harrison Gray Otis, and later members of the Chandler family. The conservative, anti-Communism of mid-century Southern California , along with its post-War economic importance, gave Richard Nixon a powerful platform for national politics.

In 1952, at age 39, Nixon was chosen by Republican presidential candidate and national war hero, Dwight Eisenhower to be his running mate.  The team had hardly begun to campaign before Nixon faced one of the many crises of his political career. He was accused of benefiting from a secret "slush fund" of money from wealthy supporters. There was talk of removing him from the ticket, but with his wife Pat at his side, Nixon struck back with a dramatic television appearance, itemizing his finances and ending with a reference to one gift he vowed never to return, a pet puppy given to his daughters, Trisha and Julie. The dog was named "Checkers" and the "Checkers Speech" was one of the first examples of the power of television to affect public opinion. Nixon remained on the Republican ticket which went on to an easy victory over the Democrats.

During his years as Vice-President Nixon traveled widely and deepened his understanding of foreign affairs. In 1959, a lively televised exchange with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, debating the advantages of capitalism over communism during a Moscow trade fair, enhanced Nixon's reputation as a national leader capable of performing well on an international stage. 

In 1960, after two terms as President, Dwight Eisenhower retired from politics. Nixon, with eight years experience as vice president, was ready to run for President on his own. His Democratic opponent was another young political star, and friend from the Senate, John F. Kennedy. It was an extremely close election, and ironically, it was the same media power that had saved Nixon with the Checkers speech and enhanced his reputation in Moscow that was credited with influencing his defeat. Many say that his haggard appearance on television during the first of four presidential debates, in contrast with Kennedy's energetic charm, contributed to Nixon's defeat.

Nixon returned to California , practiced law and wrote a book about his political life: Six Crises. Many counted him out of politics, but as he would do again and again he rebounded, in 1962 announcing his candidacy for Governor of California. Surprising many pundits, Nixon's opponent, the popular incumbent Democrat, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, emerged the unexpected victor. It was a stinging defeat for Richard Nixon. At a press conference he bitterly announced to reporters that "They wouldn't have Nixon to kick around anymore." It appeared as if his life in politics was over.

Richard Nixon returned again to private life, this time in New York City . Again opponents and pundits wrote him off the American political map. Again they were wrong. When the assassination of President Kennedy, and the emergence of Lyndon Johnson as a powerful Democratic president, easily defeating conservative Republican candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964, Nixon's name was raised again as a future presidential candidate.

By 1968, with the Vietnam War tearing the nation apart, a weary and unpopular President Johnson stepped aside as a candidate for another term.  Richard Nixon rose from his past defeats, won the Republican nomination, and soundly defeated Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey. In 1969, in one of the great comeback of American history, he was sworn in as the 37th President of the United States .

After a period of escalation, new bombing in Cambodia and more American casualties, Nixon finally succeeded in negotiating a cease fire, extricating America from the Vietnam War. Images of desperate refugees, clinging to escape helicopters hovering over the abandoned U.S. Embassy in Saigon , hardly represented the "Peace with Honor," Nixon claimed, but one of the most brutal and tragic episodes in 20th Century history was officially over.   

As he was struggling with the war in Southeast Asia, Nixon was reaching out to establish diplomatic relations with a long-isolated world power, the People's Republic of China . As a staunch anti-communist, Nixon's initiatives stunned many, but others noted that it was just his "anti-Red" reputation that made this bold initiative palatable to a wary American public. In 1972, accompanied by his influential Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, Nixon made an unprecedented visit to China , meeting Chairman Mao Tse-tung and negotiating with Premier Chou En-lai. It was the beginning of a new era in US-Sino relations and later that year Nixon and his Vice President, Spiro Agnew, were easily elected to a second term.

Nixon's second term would be one of the ugliest and most divisive in American history. It began with the resignation of Vice President Agnew, after pleading no contest to tax evasion. Agnew was replaced by Senate Majority Leader Gerald Ford. But soon Nixon was embroiled in a controversy of his own, dubbed by the press "Watergate." The President's long held hardball political tactics had gone too far, resulting in a burglary at the Democratic National Headquarters in Washington 's Watergate Hotel, and a subsequent "cover-up."  

The country watched transfixed as a Congressional investigation moved inexorably toward impeachment. The revelation of a secret taping system in the White House provided final self-incriminating evidence. The tapes revealed a vindictive, often profane man, willing to do virtually anything to win. It was a Richard Nixon that liberals were convinced was always there. For the rest of the world, the tapes were horrifying evidence of a dark side to a man who had played a role in American public life for more than 25 years, and to many, the end of an idealist image of American politics and the presidency.  

Facing virtually assured impeachment, Richard Nixon resigned his office on August 8, 1974 and returned to Southern California in disgrace.

Living in the former "Western White House" in San Clemente , north of San Diego , Nixon licked his wounds. Pardoned by now-President Gerald Ford, he wrote his memoirs, and then almost unbelievably, proceeded slowly to try to rebuild his reputation. He moved to New York , consulted with world leaders and traveled abroad. To some, he seemed on the way to another comeback, but in the end he would never escape the shadow of Watergate. Nixon died in New York on April 22, 1994, a little less than a year after the death of his wife Pat. A surprisingly moving memorial tribute at the Nixon Birthplace Historic Site and Presidential Library in Yorba Linda , California suggested that history has yet to write the final word on Richard M. Nixon's controversial life and legacy.

-- Contributed by Jon Wilkman, 1999

Back