Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President of the United States, and was the only U.S. President to resign the office. Elected twice to the presidency, he served from 1969 to 1974. He was also the thirty-sixth Vice President of the United States, serving in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961). During the Second World War, he served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific, before being elected to the 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 for any federal crimes Nixon may have committed.

Nixon experienced a stroke on April 18, 1994 and died four days later at the age of 81.

Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. His father was Francis "Frank" A. Nixon and his mother was Hannah M. Nixon (born Hannah Milhous). She 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, a stand out in collegiate drama productions, 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 the Second World War, Nixon served as a reserve officer in the Navy. He received his training at Naval Air Station 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.

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 Nixons 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 five-term incumbent Jerry Voorhis in the 12th Congressional district in southern California. 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 a hero to many of FDR's enemies, and an enemy to many of FDR's supporters. In reality, his support for internationalism put him closer to the center of the Republican party.

In the 1950 mid-term elections, Nixon defeated Democratic Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas to win a seat in the United States Senate. Accusing her of being a fellow traveler with Communist sympathies, Nixon called her "the Pink Lady" and said she was "pink right down to her underwear." Gahagan, for her part, bestowed upon Nixon one of the most enduring nicknames in American politics: "Tricky Dick".

In 1952, Nixon was elected Vice President on Dwight 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 noted that the Democratic Presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, also had a similar 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 an American 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.

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 claimed that the Eisenhower-Nixon administration had allowed the Soviet Union to overtake the U.S. in offensive missiles (the "missile gap"). 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 visual medium of television, though; many people listening on the radio considered that 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 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. At a postelection press conference, a bitter Nixon lashed out at reporters who, he said "are so delighted that I have lost." He added:

For 16 years, ever since the [[Alger Hiss

Nixon's loss in the California gubernatiorial election was widely believed to be the end of his career. However, just one year later, John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The events that defined 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.

Seeking a fresh start after the 1962 gubernatorial defeat, 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 the anti-war demonstrations. 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. In a three-way race between Nixon, Humphrey, and independent candidate George Wallace, Nixon defeated Humphrey by less than 1% of the popular vote, along to become the 37th President of the United States.

In his book "Real Peace" in 1983 Nixon wrote that: "Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war".

Once in office, he proposed the Nixon Doctrine, a strategy of replacing American troops with the Vietnamese troops, also called "Vietnamization." In July 1969, he visited South Vietnam, and met with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with U.S. military commanders. American involvement in the war declined steadily until all American troops were gone in 1973. After the withdrawal of U.S. troops, fighting was left to the South Vietnamese army. Although the South Vietnamese were well supplied with modern arms, their fighting capability was limited by inadequate funding, low morale, and corruption. The lack of funding was primarily because of large funding cutbacks by the U.S. Congress. Nixon was widely praised in the United States for having delivered 'peace with honor', and ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam. However, a part of his strategy was the resumption of the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam should they violate the Peace agreement, which Nixon was confident they would. Watergate, however, made it impossible to carry this out. Nixon, along with his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger also sought a 'decent interval' solution to the problem of South Vietnam, so that the country would survive for long enough for him not to be personally blamed for its ultimate collapse.

Nixon ordered secret bombing campaigns in Cambodia in March 1969 (code-named Operation Menu) to destroy what was believed to be the headquarters of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, and later escalated the conflict with secretly bombing Laos before Congress cut the funding for the conflict in Vietnam. Another goal of the bombings was to interdict the Ho Chi Minh trail that passed through Laos and Cambodia. In ordering the bombings, Nixon realized he would be extending an unpopular war as well as breaching Cambodia's stated neutrality. In a televised speech on April 30, 1970, Nixon announced the incursion of U.S. troops into Cambodia to disrupt so-called North Vietnamese sanctuaries.

During deliberations over Nixon's impeachment, his unorthodox use of executive powers in ordering the bombings was considered as an article of impeachment, but the charge was dropped as not a violation of constitutional powers.

