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Richard Milhous Nixon
File:Nixon.jpg
37th President of the United States
In office January 20 1969 – August 9 1974
President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President	Spiro Agnew (1969-1973) None (1973) Gerald R. Ford (1973-1974)
Preceded by	Lyndon B. Johnson
Succeeded by	Gerald Ford
36th Vice President of the United States
In office January 20 1953 – January 20 1961
Preceded by	Alben Barkley
Succeeded by	Lyndon Johnson
Personal details
Born	January 9 1913 Yorba Linda, California
Died	April 22 1994 New York, New York
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Thelma Catherine Patricia "Pat" (Ryan) Nixon
Signature

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9 1913 – April 22 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He is the only American President to have resigned from office. His resignation came in the face of imminent impeachment related to the Watergate scandal, which encompassed numerous crimes and misconduct beginning especially with the Watergate first break-in, the follow-up burglary, and the cover-up. He was also the 36th Vice President (1953–1961) serving under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon is the only American to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to the Presidency, and is given credit for redefining the office of Vice President, making it for the first time a high visibility platform and base for a presidential candidacy.

Nixon is noted for his diplomatic accomplishments in foreign policy, especially Détente with the Soviet Union and China, and ending the Vietnam War. He is also noted for his middle-of-the-road domestic policy that combined conservative rhetoric and, in many cases, liberal action, as in his civil rights, environmental and price control policies.

As President, Nixon imposed wage and price controls, indexed Social Security for inflation, and created Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The number of pages added to the Federal Register each year doubled under Nixon. He advocated gun control and eradicated the last remnants of the gold standard. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the first significant federal affirmative action program, and dramatically improved salaries for U.S. federal employees worldwide. As a party leader, Nixon helped build the Republican Party (GOP), but he ran his 1972 campaign separately from the party, which perhaps helped the GOP escape some of the damage from Watergate. The Nixon White House was the first to organize a daily press event and daily message for the media, a practice that all subsequent staffs have performed.

Early years

Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California to Francis A. Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon in a house his father built from a kit purchased from Sears, Roebuck. He was raised by his mother as an evangelical Quaker. His upbringing is said to have been marked by conservative evangelical Quaker observances such as refraining from drinking, dancing and swearing. His father (known as Frank) was a former member of the Methodist Protestant Church who had sincerely converted to Quakerism but never fully absorbed its spirit, retaining instead a volatile temper. Richard Nixon's great-grandfather George Nixon III had been killed at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War while serving in the 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Nixon's parents had five children:

• Harold Samuel Nixon (June 1 1909 – March 7 1933)
• Richard Nixon
• Francis Donald Nixon (November 23 1914 – June 27 1987)
• Arthur Burdg Nixon (May 26 1918 – August 10 1925)
• Edward Calvert Nixon (May 3 1930)

Nixon attended Fullerton High School from 1926-28 and Whittier High School from 1928-30. He graduated first in his class; showing a penchant for Shakespeare and Latin. He won a full tuition scholarship from Harvard; but since it did not cover living expenses, Nixon's family was unable to afford to send him away to college. Nixon attended Whittier College, a local Quaker school where he co-founded the Orthogonian Society, a fraternity that competed with the already established Franklin Society. Nixon was a formidable debater and was elected student body president. A lifelong football buff, Nixon practiced with the team assiduously but spent most of his time on the bench. In 1934, he graduated second in his class from Whittier and went on to Duke University School of Law, where he received a full scholarship and excelled academically.

In 1937 Nixon returned to California, passed the bar exam, and began working in the small-town law office of a family friend in nearby La Mirada. The work was mostly routine, and Nixon generally found it to be dull, although he was entirely competent. He later wrote that family law cases caused him particular discomfort, since his reticent Quaker upbringing was severely at odds with the idea of discussing intimate marital details with strangers.

It was during this period that he met his wife Pat, a high school teacher; they were married on June 21, 1940. They had two daughters, Tricia and Julie.

