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Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 –
April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President
of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974.
He was also Dwight D. Eisenhower's Vice President
of the United States|Vice President
(1953–1961). He is the only man to have been
elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to
the Presidency, and he was the fifth Republican
Party (United States)|Republican President to be
elected to two terms. Nixon is noted for his
diplomatic Foreign relations of the United
States|foreign policy and moderate domestic
policy, but he is also remembered as the first and
only U.S. President to have ever
resignation|resigned from office. His resignation
came after a loss of political support in Congress
of the United States|Congress amidst the Watergate
scandal.

==Birth and early years==
Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California on
January 9, 1913, to Francis Nixon and Hannah
Milhous, who was descended from a German family
originally called Milhausen. He was raised as an
Evangelicalism|evangelical Religious Society of
Friends|Quaker by his mother, who hoped he would
become a Quaker missionary. His upbringing is said
to have been marked by such conservative
evangelical Quaker observances as refraining from
drinking, dancing and swearing. His father, known
as Frank, was an Irish Catholic who had sincerely
converted to Quakerism but never fully absorbed
its spirit, retaining instead a voluble temper. 

His father focused on the family business, a store
that sold groceries and ARCO (then Atlantic
Richfield) gasoline. Nixon always spoke highly of
his parents. He often spoke lovingly of his mother
as a "Quaker saint," and began his memoirs with
the words "I was born in a house my father built."
Today, the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace has
been erected next to the original house in Yorba
Linda, which is open to the public; however, Nixon
actually grew up some miles away, in Whittier,
California. Today, this area is completely built
up, but in Nixon's time, it was almost entirely
farmland. Nixon's early life was marked by tragedy
in the deaths of two of his brothers, Arthur and
Harold, from tuberculosis.



Nixon attended Fullerton High School, and won an
award from the Harvard University|Harvard Club of
California as the state's outstanding high school
senior. Among other achievements, he had a
penchant for Shakespeare and Latin, and could
recite long passages by heart. The award from
Harvard provided him with a full scholarship, but
since it did not cover living expenses, Nixon's
family was unable to afford to send him away to
college. Some historians and commentators have
speculated that Nixon's lifelong antipathy towards
the "Eastern Establishment" had its genesis in
this initial letdown. In lieu of Harvard, Nixon
attended Whittier College, a local Quaker school
where he founded the Orthogonian Society, a
fraternity that competed with the already
established Franklin Society. Nixon then went on
to become the student body president of Whittier
College. A lifelong American football|football
buff, Nixon practiced with the team assiduously
but spent most of his time on the bench. His front
teeth were knocked out and replaced by the rather
prominent bridgework that later afforded
caricaturists a field day. Nixon's chief
accomplishment as student body president was
organizing Whittier College's first school dance,
a practice forbidden by the Quakers.

In 1934 he graduated second in his class from
Whittier and went on to Duke University law
school, where he received a full scholarship. In
order to retain his scholarship, Nixon had to
maintain a high grade-point average. At one point,
he was so overwrought about his grade results that
he persuaded a cohort to help him through the
transom door of the Dean's office, so that he
could check the files. He was not punished. Years
later, this incident came to light, and the press
trumpeted it as "Nixon's first break-in."

Graduating third in his class, Nixon hoped to
secure a job with one of the prestigious
"white-shoe" law firms in New York City. For a
variety of reasons, he had no luck. Some writers
have agreed with Nixon's own explanation--that he
lacked the requisite Ivy League pedigree and
family connections--but it is also possible that
he interviewed poorly. Around the time of
Watergate, one of the senior partners at White &
Case found notes from the original interview. The
partner who had met Nixon opined that the future
president came across as "shifty."

As a result, Nixon returned to California, passed
the bar (law)|bar exam, and began working in the
small-town law office of a family friend in nearby
La Mirada. The work was mostly routine, and Nixon
generally found it to be dull, although he was
entirely competent. He later wrote that family law
cases caused him particular discomfiture, since
his reticent Quaker upbringing was severely at
odds with the idea of discussing intimate marital
details with strangers. 

It was during this period that he met his wife Pat
Nixon|Pat. She had accepted a position as a
high-school teacher in Whittier. They became
acquainted at a community Little Theater group
when they were cast in the same play. At first,
Pat displayed little interest in Nixon, who
nonetheless pursued her so doggedly that he even
drove her around on dates she had with other men.
They were married at the Mission Inn in Riverside,
California on June 21, 1940.