Relations between the Western powers and Eastern Bloc changed dramatically in the early 1970s. In 1960, the People's Republic of China (PRC) publicly split from its main ally, the Soviet Union, in the Sino-Soviet Split. As tension along the border between the two communist nations reached its peak in 1969 and 1970, Nixon decided to use their conflict to shift the balance of power towards the West in the Cold War. In what later would be known as the "China Card", the Nixon administration deliberately improved relations with China in order to gain a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, but also gave Moscow a chance to improve relations so as not to be squeezed by a U.S.-China détente. In 1971, a move was made to improve relations when China invited an American table tennis team to China; hence the term "Ping Pong Diplomacy". Nixon sent Henry Kissinger on a secret mission to China in July 1971, after which a stunned world was told that Nixon intended to visit Communist China in 1972. As a result, many countries that had previously opposed the PRC's entry into the United Nations changed their stance. Despite frantic lobbying by the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, George H.W. Bush, in October 1971 the UN General Assembly voted to give to the PRC the seat that had been held since 1945 by America's ally, the Republic of China (ROC), and expel the ROC from the UN. In February 1972 Nixon grabbed the world's attention by himself going to China to have direct talks with Mao. During this visit he privately stated that he believed “There is one China, and Taiwan is a part of China.” Fearing the possibility of a Sino-American alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to American pressure for détente.

Nixon used the improving international environment to address the topic of nuclear peace. The first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks were finally concluded the same year with the SALT I treaty. To win American friendship both China and the Soviet Union cut back on their diplomatic support for North Vietnam and advised Hanoi to come to terms. They did not, however, cut back their military aid to North Vietnam — in fact Chinese military aid to North Vietnam increased during this period. Nixon later explained his strategy:

I had long believed that an indispensable element of any successful peace initiative in Vietnam was to enlist, if possible, the help of the Soviets and the Chinese. Though rapprochement with China and détente with the Soviet Union were ends in themselves, I also considered them possible means to hasten the end of the war. At worst, Hanoi was bound to feel less confident if Washington was dealing with Moscow and Beijing. At best, if the two major Communist powers decided that they had bigger fish to fry, Hanoi would be pressured into negotiating a settlement we could accept.<ref> Nixon, No More Vietnams (1987), pp. 105–106.</ref>

Nixon strongly supported General Yahya Khan of Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 despite widespread human rights violations against the Bengalis, particularly Hindus, by the Pakistan Army. Though Nixon claimed that his objective was to prevent a war, and safeguard Pakistan's interests (including the issue of refugees), in reality the U.S. President was fearful of an Indian invasion of West Pakistan that would lead to Indian domination of the sub-continent and strengthen the position of the Soviet Union, which had recently signed a Treaty of Friendship with India. He also sought to demonstrate his reliability as a partner to the People's Republic of China, with whom he had been negotiating a rapprochement, and where he planned to visit just a few months later. President Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger downplayed reports of Pakistani genocide in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and risked a confrontation with Moscow to look tough. Many, including Kissinger, have mentioned that the foreign policy "tilt" towards Pakistan had more to do with Nixon's personal like for the dictator and the support to Pakistan was influenced by sentimental considerations and a long standing anti-Indian bias. The Nixon administration was also responsible for illegally providing military supplies to the Pakistani military despite Congressional objections, and against American public opinion, which was concerned with the atrocities against East Pakistanis. His decision to help Pakistan in a war at any cost prompted him to send the nuclear-equipped USS Enterprise to the Indian Ocean to try to threaten the Indian military. Though it did little to turn the tide of war, it has been viewed as the trigger for India's subsequent nuclear program. During the crisis Nixon was vocal in abusing the Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi as an "old witch" in private conversations with Henry Kissinger, who is also recorded as making derogatory comments against Indians. Ultimately Nixon's foreign policy initiatives in this matter largely failed as his attempt at a show of strength to impress China was at the cost of dismembering their mutual ally, Pakistan, who felt that once again United States had fallen short as an ally in failing to prevent Bangladeshi independence.

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.

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.

