President Richard Nixon

Born on January 9, 1913, in California, Richard Milhous Nixon, was a poor but content boy and though he went through difficult times in poverty he was surrounded by a loving family. His parents, Hanna and Francis Nixon, were very firm, Hanna was a Quaker and Francis was converted to one after their marriage, leaving behind his Methodist background, together they made strict rules which led Richard into a life of no drinking or swearing. He had four brothers Donald, Harold, Arthur, and Edward, the latter three along with Richard were all named after great English kings. (1. Wikipedia: President Richard Nixon) During much of his young life, Richard experienced hardship but he kept hope for a good future, once saying “We were poor but the glory of it was that we didn’t know it.”(2. Wikipedia: President Richard Nixon) Francis Nixon was running the family ranch until 1922, when it collapsed, causing them to move from their hometown Yorba Linda, to Whittier, California. It was here that Francis Nixon opened a grocery store and gas station. Sadly in 1925, Arthur Nixon died after a brief illness.

When he was young, Richard went to East Wittier elementary School, there he was elected president of the Eighth grade class. He started going to Whittier High School in September of 1928, on some days he would get up at 4 a.m. and drive to Los Angeles, buy vegetables at the market, and then drive back to his fathers store, clean them and sell them, following which, he would go to school. Richard’s older brother Harold had gone through a stage of being wild and mischievous, and his parents thought that it was because he was under some bad influences at Wittier High School and as a result sent Richard to Fullerton Union High School. Harold was diagnosed with Tuberculosis and his mother took him to Arizona to help him get better. Despite his many responsibilities, Richard did very well in school receiving high grades on a regular basis. Because Fullerton was very far from where he lived, he stayed with one of his aunts during the School week, but was eventually sent back to Whittier to be educated at a closer location and graduated as the 3^rd of 207 students.

Richard was given the opportunity to get a degree in law at Harvard University, but he turned it down to help support his family. Sadly, Harold Nixon died of Tuberculosis in 1933, and after this, Richard stayed and helped his father in their store as well as attending Whittier College, which his grandfather had generously paid for. Richard had always been into sports, he played baseball but was not accepted onto the football team for his lack of size. While he attended college he was able to take extra courses and he even learned how to debate, which would come in handy later in his life. Also, he was engaged to marry Ola Florence Welch, the daughter of the Chief of Whittier Police, but they broke up later in 1935. Richard Graduated from Whittier College in 1934, and he received a scholarship to attend Duke University School of Law which he accepted and attended for 3 years graduating in June 1937.

After graduating Richard aspired to join the FBI, but that did not go how he expected and instead he joined the California Bar in 1937, where he worked for several years. One night he was out with some friends and met, Pat Ryan, which he described as “love at first sight.” After dating for 2 years they agreed to get married in 1939, and in January 1942, they moved to Washington D.C. When World War II began, Richard Nixon worked at the Office of Price Administration, but after a few months he decided that he did not like the job and applied to join the Navy. He served as a Lieutenant Junior grade in the Naval Reserve. After several years of service he was promoted to Lieutenant. But soon he wanted a more exiting position and he was commissioned to be a naval passenger control officer for the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command. For the next few years he worked in various branches of the Navy and was awarded for his abilities, he retired on June 6, 1966.

Now that he was done in the Navy Richard focused on politics, beginning in 1945 when he ran to be a Congressman of California. He succeeded in obtaining this position, though he was the youngest member and through his acceptance he was able to support many good things but also endorsed questionable projects such as the Marshall Plan at the end of World War II. Through his years in Congress the biggest thing that gained Richard the popularity was when he exposed a Soviet spy named Alger Hiss, due to the “Red Scares” people were highly praised for caching a Communist spy. With his popularity Richard began to think of running for the United States Senate which he did in November 1949. During the Campaign Richard employed special tactics to defeat his opponent and this pulled him to victory. In 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president and Richard had an opportunity to be his Vise President and after a standard campaign he won the position. As Vice President, he supported Eisenhower in many ways, even stepping in for him while he was being treated for severe heart attacks. Through this time, Richard grew in popularity, even though he had been contemplating leaving politics. Regardless, he put his best foot forward and ran for a second term as Vice President in 1956, this would be difficult, however, because many politicians sought to have him replaced. Once November came around, the big election day arrived and he actually won by quite a ways. Richard took a trip to Africa in the early months of 1957, he had been on large scale trips like this before but never to Africa. Once he returned he found himself working on the Civil Rights Act of 1957, this took a good bit of work, but once it was finally passed, racial discrimination was publicly abolished. In November that year, Eisenhower had a minor stroke and once again Richard Nixon stepped in to help in the presidents absence.

In 1960, Richard Nixon ran for President for the first time, and through a long campaign he was eventually defeated by John f. Kennedy. In some cases fraud was suspected in the voting, but Richard insisted that the votes not be recounted, nor did he contest the election, as he did not want the American government to look unstable in the sight of the world, because then confidence in America might be lost. After this, he and his family moved to California where he published a book about his political history called Six Crises. Richard was under compulsion to run to be the governor of California because everyone thought he could work his way back up and have another opportunity to become president, this he did, running to be governor that is, and through his campaign he was redeemed in the eyes of the public, but when the election came, he was again defeated by the opponent. It seemed the string of success that Richard possessed in the beginning of his career was all but gone. He believed that the reason he lost was because the press favored his opponent, as is sometimes the case today. In 1963, Richard took his family on a trip to Europe, here he went to press conferences with leaders and groups in the various countries that he visited. Through the next few years, Nixon built up his status and planned to run for president again and in 1968 he did. In this election, he won by a landslide. As President Nixon was seen as a strong and secure figure, and through times of controversy such as the Counterculture which was a time rebellion and confusion, he preserved a good reputation in the eyes of most. Nixon said that he would bring peace to the war in Vietnam, which was still raging at this time, and he wanted to establish a new leadership there, one that was not Communist. Later in his presidency, the U.S. did arrange peace and the bombing and fighting ended, this still remains the only war that America actually lost.  When the next election was approaching he decided to run for a second term, it was a three way race between him, Hubert Humphrey, a political activist who had run in the previous election, and George Wallace, a former Alabama Governor. Through his campaign Richard used smear tactics and violent riots to fight his opponents. (3. RPC 8^th grade history lesson 136) The results were very close, but Nixon won by the skin of his teeth, and on January 20, 1969 he was sworn into office and began his second term.

During his second term, Richard Nixon focused on foreign affairs, he had good relations with China and even took a trip there with his wife. After the Vietnam War had ended, he took a trip there as well. Nixon worked hard to improve foreign affairs during his presidency, and the fruits of his labor were obvious. However, his presidency and reputation were both destroyed in the Watergate Scandal. The Watergate Scandal was the discovery that Nixon had worked to sabotage the Democratic National Convention, this was caught on video and he was put on trial, he maintained his innocence, however, after refusing to cooperate with searches, he was convicted of perjury and was to be impeached. Nixon did not want to go through hearings and meetings with no support, so instead of fighting he resigned from office and left Washington D.C. to go to his home in California. (4. RPC 8^th grade history lesson 136)

He spent most of his latter years as a wealthy statesmen, he sometimes met with foreign leaders and went to meetings, but he never recovered from the Watergate Scandal. Richard Nixon Died in 1994 at the age of 81.

I admire Nixon’s determination, after years of hard work rising through the ranks and even losing the election, he came back and succeeded at what he had been working towards for so long. Richard Nixon was a unique man, he knew what he wanted and pursued it for all he was worth. He reminds me that we need to be determined to chase the things that are important to us, but not to get so caught up in it that we lose our focus and cheat as Nixon did.