During World War II, Nixon served in the United
States Navy. He could have been exempt from
military service because of his status as a
birthright Quaker, but volunteered anyway.
Reportedly, his mother burst into tears when she
first saw him in uniform. He later stated he hated
Hitler and was horrified by the attack on Pearl
Harbor. Nixon served as a Cargo Officer in the
South Pacific theater and put his shopkeeper's
skills to work operating "Nick's Snack Shack,"
where military personnel could pick up hamburgers
and fruit juice. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant
Commander and his superiors praised him as an
excellent officer and leader. One interesting
footnote about Nixon's naval career is that he
learned to play poker (another taboo under
Quakerism) and quickly became known as the best
poker player in the Navy, having apparently won
almost $10,000 by war's end. It was in the Navy he
met his future friend and United States Secretary
of State|Secretary of State William P. Rogers.

==Early political career==
Nixon was elected to the United States House of
Representatives from California in 1946 by beating
Jerry Voorhis, in a campaign which some charge was
a result of underhanded political skullduggery.
The campaign he ran against Voorhis highlighted
the aggressive campaigning style of whom Nixon was
one of the pioneers. During a debate with Voorhis
he held up a list of members of a Political Action
Committee (PAC) from which Voorhis received
substantial campaign donations. Then he held up a
list of members from a Left-Wing PAC with
Communist affiliations, and said that there were a
few people who were in both Committees. Nixon said
"they're basically the same, if their members are
the same..."  Although Nixon's allegations were
untrue, they succeeded and Voorhis was booed by
the crowd. Many voters allegedly received phone
calls in the middle of the night telling them that
Voorhis was a Communist.



The Eightieth United States Congress|80th Congress
was the first with a Republican majority since the
Herbert Hoover|Hoover administration and its
freshman class was filled with fellow war
veterans, including Nixon's future rival John F.
Kennedy of Massachusetts. 

In the House, Nixon served on a U.S. Congressional
committee|committee that helped to implement the
Marshall Plan which aided war-torn Europe. He also
helped in the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act
which set up controls over labor unions. He
proposed a Act of Congress|bill to facilitate
servicemen's voting that was passed by both houses
and signed into law. Nixon climbed the
politics|political ladder swiftly, making his name
as an anti-Communist and a rough, no-holds-barred
campaigner. He became a member of the House
Un-American Activities Committee and was
instrumental in the trial of State Department
Undersecretary and General Secretary of the United
Nations Charter meeting Alger Hiss for perjury
after the exposure of his alleged activities as an
Soviet Union|Soviet spy. Whether Hiss was guilty
or not is still in dispute. In 1948, Nixon won
both the Republican and Democratic nomination for
re-election to the House.

Nixon was elected to the United States Senate in
U.S. Senate election, 1950|1950, defeating actress
turned congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, whom
Nixon accused during the campaign of having
communist sympathies, calling her the "Pink Lady."
In the campaign the Independent Review newspaper
tagged Nixon with the name he would never shake:
"Tricky Dick". As with Voorhis, Nixon used the
tactic of "guilt by association," printing an
attack against Douglas on pink paper, listing a
number of votes in Congress in which she voted the
same as a left-wing Congressman from New York,
Vito Marcantonio. He was succeeded in his Senate
seat by George Murphy, actor in such Hollywood
films as "Battleground".

==Vice Presidency==


In U.S. presidential election, 1952|1952 he was
elected Vice President on Dwight D. Eisenhower's
ticket, although he was only 39 years old.

One notable event of the campaign was Nixon's
innovative use of television. Nixon was accurately
accused by nameless sources of having a slush fund
provided by business supporters. He went on TV and
defended himself in an emotional speech in which
he stated that his wife Patricia Nixon|Pat did not
wear mink, but rather "a respectable Republican
cloth coat," and stated that although he had been
given a cocker spaniel named "Checkers," he was
not going to give it back because his daughters
loved it. He also charged that the Democratic
Presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, also had
a slush fund (see Memoirs of Richard Nixon, page
99).  The "Checkers speech", as it was called,
resulted in a flood of support, and Eisenhower
decided to keep Nixon on the ticket.

Nixon was notable among Vice Presidents in having
actually stepped up to run the United States
government|government three times when Eisenhower
was ill: on the occasions of Eisenhower's heart
attack on September 24, 1955; his ileitis in June
1956; and his stroke in November 1957.  He also
proved to be able to quickly think on his feet
which was demonstrated on July 24, 1959, at the
opening of the American National Exhibition in
Moscow where he and Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev had an impromptu "kitchen debate" about
the merits of capitalism versus communism.

Although regarded as one of the most intellectual
U.S. presidents, Nixon displayed a somewhat
anti-intellectual streak during the 1952 campaign,
criticizing the extremely intelligent Democratic
presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson, as an
"egghead."

