Richard Nixon Influence
“Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.” Richard Nixon, the 37th President said this quote not knowing that it was meant for him, for in the years to follow he would destroy himself. This report will shed some light on the president who did what he could for America, but will only be remember for the damage he caused. Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California January 9, 1913. When he was young Richard lost his older and younger brothers Harold and Arthur to awful illnesses, which caused the family to move to East Whittier (Hughes, life). As he grew older people started to notice how good he was at school. He won almost every debate he was in, and was elected leader of many extra-curricular
…show more content…
groups (Hughes, life). He began to advance in his academics he was also becoming quite involved in dramas and politics (Hughes, life). Richard Nixon graduated from his high school and then began attending Whittier University, after graduating from Whittier Richard Nixon went to Duke to become a lawyer. When he finished at Duke he had won several scholastic awards, which were very prestigious. Right away Richard Nixon started looking for jobs. He applied at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and several other law firms (Hughes, life). Whittier law firm accepted him, they also put him on the Whittier Board of Trustees and Whittier Community Player (Hughes, life). While at his job he met a woman named Thelma Catherine Ryan also known as Pat. They were married on June 21, 1940. After working at Whittier, Richard decided to move to Washington, D.C. to work at the Office of Price Administration. After working only, a short while terror struck America, Pearl Harbor had just been bombed, immediately Richard Nixon enlisted and was put into the navy.
After serving in the Navy, he came home and everyone now was calling him Nixon. As luck has it right as Nixon was leaving Southern California was looking for a Republican candidate for the House Un-American Committee (HUAC)(Hughes, life). The only other candidate was Jerry Voorhis. He and Nixon were both competing for the last seat in the HUAC, so they began having debates. In their debates Nixon began using the Denigrative Method on Voorhis. Even though he was using this method so well many voters still were thinking of voting for Voorhis, because he had been elected five times for California’s 12th congressional district(Hughes, life). Nixon got information from some inside people that Voorhis who was anticommunist was linked to the CIO PAC a communist infiltrated labor group(Hughes, life). In the next debate Voorhis asked for proof, Nixon linked him to the CIO PAC and defeated Voorhis that November (Hughes, life). After being elected into the HUAC, Nixon rose to national notoriety due to his Alger Hiss investigation(Hughes,
life).
In 1948, Nixon was elected for the same position and both parties reelected him. Nixon, in 1950, was elected Senator of California, after beating Helen Gahagan Douglas by finding secrets of her working with communists. After this Nixon got the nickname “Tricky Dick” (Hughes). He had now been Senator for three years, when he was elected as vice president to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency. He almost was not made vice president when they found he was keeping a slush fund for himself from one of the campaigns. Many politicians thought that finding this out about his fund Nixon would be done but Nixon persevered as usual. He gave a remarkable speech Sept 23, 1952 called the “Checkers Speech” (Hughes, life).Nixon told the crowd in his speech that he used the money for only good things like a dog named Checkers for his daughter Tricia (Freidel & Sidey). “The kids, like all kids, loved the dog and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it” (Hughes, life). This was how Nixon ended his speech the crowd, and America loved it.
Between 1955 and 1957 Nixon took over most of the duties of the president (Freidel & Sidey). Eisenhower was suffering several illnesses, had a heart attack, and stroke . One of the big things Nixon did while Eisenhower was dealing with his sickness, was help with the Civil Rights Bill (Freidel & Sidey). Eisenhower later decided still to remain President but officially passed on his power to Nixon Luckily the 25th amendment had not passed so this was still legal (Freidel & Sidey). Since he was now acting President without the official title he tried to start working on foreign policies. Nixon was doing well with becoming allies with several foreign countries, but was attacked in Caracas, Venezuela by Anti-American Protestors. When the US heard about this they were frightened but they began to love Nixon even more. July 24, 1959 started an impromptu debate with Nikita Khrushchev in a kitchen appliance store (Freidel & Sidey). This was a debate about capitalism and communism and which was right (Freidel & Sidey). People called this the “Kitchen Debate” and America was now so impressed and excited to have such a great vice president as Nixon. In 1960, it was beginning to be time for Nixon and Eisenhower to leave office. Nixon was nominated as candidate for the republicans to become the next president. He was running against a man named John F. Kennedy (JFK). They were neck and neck the whole time they were campaigning. Nixon won the popular vote, but JFK won more electoral votes. In the end Nixon lost the election by .17%, this was the closest election since 1916.
