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Democrates Democratic Dems DNC Red State Vintage Antique Old

GOP Republican Grand Old Party

Vintage historic political pin back campaign pocket tab style pin back button. Johnson Humphrey - Vote Democratic - presidential election campaign of 1964 - Enamel lithograph over metal - Red Blue white with photo of both candidates - app 1" wide x 3/4" front only (not including pocket collar tab portion)

Lyndon Baines Johnson (/ˈlɪndən ˈbeɪnz/; August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963 under President John F. Kennedy, and was sworn in shortly after Kennedy's assassination. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson also served as a U.S. representative, U.S. senator and the Senate's majority leader. He holds the distinction of being one of the few presidents who served in all elected offices at the federal level.

Born in a farmhouse in Stonewall, Texas, to a local political family, Johnson worked as a high school teacher and a congressional aide before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937. He won election to the United States Senate in 1948 after a narrow and controversial victory in the Democratic Party's primary.[2] He was appointed to the position of Senate Majority Whip in 1951. He became the Senate Democratic leader in 1953 and majority leader in 1954. In 1960 Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination for president. Ultimately, Senator Kennedy bested Johnson and his other rivals for the nomination, then surprised many by offering to make Johnson his vice presidential running mate. The Kennedy-Johnson ticket won in the 1960 presidential election. Vice President Johnson assumed the presidency on November 22, 1963, after President Kennedy was assassinated. The following year Johnson was elected to the presidency when he won in a landslide against Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, receiving 61.1% of the popular vote in the 1964 presidential election, the largest share won by any presidential candidate since the 1820 election.

Johnson's domestic policy was aimed at expanding civil rights, public broadcasting, access to healthcare, aid to education and the arts, urban and rural development, and public services. In 1964 Johnson coined the term the "Great Society" to describe these efforts. In addition, he sought to create better living conditions for low-income Americans by spearheading a campaign unofficially called the "War on Poverty". As part of these efforts, Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965, which resulted in the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Johnson followed his predecessor's actions in bolstering NASA and made the Apollo Program a national priority. He enacted the Higher Education Act of 1965 which established federally insured student loans. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which laid the groundwork for U.S. immigration policy today. Johnson's opinion on the issue of civil rights put him at odds with other white, southern Democrats. His civil rights legacy was shaped by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. During his presidency, the American political landscape transformed significantly,[3] as white southerners who were once staunch Democrats began moving to the Republican Party[4] and black voters began moving to the Democratic Party.[5][6] Because of his domestic agenda, Johnson's presidency marked the peak of modern liberalism in the United States.[7]

Johnson's presidency took place during the Cold War and thus he prioritized halting the expansion of communism. Prior to his presidency, the U.S. was already involved in the Vietnam War, supporting South Vietnam against the communist North. Following a naval skirmish in 1964 between the United States and North Vietnam, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted Johnson the power to launch a full-scale military intervention in South East Asia. The number of American military personnel in Vietnam increased dramatically, and casualties soared among U.S. soldiers and Vietnamese civilians. Johnson also expanded military operations in neighboring Laos to destroy North Vietnamese supply lines. In 1968, the communist Tet Offensive inflamed the anti-war movement, especially among draft-age students on university campuses, and public opinion turned against America's involvement in the war.

At home, Johnson faced further troubles with race riots in major cities and increasing crime rates. His political opponents seized the opportunity and raised demands for "law and order" policies. Johnson began his presidency with near-universal support, but his approval declined throughout his presidency as the public became frustrated with both the Vietnam War and domestic unrest. Johnson initially sought to run for re-election; however, following disappointing results in the New Hampshire primary he withdrew his candidacy. The war was a major election issue and the 1968 presidential election saw Republican candidate Richard Nixon defeat Johnson's vice president Hubert Humphrey. At the end of his presidency in 1969, Johnson returned to his Texas ranch, published his memoirs, and in other respects kept a low profile until he died of a heart attack in 1973.