==1960 election and post-Vice Presidency ==


In U.S. presidential election, 1960|1960, he ran
for President on his own but lost to John F.
Kennedy, ironically a friend of Nixon's (Kennedy,
in fact, was one of the first to congratulate
Nixon when he was chosen as Eisenhower's running
mate). Many observers believe that a crucial
factor in his loss was the first televised
American presidential debate|presidential debate.
Despite his five o'clock shadow, Nixon refused
television makeup (instead using simple "Lazy
Shave" coverup makeup) and was feeling sick,
having recently injured his knee while
campaigning. Nixon likewise was instructed by CBS
television producers to wear a grey suit that
blended into the backdrop, whereas Kennedy was
told by the same producer to wear a black suit
which would stand out when black and white
television was the standard. He expected to win
voters with his foreign policy expertise, but
people only saw a sickly man sweating profusely
and wearing a gray suit that blended into the
scenery; while his rival, Kennedy, looked
comfortable in his position. It has since been
widely suggested, with some support from research,
that those who had listened to the debate on radio
thought Nixon was more impressive
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/kennedy-
nixon/kennedy-nixon.htm, but that the television
audience gave the edge to Kennedy. Also,
Eisenhower did not show much support for Nixon,
and only reluctantly endorsed him as the
Republican candidate at the U.S. presidential
election, 1960|1960 Presidential election. Nixon
campaigned against Kennedy on the great experience
he had acquired in eight years as Vice President,
but when Eisenhower was asked to name a decision
Nixon had been responsible for in that time, he
replied: "Give me a week and I might think of
something." Although Eisenhower later said he
intended that remark to mean he would discuss
Nixon's achievements the following week, this was
a severe blow to Nixon, and he blamed Eisenhower
for his narrow loss to Kennedy.

On November 7, 1962, he lost a race for Governor
of California. In his concession speech, Nixon
accused the media of favoring his opponent Pat
Brown, and stated that it was his "last press
conference" and that "You won't have Dick Nixon to
kick around any more." Many mocked Nixon for being
a "sore loser" for saying this to the reporters.
However, many others praised Nixon for telling the
press off. He often said that he never regretted
his comments at this famous press conference.

Coincidentally, Nixon was in Dallas earlier on
November 22, 1963, the day that President John F.
Kennedy assassination|John F. Kennedy was
assassinated.  Nixon spoke to a meeting of
Pepsi-Cola bottlers.

==Presidency==
Nixon's post-election defeatist mood did not last.
He and his family moved into a 12-room luxury
apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Nixon
worked as a prominent lawyer, using these
so-called "wilderness" years in the private sector
to earn more money ($250,000 per year, by some
accounts--equivalent to over $1 million today) and
to solidify his political base. During the 1966
Congressional elections, he traveled the country
speaking in support of United States Republican
Party|Republican candidates and preparing for
another campaign of his own. In the U.S.
presidential election, 1968|election of 1968, he
completed a remarkable political comeback by
defeating Hubert H. Humphrey to become the 37th
President of the United States, in a campaign
where he promised to end the Vietnam War. He was
the first Vice-President to be elected President
who did not succeed the President under whom he
had served.



Nixon appealed to what he claimed was the "silent
majority" of socially conservative Americans who
disliked the "hippie" counterculture and anti-war
demonstrators. Nixon also promised "peace with
honor," and without claiming to be able to win the
war, Nixon claimed that "new leadership will end
the war and win the peace in the Pacific". When a
reporter pressed Nixon for specifics, he did not
reveal any details. Because of this, Nixon's
opponents criticized him for not revealing his
secret plan to end the Vietnam War, although Nixon
had not used this famous phrase. Still, many
voters supported Nixon because they believed he
would end the war.

He proposed the Nixon Doctrine to establish a
strategy of turning over the fighting of the war
to the Vietnamese. During the war, on July 30,
1969, Nixon made an unscheduled visit to South
Vietnam, and met with President Nguyen Van Thieu
and with U.S. military commanders. American
involvement in the war declined while Nixon was in
office. But there would be four more years of
strategic bombing, with more bombs dropped than in
World War II. After the withdrawal of U.S. troops,
fighting was left to the ineffective South
Vietnamese army.

Nixon's administration secretly began a massive
bombing campaign in Cambodia in March, 1969
(code-named Menu) to destroy what were believed to
be the headquarters and large numbers of soldiers
of the National Front for the Liberation of
Vietnam. The bombing campaign was kept secret from
the American public and the Congress of the United
States|U.S. Congress. Militarily ineffective, the
bombing campaigns killed approximately one hundred
thousand Cambodian peasants. However, NVA
communist forces did use Cambodian soil as a
supply line to the Vietcong in the south.



