Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was also the thirty-sixth Vice President (1953–1961) serving under Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is the only man to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to the Presidency, and he was the fifth Republican President to be elected to two terms. Nixon is noted for his diplomatic foreign policy and moderate domestic policy, but he is also remembered as the first and only U.S. President to have ever resigned from office. His resignation came after a loss of support in Congress amidst impending impeachment proceedings related to the Watergate scandal.

Early political career

Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives from California in 1946 by beating Jerry Voorhis, in a campaign which some charge was a result of underhanded political skullduggery. The campaign he ran against Voorhis highlighted the aggressive campaigning style of which Nixon was one of the pioneers. During a debate with Voorhis he held up a list of members of a Political Action Committee (PAC) from which Voorhis received substantial campaign donations. Then he held up a list of members from a Left-Wing PAC with Communist affiliations, and said that there were a few people who were in both Committees. Nixon said "they're basically the same, if their members are the same..." Although Nixon's allegations were untrue, they succeeded and Voorhis was booed by the crowd. Many voters allegedly received phone calls in the middle of the night telling them that Voorhis was a Communist.

Related Topics:
United States House of Representatives - 1946 - Jerry Voorhis - Political Action Committee - Communist

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The 80th Congress was the first with a Republican majority since the Hoover administration and its freshman class was filled with fellow war veterans, including Nixon's future rival John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Related Topics:
80th Congress - Hoover - John F. Kennedy - Massachusetts

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In the House, Nixon served on a committee that helped to implement the Marshall Plan which aided war-torn Europe. He also helped in the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act which set up controls over labor unions. He proposed a bill to facilitate servicemen's voting that was passed by both houses and signed into law. Nixon climbed the political ladder swiftly, making his name as an anti-Communist and a rough, no-holds-barred campaigner. He became a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee and was instrumental in the trial of State Department Undersecretary and General Secretary of the United Nations Charter meeting Alger Hiss for perjury after the exposure of his alleged activities as a Soviet spy. Whether Hiss was guilty or not is still in dispute, although evidence from Soviet archives released in the 1990s tends to point to his guilt. In 1948, Nixon won both the Republican and Democratic nomination for re-election to the House.

Related Topics:
Committee - Marshall Plan - Europe - Taft-Hartley Act - Labor unions - Bill - Servicemen - Political - Anti-Communist - House Un-American Activities Committee - State Department - United Nations - Alger Hiss - Perjury - Soviet - 1948

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Nixon was elected to the United States Senate in 1950, defeating actress turned congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, whom Nixon accused during the campaign of having communist sympathies, calling her the "Pink Lady." In the campaign the Independent Review newspaper tagged Nixon with a nickname he would never shake: "Tricky Dick". As with Voorhis, Nixon used the tactic of "guilt by association," printing an attack against Douglas on pink paper, listing a number of votes in Congress in which she voted the same as a left-wing Congressman from New York, Vito Marcantonio.

Related Topics:
United States Senate - 1950 - Congresswoman - Helen Gahagan Douglas - Communist - New York - Vito Marcantonio

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Upon Nixon's election to the vice-presidency, Governor Earl Warren appointed Thomas Kuchel to succeed him in his Senate seat.

Related Topics:
Earl Warren - Thomas Kuchel

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