In 1968, Nixon was elected president, he won by quite a lot and was ready to finally have the title and not just work the job. Right when he got into office he began trying to make changes to fix the economy since we were in bad shape, unemployment was at 6% which was the highest it had ever been. Nixon thought gradualism was the way to help with inflation and unemployment (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). Gradualism is restricting the growth of money and even though he tried to make it work it didn’t and unemployment and inflation both began to get worse. When Gradualism didn’t work Nixon appointed Arthur Burns Chairmen of the Federal Reserve(Hughes). Burns told Nixon to not spend 200 billion dollars or more, Nixon could not do that and used it on personal agendas (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). Since he lost so much money the federal employees got there pay cut and couldn’t receive raises. Since Nixon was still in his first term and he had just had a horrible failure he thought it was best he tried helping somewhere else. He started to do things to help the environment and these organizations were all successes (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). Later we found out that even though these organizations were helping people and the environment, Nixon was taking money from all of these organizations for his own personal use, so one of his greatest accomplishments was one of his failures as well.
In August 1971, Nixon emerged with the New Economic Plan (NEP) (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). This new plan helped America and was popular with everyone (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). He began improving exports and imports, and added a 10% import tax on everything (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). All was going extremely well for Nixon, He was becoming widely popular and people were starting to believe he was one of the best presidents they had ever had (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). In 1972, Nixon went for reelection he won the most electoral votes and popular votes until he was passed by Reagan in 1984 (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). He beat McGovern by a landslide (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). When Nixon went into office he decided he wanted to not increase federal spending, to help save money. One of the laws that Nixon also passed while being in office was the legalizing of abortion. He said “There are times when abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have black and white.” This was his greastest accomplishment for some and others it was the biggest failure he had ever had during his presidency. But none knew that in 1973 trouble would strike and something that had never happened before would finally occur. In June 1972 there had been conspiracies that President Nixon had been involved in taping phones during his election. He immediately said that these were false accusations and that he had nothing to do with the break in. A few days later after the break in, it was reported that he gave “hush money” to the burglars. He said again that this was a lie and that he would never steal to better his campaign. Nixon was put into office as said before and thought all was well until January 1973. The burglars were finally prosecuted five of them pleaded guilty and two of them were convicted. The five burglars that pleaded guilty testified against Nixon and said that it was under his orders that they tap the phones. People that were close with Nixon started to testify also like the White House counsel John Dean said that he knew about Nixon’s plans and all they had to do was find the tapes to prove it. These court cases went on for months and it was hard for Nixon to hide the tapes into the summer and fall of 1973. Nixon’s lawyers said that it was his right as presidents, so he could keep the tapes. On October 20, 1973 Nixon asked to be fired and surrendered some of his tapes, but refused to give all of them up. In 1974, March 1, prosecutors indicted Nixon and his helpers, and since they didn’t know if they could indict a president they called him “unindicted- co-conspirator” (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). In July Nixon had to turn over the tapes. He refused until August 5, after turning in the tapes the House of Representatives decided to impeach him. “Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits” (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic).
On August 8th he became the first and only president to ever resign in American history in fear of being impeached. “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I earned everything I’ve got” (Hughes, Impact). So many people were sad to find out that in fact the president was a crook. President Nixon is one of the strangest presidents to learn about. He went from being so loved and cherished to a criminal in an instant. Ever since he was a young child he was involved in politics that is why he was so good at what he did. He was so secretive that no one knew what he was really doing in the shadows because everyone believed Nixon was such an honorable man that he would never do this. Even though he proved time and time again that he had an addiction for money, people chose to only see the good in him. After being president America learned that we do not always know the full story and that not all should be trusted. People were hurt when they found out there beloved president had been stealing money, taping phones, lying, and not always having their best interest at heart. Nixon will always and only be remembered for the wrong that he did, because the bad will always overshadow the good, just as the darkness overshadows the light. The only thing people will believe that comes out of his mouth now is the last thing Nixon said “I let the American people down.” At least he ended with something that is true.
Works Cited
Hughes, Ken. “Richard Nixon: Domestic Affairs.” Miller Center, University of Virginia, 2017, millercenter.org/president/nixon/domestic-affairs. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017.
Hughes, Ken. “Richard Nixon: Foreign Affairs.” Miller Center, University of Virginia, 2017, millercenter.org/president/nixon/foreign-affairs. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017.
Hughes, Ken. “Richard Nixon: Life Before the Presidency.” Miller Center, University of Virginia, 24 Mar. 2017, millercenter.org/president/nixon/life-before-the-presidency. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017.