In ordering the bombings, Nixon realized he would
be extending an unpopular war as well as breaching
Cambodia's "official" neutrality.  He also
understood that the war was politically
un-winnable due to massive demonstrations. Details
of the bombing were kept secret even from high
ranking officials such as Secretary of State
William P. Rogers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
During deliberations over Nixon's impeachment, his
unorthodox use of executive powers over the
ordering of these bombings were considered as an
article of impeachment, but the charge was
dropped. This bombing (and an incursion by U.S.
forces into Cambodian territory in April 1970)
added to the administration's tacit support for
the overthrow of the neutralist royal government
of Norodom Sihanouk by the rightist military
dictator Lon Nol, created chaos, and drove much of
the peasant population of that country into the
arms of the Khmer Rouge, a Maoist revolutionary
movement that would eventually
History_of_Cambodia#The_Khmer_Republic_and_the_War
|kill 1.7 million Cambodians after taking power.

Nixon was also very vocal in supporting General
Yahya Khan of Pakistan despite Genocide against
Bengalis in East Pakistan. Recently declassified
documents reveal the extent of support offered by
Nixon to the dictator despite widespread human
rights violations.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB79/

On the morning of July 20, 1969, Nixon addressed
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their
historic moonwalk, live via telephone. Along with
those of the astronauts, Nixon's name and
signature were inscribed on the plaques left
behind by Apollo 11 in 1969 and Apollo 17 in 1972.
Ironically it was the Democrat controlled Congress
and President Nixon who had wound down the NASA
budget and curtailed the Apollo program due to
budget pressures caused principally by the vast
expense of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.  On
January 5, 1972 Nixon approved the development of
the Space Shuttle program, a decision that
profoundly influenced U.S. efforts to explore and
develop space for several decades thereafter. 



Nixon halted circulation of Large denomination
bills in U.S. currency|high-denomination U.S.
currency in 1969 by executive order. At the time,
he stated that he was taking this action to "make
life harder for the Mafia." His comment drew irate
criticism from many Americans of Italy|Italian
ancestry, who regarded it as an ethnic slur.

In U.S. presidential election, 1972|1972 Nixon was
re-elected in one of the biggest landslide
election victories in U.S. political history,
defeating George McGovern and garnering over 60%
of the popular vote. He carried 49 of the 50
states, trailing only in Massachusetts. The
strongest candidate against Nixon, Edmund Muskie,
had been sabotaged by underhanded tactics,
probably on Nixon's orders. 

On January 2, 1974 Nixon signed a bill that
lowered the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 mile
per hour|MPH in order to conserve gasoline during
the 1973 energy crisis. He established the EPA on
December 2, 1970.

On April 3, Nixon announced he would pay
$432,787.13 in back taxes plus interest after a
Congressional committee reported that he had
inadvertently underpaid his 1969 and 1972 taxes.

=== Cabinet ===



{| cellpadding="1" cellspacing="4"
style="margin:3px; border:3px solid #000000;"
align="left"
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|OFFICE||align="left"|NAME||align="le
ft"|TERM
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|President of the United
States|President||align="left" |Richard
Nixon||align="left"|1969–1974
|-
|align="left"|Vice President of the United
States|Vice President||align="left"|Spiro T.
Agnew||align="left"|1969–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Gerald R.
Ford||align="left"|1973–1974
|-
!bgcolor="#000000" colspan="3"|
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
State|State||align="left"|William P.
Rogers||align="left"|1969–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Henry A.
Kissinger||align="left"|1973–1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of the
Treasury|Treasury||align="left"|David M.
Kennedy||align="left"|1969–1971
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|John B.
Connally||align="left"|1971–1972
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|George P.
Shultz||align="left"|1972–1974
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|William E.
Simon||align="left"|1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Defense|Defense||align="left"|Melvin R.
Laird||align="left"|1969–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Elliot L.
Richardson||align="left"|1973–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|James R.
Schlesinger||align="left"|1973–1974
|-
|align="left"|Attorney General of the United
States|Justice||align="left"|John N.
Mitchell||align="left"|1969–1972
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Richard G.
Kleindienst||align="left"|1972–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Elliot L.
Richardson||align="left"|1973–1974
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|William B.
Saxbe||align="left"|1974
|-
|align="left"|Postmaster General of the United
States|Postmaster General||align="left"|Winton M.
Blount||align="left"|1969–1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of the
Interior|Interior||align="left"|Walter J.
Hickel||align="left"|1969–1971
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Rogers C. B.
Morton||align="left"|1971–1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Agriculture|Agriculture||align="left"|Clifford M.
Hardin||align="left"|1969–1971
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Earl Butz|Earl
L. Butz||align="left"|1971–1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Commerce|Commerce||align="left"|Maurice H.
Stans||align="left"|1969–1972
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Peter
Peterson|Peter George
Peterson||align="left"|1972–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Frederick B.
Dent||align="left"|1973–1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Labor|Labor||align="left"|George P.
Shultz||align="left"|1969–1970
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|James D.
Hodgson||align="left"|1970–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Peter J.
Brennan||align="left"|1973–1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of Health,
Education, and Welfare|HEW||align="left"|Robert H.
Finch||align="left"|1969–1970
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Elliot L.
Richardson||align="left"|1970–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Caspar W.
Weinberger||align="left"|1973–1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development|HUD||align="left"|George
Romney||align="left"|1969–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|James T.
Lynn||align="left"|1973–1974
|-
|align="left"|United States Secretary of
Transportation|Transportation||align="left"|John
A. Volpe||align="left"|1969–1973
|-
|align="left"| ||align="left"|Claude S.
Brinegar||align="left"|1973–1974
|}