Although often viewed as a conservative by his contemporaries, Nixon's domestic policies often appear centrist, or even liberal, to later observers. As President, Nixon imposed wage and price controls, indexed Social Security for inflation, and created Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The number of pages added to the Federal Register each year doubled under Nixon. He eradicated the last remnants of the gold standard, created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), promoted the Legacy of parks program and implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the first significant federal affirmative action program, and dramatically improved salaries for US federal employees worldwide. In the wake of racial tensions that had sometimes erupted into urban violence before he assumed the Presidency, Nixon's policy on race relations and civil rights was perceived to be influenced by a doctrine commonly referred to as "benign neglect." As a party leader, Nixon helped build the Republican Party (GOP), but he ran his 1972 campaign separately from the party, which perhaps helped the GOP escape some of the damage from Watergate. The Nixon White House was the first to organize a daily press event and daily message for the media, a practice that all subsequent staffs have performed.

Nixon is credited with creating the modern day The Imperial Presidency, in which the presidency retains a high level of control over government policy and decisions. In the early 1970s, Nixon impounded billions of dollars in federal spending and expanded the power of the Office of Management and Budget. These encroachments on the power of Congress led to the passage of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

On January 2, 1974, Nixon signed a bill that lowered the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 miles per hour (90 km/h) in order to conserve gasoline during the 1973 energy crisis. This law remained in effect until 1995, though states had been allowed to raise the limit to 65 miles per hour in rural areas since 1987.

Committed to wide-ranging bureaucratic reforms, in a last-minute bid to save his presidency, Nixon signed a significant reform of the federal budgeting process and granted wide authority to Congress in shaping the final budget.

The Nixon years witnessed the first large-scale integration of public schools in the South, after the region had stalled in compliance with the 1954 Supreme Court's Brown ruling. Strategically, Nixon sought a middle way between the segregationist George C. Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern white Democrats. His plan has since been known as the Southern strategy. Nixon concentrated on the principle that the law must be color-blind. "I am convinced that while legal segregation is totally wrong, forced integration of housing or education is just as wrong."

Though Nixon thought of appealing to southern whites by slowing school desegregation, he decided to enforce the law after the Supreme Court, in Alexander v. Holmes County (1969), prohibited further delays. Nixon's Cabinet committee on school desegregation, under the leadership of Labor Secretary George P. Shultz, quietly set up local biracial committees to assure smooth compliance without violence or political grandstanding. By fall of 1970, two million southern black children enrolled in newly created unitary fully integrated school districts. "In this sense, Nixon was the greatest school desegregator in American history," historian Dean Kotlowski concluded.

On July 20, 1969, Nixon addressed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin live via radio during their historic Apollo 11 moonwalk. Nixon also made humanity's longest distance phone call to Neil Armstrong on the moon. (All U.S. Project Apollo moon landings, and the attempted moon landing of Apollo 13, took place during Nixon's first term.) On January 5, 1972, Nixon approved the development of NASA's Space Shuttle program, a decision that profoundly influenced American efforts to explore and develop space for several decades thereafter.

In 1972, Nixon was re-elected in one of the biggest landslide election victories in US political history, defeating Senator George McGovern and garnering over 60% of the popular vote. He carried 49 of the 50 states, losing only in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

During the Nixon Administration, the United States established many government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Supplemental Security Income program the Office of Minority Business Enterprise; the Post Office Department was abolished as a cabinet department and reorganized as a government-owned corporation: the U.S. Postal Service. Nixon proposed in 1971 to create four new government departments superseding the current structure: departments organized for the goal of efficient and effective public service as opposed the thematic bases of Commerce, Labor, Transportation, Agriculture, et al. Departments like State, Treasury, Defense and Justice would remain under this proposal. Nixon also suspended the converting of the US dollar into gold, a central point of the Bretton Woods system, allowing its value to float in world markets.

In international affairs, President Nixon normalized diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, enacted détente, or the peaceful pause in the Cold War, with the Soviet Union (later abolished by President Ronald Reagan). He signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, following the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (also known as SALT I).

On April 3, 1974, 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.

After the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee gave a favorable vote on articles of impeachment, (due to the Watergate scandal), Nixon resigned, on August 9, 1974.

