Richard Nixon

President of the United States (1969–1974)

• Born: January 9, 1913
• Birthplace: Yorba Linda, California
• Died: April 22, 1994
• Place of death: New York, New York

Nixon renewed American relations with the People’s Republic of China, achieved détente with the Soviet Union, and ended the involvement of the United States in Vietnam. Ironically, because of his Watergate coverup, he aroused public and congressional opposition to the so-called imperial presidency.

Early Life

Richard Nixon was the son of Francis A. Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon. “Frank” Nixon was a small businessman, and Richard as a boy worked in the family store, driving into Los Angeles early each morning to buy fruits and vegetables and then going to school. He attended public schools and graduated from Whittier College in 1934 and from Duke University’s law school in 1937. As a young man Nixon was above average in height, strong but slender, weighing a little more than 150 pounds. His most prominent physical characteristics were a prominent nose, a dark beard despite frequent shaving, and a rather stiff manner. Despite a good record in law school, he found no job in New York City or even with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which may have made him wary of the “Eastern Establishment.” He practiced law in California from 1937 to 1942, in 1940 marrying Thelma Catherine “Pat” Ryan. They had two daughters, Patricia and Julie. Soon after the United States entered World War II, Nixon, a Quaker, became a lawyer with the Office of Price Administration but in the summer of 1942 joined the US Navy and served as a transportation officer in the South Pacific. He was released from active duty as a lieutenant commander.

Life’s Work

In 1946 Nixon ran as a Republican for US representative from the Twelfth District of California, winning after a harsh campaign. Reelected in 1948, in 1950 he sought a senate seat from California, defeating the popular Helen Gahagan Douglas after another controversial campaign. In both house and senate, Nixon’s record was one of moderate conservatism but also one of strident anticommunism, which fitted America’s mood in the early Cold War. He helped secure the conviction of Alger Hiss for perjury in a case that made Nixon famous. He won the Republican nomination for vice president in 1952 largely because his youth, his “hard line” position, and his being from the West balanced the presidential candidate, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon found himself to be vice president in charge of the Republican Party because of Eisenhower’s wish to remain above partisan politics. He relished his trips abroad for Eisenhower, to Asia, Latin America, and the Soviet Union. He was again a controversial campaigner in 1956 because of his harsh attacks on opponents. Admired by party regulars because of his faithful partisan services, Nixon easily secured the Republican nomination for president in 1960. Nixon lost to Senator John F. Kennedy, probably because of televised debates in which Nixon showed his exhaustion from campaigning while Kennedy gained an image of vigor and competence. The margin of defeat was extremely narrow in the popular vote 119,000 out of 68,838,000 cast but 303 to 219 electoral votes.

Nixon then practiced law in California, seeking the governorship in 1962 but losing to Edmund G. Brown. He again became controversial by bitterly attacking the press after the election, in effect accusing its people of deliberately defeating him. Moving to New York, he joined a Wall Street law firm, becoming a partner in 1964. With the overwhelming defeat that year of Senator Barry Goldwater, Nixon again became a major contender for the presidential nomination. He continued to travel widely abroad, meeting important leaders, and maintained his political contacts, campaigning for many Republican candidates in 1966. In 1968 he again won the presidential nomination and defeated Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey by 510,000 popular votes out of 63,160,000 cast for the two men, and by 301 to 191 electoral votes, probably because of public disillusionment with the Democrats’ handling of the Vietnam War and their catastrophically divided presidential convention.

As president, Nixon was most interested in foreign policy, commenting that a competent cabinet could look after the country. Reflecting his moderate conservatism, his administration did nothing about civil rights except to oppose some laws already enacted, sought to win southern segregationists into the Republican Party, stressed “law and order” issues, tried to shift some emphasis to state and local government through revenue sharing, sought reform of the welfare system, and took some steps toward environmental protection. Strangely, it did not cut down “big government” much or reduce tax burdens. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and Attorney General John Mitchell became especially controversial because of Agnew’s attacks on the “media” and Mitchell’s recommending one questionable nominee for the Supreme Court and then one unsuitable one. The Senate rejected both. The administration was also hurt by its changing responses to “stagflation,” a new term for a slowing economy with continued inflation, a situation created by the Vietnam War and then by a sudden oil price rise because Arab states were angry at the American-aided Israeli victory in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Nixon’s task was made no easier by his facing a Congress controlled by Democrats.

