Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913–April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974, and the 36th Vice President of the United States in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961). Born and rasied in California, Nixon attened Whittier College and Duke University Law School before beginning the practice of law. During World War II, he served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific, before being elected to Congress, and later serving as Vice President. After an unsuccessful presidential run in 1960, Nixon was elected in 1968.

Under President Nixon, the United States followed a foreign policy marked by détente with the Soviet Union and by the opening of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. His centrist domestic policies combined conservative rhetoric and liberal action in civil rights, environmental and economic initiatives. As a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned the presidency in the face of likely impeachment by the United States House of Representatives. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a controversial pardon that cleared him of any wrong-doing. Nixon is the only person elected twice to the offices of vice president and president. He is also the only President of the United States to have resigned from the office.

Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, United States. His father was Francis "Frank" A. Nixon and his mother was Hannah M. Nixon (born Hannah Milhous). His mother was a Quaker, and his upbringing is said to have been marked by conservative Quaker observances: such as refraining from drinking, dancing, and swearing. His father converted from Methodist to Quaker after his marriage. Richard Nixon's great-grandfather George Nixon III had been killed at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War while serving in the 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Through his mother, he was a second cousin of the writer Jessamyn West.

Nixon's parents had five children, all boys:

• Harold Nixon (June 1, 1909–March 7, 1933)
• Richard (January 9, 1913–April 22, 1994)
• Donald Nixon (November 23, 1914–June 27, 1987)
• Arthur Nixon (May 26, 1918–August 10, 1925)
• Edward Nixon (May 3, 1930)

Nixon attended Fullerton High School, from 1926 to 1928, in Fullerton, California, and later, Whittier High School, from 1928 to 1930, in Whittier, California. He graduated second in his class from Whittier, showing a penchant for Shakespeare and Latin. Although he was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to Harvard University, he declined, due to insufficient financial means for attendance. Instead, he chose to enroll at Whittier College, a local Quaker school, where he co-founded a fraternity called the Orthogonian Society. Nixon was a formidable debater and was elected student-body president. While at Whittier, he taught Sunday school at East Whittier Friends Church, where he remained a member all his life. A lifelong American football fan, Nixon practiced with the team assiduously, but spent most of his time on the bench. In 1934, he graduated second in his class from Whittier, and went on to Duke University School of Law, where he received a full scholarship and graduated third in his class.

In 1937, Nixon returned to California, was admitted to the bar, and began working in the law office of a family friend in a nearby small town. The work was mostly routine, and Nixon generally found it to be dull. He later wrote that family law cases caused him particular discomfort, since his reticent Quaker upbringing was severely at odds with the idea of discussing intimate marital details with strangers.

During World War II, Nixon served as a reserve officer in the Navy. He received his training at Quonset Point, Rhode Island and Ottumwa, Iowa, before serving in the supply corps on several islands in the South Pacific, commanding cargo handling units in the SCAT. There he was known as "Nick" and for his prowess in poker, banking a large sum that helped finance his first campaign for Congress.

Marriage and children

Richard Nixon met Thelma "Pat" Ryan, a high school teacher native to California. The two became acquainted at a Little Theater group when they were cast in the same play. Nixon asked Pat Ryan to marry him the first night they went out, and they were married on June 21, 1940. "I thought he was nuts or something," she recalled. The Nixon's had two daughters: Tricia, born in 1946, and Julie, born two years later.

Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1946, defeating Democratic incumbent Jerry Voorhis for California's 12th congressional district. Nixon's campaign alleged that his opponent's CIO PAC support showed that Voorhis was collaborating with communist-controlled labor unions.

Nixon's first major breakthrough came in his two terms in Congress, where his dogged investigation on the House Un-American Activities Committee broke the impasse of the Alger Hiss spy case in 1948. Nixon believed Whittaker Chambers, who alleged that Hiss, a high State Department official, was a Soviet spy. Nixon discovered that Chambers had saved microfilm reproductions of incriminating documents by hiding the film in a pumpkin (these became known as the "Pumpkin Papers"). These documents were alleged both to be accessible only by Hiss, and to have been typed on Hiss's personal typewriter. The discovery that Hiss, who had been an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, could have been a Soviet spy, thrust Nixon into the public eye and made him the hero to FDR's many enemies. In reality, his support for internationalism put him closer to the center of the Republican party.

In 1950, Nixon was elected to the United States Senate over Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas. Accusing her of communist or fellow traveler sympathies, Nixon called her "the Pink Lady" and said she was "pink right down to her underwear." Gahagan, meanwhile, gave Nixon one of the most enduring nicknames in politics: "Tricky Dick."

Vice Presidency

In 1952, Nixon was elected Vice President on Dwight D. Eisenhower's ticket. He was 39 years old. In September 1952, during the campaign, the New York Post and other publications reported that Nixon had kept a "slush fund" for personal use. Democrats and leading Republicans pressured Eisenhower to remove Nixon from the ticket. Nixon convinced Eisenhower to let him defend himself. Nixon went on TV on September 23, and defended himself in a famous speech. He provided an independent third-party review of the fund's accounting along with a personal summary of his finances, which he cited as exonerating him from wrongdoing, and he charged that the Democratic Presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, also had a slush fund. This speech would, however, become better known for its rhetoric, such as when he stated that his wife Pat did not wear mink, but rather "a respectable Republican cloth coat," and that although he had been given a cocker spaniel named "Checkers" in addition to his other campaign contributions, he was not going to give it back because his daughters loved it. As a result, this speech became known as the "Checkers speech." At the end of the broadcast, Nixon intended to appeal to viewers to write to the Republican National Committee to voice their support or opposition. Although the broadcast was cut off before he could make this appeal, his speech resulted in a flood of support, prompting Eisenhower to keep Nixon on the ticket.