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The Nixon Administration comprised an impressive array of talent both in the cabinet and in the White House staff. Among the many people who came to Washington to serve in the administration were one future President (George H. W. Bush); two future Vice Presidents (Dick Cheney and Bush again); six future secretaries of state (Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, George P. Shultz, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Colin Powell); five future secretaries of defense (James Schlesinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Casper Weinberger, Frank Carlucci and Cheney again); a future chairman of the joint chiefs of staff (Powell again), two future secretaries of the treasury (William Simon and Baker again); a future secretary of energy (Schlesinger again); and three future chiefs of staff (Rumsfeld, Cheney and Baker again). Indeed a member of the Nixon Administration has held a cabinet post or been a senior advisor within the subsequent six presidential administrations. That so many key figures of the Ford, Reagan, Bush (41) and Bush (43) Administrations first entered government service in the Nixon White House is arguably the most profound and long-lasting legacy of Richard Nixon.

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

The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of illegal and secret activities undertaken by Nixon or his aides during his administration. Some of these began as early as 1969, when Nixon and Kissinger tapped the phones of numerous journalists and administration officials in an effort to stop internal administration information leaks to the press. Other major or well-known episodes of wrongdoing included the 1971 burglary of Dr. Lewis Fielding in search of the psychiatric records of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press; Nixon's order to have the FBI investigate CBS News reporter Daniel Schorr after he reported critically on the administration; and talk by Nixon's aide G. Gordon Liddy about having the newspaper columnist Jack Anderson assassinated.

These episodes did not come to light until several of Nixon's men were caught breaking into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC in June 1972. In October 1972, The Washington Post reported that the FBI had determined Nixon's aides had spied on and sabotaged numerous Democratic presidential candidates as a part of the operations that led to the Watergate scandal.During the campaign five burglars were arrested on June 17, 1972 in the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office complex. They were subsequently linked to the White House. This became one of a series of major scandals involving the Committee to Re-Elect the President (known as CRP, but referred to by his opponents as CREEP), including the White House enemies list and assorted "dirty tricks." The ensuing Watergate scandal exposed the corruption, illegality and deceit displayed by some of those within the Nixon Administration.

Nixon himself downplayed the scandal as mere politics, but when his aides resigned in disgrace, Nixon's role in ordering an illegal cover-up came to light in the press, courts, and congressional investigations. Nixon owed back taxes, had accepted illicit campaign contributions, and had harassed opponents with executive agencies, wiretaps, and break-ins. In addition, he had ordered the secret bombing of Cambodia. Unlike the tape recordings by earlier Presidents, his secret recordings of White House conversations were revealed and subpoenaed and showed 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.

One piece of evidence, an audio tape of conversations held in the White House between the President and various aides on the 20 June 1972, features an unexplained 18½ minute gap, which appears to be divided into two distinct portions (suggesting that the tape had been recorded over on two separate occasions). The first deleted section, of about five minutes, has been attributed to human error on the part of Rose Mary Woods, the President's personal secretary, who admitted accidentally wiping the section while transcribing the tape. No definitive explanation has been offered for the deletion of the second section, but contextual evidence suggests that Nixon and then-Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman discussed the Watergate problem in the conversation obliterated. The gap, while not conclusive proof of wrong-doing on the part of the President, cast doubt on Nixon's claim that he was unaware of the cover-up at this stage. Although not discovered until several years after he had left office, transcripts of an earlier June 20, 1972 conversation between Nixon and White House Special Counsel Charles Colson clearly show Nixon's early involvement in obstructing justice in the Watergate investigation.

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 his demand that independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox be dismissed, was refused to be carried out by Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, who both resigned in protest. The then Solicitor General, the most senior officer remaining at the Department of Justice, Robert Bork, dismissed Cox.

As the Watergate story continued to dominate headlines, Nixon tried to reassure a suspicious public by continuing to deflect himself from any wrong doing. On November 17, 1973, at a televised question and answer session with the press, Nixon said,

People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.

The House Judiciary Committee controlled by Democrats 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 ordered the CIA to tell the FBI to stop investigating certain topics because of "the Bay of Pigs thing." In light of his loss of political support and the near certainty of both his impeachment by the House of Representatives and his probable conviction by the Senate, he resigned on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening. He never admitted to criminal wrongdoing, although he later conceded errors of judgment.