During World War II, Nixon served as an officer in the Navy. He received his training at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and Ottumwa, Iowa, before serving in the supply corps in the South Pacific. There he was known as "Nick" and for his prowess in poker, banking a large sum that helped finance his first campaign for Congress.

House and Senate: 1946-1952

Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1946, defeating Democratic incumbent Jerry Voorhis for California's 12th congressional district. Nixon's campaign alleged that his opponent's CIO PAC support showed that Voorhis was collaborating with Communist-controlled labor unions.

Nixon's first major breakthrough came in his two terms in Congress, where his dogged investigation on the House Un-American Activities Committee broke the impasse of the Alger Hiss spy case in 1948. Nixon believed Whittaker Chambers, who alleged that Hiss, a high State Department official, was a Soviet spy. Nixon discovered that Chambers had saved incriminating documents (hiding them in a pumpkin) which were alleged both to be accessible only by Hiss, and to be typed on Hiss's personal typewriter. The discovery that Hiss, who had been a senior FDR advisor, could have been a Soviet spy, thrust Nixon into the public eye and made him the hero to FDR's many enemies. In reality, Nixon's moderate position on domestic economic policies, and his support for internationalism put him in the left wing of the Republican party, often closer to liberal Democrats than to conservative Republicans. However conservatives ignored that because of his success in attacking Communist sympathizers. (Democrats too ignored his basic support for New Deal foreign and domestic policies.)

In 1950, Nixon was elected to the United States Senate over Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas. Alluding to her supposed Communist or fellow traveler sympathies, Nixon called her "the Pink Lady" and said she was "pink right down to her underwear." Gahagan, meanwhile, gave Nixon one of the most enduring nicknames in politics: "Tricky Dick."

Vice Presidency

In 1952, he was elected Vice President on Dwight D. Eisenhower's ticket, although he was only 39 years old.

During the campaign, Nixon was accused by nameless sources of misappropriating money out of a business funding fund for personal use. Eisenhower was pressured to remove Nixon from the ticket. Nixon went on TV and defended himself in an emotional speech, where he provided an independent third-party review of the fund's accounting along with a personal summary of his finances, which he cited as exonerating him from wrongdoing, and he charged that the Democratic Presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, also had a slush fund. This speech would, however, become better known for its rhetoric, such as when he stated that his wife Pat did not wear mink, but rather "a respectable Republican cloth coat," and that although he had been given a cocker spaniel named "Checkers" in addition to his other campaign contributions, he was not going to give it back because his daughters loved it. As a result, this speech became known as the "Checkers speech", and it resulted in a flood of support, prompting Eisenhower to keep Nixon on the ticket.

Nixon reinvented the office of Vice President. Although he had no formal power, he had the attention of the media and the Republican party. He demonstrated for the first time that the office could be a springboard to the White House; most Vice Presidents since have followed his lead and sought the presidency. Nixon was the first Vice President to actually step in to temporarily run the government. He did so three times when Eisenhower was ill: on the occasions of Eisenhower's heart attack on September 24 1955; his ileitis in June 1956; and his stroke on November 25 1957. Nixon was forced to announce his own inclusion on the 1956 Eisenhower re-election campaign, which highlighted the lack of rapport he and Eisenhower maintained, as Nixon had served Ike well. Nixon's quick thinking was on display on July 24 1959, at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow where he and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had an impromptu "kitchen debate" about the merits of capitalism versus communism.

1960 election and post-Vice Presidency

In 1960, he ran for President on his own but lost to John F. Kennedy. The race was very close all year long. Nixon campaigned on his experience, but Kennedy said it was time for new blood and suggested the Eisenhower-Nixon administration had been soft on defense. It also did not help that when asked of major policy decisions that Nixon had helped make, Eisenhower responded: "Give me a week and I might think of one". This hurt his standing early in the campaign, showing that he did not necessarily have the experience to be President or Eisenhower's firm backing. It is also believed that Nixon's chances were further damaged by the televised debates. While Nixon was visibly sweaty and even stumbled from nervousness, Kennedy looked handsome and very confident to TV viewers.