Nixon greatly expanded the office of Vice President. Although he had little formal power he had the attention of the media and the Republican Party. He demonstrated that the office could be a springboard to the White House as it had not been since the 19th century; most Vice Presidents since have followed his lead and sought the presidency. Nixon was the first Vice President to step in temporarily to run the government. He did so 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 on November 25, 1957. Despite this, Nixon was forced to announce his own inclusion on the 1956 Eisenhower re-election campaign, which highlighted the lack of rapport he and Eisenhower shared. Nixon's quick thinking was on display 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.

1960 election and post-vice presidency

In 1960, Nixon ran for President against John F. Kennedy in a race that remained close all year. Nixon campaigned on his experience, but Kennedy called for new blood and suggested the Eisenhower-Nixon administration had allowed the Soviet Union to make gains in the arms race. Kennedy also made much of the stagnant American economy of 1960, telling voters it was time to "get the country moving again." Nixon's frosty relationship with Eisenhower also hurt him. When asked about major policy decisions that Nixon had helped shape, the President responded: "Give me a week and I might think of one." In the first of four televised debates, Kennedy not only looked better physically, he also came off as polished, articulate and mature. The performance dispelled many people's worries that the young senator was too inexperienced to be President. Nixon, for his part, was recovering from an illness, and, with the stubble on his face visible, looked unimpressive. (Nixon's performance in the debate was perceived to be mediocre only in the still-young medium of television, though; many people listening on the radio thought Nixon had won). Nixon lost the 1960 election narrowly. It is often argued by American historians that Nixon in fact lost primarily due to the invention of the televised debate. There were charges of vote fraud in Texas and Illinois, and Nixon supporters challenged the results in both states as well as nine others. All of these challenges failed. The Kennedy camp challenged Nixon's victory in Hawaii. That challenge succeeded, and after all the court battles and recounts were done, Kennedy had gained a greater number of electoral votes than he had held after Election Day.

Nixon wrote Six Crises (1962), a book dealing with his political involvement as a congressman, senator and as Vice-President. The book used six different crises Nixon had experienced throughout his political career to illustrate his political memoirs. It was not supposed to be an academic work on the subject of crises, rather a method of depicting his political biography in a personal manner. The work won praise from many policy experts and critics. Ironically, as Margaret MacMillan would discuss in her book Nixon in China (2006), Six Crises found a favorable critic in Mao Zedong, who referred to the book when in preparation for Nixon's visit in 1972.

In 1962, against the advice of many friends and supporters, Nixon chose to challenge the popular Pat Brown for Governor of California. Nixon had never before shown any interest in the office and biographers still disagree on his precise motive in seeking it. In all likelihood, he was looking for a reason not to run for president again in 1964. With John F. Kennedy's popularity strong, it was likely to be a losing effort. Therefore, if Nixon won in 1962, he would have the excuse that he was too busy running the state. If he lost, he could plead a desire not to campaign again so soon. In either case, Brown won handily.

Nevertheless, years of campaigning and losing had worn Nixon down. In an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon famously blamed the media for favoring his opponent, and stated that it was his "last press conference" and that "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more." This was widely believed to be the end of his career. In just another 12 months though, John Kennedy would be assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The events that define the tumultuous 1960s were beginning, and before the decade closed a "New Nixon," one who was "tanned, rested and ready," would win the presidency in another close election.

1968 election

Bored in Los Angeles and seeking a fresh start after the 1962 gubernatorial debacle, Nixon moved to New York City, where he became a senior partner in the leading law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. During the 1966 Congressional elections, he stumped the country in support of Republican candidates, rebuilding his base in the party. In the election of 1968, he completed a remarkable political comeback by taking the nomination. Nixon's success in the nomination might be attributed to Robert F. Kennedy's assassination after he won the California Democratic primary in June 1968. Nixon appealed to what he called the "silent majority" of socially conservative Americans who disliked the hippie counterculture, and anti-war demonstrators. Nixon promised peace with honor, and, though never claiming to be able to win the war, Nixon did say that "new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific". He did not explain in detail his plans to end the war in Vietnam, causing Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey to allege that he must have had some "secret plan." Nixon didn't invent the phrase, but because he did not disavow the term, it soon became part of the campaign. In his memoirs, Nixon wrote that he actually had no such plan. He eventually defeated Humphrey by less than 1% of the popular vote, along with independent candidate George Wallace, to become the 37th President of the United States.

The Nixon presidency (1969–1974)

Foreign policies

Other wars and crises

Nixon encouraged Augusto Pinochet's military overthrow of the elected socialist government of Chile in 1973.

Israel, a powerful American ally in the Middle East, was supported by the Nixon administration during the Yom Kippur War. When an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria — allies to the Soviets — attacked in October 1973 Israel suffered initial losses and pressed European powers for help, but the Europeans responded with inaction. Not so with Nixon, who, cutting through inter-departmental squabbles and bureaucracy, initiated an air lift of American arms. By the time the U.S. and the Soviet Union negotiated a truce, Israel had penetrated deep into enemy territory. A long term effect was the movement of Egypt away from the Soviets toward the U.S. But the victory for its ally and the support provided to them by the U.S. came at the cost of the 1973 oil crisis. Some historians have argued that throughout the war, Nixon's handling of the 1973 oil crisis demonstrated that neither he nor Kissinger could truly grasp the importance of economic factors.

On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned amidst charges of bribery, tax evasion and money laundering. Nixon chose Representative Gerald Ford to replace Agnew.