Nixon revealed his foreign policy position by appointing as his chief adviser Dr. Henry A. Kissinger of Harvard University. Kissinger, a student of realpolitik, fitted Nixon’s own wish for realism. Nixon had shed his earlier bitter anticommunism and also recognized the fact that because of the Vietnam War Americans would no longer support endless intervention abroad. Seeking to end United States involvement in Vietnam without South Vietnam’s collapsing, he bombed and invaded Cambodia, helped a South Vietnamese invasion of Laos, and tried “Vietnamization,” a massive buildup of South Vietnam’s armed forces accompanied by the withdrawal of many thousands of United States troops. He later intensified United States bombing of North Vietnam and ordered the mining of its major harbors, all this to apply sufficient pressure for a peace settlement. His reelection in 1972 left North Vietnam only Nixon to deal with, and in January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam signed an agreement that ended the United States’ involvement in Vietnam but which was so loosely worded that the war never really ended and South Vietnam fell in 1975.

With the Soviet Union Nixon concluded agreements for grain sales and, most important, arms limitation. A 1972 agreement, called the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), limited antiballistic missiles and, in effect, granted to two superpowers equality in nuclear weapons. By warning the Soviet government and ordering a middle-level alert of United States armed forces, Nixon may also have kept the Soviet Union from intervening in the Middle East during the Yom Kippur War. Nixon’s major foreign policy triumph was his 1972 trip to Beijing, China, and meetings with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. While Nixon and Kissinger could not solve all the problems between the two countries, the renewal of contact led ultimately to the renewal of Chinese-American diplomatic relations, which had ended in 1949. Nixon also paved the way for a renewal of American trade with China, which aided China in its modernization. Chinese-American relations may also have restrained some Soviet actions. The only exceptions to a record of sound diplomacy were Nixon’s aiding the overthrow and death of Chilean president Salvador Allende in 1973 and his support for Pakistan despite the government's aggression toward its own people in East Pakistan as the latter broke away to become Bangladesh.

Nixon was overwhelmingly reelected in 1972, defeating Senator George McGovern by 520 to 17 electoral votes and by 47,170,000 to 29,170,000 popular votes. Public opinion polls revealed massive approval of Nixon’s foreign policy, especially détente and relations with China, but fairly strong disapproval of his handling of domestic matters. There was also a rejection by Middle America of everything that McGovern allegedly stood for: left-wing liberalism and the counterculture of the 1960s.

However, high officials in the Nixon campaign sponsored or allowed a burglary of the national Democratic headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington, DC. This was probably a symptom of the administration’s atmosphere, one of near siege, of feeling surrounded by enemies and of sharing Nixon’s demand for overwhelming reelection as a vindication of himself. When others tried to cover up their roles in Watergate, Nixon himself became involved in the cover-up. Tape recordings made of conversations in the president’s office, intended to be the basis of a historical record, proved Nixon’s role in attempted deception. About to be impeached by the House of Representatives, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974; he was the first president in US history to do so. Earlier, Vice President Agnew, himself under indictment, had resigned, and under the new Twenty-fifth Amendment, Nixon had appointed Representative Gerald R. Ford, who thus became president after Nixon.

In retirement, first at San Clemente, California, and later at Saddle River, New Jersey, Nixon was quiet for a time and then began to travel again, to Europe and twice to China. With the help of able assistants, he produced four books in addition to his memoirs: The Real War (1980), Leaders (1982), Real Peace (1984), and No More Vietnams (1985). He also took part in a number of televised interviews, entertained members of the press, and with other former presidents represented the United States at the funeral of assassinated Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat in 1981. He was in general silent on President Ford, critical of President Jimmy Carter, and supportive of President Ronald Reagan. His books reveal a mixture of a wish for lasting world peace and a hard-line approach toward the Soviet Union.

On April 18, 1994, Nixon experienced a stroke at his home in New Jersey; he died on April 22.

Significance

In some ways, Nixon represented millions of post–World War II Americans: Well educated, he was a professional man and also a veteran who wanted to succeed in life and also build a better world for his family. He was highly ambitious, driven by the example of his father, who never really succeeded, but also controlled by his mother’s example of piety and manipulativeness. He thus created the public image of a patriotic young man of ambition but decency. As such, he was repeatedly elected to public office but was sometimes defeated and was always suspect to millions of voters. Behind the public image remained the real man who revealed himself occasionally: remote, lonely, under tremendous stress in his drive to succeed, and angry at those who opposed him. When, during the Watergate crisis, this inner person was revealed, there was public shock and his defenders melted away. He had built up presidential power and prestige, and there arose opposition to what was named the “imperial presidency.” His legacy, aside from foreign policy successes, was one of increased public distrust of government.

Bibliography

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