Sidey, Hugh, and Frank Freidel. “Richard M. Nixon.” The White House, The United States Government, 8 Mar. 2017, www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/richardnixon. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017.
groups (Hughes, life). He began to advance in his academics he was also becoming quite involved in dramas and politics (Hughes, life). Richard Nixon graduated from his high school and then began attending Whittier University, after graduating from Whittier Richard Nixon went to Duke to become a lawyer. When he finished at Duke he had won several scholastic awards, which were very prestigious. Right away Richard Nixon started looking for jobs. He applied at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and several other law firms (Hughes, life). Whittier law firm accepted him, they also put him on the Whittier Board of Trustees and Whittier Community Player (Hughes, life). While at his job he met a woman named Thelma Catherine Ryan also known as Pat. They were married on June 21, 1940. After working at Whittier, Richard decided to move to Washington, D.C. to work at the Office of Price Administration. After working only, a short while terror struck America, Pearl Harbor had just been bombed, immediately Richard Nixon enlisted and was put into the navy.
After serving in the Navy, he came home and everyone now was calling him Nixon. As luck has it right as Nixon was leaving Southern California was looking for a Republican candidate for the House Un-American Committee (HUAC)(Hughes, life). The only other candidate was Jerry Voorhis. He and Nixon were both competing for the last seat in the HUAC, so they began having debates. In their debates Nixon began using the Denigrative Method on Voorhis. Even though he was using this method so well many voters still were thinking of voting for Voorhis, because he had been elected five times for California’s 12th congressional district(Hughes, life). Nixon got information from some inside people that Voorhis who was anticommunist was linked to the CIO PAC a communist infiltrated labor group(Hughes, life). In the next debate Voorhis asked for proof, Nixon linked him to the CIO PAC and defeated Voorhis that November (Hughes, life). After being elected into the HUAC, Nixon rose to national notoriety due to his Alger Hiss investigation(Hughes,
life).
In 1948, Nixon was elected for the same position and both parties reelected him. Nixon, in 1950, was elected Senator of California, after beating Helen Gahagan Douglas by finding secrets of her working with communists. After this Nixon got the nickname “Tricky Dick” (Hughes). He had now been Senator for three years, when he was elected as vice president to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency. He almost was not made vice president when they found he was keeping a slush fund for himself from one of the campaigns. Many politicians thought that finding this out about his fund Nixon would be done but Nixon persevered as usual. He gave a remarkable speech Sept 23, 1952 called the “Checkers Speech” (Hughes, life).Nixon told the crowd in his speech that he used the money for only good things like a dog named Checkers for his daughter Tricia (Freidel & Sidey). “The kids, like all kids, loved the dog and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it” (Hughes, life). This was how Nixon ended his speech the crowd, and America loved it.
Between 1955 and 1957 Nixon took over most of the duties of the president (Freidel & Sidey). Eisenhower was suffering several illnesses, had a heart attack, and stroke . One of the big things Nixon did while Eisenhower was dealing with his sickness, was help with the Civil Rights Bill (Freidel & Sidey). Eisenhower later decided still to remain President but officially passed on his power to Nixon Luckily the 25th amendment had not passed so this was still legal (Freidel & Sidey). Since he was now acting President without the official title he tried to start working on foreign policies. Nixon was doing well with becoming allies with several foreign countries, but was attacked in Caracas, Venezuela by Anti-American Protestors. When the US heard about this they were frightened but they began to love Nixon even more. July 24, 1959 started an impromptu debate with Nikita Khrushchev in a kitchen appliance store (Freidel & Sidey). This was a debate about capitalism and communism and which was right (Freidel & Sidey). People called this the “Kitchen Debate” and America was now so impressed and excited to have such a great vice president as Nixon. In 1960, it was beginning to be time for Nixon and Eisenhower to leave office. Nixon was nominated as candidate for the republicans to become the next president. He was running against a man named John F. Kennedy (JFK). They were neck and neck the whole time they were campaigning. Nixon won the popular vote, but JFK won more electoral votes. In the end Nixon lost the election by .17%, this was the closest election since 1916.
