Richard Milhous Nixon
, 37th president of the United States (1969-1972), was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. Nixon was one of the most controversial politicians of the twentieth century. He built his political career on the communist scare of the late forties and early fifties, but as president he achieved détente with the Soviet Union and opened relations with the People's Republic of China. His administration occurred during the domestic upheavals brought on by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. He was re-elected in 1972 by an overwhelming margin, but less than two years later he was forced to become the first man to resign the presidency amid the scandal and shame of ...
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integrity were deeply-rooted and heavily emphasized. Always a good student, he was invited by Harvard and Yale to apply for scholarships, but his older brother's illness and the Depression made his presence close to home necessary, and he was attended nearby Whittier College, where he graduated second in his class in 1934. He went on to law school at Duke University, where his seriousness and determination won him the nickname "Gloomy Gus." He graduated third in his class and applied for jobs with both large Northeastern law firms and the FBI His applications were all rejected, however, and he was forced to go home to southern California, where his mother helped get him a job at a friend's local law firm.
At the outbreak of World War Two, Nixon went to work briefly for the tire-rationing section the Office of Price Administration in Washington, DC, and eight months later, he joined the Navy and was sent to the Pacific as a supply officer. He was popular with his men, and such an ...
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became the junior member of the infamous House Committee on un-American Activities. Nixon's dogged pursuit of Alger Hiss, a former adviser to Franklin Roosevelt and one of the organizers of the United Nations, brought him national exposure. Hiss had been accused of being a communist and of transmitting secret State Department documents to the Soviets, and though many believed him innocent, Nixon fiercely pushed the case forward, eventually getting Hiss convicted of perjury and jailed. At the age of thirty-five, Nixon was a national figure, and he rode this fame to an easy victory in his senate race against three-term Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950, once again adopting a ...
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Richard Milhous Nixon. (2004, May 7). Retrieved November 22, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Richard-Milhous-Nixon/7440
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"Richard Milhous Nixon." Essayworld.com. May 7, 2004. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Richard-Milhous-Nixon/7440.
"Richard Milhous Nixon." Essayworld.com. May 7, 2004. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Richard-Milhous-Nixon/7440.
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