Johnson is one of the most controversial presidents in American history. During his term his performance deeply divided his party. Furthermore, public opinion and academic assessments of his legacy have fluctuated greatly ever since. Historians and scholars rank Johnson in the upper tier because of his accomplishments regarding domestic policy. His administration passed many major laws that made substantial advancements in civil rights, health care, welfare, and education.[8] Conversely, Johnson is strongly criticized for his foreign policy, namely escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909[1] – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force major general who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964. Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. Despite his loss of the 1964 U.S. presidential election in a landslide, many political pundits and historians believe he laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow, as the grassroots organization and conservative takeover of the Republican Party began a long-term realignment in American politics, which helped to bring about the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s. He also had a substantial impact on the American libertarian movement.[2]

Goldwater was born in Phoenix in what was then the Arizona Territory, where he helped manage his family's department store. Upon the U.S. entry into World War II, Goldwater received a reserve commission in the United States Army Air Force. He trained as a pilot and was assigned to the Ferry Command, a newly formed unit that flew aircraft and supplies to war zones worldwide. After the war, Goldwater was elected to the Phoenix City Council in 1949 and won election to the U.S. Senate in 1952.

In the Senate, Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and, along with the conservative coalition, fought against the New Deal coalition. Goldwater also had a reputation as a "maverick" for challenging his party's moderate to liberal wing on policy issues. A member of the NAACP and active supporter of desegregation in Phoenix,[3][4] Goldwater supported the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 and the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but, in a decision that he later said anguished him because of his belief in racial equality, he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the basis that two of its provisions, specifically Title II and Title VII, were unconstitutional and a potential overreach of the federal government.[3][5] In 1964, Goldwater mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the Republican presidential primaries. Although raised as an Episcopalian,[6] Goldwater was the first candidate of Jewish descent (through his father) to be nominated for president by a major American party.[7][8] Goldwater's platform ultimately failed to gain the support of the electorate[9] and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson by one of the largest margins in history. Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969 and specialized in defense and foreign policy. As an elder statesman of the party, Goldwater, who was respected by his colleagues for his honor and dedication to principle, successfully urged President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974 when evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent.

Goldwater narrowly won re-election in 1980 for what would be his final and most influential term in the Senate. In 1986, Goldwater oversaw passage of the Goldwater–Nichols Act, arguably his most significant legislative achievement, which strengthened civilian authority in the Department of Defense. The following year, he retired from the Senate and was succeeded by Congressman John McCain, who praised his predecessor as the man who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan". Goldwater strongly supported the 1980 presidential campaign of Reagan, who had become the standard-bearer of the conservative movement after his "A Time for Choosing" speech. Reagan reflected many of the principles of Goldwater's earlier run in his campaign. The Washington Post columnist George Will took note of this, writing: "We ... who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes".

Goldwater's views on social and cultural issues grew increasingly libertarian as he neared the end of his career. After leaving the Senate, Goldwater's views on social issues cemented as libertarian. He criticized the "money-making ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others [in the Republican Party] who are trying to ... make a religious organization out of it." In his later years, he supported homosexuals serving openly in the military,[10][11][12][13][14] environmental protection,[15][16] gay rights, abortion rights,[21][22] adoption rights for same-sex couples,[23][24][25] and the legalization of medicinal marijuana.

Humphrey entered the race too late to participate in the Democratic primaries. He relied on "favorite son" candidates to win delegates and lobbied for endorsements from powerful bosses to obtain slates of delegates. The other candidates, who strove to win the nomination through popular support, criticized Humphrey's traditional approach. The June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy left McCarthy as Humphrey's only major opponent. That changed at the 1968 Democratic National Convention when Senator George McGovern of South Dakota entered the race as the successor of Kennedy. Humphrey won the party's nomination at the Convention on the first ballot, amid protests in Chicago. He selected little-known Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as his running mate.

