Ziegler, Ronald Louis

▪ 2004

“Ron” 

      American government official (b. May 12, 1939, Covington, Ky.—d. Feb. 10, 2003, Coronado, Calif.), as press secretary for Pres. Richard Nixon, characterized the infamous 1972 break-in at Democratic Party headquarters at Washington, D.C.'s Watergate Hotel as a “third-rate burglary.” Ziegler worked as a press aide for Nixon when the latter was a candidate for governor of California in 1962 and again in the presidential election of 1968 before becoming the youngest-ever press secretary in 1969, at the age of 29. During this period television for the first time was playing a role in press conferences, which made Ziegler more visible than previous press secretaries. He was most remembered, however, for steadfastly holding the president's line as the Watergate scandal unraveled the administration, from the first news of the break-in until Nixon's resignation in 1974; Ziegler accompanied Nixon when he left Washington.

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