=== Supreme Court appointments ===
Nixon appointed the following Justices to the
Supreme Court of the United States:

* Warren E. Burger - Chief Justice - 1969
* Harry Andrew Blackmun - 1970
* Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr. - 1972
* William Rehnquist - 1972

===Major initiatives===
* Sino-American relations|Normalizing of
diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of
China and partially abandoning the Republic of
China on Taiwan as part of Realpolitik, a foreign
policy eschewing moral considerations.  In the
short term Nixon was successful in playing the
"China card" against the Soviet Union and its
client state North Vietnam. 
* Détente The beginning of the end of the cold
war.
* Establishment of the Environmental Protection
Agency.
* Establishment of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
* Establishment of the Drug Enforcement
Administration.
* Establishment of the Supplemental Security
Income program.
* Establishment of the Minority Business
Development Agency|Office of Minority Business
Enterprise
* Post Office Department abolished as a federal
department and reorganized as the U.S Postal
Service.
* SALT I, or Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, led
to the signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty.
* "Vietnamization": the slow withdrawal of U.S.
troops from Vietnam while dramatically increasing
the scale of bombing.
* Release of the dollar from the fluctuating gold
standard that had controlled its worth since the
Bretton Woods system|Bretton Woods Conference,
allowing its value to float in world markets.
* Space Shuttle program started.

== Watergate ==

Nixon was eventually investigated in relation to
the June 17, 1972 burglary of the United States
Democratic Party|Democratic Party offices at the
Watergate office complex, one of a series of
scandals involving the Committee to Re-Elect the
President (known as CRP but referred to by
outsiders as CREEP), the White House Nixon's
Enemies List|enemies list and assorted "dirty
tricks." His secret recordings of White House
conversations were subpoenaed, and revealed
details of his complicity in the cover-up. Nixon
was named by the grand jury investigating
Watergate as "an unindicted co-conspirator" in the
Watergate Scandal. He lost support from some in
his own party as well as much popular support
after what became known as the Saturday Night
Massacre of October 20, 1973 in which he ordered
Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor in the
Watergate case fired, as well as firing several of
his own subordinates who objected to this move.
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary|House
Judiciary Committee opened formal and public
impeachment hearings against Nixon on May 9, 1974.
Despite his efforts, one of the secret recordings,
known as the "smoking gun" tape, was released on
August 5, 1974 and revealed that Nixon authorized
hush money to Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt,
and also revealed that Nixon arranged for the
blackmailing of the CIA into telling the FBI to
stop investigating certain topics because of "the
Bay of Pigs thing." Several of the Watergate
burglars were involved in the Bay of Pigs
operation. H. R. Haldeman|Haldeman would later
claim that when Nixon used the phrase "the Bay of
Pigs thing," he was actually referring to the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In
light of his loss of political support and the
near certainty of both his impeachment by the
House of Representatives and his conviction by the
United States Senate|Senate, he resigned,
effective August 9,
1974.Audio|Nixon_Resign.ogg|listen During the
Watergate Scandal, Nixon's approval rating fell to
25%.

Nixon's presidency was frequently dogged by
Nixon's personality, and the public perception of
it. Editorial cartoonists and comedians had fun
exaggerating Nixon's appearance and mannerisms, to
the point where the line between the human
president and the caricature version of him became
increasingly blurred. He was often portrayed by
these critics and commentators as a sullen loner,
with unshaven jowls, slumped shoulders, and a
furrowed, sweaty brow. He was also characterized
as the very epitome of a "square" and the
personification of unpleasant adult authority.
Nixon tried to shed these perceptions by staging
photo-ops with young people, and even cameo
appearances on popular TV shows such as Laugh-In
and Hee Haw. He also frequently brandished the
two-finger V sign (alternately viewed as the
"Victory sign" or "peace sign") using both hands,
an act which became one of his best-known
trademarks. Once the transcripts of the White
House tapes were released, people were shocked at
the amount of swearing and vicious comments about
opponents that Nixon issued. This did not help the
public perception, and fed the comedians even
more.

Nixon's successor Gerald R. Ford issued a
pre-emptive pardon, effectively ending any
possibility of indictment.

==Later years and death==
In his later years Nixon worked to rehabilitate
his public image, and enjoyed considerably more
success than could have been anticipated at the
time of his resignation. He gained great respect
as an elder statesman in the area of foreign
affairs, being consulted by both Democratic and
Republican successors to the Presidency.

Further http://www.whitehousetapes.org tape
releases, however, removed all doubt as to Nixon's
involvement both in the Watergate cover-up and
also the illegal campaign finances and intrusive
government surveillance that were at the heart of
the scandal.

In July 2003, Jeb Stuart Magruder, a former
Special Assistant to the President, alleged that
Nixon had personally ordered the Watergate
break-in by phone. Previously the only guilt that
was alleged was his role in the cover up of the
break-in.



Nixon wrote many books after his departure from
politics, including his memoirs.

While generally in good health, he was on lifelong
warfarin anticoagulant therapy after multiple
episodes of phlebitis or deep vein thrombosis and
pulmonary embolism starting in 1965 (these
conditions would later contribute to his fatal
stroke). He received surgery in 1974 for this
problem (Barker et al 1997). 

On April 18, 1994, at 5:45 PM EDT, Nixon suffered
a severe hemmoragic stroke while preparing to eat
dinner in his Park Ridge, New Jersey|Park Ridge,
New Jersey home. It was later determined that a
blood clot that had formed in his upper heart as a
result of his heart condition broke off and
traveled to his brain. He was rushed to New York
Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, where his
condition deteriorated over the next several days.
He might have lived longer had he been
resuscitated using extraordinary measures, such as
a respirator, but he refused such treatments, as
he had stated in his earlier hospital visits. On
April 22, Nixon passed away at 9:08 PM at age 81.
He was buried beside his wife Pat Nixon (who died
ten months earlier, on June 22, 1993) on the
grounds of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
in Yorba Linda, California. Acting on his family's
wishes, Nixon did not receive a state funeral, as
customary for former presidents. However,
President Bill Clinton, former secretary of state
Henry Kissinger, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole,
and California Republican Governor Pete Wilson
spoke at the April 27 funeral—the first for
an American president since that of Lyndon B.
Johnson (a service Nixon himself attended when
president) on January 25, 1973. Also in attendance
at Nixon's funeral were former presidents Gerald
Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W.
Bush and their respective first ladies. Nixon was
survived by his two daughters Tricia Nixon|Tricia
and Julie Nixon Eisenhower|Julie, along with his
four grandchildren.

The Nixon Library contains only Nixon's pre- and
post-presidential papers, as his presidential
papers have been retained as government evidence.
Nixon's attempts to protect his papers and gain
tax advantages from them had been one of the
important themes of the Watergate affair. Due to
Richard Nixon Library &
Birthplace#Nixon_record_controversies|disputes
over the papers, the library is privately funded
and does not, like the other presidential
library|presidential libraries, receive support
from the National Archives and Records
Administration|National Archives.

== Media == 
Commonscat|Richard Nixon

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  format=Vorbis
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  filename=Nixon Resign.ogg|
  title=Nixon Resignation Excerpt|
  description=Excerpt of televised speech from the
Oval Office on 8 August 1974.   (80 Kilobyte|KB,
ogg/Vorbis format). |
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==Quotations==

*"You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around
anymore.  Because, gentlemen, this is my last
press conference." 1962 after losing the race for
Governor of California.
*"This is the greatest week in the history of the
world since the Creation, because as a result of
what happened in this week, the world is bigger,
infinitely." (concerning the Apollo Moon landing)