During the general election, Humphrey faced former Vice President Richard Nixon of California, the Republican Party nominee, and Governor of Alabama George Wallace, the American Independent Party nominee. Nixon led in most polls throughout the campaign, and successfully criticized Humphrey's role in the Vietnam War, connecting him to the unpopular president and the general disorder in the nation. Humphrey experienced a surge in the polls in the days prior to the election, largely due to incremental progress in the peace process in Vietnam and a break with the Johnson war policy. On Election Day, Humphrey narrowly fell short of Nixon in the popular vote, but lost, by a large margin, in the Electoral College.
Background
Humphrey speaks at the 1948 Democratic National Convention.

Hubert Humphrey was first elected to public office in 1945 as Mayor of Minneapolis. He served two, two-year terms, and gained a reputation as an anti-Communist and ardent supporter of the Civil Rights Movement.[2] He gave a rousing speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention arguing for the adoption of a pro-Civil Rights plank, exclaiming "The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights."[3] That same year, Minnesota voters elected him to the United States Senate, where he worked closely with Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. Humphrey's persona and tactics in the Senate led colleagues to nickname him "The Happy Warrior".[4] Contemporaries attributed his success in politics to his likable personality and ability to connect with voters on a personal level.[5]

Humphrey first entered presidential politics in 1952, running as a favorite son candidate in Minnesota. In 1960, he mounted a full-scale run, winning primaries in South Dakota and Washington D.C.; ultimately losing the Democratic nomination to Massachusetts Senator and future President John F. Kennedy. In 1964, with Lyndon Johnson now as president following the assassination of Kennedy, Johnson tapped Humphrey as his running mate and went on to win in a landslide victory over Republican Barry Goldwater. As vice president, Humphrey oversaw turbulent times in America, including race riots and growing frustration and anger over the large number of casualties in the Vietnam War. President Johnson's popularity plummeted as the election grew closer.

The 1968 presidential campaign of Hubert Humphrey began when Vice President of the United States Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota decided to seek the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States following President Lyndon B. Johnson's announcement ending his own bid for the nomination. Johnson withdrew after an unexpectedly strong challenge from anti-Vietnam War presidential candidate, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, in the early Democratic primaries. McCarthy, along with Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, became Humphrey's main opponents for the nomination. Their "new politics" contrasted with Humphrey's "old politics" as the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War intensified.

George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election.

McGovern grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota, where he became a renowned debater. He volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Forces upon the country's entry into World War II. As a B-24 Liberator pilot, he flew 35 missions over German-occupied Europe from a base in Italy. Among the medals he received was a Distinguished Flying Cross for making a hazardous emergency landing of his damaged plane and saving his crew. After the war he earned degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University and Northwestern University, culminating in a PhD, and served as a history professor. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1956 and re-elected in 1958. After a failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 1960, he was a successful candidate in 1962.

As a senator, McGovern was an example of modern American liberalism. He became most known for his outspoken opposition to the growing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He staged a brief nomination run in the 1968 presidential election as a stand-in for the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. The subsequent McGovern–Fraser Commission fundamentally altered the presidential nominating process, by increasing the number of caucuses and primaries and reducing the influence of party insiders. The McGovern–Hatfield Amendment sought to end the Vietnam War by legislative means but was defeated in 1970 and 1971. McGovern's long-shot, grassroots-based 1972 presidential campaign found triumph in gaining the Democratic nomination but left the party split ideologically, and the failed vice-presidential pick of Thomas Eagleton undermined McGovern's credibility. In the general election McGovern lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in U.S. electoral history. Though re-elected to the Senate in 1968 and 1974, McGovern was defeated in his bid for a fourth term in 1980.

Beginning with his experiences in war-torn Italy and continuing throughout his career, McGovern was involved in issues related to agriculture, food, nutrition, and hunger. As the first director of the Food for Peace program in 1961, McGovern oversaw the distribution of U.S. surpluses to the needy abroad and was instrumental in the creation of the United Nations-run World Food Programme. As sole chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs from 1968 to 1977, McGovern publicized the problem of hunger within the United States and issued the "McGovern Report", which led to a new set of nutritional guidelines for Americans. McGovern later served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 1998 to 2001 and was appointed the first UN global ambassador on world hunger by the World Food Programme in 2001. The McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program has provided school meals for millions of children in dozens of countries since 2000 and resulted in McGovern's being named World Food Prize co‑laureate in 2008.
Early years and education

