Essay/Term paper: The political career of richard nixon

Essay, term paper, research paper:  History Essays

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
indict ed 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. Hodg son 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

Bibliography

Kane, J. N. Facts About The Presidents, Norfolk: Wilson, 1984

Aithea, Jonathan Nixon: A Life, New York: Regency, 1994

Hargrove, Jim Richard M. Nixon: The 37th President, Chicago: Childrens, 1985

Anthony, C. All The President's Men, Boston: Easton, 1989

Nixon, R.M. The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990

Ryan, James Richard Nixon, Chicago: Childrens, 1985

Bernstein, Carl Compilation of Biographical and Historical Information, Norfolk:
Wilson, 1983