How was Richard Nixon's early life?
Richard Nixon was born on January 9th, 1913. He grew up in the small town of Yorba Linda, California. Nixon grew up to a poor family. His mother was a Quaker woman who was a stay at home mom and his dad (Frank Nixon) owned a service station and a very small farm that didn’t bring in a lot. Nixon looking back on his childhood stated “We were poor, but the glory of it was that we didn’t know it.”
Growing up Nixon suffered from many family tragedies. His younger brother (Arthur Nixon) died at the age of seven due to severe illness. His older brother (Harold Nixon) died of tuberculosis in 1933. Nixon himself suffered tuberculosis at the age of twelve. He was unable to play sports for quite a while until he started playing football.
Nixon was a very outgoing and successful student. He practiced in debates and school elections. This was his first taste of politics. He had great grades all through school, but he was still poor so he had to attend the small school of Whittier College in California. After maintaining his grades in college he gained a scholarship to Duke University Law school.
What did Richard Nixon do in his political career before the presidency?
After serving in World War II, Nixon started to entertain the idea of running for political
positions. The first position on his mind was California’s 12th congressional district. Nixon was elected as Congressman from California’s 12th district. Defeating senior congressman Jerry Voorhis. While in congress Nixon was on the Committee of un-American activities. During that time he helped fight communism during the Red Scare. He even exposed a communist espionage ring. He also traveled post war Europe to see what it was like there. This trip was very important to the passage of the Marshall Plan.
The next political office he held was senator of California. He won that office by nearly 20%. Only two years later he was nominated by the republican party to run for vice president under Dwight Eisenhower. During this election, Nixon made one of the most important speeches of his political career, The Checkers Speech. Critics of Nixon stated he used 18,000 dollars of donation for his own personal expense. Nixon denied everything but did admit that he was given a puppy name Checkers, and he intended to keep Checkers. The approval of the speech for the public was huge. This speech itself saved Nixon’s political career at that point. Eisenhower and Nixon easily won.
After eight years as vice president, Nixon decided to run for president himself. Eisenhower was a very popular president. Unfortunately for Nixon he had to run against the young and charismatic John F Kennedy. Nixon made a poor decision of traveling to all 50 states. He injured himself on this trip but still managed to travel all 50 states. John F Kennedy won by the mistakes of Nixon. After his attempt at becoming president, Nixon ran for the position of governor of California. Nixon lost this election. This looked to be the end of his political career. He told the press "you don't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."
What were Richard Nixon’s accomplishments as president?
Richard Nixon ended up winning the presidency in 1968. One of the first major events that happened during his presidency was the moon landing in 1969. Nixon also created the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA helped enforce environmental laws. Nixon also helped improve relations with China. Nixon was the first president in US history to visit China and this visit ended 25 years of no diplomatic communication. Many people say this opened China to the rest of the world. Nixon ended the vietnam war by withdrawing the troops in 1972. He announced the US would agree to a ceasefire and in 1973 a peace agreement was signed between North and South Korea.
Nixon is also known as one of the most feminist presidents. He signed Title XI which banned gender biases from colleges of universities. Nixon also started the war on cancer. All of this success led him to winning one of the biggest landslides in American history. Nixon won 49 of 50 states, only losing Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Even after all of the good things he did he still did some bad things like the war on drugs, and the way he ended the Vietnam war was shady. Before his presidency he made it to where peace agreements between the Johnson administration and the other countries failed because Nixon said he could get them a better deal.
What made him resign?
The Watergate scandal began in 1972 when a bunch of burglars were caught in the office
of the Democratic National Convention in the Watergate Hotel. These people were caught wiretapping the phones. They had ties to the current president Richard Nixon. What really got Nixon was his attempts to cover it up but got caught by himself with his recordings in the office. Richard Nixon ended up resigning on August 9th, 1974, leaving Gerald Ford as the president.
How was his life after the presidency?
Directly after his resignation Nixon was viewed very poorly by the public. Nixon began to make himself liked by helping presidents, doing television interviews, and more. Nixon was liked more as time went by. Still Watergate tainted his legacy. Nixon eventually opened a Presidential Library in which four presidents attended the opening. Richard Nixon passed away on April 22nd, 1994.