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.

Quotations

• "You won't have Dick 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)

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)

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)
• "When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal." (explaining his interpretation of Executive Privilege to interviewer David Frost)
• "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 8 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)
• "I don't know a lot about politics, but I do know a lot about baseball."
• "Solutions are not the answer."
• "I would have made a good pope."
• "Let me say this about that."
• "cookie pushers and faggots in striped pants", referring to the Peace Corps and the State Dept. Foreign Service
• "McCarthy goes after Communists with a shotgun; I go after them with a rifle."
• "We are all Keynesians now."
• "In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation. I have never been a quitter."
• "We did not live on the wrong side of the tracks, but we could hear the whistle real loud!"
• "I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
• "The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards."