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RICHARD M. NIXON
1913 - 1994
Republican, 37th
President, No Crook
Richard Milhous Nixon
became a public figure in 1948. Back then he was
a congressman and a member of the House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
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The occasion?
The investigation
of former State Department official
Alger Hiss.
Hiss was accused
of spying for the Soviet Union before and during
 World
War II.
What made Nixon
famous was his hardcore stance on the matter.
Hiss was eventually found guilty.
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In 1950, Nixon
became senator.
From 1953 until 1961
Richard M. Nixon was vice
president under
Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon
Republican National Convention in San Francisco
1956
Dwight D. Eisenhower Library / U.S. Army
In 1960, the Republicans had Nixon run for
president against Democrat
John
F. Kennedy. The American public had
to stomach four TV debates.
TV DEBATE JOHN F. KENNEDY / RICHARD m. NIXON
US Presidential Campaign 1960
U.S. Senate.gov
JFK won the
election because he was generally conceived as a
bit spunkier than Nixon. But it was a very very
close race.
Too close, some
thought and claimed that Illinois and Texas
votes had possibly been monkeyed with. Nixon was
encouraged to challenge the election results but
he graciously let it slide.
Check this chart
for the exact results:
United States
1796 - 1968 Elections
Click map to enlarge
In 1968, Richard
M. Nixon ran again and this time it worked. He
defeated Democrat
Hubert H. Humphrey and in 1969, Nixon became the 37th president of the United States.
Richard's vice president was
Spiro T. Agnew,
former governor from Maryland. Agnew resigned in
1973 and Nixon's new vice was
Gerald R. Ford.
In 1970, Nixon was shaking Elvis'
hand. Elvis was thrilled, Nixon so-so.
NIXON-PRESLEY MEETING - DECEMBER 21, 1970
The National Security Archive / George Washington University
ELVIS AND RICHARD AT THE WHITE HOUSE - DECEMBER 21, 1970
The National Security Archive / George Washington University
And here you can check out
all about Presley's visit to the White House
from the National Security Archive.
In 1972, Nixon signed
SALT I, an agreement with the
Soviet Union to limit construction of strategic missiles.
Richard Nixon and Watergate
Here is the
Watergate Scandal a little bit
more detailed.
In 1973, Nixon informs the Associated
Press, "I welcome this kind of examination because people have got
to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a
crook."
Let's hear it:
Richard Nixon made history by becoming
the first US president to quit his job, which he did in 1974 because
of his involvement in the Watergate Scandal.
Nixon got off lightly when the 38th
president,
Gerald R. Ford, pardoned him.
Assassination Attempts on Richard Nixon
February 22, 1974, Baltimore, Maryland - An excerpt from the
must-read book Just 2 Seconds by Gavin de Becker,
Samuel Byck
shot his way onto a Delta jet at the
Baltimore-Washington Airport. He intended to
hijack the plane, force the pilots to take
off, and then crash the plane into the White
House to kill Nixon.
He killed a
security guard and the crew, before police
shot and wounded him. He then killed
himself. He was armed with a .22 revolver
and a gasoline bomb in a briefcase.
Check out Assassinations
in History.
Richard Nixon's Family
Richard's father
was Francis Anthony Nixon. Richard's mother was
Hannah
Milhous Nixon. The couple had five children.
Richard was child number two.
Richard's brothers
were Harold Samuel
Nixon,
Francis Donald Nixon,
Arthur Burdg Nixon,
and Edward Calvert
Nixon.
In 1940, Richard
married Thelma Catherine
Ryan. They called her Pat because she
was born on St Patrick's Day. Pat
taught business classes at Whittier High School.
The two met at the local amateur theater group.
Pat Nixon died on June 22, 1993, of lung cancer.
Pat and Richard
had two daughters. Tricia
Nixon was born in 1946 and
Julie Nixon in 1948.
Julie later married Dwight D. Eisenhower's
grandson. And here is the group photo:
THE NIXONS:
David and Julie
Eisenhower,
President Nixon, Kenny Washington, Mrs. Nixon,
Tricia and Ed Cox
Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
What's New About Nixon?
March 23, 2007
They've just found out: Nixon ordered to bomb
targets that officially were off-limits. Read
the
article in The New
Yorker...
May 31, 2007
The National Archives and Records Administration
has announced the impending release of an
additional 11 hours and 30 minutes of Nixon
White House tape recordings. The tapes in
question were recorded in 1972.
September 13, 2008
Nixon interview published where he comments on
the execution of the Rosenbergs in 1953.
Read the NY Times article.
And here is
the National Security
Archive's article on the release of the
Rosenberg files.
Richard M. Nixon - 1969
U.S. Department of Defense
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Richard M. Nixon's Short Biography |
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January 9, 1913 |
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Birth
in Yorba Linda, California |
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September 1930 - 1934 |
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Whittier College,
California |
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May
1934 - June 1937 |
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Duke University Law
School in Durham, North Carolina |
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Returns to Whittier and joins the
law firm Wingert and Bewley |
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June
21, 1940 |
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Marries Pat |
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January 1942 |
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The
Nixons move to Washington DC,
Richard joins the Office of Price
Administration. |
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August
17, 1942 - 1946 |
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In the Navy...
Gets assigned to Ottumwa in Iowa,
the island of New Caledonia, the
Solomon Islands, and Green Island |
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February 21, 1946
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Birth
of first child, daughter
Patricia
(Tricia) |
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November 6, 1946
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Elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives |
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July
5, 1948 |
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Birth
of second child, daughter
Julie |
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1948 |
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Re-elected as congressman |
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1950 |
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Elected senator, defeats Democratic
candidate
Helen Gahagan Douglas |
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1953 -
1961 |
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Vice
president under President
Dwight D.
Eisenhower |
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1960 |
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Runs unsuccessfully for presidency, loses to
John F.
Kennedy, temporary retirement in
California |
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1962 |
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Runs unsuccessfully for governor of
California, loses to
Edmund G.
Brown. |
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1963 |
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Moves
to New York City, works as a lawyer |
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1968 |
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Elected president |
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1969 -
1974 |
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37th
president of the United States |
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June
1972 |
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Break-in at the Democratic National
Committee offices in the Watergate
office complex in Washington, DC,
discovered.
Watergate
Scandal
develops. |
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January 1973 |
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Signs
Paris peace accords ending American
involvement in the
Vietnam
War |
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June
1973 |
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Two
summit meetings with
Leonid
Brezhnev in Washington |
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October 10, 1973 |
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Vice
President
Spiro
Agnew resigns |
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June
and July 1974 |
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Meetings with
Leonid
Brezhnev
in Moscow |
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August
9, 1974 |
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Resigns presidency, Vice President
Gerald R. Ford
becomes the new
president, Nixon and his wife return
to their home in San Clemente,
California |
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September 8, 1974 |
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Ford
pardons Nixon for "all offenses
against the United States" which
Nixon "has committed or may have
committed or taken part in" during
his presidency. |
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1980 |
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The
Nixons move to New York City |
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1981 |
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The
Nixons move to northern Bergen
County, New Jersey |
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1986 |
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Private citizen Nixon meets with
Mikhail
Gorbachev in Moscow,
reports back to President
Ronald
Reagan |
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April 22,
1994 |
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Death
in New York, NY (stroke) |
Richard Nixon's Writings
Richard Nixon
wrote quite a few books, among them the bestseller, Six Crises (1961),
and RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
(1978).
 
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