Basic Information
Name: Richard Milhous Nixon
Nicknames: Gloomy Gus, Tricky Dick, Richard the Chickenhearted, Hippie Hater, Richard "No Commies Allowed" Nixon, the Boss
Born: January 9th, 1913
Died: April 22nd, 1994
Nationality: American Through and Through
Hometown: Yorba Linda, California
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: Lawyer, U.S. Navy Reserve Lieutenant, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senator, Vice President of the United States, President of the United States, and, Yes, a "Crook"
Education: Whittier College, Duke University
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Francis Anthony Nixon, Hannah Milhous
Siblings: Harold Samuel Nixon, Francis Donald Nixon, Arthur Burdg Nixon, Edward Calvert Nixon
Spouse: Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan
Children: Patricia Nixon, Julie Nixon
Friends: Spiro Agnew, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, Mao Zedong
Foes: Hippies, Students for a Democratic Society, Hubert Humphrey, the Watergate Hotel, the Soviet Union, Ho Chi Minh, John F. Kennedy, Television
Analysis
The Many Faces of "Tricky Dick" Nixon
Richard Nixon can be summed up by his two most famous quotes.
The first quote comes from "The Great Silent Majority" and goes like this:
Let historians not record that when America was the most powerful nation in the world we passed on the other side of the road and allowed the last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people to be suffocated by the forces of totalitarianism.
And so tonight—to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support. (130.1-131.1)
The second quote goes something like this:
I am not a crook.
If it were up to Nixon, he would have been remembered for the first quote a billion times more than the second one. This first quote shows a presidential Nixon. The person with vast political experience, the ability to turn a terrible crisis into the best party ever (with cake, because what kind of party doesn't have cake?), and the guy who was going to bring the boys home from Vietnam.
But Nixon is less remembered for that quote.
He's more widely known as the president who said, "I am not a crook." And he said it when he was in the middle of the worst presidential scandal the United States had ever seen, and, to make matters worse, the country was walking away from the Vietnam War without feeling so good about itself.
But before we get too harsh on Nixon, we need to take a look at his accomplishments before all that drama set in.
Bring Us Together, Nixon!
Before the Vietnam War and Watergate turned his presidency into a bit of a bummer, Nixon was actually a rock-star politician. He became wildly popular for his anti-communist campaigning. Anti-communism was totally in vogue during the Cold War years, so this stance helped him launch a successful career in Congress.
It even got him into the vice presidency. But that wasn't enough for ol' Tricky Dick. (FYI, he earned the nickname "Tricky Dick" for his campaign tactics during those congressional years. He became a fan of hinting that his opponents were secretly communists who were unwilling to come out and say so.)
Anyway, Nixon really wanted to take a stab at the presidency. So, in 1960, he did. During the campaign, he ran on his old "I hate communism" stance, but he also used the slogan "Bring Us Together, Nixon!" to show that he really wanted to unite the country.
For the most part, it was a successful campaign.
How Television Ruined Nixon's Life
But, despite his campaign popularity, Nixon lost that election.
He lost it to the much younger, much better looking, much more suave, and much more celebrity-like John F. Kennedy. The American people just could not get over this Kennedy guy. True, he did have political experience, but not nearly as much as Nixon. But America's political tastes were beginning to change at this time in U.S. history.
The perfect example of this took place during a much-anticipated televised presidential debate. It was the first of its kind. Remember, this was pre-Netflix and pre-24 hour, non-stop TV entertainment, so all sorts of people couldn't wait to watch. And all sorts of people did.
Unfortunately for Nixon, he just didn't look good in front of the camera. He was feeling a little sick and just became a sweaty mess. And nobody looks good as a sweaty mess.
And unlike Nixon, JFK looked totally dapper. He felt comfortable in front of the camera, and he totally rocked it. And, later that year, the very dapper Kennedy took the election.
Nixon Bounces Back
Losing the 1960 election was kind of brutal for Nixon. He kept relatively quiet in the following years, staying out of the limelight and trying his best to not end up on national television.
Then, almost out of the blue, Nixon decided to run again in 1968. This time, he ran against Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey. Again, he stuck with his typical "communism is lame" shtick. But this time, he also promised to bring an end to the Vietnam War. "Peace with honor" was his catchphrase. He truly wanted Americans out of the whole Vietnam mess, but he didn't want to admit total defeat, either.
These campaign stances totally worked. Americans were starting to get really tired of what was happening in Vietnam, so it made sense to them to vote someone like Nixon in.
Plus, by that time, Nixon had come around to the idea of wearing a little eyeliner and a little face powder when getting in front of the camera.
Vietnam Claims Another Victim
One of the first things that Nixon did while in office was to try and figure out a way to sneak out of Vietnam without too many people noticing. That's why he gave his "Great Silent Majority" speech in 1969, to let everyone in on the haps taking place in the White House.
He wanted to slowly hand the war back over to the South Vietnamese, using what he called the process of "Vietnamization." (No points for originality there.) But he also wanted to get his communist-hating constituency to get all the anti-war protestors and dancing hippies to follow his lead.
Just so you know, they never really did follow his lead. They viewed him as a total drag who harshed their mellow, man.
Unfortunately, Nixon underestimated just how serious the Vietnam situation was. He wanted to hand the war over as if it was a lost puppy looking for its owner. Turns out, it was more like a 500-pound werewolf looking for a fresh meal.
The situation in Vietnam just kept getting worse and worse. He did slowly pull troops out of the area, but he also expanded the war into Laos and Cambodia. The whole process was taking way, way longer than he had originally anticipated.
To make matters worse, TV came back to haunt him. News reports constantly showed the war in a negative light, while more and more information confirmed drug abuse among the troops, war crimes being committed by American troops, and that military officials were constantly lying to the public about what was happening over there.
The Fall of the House of Nixon
While all of this was taking place, another election cycle had come into full swing by 1972. Nixon didn't feel so hot about this one. He worried that another upset loss would happen, just like it did in 1960.
He actually completely destroyed the election, kicking butt all over the country. Soon enough, though, this election would come back to bite him in the butt. Here's what happened: Nixon was so paranoid that he might lose that he actually wiretapped the Democratic Party headquarters located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington. Even worse, as information about this whole scandal leaked, he and his co-conspirators continuously lied about doing it. He even made the choice to make a public statement, letting everyone know that he was "not a crook."
It turned out that, yes, he was a crook.
Just imagine one of the worst soap operas playing out in the early 1970s, and you've got a hint as to what was going on here…and how much it consumed the American imagination.
Eventually, the evidence just became too much, and Nixon decided to resign in 1974. As a result of all of this, Nixon will constantly be remembered as the president who resigned under fishy circumstances…even though he did make some incredibly difficult political decisions throughout his career.
Yeah. His life as a public figure definitely ended with a resounding womp womp.
P.S. Curious to learn more about this scandalous time? Check out our guide for the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Nixon.