On September 8, 1974, a blanket pardon from President Ford, who served as Nixon's second Vice President, ended any possibility of indictment. The pardon was highly controversial and Nixon's critics claimed that the blanket pardon was quid pro quo for his resignation. No evidence of this "corrupt bargain" has ever been proven, and many modern historians dismiss any claims of overt collusion between the two men concerning the pardon. The pardon of Richard Nixon hurt Ford politically, and it was one of the many reasons cited for Ford's defeat in the election of 1976. The Democratic win in the 1974 mid-term elections provided a governing House majority that continued for two more decades.

In 1976, Nixon was disbarred by the State of New York, and soon resigned his other law licenses.

In his later years Nixon worked hard to rehabilitate his public image. 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. He made many foreign visits in his post-presidential years, including his final one, to Russia in March 1994 just one month before his death.

Nixon continued to author books after his departure from politics, writing ten, including his most-recent memoirs.

The Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace opened as a private institution on July 19, 1990, with President Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon in attendance, as well as former Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, as well as the current President at the time George H.W. Bush, and their First Ladies: Betty, Nancy, and Barbara. From the time of its original dedication until July 11, 2007, the property was owned and operated by a private foundation and was not part of NARA's Presidential Libraries system. In January 2004, Congress passed legislation that provided for the establishment of a federally operated Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda. In March 2005, the Archivist of the United States and the Reverend John H. Taylor, Executive Director of the privately run Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation, exchanged letters on the requirements that will allow the Nixon Library and Birthplace to become the twelfth federally funded Presidential Library operated and staffed by NARA. On October 16, 2006, Dr. Timothy Naftali began his tenure as director of the Materials Project; he assumed the directorship of the newly renamed Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum on July 11, 2007 when the institution was officially welcomed into the federal presidential library system.

First Lady Pat Nixon died June 22, 1993 of health problems, including two strokes and lung cancer. Her funeral services were held on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California during the week until her burial on June 26. Richard Nixon was in deep sadness the entire time, but was comforted by his family as well as former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, and their First Ladies, Betty and Nancy, respectively.

Nixon suffered a severe stroke at 5:45 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 18, 1994, while preparing to eat dinner in his Park Ridge, New Jersey home. It was determined that a blood clot resulting from his heart condition had formed in his upper heart, then broken off and traveled to his brain. He was rushed by ambulance to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, initially alert, but unable to speak or to move his right arm or leg. His vision was reportedly also impaired, but he was able to greet his private doctor and daughters on separate occasions with strong squeezes from his left hand and his renowned thumbs-up salute. Nixon was reportedly also visited by longtime friend Reverend Billy Graham and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani the day after his stroke.

Doctors initially claimed Nixon's stroke was minor, but the damage to the brain caused swelling (cerebral edema). Less than 24 hours after his arrival at the hospital, Nixon's level of consciousness began falling sharply, and on Thursday, April 21, 1994, he slipped into a deep coma. Nixon's living will stipulated that he was not to be placed on a ventilator to sustain his life. On Friday, April 22, 1994, he died at 9:08 p.m., with his daughters at his bedside; he was 81.

Nixon's funeral took place on April 27, 1994, the first for an American President since that of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973, which was presided over by Nixon during his presidency. Speakers at the service, held at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace (now Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum), included then-President Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, California Governor Pete Wilson, and the Reverend Billy Graham. Also in attendance were former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and their respective first ladies. Nixon was buried beside his wife, Pat (also 81 when she died ten months earlier, on June 22, 1993, of lung cancer), on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda. He was survived by his two daughters, Tricia and Julie, and four grandchildren. The funeral was not a state funeral, therefore his body did not lie in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

Presidential scholars, both liberal and conservative, generally agree that Nixon presents a special problem when seeking to evaluate and determine his presidential ranking because his foreign policy and domestic policy successes stand in dramatic contradiction to the corruption of his top aides. Political scientist Walter Dean Burnham noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles. On some very important dimensions both Wilson and L.B. Johnson were outright failures in my view; while on others they rank very high indeed. Similarly with Nixon." Historian Alan Brinkley said: "There are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Wilson, Johnson, Nixon)." James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic President, so brilliant and so morally lacking?" Even George McGovern, eleven years after Nixon defeated him for the presidency, commented: "President Nixon probably had a more practical approach to the two superpowers, China and the Soviet Union, than any other president since World War II. ... I think, with the exception of his inexcusable continuation of the war in Vietnam, Nixon really will get high marks in history."