===On Watergate===
*"When you get in these people when you...get
these people in, say: "Look, the problem is that
this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs
thing, and the President just feels that" ah,
without going into the details... don't, don't lie
to them to the extent to say there is no
involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy
of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, "the
President believes that it is going to open the
whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And, ah because
these people are plugging for, for keeps and that
they should call the FBI in and say that we wish
for the country, don't go any further into this
case", period!" The 'smoking gun tape' on June 23,
1972. Nixon was telling Haldeman to tell the CIA
to stop the FBI investigation, by telling the CIA
that it would 'open the whole Bay of Pigs thing.'
Haldeman did give Nixon's order to the CIA's
Richard Helms, who exploded into a rage of fury
when told, according to Haldeman. Haldeman would
later write that Nixon used the expression 'the
Bay of Pigs thing' when he was referring to the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
*"I want to say this to the television audience. I
made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public
life, I have never profited, never profited from
public service. I have earned every cent. And in
all of my years of public life, I have never
obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can
say that in my years of public life, that I
welcome this kind of examination because people
have got to know whether or not their President's
a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned
everything I've got." November 17, 1973 Televised
press conference with 400 Associated Press
Managing Editors at Walt Disney World, Florida,
Nixon summarized his responses to journalists'
questions regarding speculation and criticism of
his personal finances and the Watergate scandal.
*"I don't give a shit what happens. I want you all
to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth
Amendment to the United States
Constitution#Self-incrimination|Fifth Amendment,
cover up or anything else, if it'll save it, save
this plan. That's the whole point. We're going to
protect our people if we can." (to Haldeman, tapes
ordered released for the trial of H. R.
Haldeman|Haldeman, John Ehrlichman|Ehrlichman and
John Mitchell|Mitchell)
*"I recognize that this additional material I am
now furnishing may further damage my case," (after
the ordered release of the White House tapes
August 5 1974)
*"When the President does it, that means that it's
not illegal." (explaining his interpretation of
Executive Privilege to interviewer David Frost
(broadcaster)|David Frost)
*"I was under medication when I made the decision
not to burn the tapes."
*"Well, I screwed it all up real good, didn't I?"
*"The greatness comes not when things go always
good for you, but the greatness comes and you are
really tested, when you take some knocks, some
disappointments, when sadness comes, because only
if you have been in the deepest valley can you
ever know how magnificent it is to be on the
highest mountain... Always remember, others may
hate you. Those who hate you don't win unless you
hate them. And then you destroy yourself."
Farewell to White House staff August 8 1974.
*"I think that the ability of the American people
to review all that there is to know about their
president using a microscope is wonderful.  Still,
I think some people get a little carried away when
they take out their proctoscopes." (regarding the
intense scrutiny which he was forced to endure.)

===On peace===
*"Any nation that decides the only way to achieve
peace is through peaceful means is a nation that
will soon be a piece of another nation." (from his
book No More Vietnams)
*"The greatest honor history can bestow is the
title of peacemaker." (From his 1969 inaugural;
later used as Nixon's epitaph)

===Miscellaneous===
*"Sock it to me?" (cameo on the television comedy
series Laugh-In)
*"I don't know a lot about politics, but I do know
a lot about baseball."
*"Solutions are not the answer."
*"I would have made a good pope."
*"Let me say this about that."
*"cookie pushers and faggots in striped pants",
referring to the Peace Corps and the State Dept.
Foreign Service
*"Joseph McCarthy|McCarthy goes after Communists
with a shotgun; I go after them with a rifle."
*"We are all Keynesians now."
*"In all the decisions I have made in my public
life, I have always tried to do what was best for
the nation. I have never been a quitter."

==Media portrayals of Nixon's life==
*The book and movie All the President's Men tell
Woodward and Bernstein's story of the Watergate
affair. 
*Best-selling historian-author Stephen Ambrose
wrote a three-volume biography (Nixon: The
Education of a Politician 1913-1962, Nixon: The
Triumph of a Politician, 1962-1972, Nixon: Ruin
and Recovery 1973-1990) considered the definitive
work among many Nixon biographies. The detailed
accounts were mostly favorably regarded by both
liberal and conservative reviewers.
*Conservative author Victor Lasky published a book
in 1977 called  It Didn't Start With Watergate. 
The book points out that past presidents may have
used wiretaps and engaged in other activities that
Nixon was accused of, but were never pursued by
the press or the subject of impeachment hearings.
*Chuck Colson gives an insider account of the
Watergate affair in Born Again.
* H.R. Haldeman also provides an insider's
perspective in the books The Ends of Power and The
Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House
*The movie Nixon (movie)|Nixon directed by Oliver
Stone.
*Nixon in China is an opera dealing with Nixon's
visit there.

==Nixon in popular culture==

Because of his place in American culture as a
controversial President, Richard Nixon has
appeared as a character (with varying degrees of
verisimilitude), both major and minor, in a
variety of fiction.

*The Assassination of Richard Nixon
*The Cayman Triangle
*Dick (movie)|Dick
*Elvis Meets Nixon
*Forrest Gump
*Hot Shots! Part Deux
*Secret Honor
*The Simpsons
* Futurama (animated series)|Futurama, where
Nixon's preserved head is elected President of
Earth.
*Watchmen, set in an alternative reality in which
Nixon is still President in the mid-1980s.
* The "alternative 1985" in Back to the Future
Part II has Nixon as the long-serving President
(newspaper states that he "seeks fifth term")
* Neil Young's song Campaigner has a refrain
discussing a place "where even Richard Nixon has
got soul".
* "The Love of Richard Nixon" is a song by Manic
Street Preachers.
* The Richard Nixon mask is a popular costuming
item.

