Nixon, Richard Milhous

▪ 1995

      37th president (1969-74) of the United States (b. Jan. 9, 1913, Yorba Linda, Calif.—d. April 22, 1994, New York, N.Y.), as leader of the nation, displayed formidable expertise in foreign policy by establishing détente with the Soviet Union, initiating rapprochement with China, and bringing the Vietnam War to an end. When his involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal became known and he faced the threat of impeachment, he also became the first U.S. president to resign from office. He earlier had served (1953-61) as vice president under Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

      Nixon, the son of a grocer who operated a modest business, was reared in Whittier, Calif. His mother's strong religious convictions influenced his decision to attend Whittier College, a Quaker institution. He was awarded a scholarship to Duke University Law School, Durham, N.C., and after graduation (1937) returned to Whittier to practice law. There he courted Thelma Ryan, affectionately known as Pat, and the couple married in 1940. During World War II Nixon served as an aviation ground officer in the United States Navy.

      After returning to civilian life, Nixon was twice elected (1947 and 1949) to the U.S. House of Representatives. A conservative Republican who gained political prominence with a staunch domestic anticommunist stance, Nixon was Alger Hiss's most hostile interrogator at a 1948 hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Nixon's leading role in the investigation and subsequent indictment of Hiss brought him national attention. In 1950 Nixon defeated former actress Helen Gahagan Douglas for a Senate seat after branding her a "pink lady." In turn, she indelibly labeled Nixon "Tricky Dick." Eisenhower selected Nixon as his running mate in 1952, but after Nixon was accused of financial impropriety, Eisenhower asked him to step aside. Instead, Nixon successfully defended himself on television in the memorable "Checkers" speech, in which he deflected criticism by adamantly refusing to return his children's dog, Checkers, which had been a gift from a well-wisher.

      After Eisenhower suffered a heart attack during his first term in office, Nixon gained valuable experience in foreign affairs by traveling extensively and making a number of crucial contacts. In 1958 he made a whirlwind Latin-American tour against a backdrop of violent demonstrations, and the following year in Moscow he engaged Nikita S. Khrushchev in the famed "kitchen debate," which took place in a model kitchen at a U.S. exposition.

      In 1960 Nixon became the Republican presidential candidate but lost to Democrat John F. Kennedy by a mere 112,000 votes of the 68 million cast. Two years later Nixon lost his bid to unseat Democrat Edmund G. ("Pat") Brown in a race for the governorship of California. Temporarily retreating from politics, he resumed his law career in New York City. He remained politically active behind the scenes as a loyal party fund-raiser, however, and remained in the public eye as the author of Six Crises (1962) and as an engaging and sought-after public speaker.

      With the Vietnam War raging, Nixon made capital of his foreign affairs expertise and was proclaimed the 1968 Republican presidential candidate; he narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Hubert H. Humphrey. After assuming office he announced the Nixon Doctrine, a plan to reduce U.S. military forces abroad by offering smaller countries military and economic aid to defend themselves. He gradually withdrew U.S. ground troops from Vietnam while replacing U.S. combat squadrons with South Vietnamese troops, who were fortified with U.S. supplies and air support.

      Nixon's accomplishments in foreign policy included the reopening of direct communications with China in 1972 after a 21-year lapse in relations and his May 1972 visit to Moscow, the first by a U.S. president. His trip yielded a U.S.-Soviet strategic arms limitation agreement, a bilateral trade accord, and plans for joint scientific and space cooperation.

      At home Nixon was bedeviled by persistent inflation. Though he tried to trim federal expenditures, his administration's annual budget deficits became the largest in history up to that time. He twice (1971 and 1973) devalued the dollar and introduced (Aug. 15, 1971) a New Economic Policy, which included unprecedented peacetime wage and price controls. Nixon's four appointments to the Supreme Court helped move the court toward "strict constructionism."

      Nixon defeated his 1972 Democratic challenger, Sen. George S. McGovern, in one of the largest landslide victories in U.S. presidential history. Aided by Henry A. Kissinger, who as national security adviser conducted intensive negotiations with the North Vietnamese, Nixon effectively ended U.S. participation in the Vietnam War in January 1973, but bombing raids on neighbouring Cambodia continued until August 15. His administration had come under attack when it was revealed in July that the U.S. Air Force had secretly bombed the Viet Cong in Cambodia in 1969 and 1970 and had, together with the Department of Defense, falsified reports to hide the action.

      Nixon's second term in office was dominated by the Watergate scandal, which erupted in March 1973 when investigations into the 1972 burglary and wiretapping of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., revealed that Nixon's administration was criminally involved in the break-in and cover-up. Following the indictment and conviction of several of Nixon's closest aides in July 1974, and after the House of Representatives had voted three articles of impeachment against him, Nixon resigned (August 9). He acknowledged that he had directed the FBI away from inquiries leading to the White House and had actively participated in the cover-up. He had also attempted to prevent the release of secretly recorded White House tapes that revealed his involvement. Nixon was granted a pardon by his successor, Gerald R. Ford, and retired to the seclusion of his estate in San Clemente, Calif. In 1976 he was disbarred in New York state.

      Despite his ignominy, Nixon in his later years gained stature as a senior statesman. Besides advising a succession of presidents, he wrote nine more books. The last, Beyond Peace, was completed shortly before his death. Nixon, who declined a state funeral, was buried beside his wife at his birthplace. His family announced plans, however, to continue his 20-year battle for control of 3,000 hours of White House tapes and some 150,000 pages of presidential papers that many believed could further tarnish his reputation.

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