Nixon's career was frequently dogged by his personality, and the public perception of it. Editorial cartoonists such as Herblock and comedians had fun exaggerating Nixon's appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human and the caricature version of him became increasingly blurred. He was often portrayed as a sullen loner, with unshaven jowls, slumped shoulders, and a furrowed, sweaty brow. He was also characterized as the 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 (before he was President). He also frequently brandished the two-finger V sign (alternately viewed as the "Victory sign" or "peace sign") using both hands, an act that became one of his best-known trademarks. Due to his uptight image, many Americans were shocked to hear that the President had a much gruffer, aggressive side, revealed by the sheer amount of swearing and vicious comments seen on the transcripts of the president's White House tapes. This did not help the public perception and fed the comedians even more. Nixon's sense of being persecuted by his "enemies," his grandiose belief in his own moral and political excellence, and his commitment to use ruthless power at all costs led some experts to describe him as having a narcissistic and paranoid personality. During the Watergate scandal, Nixon's approval rating had fallen to 23%.

* It has been alleged that Nixon was an alcoholic who, in 1968, received a supply of the anti-convulsant Dilantin from his friend Jack Dreyfus. Nixon supposedly took this drug without a prescription for several years. However, two Nixon aides have disputed these claims, leaving a number of questions about Nixon's purported drug use. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C07E7D61730F932A0575BC0A9669C8B63 By contrast, in 1979, close friend and advisor the Reverend Billy Graham remarked about the former President: "He took all those sleeping pills, and through history, drugs and demons have gone together." * Nixon is one of only two men to have run on five National tickets for a major party (the other one is Roosevelt again) for Vice President in 1952 and 1956 and for the presidency in 1960, 1968, and 1972. He was nominated as a resident of two different states: between his 1960 and 1968 presidential campaigns, he moved from California to New York. * Nixon's last public appearance was in April of 1994 at a Conestoga High School performance of Into the Woods. His granddaughter Jennie Eisenhower, also the great-granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower, played the role of Little Red Riding Hood. * The last picture taken of Nixon was on April 16, 1994 at the wedding of family friend Marie Abplanalp just two days before his stroke and six days before his death. * In the final four days of Nixon's life after suffering his ultimately fatal stroke he was at the same hospital (New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center) as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was suffering from cancer and died less than a month after Nixon. * Nixon is the only American to have been honoured with the Nishan-e-Pakistan, Pakistan's highest civil decoration. * Nixon applied for the Special Agent position in the FBI. * Gonzo journalist and counter-culture figure Hunter S. Thompson considered Nixon to be his greatest foe, and made a habit of bashing him in his writings. Thompson wrote this of Nixon: "Richard Nixon has never been one of my favorite people anyway. For years I've regarded his existence as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream; he was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad. The Nixon I remembered was absolutely humorless; I couldn't imagine him laughing at anything except maybe a paraplegic who wanted to vote Democratic but couldn't quite reach the lever on the voting machine." * Nixon's favorite politician was the French President Charles De Gaulle. * Nixon's favorite dinner was a chicken casserole dish. His favorite breakfast included cottage cheese ketchup and/or black pepper. http://nixon.archives.gov/learn/trivia.html * Nixon was a distant cousin of Leka, Crown Prince of Albania. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/22/db2201.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/22/ixportal.html * Three of his predecessors died during his term in office: Dwight D. Eisenhower on March 28, 1969, Harry S. Truman on December 26, 1972 and Lyndon B. Johnson on January 22, 1973. From Johnson's death, until Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974, he was the only living current or former U.S. President. *In The Book of Lists, Ashley Montagu included Nixon in a list of the worst well-known people in history--along with Adolf Hitler, Stalin and Heinrich Himmler.

* Nixon was the first President to visit all 50 states. * Nixon was the second U.S. President to visit the Soviet Union (the first one was Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference in 1945). * Nixon is the only President to fly commercially while in office (source: Executive One article).