In 1962, Nixon lost a race for Governor of California. In his concession speech, Nixon accused the media of favoring his opponent Pat Brown and stated that it was his "last press conference" and that "You don't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more".

1968 Election

Nixon moved to New York City where he became a well-paid senior partner in a leading law firm, Nixon Mudge Rose Guthrie & Alexander. During the 1966 Congressional elections, he stumped the country in support of Republican candidates, rebuilding his base in the party. In the election of 1968, he completed a remarkable political comeback by taking the nomination. Nixon appealed to what he called the "silent majority" of socially conservative Americans who disliked the "hippie" counterculture and anti-war demonstrators. Nixon promised "peace with honor," and without claiming to be able to win the war, Nixon claimed that "new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific". He did not explain in detail his plans to end the war in Vietnam, leading Democratic nominee Hubert H. Humphrey to allege that he must have some "secret plan." Nixon did not use the phrase, and stated in his memoirs that he had no such plan. He defeated Humphrey and independent candidate George Wallace to become the 37th President of the United States.

Presidency 1969-1974

Foreign policies

Once in office, he proposed the Nixon Doctrine to establish a strategy of turning over the fighting of the war to the Vietnamese. In July 1969, he visited South Vietnam, and met with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with U.S. military commanders. American involvement in the war declined steadily until all American troops were gone in 1973. After the withdrawal of U.S. troops, fighting was left to the South Vietnamese army, which was well supplied with modern arms, but whose fighting capability was in question because of inadequate funding, low morale, and corruption. The lack of funding was primarily because of large funding cutbacks by the U.S. Congress.

Nixon ordered secret bombing campaigns in Cambodia in March 1969 (code-named Operation Menu) to destroy what was believed to be the headquarters of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, and later escalated the conflict with secretly bombing Laos before Congress cut the funding for the conflict in Vietnam.

In ordering the bombings, Nixon realized he would be extending an unpopular war as well as breaching Cambodia's stated neutrality. During deliberations over Nixon's impeachment, his unorthodox use of executive powers in ordering the bombings was considered as an article of impeachment, but the charge was dropped as not a violation of Constitutional powers.

On July 20 1969, Nixon addressed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin live via radio during their historic moonwalk. Nixon also made the world's longest distance phone call to Neil Armstrong on the moon. On January 5, 1972, Nixon approved the development of the Space Shuttle program, a decision that profoundly influenced U.S. efforts to explore and develop space for several decades thereafter.

Relations between the Western and Eastern power blocs changed dramatically in the early 70s. In 1960, the People's Republic of China ended the alliance with its biggest ally, the Soviet Union, in the Sino-Soviet Split. As tensions between the two communist nations reached its peak in 1969 and 1970, Nixon decided to use their conflict to shift the balance of power towards the West in the Cold War. In what later would be known as the "China Card", Nixon deliberately improved relations with China in order to gain a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, but giving Moscow a chance to improve relations so as not to be squeezed by a US-China detente. In 1971, a move was made to improve relations when China invited an American table tennis team to China; hence the term "Ping Pong Diplomacy". In October 1971, The People's Republic of China entered the United Nations. Nixon sent Henry Kissinger on a secret mission to China in July 1971, and in 1972 Nixon stunned the world by himself going to China to negotiate directly with Mao. Fearing the possibility of a Sino-American alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to American pressure for détente.

Nixon then turned to topic of nuclear peace. The first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were finally concluded the same year with the SALT I treaty. To win American friendship both China and the Soviet Union cut back on their diplomatic support for North Vietnam and advised Hanoi to come to terms. They did not, however, cut back their military aid to North Vietnam. Nixon later explained his strategy:

I had long believed that an indispensable element of any successful peace initiative in Vietnam was to enlist, if possible, the help of the Soviets and the Chinese. Though rapprochement with China and détente with the Soviet Union were ends in themselves, I also considered them possible means to hasten the end of the war. At worst, Hanoi was bound to feel less confident if Washington was dealing with Moscow and Peking. At best, if the two major Communist powers decided that they had bigger fish to fry, Hanoi would be pressured into negotiating a settlement we could accept.