McGovern was born in the 600‑person farming community of Avon, South Dakota.[1][2] His father, the Rev. Joseph C. McGovern, born in 1868, was pastor of the local Wesleyan Methodist Church there.[2][3] Joseph – the son of an alcoholic who had immigrated from Ireland[4] – had grown up in several states, working in coal mines from the age of nine and parentless from the age of thirteen.[5] He had been a professional baseball player in the minor leagues,[nb 2] but had given it up due to his teammates' heavy drinking, gambling, and womanizing, and entered the seminary instead.[4] George's mother was the former Frances McLean, born c. 1890 and initially raised in Ontario, Canada; her family had later moved to Calgary, Alberta, and then she came to South Dakota looking for work as a secretary.[4][7][8] George was the second oldest of four children.[4] Joseph McGovern's salary never reached $100 per month, and he often received compensation in the form of potatoes, cabbages, or other food items.[2][9] Joseph and Frances McGovern were both firm Republicans, but were not politically active or doctrinaire.[10][11]
The Corn Palace, a longtime sight of McGovern's hometown of Mitchell, South Dakota
Effects of a 1936 Dust Bowl storm in nearby Gregory County, South Dakota

When George was about three years old, the family moved to Calgary for a while to be near Frances's ailing mother, and he formed memories of events such as the Calgary Stampede.[7][12] When George was six, the family returned to the United States and moved to Mitchell, South Dakota, a community of 12,000.[2] McGovern attended public schools there[1] and was an average student.[9] He was painfully shy as a child and was afraid to speak in class during first grade.[13] His only reproachable behavior was going to see movies, which were among the worldly amusements forbidden to good Wesleyan Methodists.[9] Otherwise he had a normal childhood marked by visits to the renowned Mitchell Corn Palace[13] and what he later termed "a sense of belonging to a particular place and knowing your part in it."[8] He would, however, long remember the Dust Bowl storms and grasshopper plagues that swept the prairie states during the Great Depression.[14] The McGovern family lived on the edge of the poverty line for much of the 1920s and 1930s.[15] Growing up so close to privation gave young George a lifelong sympathy for underpaid workers and struggling farmers.[2] He was influenced by the currents of populism and agrarian unrest and by the "practical divinity" teachings of cleric John Wesley that sought to fight poverty, injustice, and ignorance.[16]

McGovern attended Mitchell High School,[1] where he was a solid but unspectacular member of the track team.[17] A turning point came when his tenth-grade English teacher recommended him to the debate team, where he became quite active.[13] His high-school debate coach, a history teacher who capitalized on McGovern's interest in that subject, proved to be a great influence in his life, and McGovern spent many hours honing his meticulous, if colorless, forensic style.[11][18] McGovern and his debating partner won events in his area and gained renown in a state where debating was passionately followed by the general public.[11][19] Debate changed McGovern's life, giving him a chance to explore ideas to their logical end, broadening his perspective, and instilling a sense of personal and social confidence.[8][11] He graduated in 1940 in the top ten percent of his class.[1][20]

McGovern enrolled at small Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell[1] and became a star student there.[21] He supplemented a forensic scholarship by working a variety of odd jobs.[20] With World War II under way overseas and feeling insecure about his own courage,[nb 3] McGovern took flying lessons in an Aeronca aircraft and received a pilot's license through the government's Civilian Pilot Training Program.[13][17] McGovern recalled: "Frankly, I was scared to death on that first solo flight. But when I walked away from it, I had an enormous feeling of satisfaction that I had taken the thing off the ground and landed it without tearing the wings off."[13] In late 1940 or early 1941, McGovern had pre-marital sex with an acquaintance that resulted in her giving birth to a daughter during 1941, although this did not become public knowledge during his lifetime.[nb 1] In April 1941 McGovern began dating fellow student Eleanor Stegeberg, who had grown up in Woonsocket, South Dakota.[24][25] They had first encountered each other during a high school debate in which Eleanor and her twin sister Ila defeated McGovern and his partner.[8]