In 1968, Nixon was elected president, he won by quite a lot and was ready to finally have the title and not just work the job. Right when he got into office he began trying to make changes to fix the economy since we were in bad shape, unemployment was at 6% which was the highest it had ever been. Nixon thought gradualism was the way to help with inflation and unemployment (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). Gradualism is restricting the growth of money and even though he tried to make it work it didn’t and unemployment and inflation both began to get worse. When Gradualism didn’t work Nixon appointed Arthur Burns Chairmen of the Federal Reserve(Hughes). Burns told Nixon to not spend 200 billion dollars or more, Nixon could not do that and used it on personal agendas (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). Since he lost so much money the federal employees got there pay cut and couldn’t receive raises. Since Nixon was still in his first term and he had just had a horrible failure he thought it was best he tried helping somewhere else. He started to do things to help the environment and these organizations were all successes (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). Later we found out that even though these organizations were helping people and the environment, Nixon was taking money from all of these organizations for his own personal use, so one of his greatest accomplishments was one of his failures as well.
In August 1971, Nixon emerged with the New Economic Plan (NEP) (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). This new plan helped America and was popular with everyone (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). He began improving exports and imports, and added a 10% import tax on everything (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). All was going extremely well for Nixon, He was becoming widely popular and people were starting to believe he was one of the best presidents they had ever had (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). In 1972, Nixon went for reelection he won the most electoral votes and popular votes until he was passed by Reagan in 1984 (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). He beat McGovern by a landslide (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). When Nixon went into office he decided he wanted to not increase federal spending, to help save money. One of the laws that Nixon also passed while being in office was the legalizing of abortion. He said “There are times when abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have black and white.” This was his greastest accomplishment for some and others it was the biggest failure he had ever had during his presidency. But none knew that in 1973 trouble would strike and something that had never happened before would finally occur. In June 1972 there had been conspiracies that President Nixon had been involved in taping phones during his election. He immediately said that these were false accusations and that he had nothing to do with the break in. A few days later after the break in, it was reported that he gave “hush money” to the burglars. He said again that this was a lie and that he would never steal to better his campaign. Nixon was put into office as said before and thought all was well until January 1973. The burglars were finally prosecuted five of them pleaded guilty and two of them were convicted. The five burglars that pleaded guilty testified against Nixon and said that it was under his orders that they tap the phones. People that were close with Nixon started to testify also like the White House counsel John Dean said that he knew about Nixon’s plans and all they had to do was find the tapes to prove it. These court cases went on for months and it was hard for Nixon to hide the tapes into the summer and fall of 1973. Nixon’s lawyers said that it was his right as presidents, so he could keep the tapes. On October 20, 1973 Nixon asked to be fired and surrendered some of his tapes, but refused to give all of them up. In 1974, March 1, prosecutors indicted Nixon and his helpers, and since they didn’t know if they could indict a president they called him “unindicted- co-conspirator” (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic). In July Nixon had to turn over the tapes. He refused until August 5, after turning in the tapes the House of Representatives decided to impeach him. “Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits” (Hughes, Foreign/Domestic).
On August 8th he became the first and only president to ever resign in American history in fear of being impeached. “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I earned everything I’ve got” (Hughes, Impact). So many people were sad to find out that in fact the president was a crook. President Nixon is one of the strangest presidents to learn about. He went from being so loved and cherished to a criminal in an instant. Ever since he was a young child he was involved in politics that is why he was so good at what he did. He was so secretive that no one knew what he was really doing in the shadows because everyone believed Nixon was such an honorable man that he would never do this. Even though he proved time and time again that he had an addiction for money, people chose to only see the good in him. After being president America learned that we do not always know the full story and that not all should be trusted. People were hurt when they found out there beloved president had been stealing money, taping phones, lying, and not always having their best interest at heart. Nixon will always and only be remembered for the wrong that he did, because the bad will always overshadow the good, just as the darkness overshadows the light. The only thing people will believe that comes out of his mouth now is the last thing Nixon said “I let the American people down.” At least he ended with something that is true.
Works Cited
Hughes, Ken. “Richard Nixon: Domestic Affairs.” Miller Center, University of Virginia, 2017, millercenter.org/president/nixon/domestic-affairs. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017.
Hughes, Ken. “Richard Nixon: Foreign Affairs.” Miller Center, University of Virginia, 2017, millercenter.org/president/nixon/foreign-affairs. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017.
Hughes, Ken. “Richard Nixon: Life Before the Presidency.” Miller Center, University of Virginia, 24 Mar. 2017, millercenter.org/president/nixon/life-before-the-presidency. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017.
Sidey, Hugh, and Frank Freidel. “Richard M. Nixon.” The White House, The United States Government, 8 Mar. 2017, www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/richardnixon. Accessed 2 Apr. 2017.