Nixon was also very vocal in supporting General Yahya Khan of Pakistan, because he was instrumental in opening the door to China, thus making possible the ending of the Cold War, despite escalating violence in East Pakistan. Subsequently declassified documents reveal that Nixon made it a high priority to try to prevent a war in the subcontinent, and the extent of support offered by Nixon. He insisted that American interests had to be considered and that meant the horrors of war must be avoided. Nixon was reluctant to give any vocal support to the dictator notwithstanding the widespread human rights violations against the Bengalis by the Pakistan Army He was also vocal in abusing Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi as an "old witch" in private conversations with Henry Kissinger, who is also recorded as making derogatory comments against Indians, who were held in low regard in the United States because of their alliance with the Soviet Union and their refusal to protest Soviet violations of human rights. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Media

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Popular culture

Nixon's career was frequently dogged by Nixon's personality, and the public perception of it. Editorial cartoonists such as Herblock and comedians had fun exaggerating Nixon's appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human and the caricature version of him became increasingly blurred. He was often portrayed as a sullen loner, with unshaven jowls, slumped shoulders, and a furrowed, sweaty brow. He was also characterized as the epitome of a "square" and the personification of unpleasant adult authority.

Nixon tried to shed these perceptions by staging photo-ops with young people and even cameo appearances on popular TV shows such as Laugh-In and Hee Haw (before he was President). He also frequently brandished the two-finger V sign (alternately viewed as the "Victory sign" or "peace sign") using both hands, an act which became one of his best-known trademarks. Due to his uptight image, many Americans were shocked to hear that the president had a much gruffer, aggressive side, revealed by the sheer amount of swearing and vicious comments seen on the transcripts of the the president's White House tapes. This did not help the public perception and fed the comedians even more. Nixon's sense of being persecuted by his "enemies," his grandiose belief in his own moral and political excellence, and his commitment to utilize ruthless power at all costs led some experts to describe him as having a narcissistic and paranoid personality. During the Watergate Scandal, Nixon's approval rating had fallen to 25%.

Media inspired by the Nixon Presidency

• The book and movie All the President's Men tell Woodward and Bernstein's story of the Watergate affair.
• Best-selling historian-author Stephen Ambrose wrote a three-volume biography (Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962, Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962-1972, Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990) considered the definitive work among many Nixon biographies. The detailed accounts were mostly favorably regarded by both liberal and conservative reviewers.
• Conservative author Victor Lasky published a book in 1977 called It Didn't Start With Watergate. The book points out that past presidents may have used wiretaps and engaged in other activities that Nixon was accused of, but were never pursued by the press or the subject of impeachment hearings.
• Chuck Colson gives an insider account of the Watergate affair in Born Again.
• H.R. Haldeman also provides an insider's perspective in the books The Ends of Power and The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House
• G. Gordon Liddy gives his version of the Watergate Scandal in his autobiography Will.
• The movie Nixon directed by Oliver Stone.
• Nixon in China is an opera dealing with Nixon's visit there.
• The comedy film Dick tells the tale of the Watergate scandal by saying that Deep Throat (Watergate) was two teenage girls. They choose the name because their older brother saw Deep Throat (film) at the theater. They get in the White House since they are presidential dogwalkers.
• The 2004 movie The Assassination of Richard Nixon starring Sean Penn as a salesman who become disillusioned by the American dream and eventually decides to crash a plane into the White House in protest, killing the President. While not appearing as a character, Nixon (through television interviews and clips) is used to represent the American establishment and its use of capitalism to control the country.
• From 1976 to 1979, Nixon was portrayed on NBC's Saturday Night Live by Dan Aykroyd.
• Richard Nixon was elected President of Earth in Matt Groening's cartoon series Futurama, claiming that the Constitution stated that nobody may be elected more than twice, and he is now just a head in a jar and was then using a robot body. Many other people are heads in jars on Futurama, but Nixon's is the one with the biggest role. He also appears in The Simpsons in flashbacks or on television. The actual text of the 22nd Amendment states that no person may run for President more than twice, or serve more than ten years as President.
• The Manic Street Preachers offered a rare sympathetic look at Nixon during their song The Love of Richard Nixon
• Many have said that the character of Charles Logan, as portrayed by Gregory Itzin on 24 (TV series), is based on Nixon. Besides the Watergate implications of working with the terrorists, Logan also asked assistant Mike Novick to "pray with me." This was a clear parallel to when Nixon asked Henry Kissinger to pray with him in the White House.
• The late folk singer Phil Ochs changed his earlier song "Here's to the State of Mississippi", to "Here's to the State of Richard Nixon" in which the last line of every verse is "Here's to the land you torn out the heart of, Richard Nixon (Mississippi) find yourself another country to be part of". It is then met with large cheers.
• In issue #83 of the DC Comics-published comic book, Green Lantern/Green Arrow (April/May 1971), Green Lantern and Green Arrow encountered a little girl with great psychic capabilities. Artist Neal Adams gave the little girl a strong resemblance to Nixon, whom Adams was not fond of.
• In Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, President Nixon sends the superhuman Dr. Manhattan to win the Vietnam War, which he does in just three months. In the afterglow of Dr. Manhattan's triumph, the 22nd Amendment is repealed, and Nixon is reelected in 1976, 1980, and 1984 (and is still serving at the time of the story, in 1985).
• The Simpsons character Milhouse Van Houten was named, in part, after Richard Milhous Nixon.
• Nixon is mentioned twice in Billy Joel's history themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire", as are many Presidents before and after him. The Watergate scandal is mentioned as well.