McGovern was listening to a radio broadcast of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for a sophomore-year music appreciation class when he heard the news of the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.[26] In January 1942 he drove with nine other students to Omaha, Nebraska, and volunteered to join the United States Army Air Forces.[27] The military accepted him, but they did not yet have enough airfields, aircraft, or instructors to start training all the volunteers, so McGovern stayed at Dakota Wesleyan.[24] George and Eleanor became engaged, but initially decided not to marry until the war was over.[24] During his sophomore year, McGovern won the statewide intercollegiate South Dakota Peace Oratory Contest with a speech called "My Brother's Keeper", which was later selected by the National Council of Churches as one of the nation's twelve best orations of 1942.[3][28] Smart, handsome, and well liked, McGovern was elected president of his sophomore class and voted "Glamour Boy" during his junior year.[29] In February 1943, during his junior year, he and a partner won a regional debate tournament at North Dakota State University that featured competitors from thirty-two schools across a dozen states; upon his return to campus, he discovered that the Army had finally called him up.

Edmund Sixtus Muskie[a] (March 28, 1914 – March 26, 1996) was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States secretary of state under president Jimmy Carter, a United States senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951. He was the Democratic Party's candidate for Vice President of the United States in the 1968 presidential election.

Born in Rumford, Maine, he worked as a lawyer for two years before serving in the United States Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1945 during World War II. Upon his return, Muskie served in the Maine State Legislature from 1946 to 1951, and unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Waterville. Muskie was elected the 64th Governor of Maine in 1954 under a reform platform as the first Maine Democratic Party governor in almost 100 years. Muskie pressed for economic expansionism and instated environmental provisions. Muskie's actions severed a nearly 100-year Republican stronghold and led to the political insurgency of the Maine Democrats.

His legislative work during his career as a Senator coincided with an expansion of modern liberalism in the United States. He promoted the 1960s environmental movement which led to the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972. Muskie supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and opposed Richard Nixon's "Imperial presidency" by advancing New Federalism. Muskie ran with Vice president Hubert Humphrey against Nixon in the 1968 presidential election, losing the popular vote by 0.7 percentage points—one of the narrowest margins in U.S. history. He would go on to run in the 1972 presidential election where he secured 1.84 million votes in the primaries coming in fourth out of 15 contesters. The release of the forged "Canuck letter" derailed his campaign and sullied his public image with Americans of French-Canadian descent.

After the election, he returned to the Senate where he gave the 1976 State of the Union Response. Muskie served as first chairman of the new Senate Budget Committee from 1975 to 1980 where he established the United States budget process.[b] Upon his retirement from the Senate, he became the 58th U.S. Secretary of State under President Carter. His tenure as Secretary of State was one of the shortest in modern history. His department negotiated the release of 52 Americans, thus concluding the Iran hostage crisis. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Carter in 1981 and has been honored with a public holiday in Maine since 1987.
Early life and education

Edmund Sixtus Muskie was born on Saturday, March 28, 1914 in Rumford, Maine.[9][10] He was born after his parents' first child, Irene (born 1912), and before his brother Eugene (born 1918) and three sisters, Lucy (born 1916), Elizabeth (born 1923), and Frances (born 1921).[1] His father, Stephen Marciszewski, was born and raised in Jasionówka, Russian Poland[11] and worked as an estate manager for minor Russian nobility.[12] He immigrated to America in 1903 and changed his name to Muskie from "Marciszewski" in 1914.[c] He worked as a master tailor and Muskie's mother, Josephine (née Czarnecka) worked as a housewife. She was born to a Polish-American family in Buffalo, New York. Muskie's parents married in 1911, and Josephine moved to Rumford soon after.[14]