Actors who have played Nixon include Philip Baker Hall in Secret Honor (1984), Dan Hedaya in Dick (1999), Rip Torn in Blind Ambition (1979), Bob Gunton in Elvis Meets Nixon (1997) and Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon. Anthony Hopkins received an Oscar nomination for playing the title role in Nixon (1995).

On the animated sitcom The Simpsons, the character Milhouse is named in reference to Nixon's middle name. There are also a large number of episodes where Nixon has been portrayed, almost always in a bad light.

On the animated sitcom Futurama, Nixon becomes earth President in the year 3000, claiming that he can have a third term as he has a new body.

In the movie Big Lewbowski, a poster of Richard Nixon bowling can be seen on a wall in The Dude's apartment.

James Taylor's song Line ’Em Up is based on Richard Nixon. The opera Nixon In China was based on his 1972 trip to that country.

At the end of the Bob & Tom album "With a Little Help from Our Friends," B&T troupe player Hadji sings a few short lines from "Here Comes Santa Claus," but with a change:

Here comes Tricky Dick,
Here comes Tricky Dick,
[shave-and-a-haircut riff played]
Pardon me!


Richard Nixon was also portrayed as quite a controversial character in the opening to Elton John's album 'Captain and the Kid', the song: "Postcards from Richard Nixon".

Nixon went target shooting as a favorite hobby. He played golf frequently. Nixon was an avid bowler and allegedly once bowled a perfect game. Nixon was also an accomplished pianist and played violin as a youth. He once played a composition he wrote on a March 1963 episode of The Tonight Show.

He was a knowledgeable sports fan, with a particular interest in football and baseball. During his presidency, he had the habit of calling the losing team after the Super Bowl to offer his condolences and support. Nixon took a particular interest in the NFL's 1971 season. During the playoffs, he contacted George Allen to suggest he tell his Washington Redskins team that Nixon designed a play for them. He did not actually design the play. Once the Redskins were eliminated, he began to root for the Miami Dolphins. He called Dolphins coach Don Shula on January 3, 1972, to suggest the team use a quick slant pass in the Super Bowl.

Nixon became close friends with legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes. Nixon gave the eulogy at Hayes' funeral in 1987. Hayes was both a staunch Republican, and a very conservative individual. During the eulogy at Hayes' funeral, Nixon gave the story of when he first met Hayes at a party: "I wanted to talk about football, he wanted to talk about foreign policy. You know Woody — we talked about foreign policy!"

Nixon had a Yorkshire Terrier named Pasha and an Irish Setter named King Timahoe.

* History of the United States (1964–1980) * Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California * Richard Nixon mask * The Imperial Presidency * United States presidential election, 1952 * United States presidential election, 1956 * United States presidential election, 1960 * United States presidential election, 1968 * United States presidential election, 1972

* * 1984 audio interview with Richard Nixon by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, RealAudio * 1992 transcript of Richard Nixon interview with Larry King * Nixon Presidential Materials at National Archives * Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, Yorba Linda, California * The Nixon Center, Washington, D.C. * whitehousetapes.org: The Nixon Tapes available online * Richard Nixon photographs hosted by the Portal to Texas History * Political Donations Made by Richard Nixon * yorbalindahistory.org Developed by the Yorba Linda Public Library (includes newspaper articles about Nixon from the Yorba Linda Star) * Nixon Fun Facts via Nixon Foundation * <a class="externalLink" href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1189/is_3_274/ai_85032622|Account">of the day Nixon had his fatal stroke in April 1994</a> * Nixon's will

* White House biography * *

* Judiciary Committee Hearings Appendix I: Presidential Statements on the Watergate Break-in and Its Investigation * Articles of Impeachment * The Watergate Tapes

* Checkers speech (September 23, 1952) * First Inaugural Address (January 20, 1969) * Second Inaugural Address (January 20, 1973) * Resignation speech (August 8, 1974) * Audio recordings of Nixon's speeches * Public Papers of the Presidents

* The Living Room Candidate — 1972 Nixon vs. McGovern * The Living Room Candidate — 1956 Eisenhower vs. Stevenson

* Remarks by Governor Pete Wilson of California at Richard Nixon's funeral [[April 27], 1994] * Eulogy by Hunter S. Thompson (not actually delivered at his funeral)