Trivia

• When Nixon was younger, he was once caught sneaking into the Duke University law school to peek at grades.
• The first Kennedy-Nixon debate took place on April 21 1947, when Democratic Congressman Frank Buchanan selected freshman congressmen Nixon and John F. Kennedy to debate the Taft-Hartley Act at a public meeting.
• In 1952, Nixon became the first native of California to appear on a major-party presidential ticket when he was chosen as Dwight Eisenhower's running mate. (The same year, the Democratic Presidential nominee was Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, who was born in Los Angeles, California. The 1952 Democratic National Convention which nominated Stevenson took place after the Republican convention which chose Nixon).
• On June 14 1959, Vice-President Nixon and his family inaugurated the Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail in the western hemisphere.
• At the time of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Nixon was attending a Pepsi convention in Dallas, Texas. Nixon Mudge Rose Guthrie & Alexander, the law firm of which he was senior partner, was in charge of managing the Pepsi account.
• On December 22 1968, Julie Nixon (Richard's daughter) and David Eisenhower (Dwight's grandson) were married.
• From January 22 1973, when his predecessor Lyndon Johnson died, until his resignation on August 9, 1974, Nixon was the only living current or former U.S. President.
• Nixon was an accomplished pianist.
• Nixon was the second U.S President to visit the Soviet Union (the first was President Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference in 1945).
• Nixon is one of only two men to have run on five National tickets for a major party (the other is FDR) for Vice President in 1952 and 1956 and for the presidency in 1960, 1968 and 1972. He was nominated as a resident of two different states: between his 1960 and 1968 presidential campaigns, he moved from California to New York.
• Nixon was granted a coat of arms by the short-lived American College of Heraldry and Arms.
• Nixon was an avid bowler and allegedly once bowled a perfect game.
• Nixon was a knowledgeable sports fan, with a particular interest in football and baseball. During his presidency, he even had the odd habit of calling the losing team after the Super Bowl to offer his condolences and support.
• Nixon took a particular interest in the NFL's 1971 season. During the playoffs, he contacted George Allen to suggest he tell his Washington Redskins team that Nixon designed a play for them. He did not actually design the play. Once the Redskins were eliminated, he began to root for the Miami Dolphins. He called Dolphins coach Don Shula on January 3, 1972 to suggest the team use a quick slant pass in the Super Bowl.
• Nixon was the first President to visit all 50 states.
• According to recently released Watergate tapes, Nixon expected a campaign contribution of at least $250,000 in exchange for an ambassadorship.
• Nixon played golf frequently.
• Nixon's last public appearance was at a Conestoga High School performance of Into the Woods. His granddaughter Jennie Eisenhower, great-granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower, played the role of Little Red Riding Hood.
• Nixon applied for the Special Agent position in the FBI.