==Trivia==

On December 28, 1968, Julie Nixon (Richard's
daughter) and David Eisenhower (Dwight's grandson)
were married.

==Related articles==
* U.S. presidential election, 1952
* U.S. presidential election, 1956
* U.S. presidential election, 1960
* U.S. presidential election, 1968
* U.S. presidential election, 1972
* History of the United States (1964-1980)|History
of the United States (1964–1980)
* Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba
Linda, California
* Dick Tuck

== Bibliography ==
* Nixon, Richard. (1978). RN: The Memoirs of
Richard Nixon (Reprint). Simon & Schuster. ISBN
0671707418.
* Nixon, Richard. (1962). Six Crises. Doubleday.
ISBN 0385001258.
* Nixon, Richard. (1980). Real War. Sidgwich
Jackson. ISBN 0283986506.
* Nixon, Richard. (1982). Leaders. Random House.
ISBN 0446512494.
* Nixon, Richard. (1987). No More Vietnams. Arbor
House Publishing. ISBN 0877956685.
* Nixon, Richard. (1988). 1999: Victory Without
War. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671627120.
* Nixon, Richard. (1990). In the Arena: A Memoir
of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal. Simon & Schuster.
ISBN 0671723189.
* Nixon, Richard. (1992). Seize The Moment:
America's Challenge In A One-Superpower World.
Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671743430.
* Nixon, Richard. (1994). Beyond Peace. Random
House. ISBN 0679433236.

==Further reading==
* Ambrose, Stephen E. (1991). Nixon: The Education
of a Politician 1913–1962. Simon & Schuster.
ISBN 067152836X.
* Ambrose, Stephen E. (1989). Nixon: The Triumph
of a Politician, 1962–1972. Simon &
Schuster. ISBN 0671528378.
* Ambrose, Stephen E. (1991). Nixon: Ruin and
Recovery 1973–1990. Simon & Schuster. ISBN
0671691880.
* Barker WF, Hickman EB, Harper JA, Lungren J.
Venous interruption for pulmonary embolism: the
illustrative case of Richard M. Nixon. Ann Vasc
Surg 1997;11:387-90. PMID 9236996.
* Nixon, RM. RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon  
1136 pages - Simon & Schuster; SBN: 0671707418
* Becker, Elizabeth. (1986). When the War Was
Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution.
Public Affairs. ISBN 1891620002.
* Franklin, H. Bruce. (2000). Vietnam and Other
American Fantasies. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press. ISBN 1558493328.
* Hersh, Seymour M.. (1983). The Price of Power:
Kissinger in the Nixon White House. Summit Books.
ISBN 0671447602.
* Lasky, Victor. (1977). It Didn't Start With
Watergate. Penguin. ISBN 0803738579.
* Summers, Anthony. (2000). The Arrogance of Power
The Secret World of Richard Nixon. Victor Gollancz
ISBN 0575062436
* Taylor, Gary. (1997). The birth of culture.
Cultural Selection: Why Some Achievements Survive
the Test of Time - And Others Don't, pp. 257-289.
Harpercollins. ISBN 0465044883.

==External links==
commons|Richard Nixon
wikisourcecat

*
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/n
ixon1.htm First Inaugural Address
*
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/n
ixon2.htm Second Inaugural Address
*
http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfindingaid.cfm?findaidi
d=NixonR Audio recordings of Nixon's speeches
*
http://www.watergate.info/nixon/checkers-speech.sh
tml Checkers speech
*
http://watergate.info/impeachment/impeachment-arti
cles.shtml Articles of Impeachment
* http://www.nixonfoundation.org/ Richard Nixon
Library & Birthplace, Yorba Linda, California
*http://www.nixoncenter.org/ The Nixon Center,
Washington,D.C.
* http://www.whitehousetapes.org
whitehousetapes.org: The Nixon Tapes available
online
* http://www.archives.gov/nixon/ Nixon
Presidential Materials at National Archives
* http://watergate.info/judiciary/APPI.PDF
Judiciary Committee Hearings Appendix I:
Presidential Statements on the Watergate Breakin
and Its Investigation 
*
http://www.newsmeat.com/washington_political_donat
ions/Richard_Nixon.php Political Donations Made by
Richard Nixon
*
http://teaching.arts.usyd.edu.au/history/hsty3080/
StudentWebSites/Nixon%20Obits/source9 Eulogy by
Hunter S. Thompson
*
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rn37.
html White House biography

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ia|United States Congressman for the 12th District
of California | before=Jerry Voorhis |
after=Patrick J. Hillings | years=1947–1950
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from California | before=Sheridan Downey |
after=Thomas Kuchel | years=1950–1953
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States Republican Party|Republican Party Vice
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