Muskie's first language was Polish; he spoke it as his only language until age 4. He began learning English soon after and eventually lost fluency in his mother language.[15] In his youth he was an avid fisherman, hunter, and swimmer.[16] He felt as though his given name was "odd" so he went by Ed throughout his life.[17] Muskie was shy and anxious in his early life but maintained a sizable number of friends.[18] Muskie attended Stephens High School, where he played baseball, participated in the performing arts, and was elected student body president in his senior year. He would go on to graduate in 1932 at the top of his class as valedictorian.[19] A 1931 edition of the school's newspaper noted him with the following: "when you see a head and shoulders towering over you in the halls of Stephen's, you should know that your eyes are feasting on the future President of the United States."[20]

Influenced by the political excitement of Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to the White House, he attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.[19][21] While at college, Muskie was a successful member of the debating team, participated in several sports, and was elected to student government.[19] Although he received a small scholarship and New Deal subsidies, he had to work during the summers as a dishwasher and bellhop at a hotel in Kennebunk to finance his time at Bates.[22] He would record in his diaries occasional feelings of insecurity among his wealthier Bates peers; Muskie was fearful of being kicked out of the college as a consequence of his socioeconomic status.[23] His situation would gradually improve and he went on to graduate in 1936 as class president and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[14] Initially intending to major in mathematics he switched to a double major in history and government.[24]

Upon his graduation, he was given a partial merit-based scholarship to Cornell Law School. After his second semester there, his scholarship ran out. As he was preparing to drop out, he heard of an "eccentric millionaire" named William Bingham II who had a habit of randomly and sporadically paying the university costs, mortgages, car loans, and other expenses of those who wrote to him. After Muskie wrote to him about his immigrant origins he secured $900 from the man allowing him to finance his final years at Cornell. While in law school he was elected to Phi Alpha Delta and went on to graduate cum laude, in 1939.[25] Upon graduating from Cornell, Muskie was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1939.[26]

He then worked as a high school substitute teacher while he was studying for the Maine Bar examination; he passed in 1940. Muskie moved to Waterville and purchased a small law practice—renamed "Muskie & Glover"—for $2,000 in March 1940.[27] He helped write Waterville's first zoning ordinance and was elected secretary of the Zoning Board of Appeals.[28]
Marriage and children
Jane Gray Muskie in 1968

Jane Frances Gray was born February 12, 1927 in Waterville to Myrtie and Millage Guy Gray. Growing up she was voted "prettiest in school" in high school and at age 15, started her first job in a dress shop.[29][30] At age 18, she was hired to be a bookkeeper and saleswoman in an exclusive haute couture boutique in Waterville. While there a mutual friend tried to introduce her to Muskie while he was working in the city as a lawyer. She had Gray model the dresses in the shop window while he was walking to work. Muskie came into the shop one day and invited her to a gala event. At the time she was 19 and he was 32; their difference in age stirred controversy in the town.[31] However, after eighteen months of courting Gray and her family, she agreed to marry him in a private ceremony in 1948. Gray and Muskie had five children: Stephen (born 1949), Ellen (born 1950), Melinda (born 1956), Martha (born 1958, d. 2006), and Edmund Jr. (born 1961).[10] The Muskies lived in a yellow cottage at Kennebunk Beach while they lived in Maine

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His five years in the White House saw reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the first manned Moon landings, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early, when he became the only president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Nixon was born into a poor family of Quakers in a small town in Southern California. He graduated from Duke Law School in 1937, practiced law in California, then moved with his wife Pat to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government. After active duty in the Naval Reserve during World War II, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. His work on the Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-Communist, which elevated him to national prominence, and in 1950, he was elected to the Senate. Nixon was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 1952 election, and served for eight years as the vice president. He ran for president in 1960, narrowly lost to John F. Kennedy, then failed again in a 1962 race for governor of California, after which it was widely believed that his political career was over. However, in 1968, he made another run for the presidency and was elected, defeating Hubert Humphrey by less than one percentage point in the popular vote, as well as defeating third party candidate George Wallace.