Quotations

• "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." (1962 after losing the race for Governor of California).
• "This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely." (concerning the Apollo Moon landing)
• "That sonofabitch stole it from me." (referring to his narrow 1960 election defeat to John F.Kennedy)
• "I would have made a good pope."

Foreign policy

• "People react to fear, not love—they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true." (concerning fear and paranoia in the Cold War)
• "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now." (1985 looking back at the Vietnam War)
• "Publicly, we say one thing....Actually, we do another." (On his secret war in Cambodia even after it became public knowledge.)
• "North Vietnam cannot humiliate and defeat America - only Americans can do that."

On race and religion

• "But by God, they're exceptions. But Bob, generally speaking, you can't trust the bastards. They turn on us." (On Jews, to Bob Haldeman)
• "Jewish families are close, but there's this strange malignancy that seems to creep among them - radicalism."
• "You can never put, John, any person who is a Jew on a civil rights kind of case, or freedom of the press kind of case, and get even a ten percent chance.... Basically, who the hell are these people that stole the papers? It's too bad. I'm sorry. I was hoping one of them would be a gentile."
• "You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists." 26th May 1971
• “What about the rich Jews? The IRS is full of Jews, Bob." 14th of September 1971
• "The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards." 1st of February 1972, Nixon telling Bob Haldeman
• “I have the greatest affection for them , but I know they're not going to make it for 500 years. They aren't. You know it, too. The Mexicans are a different cup of tea. They have a heritage. At the present time they steal, they're dishonest, but they do have some concept of family life. They don't live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do live like."

On Watergate

• "When you get in these people when you...get these people in, say: 'Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that' ah, without going into the details... don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, 'the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again.' And, ah because these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case, period!" The 'smoking gun tape' on June 23 1972. Nixon was telling Haldeman to tell the CIA to stop the FBI investigation, by telling the CIA that it would 'open the whole Bay of Pigs thing.' Haldeman did give Nixon's order to the CIA's Richard Helms, who exploded into a rage of fury when told, according to Haldeman. Haldeman would later write that Nixon used the expression 'the Bay of Pigs thing' when he was referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
• "I want to say this to the television audience. I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service. I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got." November 17 1973 Televised press conference with 400 Associated Press Managing Editors at Walt Disney World, Florida, Nixon summarized his responses to journalists' questions regarding speculation and criticism of his personal finances and the Watergate scandal.
• "I don't give a shit what happens. I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up or anything else, if it'll save it, save this plan. That's the whole point. We're going to protect our people if we can." (to Haldeman, tapes ordered released for the trial of Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell)
• "I recognize that this additional material I am now furnishing may further damage my case," (after the ordered release of the White House tapes August 5, 1974)
• "Well, when the President does it, that means that it's not illegal." (explaining his interpretation of Executive Privilege to interviewer David Frost on television, May 19 1977)
• "I was under medication when I made the decision not to burn the tapes."
• "Well, I screwed it all up real good, didn't I?"
• "The greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes and you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain... Always remember, others may hate you. Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself." Farewell to White House staff August 9 1974.
• "I think that the ability of the American people to review all that there is to know about their President using a microscope is wonderful. Still, I think some people get a little carried away when they take out their proctoscopes." (regarding the intense scrutiny which he was forced to endure.)

On peace

• "Any nation that decides the only way to achieve peace is through peaceful means is a nation that will soon be a piece of another nation." (from his book No More Vietnams)
• "The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker." (From his 1969 inaugural, later used as Nixon's epitaph)

Miscellaneous

• "Sock it to me?" (cameo on the television comedy series Laugh-In during the 1968 election)
• "Let me make this perfectly clear!"