Nixon ended American involvement in Vietnam combat in 1973 and the military draft with it that same year. His visit to China in 1972 eventually led to diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he also then concluded the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. In step with his conservative beliefs, his administration incrementally transferred power from the federal government to the states. Nixon's domestic policy saw him impose wage and price controls for 90 days, enforce desegregation of Southern schools, establish the Environmental Protection Agency, and begin the War on Cancer. Additionally, his administration pushed for the Controlled Substances Act and began the War on Drugs. He also presided over the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which signaled the end of the Space Race. He was re-elected with a historic electoral landslide in 1972 when he defeated George McGovern.

In his second term, Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses in the Yom Kippur War, a conflict which led to the oil crisis at home. By late 1973, the Nixon administration's involvement in Watergate eroded his support in Congress and the country. On August 9, 1974, facing almost certain impeachment and removal from office, Nixon resigned from the presidency. Afterwards, he was issued a pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. During nearly 20 years of retirement, Nixon wrote his memoirs and nine other books. He undertook many foreign trips, rehabilitating his image into that of an elder statesman and leading expert on foreign affairs. He suffered a debilitating stroke on April 18, 1994, and died four days later at the age of 81. Surveys of historians and political scientists have ranked Nixon as a below-average president.[2][3][4] However, evaluations of him have proven complex, with the successes of his presidency contrasted against the circumstances of his departure from office.
Early life and education
Nixon (second from right) makes his newspaper debut in 1916, contributing five cents to a fund for war orphans. His brother Donald is to his right.

Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, in what was then the township precinct of Yorba Linda, California,[5] in a house built by his father, located on his family's lemon ranch.[1][6][7] His parents were Hannah (Milhous) Nixon and Francis A. Nixon. His mother was a Quaker, and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith. Through his mother, Nixon was a descendant of the early English settler Thomas Cornell, who was also an ancestor of Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University, as well as of Jimmy Carter and Bill Gates.[8]

Nixon's upbringing was influenced by Quaker observances of the time such as abstinence from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. Nixon had four brothers: Harold (1909–1933), Donald (1914–1987), Arthur (1918–1925), and Edward (1930–2019).[9] Four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in medieval or legendary Britain; Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart.[10]

Nixon's early life was marked by hardship, and he later quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood: "We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it".[11] The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the family moved to Whittier, California. In an area with many Quakers, Frank Nixon opened a grocery store and gas station.[12] Richard's younger brother Arthur died in 1925 at the age of seven after a short illness.[13] Richard was twelve years old when a spot was found on his lung, and with a family history of tuberculosis, he was forbidden to play sports. The spot turned out to be scar tissue from an early bout of pneumonia.[14][15]
Primary and secondary education
Nixon at Whittier High School, 1930

Nixon attended East Whittier Elementary School, where he was president of his eighth-grade class.[16] His older brother Harold had attended Whittier High School, which his parents thought resulted in Harold's dissolute lifestyle, before he contracted tuberculosis (that killed him in 1933). They decided to send Nixon to the larger Fullerton Union High School.[17][18][17][18] Though he had to ride a school bus an hour each way during his freshman year, he received excellent grades. Later, he lived with an aunt in Fullerton during the week.[19] He played junior varsity football, and seldom missed a practice, though he rarely was used in games.[20] He had greater success as a debater, winning a number of championships and taking his only formal tutelage in public speaking from Fullerton's Head of English, H. Lynn Sheller. Nixon later mused on Sheller's words, "Remember, speaking is conversation...don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them."[21] Nixon said he tried to use a conversational tone as much as possible.[21]

At the start of his junior year in September 1928, Nixon's parents permitted him to transfer to Whittier High School. At Whittier, Nixon lost a bid for student body president, his first electoral defeat. At this period of his life, he often rose at 4 a.m., to drive the family truck into Los Angeles to purchase vegetables at the market and then drove to the store to wash and display them before going to school. Harold was diagnosed with tuberculosis the previous year; when their mother took him to Arizona hoping to improve his health, the demands on Nixon increased, causing him to give up football. Nevertheless, Nixon graduated from Whittier High third in his class of 207.[22]
College and law school