See also

• U.S. presidential election, 1952
• U.S. presidential election, 1956
• U.S. presidential election, 1960
• U.S. presidential election, 1968
• U.S. presidential election, 1972
• History of the United States (1964–1980)
• Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California

References

Primary sources

• Nixon, Richard. (1960). The Challenges We Face: Edited and Compiled from the Speeches and Papers of Richard M. Nixon ISBN 0195457626.
• Nixon, Richard. (1962). Six Crises. Doubleday. ISBN 0385001258.
• Nixon, Richard. (1978). RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (Reprint). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671707418.
• Nixon, Richard. (1980). Real War. Sidgwich Jackson. ISBN 0283986506.
• Nixon, Richard. (1982). Leaders. Random House. ISBN 0446512494.
• Nixon, Richard. (1987). No More Vietnams. Arbor House Publishing. ISBN 0877956685.
• Nixon, Richard. (1988). 1999: Victory Without War. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671627120.
• Nixon, Richard. (1990). In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671723189.
• Nixon, Richard. (1992). Seize The Moment: America's Challenge In A One-Superpower World. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671743430.
• Nixon, Richard. (1994). Beyond Peace. Random House. ISBN 0679433236.
• Trivial Pursuit Inc.

Other Memoirs

• John D. Ehrlichman, Witness to Power. The Nixon Years (1982)
• H. R. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries. Inside the Nixon White House (1994), abridged version; complete diaries were published on CD-ROM by SONY.
• Kissinger, Henry. Memoirs. 2 vols. (1979-1982).
• Raymond Price, With Nixon (1977)
• William Safire, Before the Fall. An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House (1975)
• Maurice H. Stans, One of the President's Men: Twenty Years with Eisenhower and Nixon (1995)

Secondary sources

Biographies

• Aitken, Jonathan. Nixon: A Life (1993), generally favorable
• Ambrose, Stephen E. Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913–1962 (1987); Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972 (1989); Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973–1990 (1991). The nost detailed study; generally hostile
• Greenberg, David. Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image (2003).
• Hoff, Joan. Nixon Reconsidered (1994). quite favorable
• Morris, Roger. Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician (1990).
• Iwan Morgan. On Nixon (2002), favourable British view
• Parmet, Herbert S. Richard Nixon and His America. (1990).
• Reeves, Richard. President Nixon: Alone in the White House (2002).
• Wicker, Tom. One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream (1991).

Specialized studies

• Hal W. Bochin; Richard Nixon: Rhetorical Strategist Greenwood Press, 1990
• Friedman, Leon and William F. Levantrosser, eds. Richard M. Nixon: Politician, President, Administrator (1991), essays.
• Genovese, Michael A. The Nixon Presidency: Power and Politics in Turbulent Times (1990).
• John Robert Greene. The Limits of Power: The Nixon and Ford Administrations (1992)
• Gellman, Irwin. The Contender: Richard Nixon: The Congress Years, 1946 to 1952 (1999).
• Reichley, A. James. Conservatives in an Age of Change: The Nixon and Ford Administrations (1981), detailed narrative.
• Small, Melvin. The Presidency of Richard Nixon (2003).
• Summers, Anthony. The Arrogance of Power The Secret World of Richard Nixon (2000).
• White, Theodore. The Making of the President 1968 : A narrative History of American politics in Action (1969)
• White, Theodore. The Making of the President, 1972 (1973)

Foreign Policy and Vietnam

• Andreas W. Daum et al., eds. America, the Vietnam War, and the World : Comparative and International Perspectives (Publications of the German Historical Institute) (2003)
• John Lewis Gaddis. Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy 1982.
• Jeffrey P. Kimball. Nixon's Vietnam War (2002
• Levantrosser, William F. ed. Cold War Patriot and Statesman, Richard M. Nixon (1993), essays by scholars and senior officials.
• Thornton, Richard C. The Nixon-Kissinger Years: Reshaping America's Foreign Policy (1989).

Domestic Policy

• Flippen, J. Brooks. Nixon and the Environment (2000).
• Vincent J. Burke. Nixon's Good Deed: Welfare Reform (1974)* J. Larry Hood, "The Nixon Administration and the Revised Philadelphia Plan for Affirmative Action: A Study in Expanding Presidential Power and Divided Government;' Presidential Studies Quarterly 23 (Winter 1993): 145-67;
• Dean J. Kotlowski; "Richard Nixon and the Origins of Affirmative Action" The Historian. Volume: 60. Issue: 3. 1998. pp 523+.
• Lawrence J. McAndrews; "The Politics of Principle: Richard Nixon and School Desegregation" The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 83 #3, 1998 pp 187+
• Kenneth O'Reilly. Nixon's Piano: Presidents and Racial Politics from Washingtion to Clinton (1995)
• Allen J. Matusow. Nixon's Economy: Booms, Busts, Dollars, and Votes (1998)
• Schell, Jonathan. "The Time of Illusion" 1976 Vintage

Watergate

• Friedman, Leon and William F. Levantrosser, eds. Watergate and Afterward: The Legacy of Richard M. Nixon (1992), essays.
• Kutler, Stanley I. "'The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon. (1990).
• Michael Schudson. Watergate in American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past (1993)
• Berstein, Carl and Bob Woodward. "All the President's Men." 1974 Riverside, New Jersey: Simon & Schuster.

Notes

1. Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debates, 1960 - Erika Tyner Allen, Museum of Broadcast Communications, accessed April 4 2006
2. John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment 1982 p 294, 299; Ang Cheng Guan, Ending the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Communists' Perspective (2003) pp 61, 69, 77-79; Qiang Zhai China and the Vietnam Wars p 136
3. Nixon, No More Vietnams (1987), pp 105–6.
4. The Tilt: The U.S. and the South Asian Crisis of 1971 - Sajit Gandhi, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 79, December 16, 2002
5. Nixon: A Psychobiography - Vamik D. Volkan, Norman Itzkowitz, and Andrew W. Dod, book review by Michael A. Ingall, accessed April 4 2006
6. Choosing theater over politics - Ruth Rovner, Main Line Times, December 11 2003
7. Nixon: I Am Not an Anti-Semite - Timothy Noah, Slate, October 7, 1999
8. Nixon's Views on Presidential Power: Excerpts from an Interview with David Frost - Landmark Supreme Court Cases, United States v. Nixon, interview on May 19, 1977

External links

• White House biography
• Works by Richard Nixon at Project Gutenberg
• 1984 audio interview with Richard Nixon by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, RealAudio
• 1992 transcript of Richard Nixon interview with Larry King
• Richard Nixon at IMDb
• United States Congress. "Richard Nixon (id: N000116)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Nixon Presidential Materials at National Archives
• Articles of Impeachment
• Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, Yorba Linda, California
• "Nixon Now" Nixon's 1972 Campaign Jingle video
• "Nervous About Nixon?" 1956 Democratic Campaign Ad video
• The Nixon Center, Washington, D.C.
• whitehousetapes.org: The Nixon Tapes available online
• Judiciary Committee Hearings Appendix I: Presidential Statements on the Watergate Break-in and Its Investigation
• Political Donations Made by Richard Nixon
• Eulogy by Hunter S. Thompson
• yorbalindahistory.org Developed by the Yorba Linda Public Library. Includes newspaper articles about Nixon from theYorba Linda Star.
• Nixon Fun Facts via Nixon Foundation
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part One: Meeting Richard Nixon, or Plumbing on the Brain.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Two: Dinner Chez Nixon.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Three: Digression—Mrs. Nicely and other Niceties of Smith College.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Four: The Squash Connection.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Five: Rocks for Jockettes and Winter Weekend with Jocks.
• The Julie Nixon Chronicles, Part Six: Catching Rides with Manolo as Nixon Rides to the Presidency.
• Remarks By Governor Pete Wilson Of California At Richard Nixon's Funeral April 27, 1994.

Speeches

• First Inaugural Address
• Second Inaugural Address
• Audio recordings of Nixon's speeches
• Checkers speech
• Resignation speech

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