Nixon was offered a tuition grant to attend Harvard University, but with Harold's continued illness requiring his mother's care, Richard was needed at the store. He remained in his hometown, enrolled at Whittier College in September 1930, and his expenses were met by a bequest from his maternal grandfather.[1][23] Nixon played for the basketball team; he also tried out for football, and though he lacked the size to play, he remained on the team as a substitute and was noted for his enthusiasm.[24] Instead of fraternities and sororities, Whittier had literary societies. Nixon was snubbed by the only one for men, the Franklins, many of whom were from prominent families, unlike Nixon. He responded by helping to found a new society, the Orthogonian Society.[25] In addition to the society, his studies, and work at the store, Nixon found time for extracurricular activities; he became known as a champion debater and hard worker.[26] In 1933, he became engaged to Ola Florence Welch, daughter of the Whittier police chief, but they broke up in 1935.[27]

After graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Whittier in 1934, Nixon was accepted at the new Duke University School of Law,[28] which offered scholarships to top students, including Nixon.[29] It paid high salaries to its professors, many of whom had national or international reputations.[30] The number of scholarships was greatly reduced for second- and third-year students, creating intense competition.[29] Nixon kept his scholarship, was elected president of the Duke Bar Association,[31] inducted into the Order of the Coif,[32] and graduated third in his class in June 1937.[28]
Early career and marriage
Nixon's family: Julie and David Eisenhower, President Nixon, First Lady Pat Nixon, Tricia and Edward Cox (December 24, 1971)

After graduating from Duke, Nixon initially hoped to join the FBI. He received no response to his letter of application, and learned years later that he had been hired, but his appointment had been canceled at the last minute due to budget cuts.[33] He returned to California, was admitted to the California bar in 1937, and began practicing in Whittier with the law firm Wingert and Bewley.[28] His work concentrated on commercial litigation for local petroleum companies and other corporate matters, as well as on wills.[34] Nixon was reluctant to work on divorce cases, disliking frank sexual talk from women.[35] In 1938, he opened up his own branch of Wingert and Bewley in La Habra, California,[36] and became a full partner in the firm the following year.[37] In later years, Nixon proudly said he was the only modern president to have previously worked as a practicing attorney.[35]

In January 1938 Nixon was cast in the Whittier Community Players production of The Dark Tower. There he played opposite a high school teacher named Thelma "Pat" Ryan.[28] Nixon described it in his memoirs as "a case of love at first sight"[38]—for Nixon only, as Pat Ryan turned down the young lawyer several times before agreeing to date him.[39] Once they began their courtship, Ryan was reluctant to marry Nixon; they dated for two years before she assented to his proposal. They wed in a small ceremony on June 21, 1940. After a honeymoon in Mexico, the Nixons began their married life in Whittier.[40] They had two daughters, Tricia (born 1946) and Julie (born 1948).[41]
Military service
Lieutenant Commander Richard Nixon, United States Navy (circa 1945)

In January 1942 the couple moved to Washington, D.C., where Nixon took a job at the Office of Price Administration.[28] In his political campaigns, Nixon suggested that this was his response to Pearl Harbor, but he had sought the position throughout the latter part of 1941. Both Nixon and his wife believed he was limiting his prospects by remaining in Whittier.[42] He was assigned to the tire rationing division, where he was tasked with replying to correspondence. He did not enjoy the role, and four months later applied to join the United States Navy.[43] Though he could have claimed an exemption from the draft as a birthright Quaker, or a deferral due to his government service, Nixon nevertheless sought a commission in the Navy. His application was approved, and he was appointed a lieutenant junior grade in the United States Naval Reserve on June 15, 1942.[44][45]

In October 1942, after moving his home of record to Alexandria, Virginia, he was given his first assignment as aide to the commander of the Naval Air Station Ottumwa in Iowa until May 1943.[44][46] Seeking more excitement, he requested sea duty and on July 2, 1943, was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 25 and the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command (SCAT), supporting the logistics of operations in the South Pacific Theater.[47][48][49] On October 1, 1943, Nixon was promoted to lieutenant.[44] Nixon commanded the SCAT forward detachments at Vella Lavella, Bougainville, and finally at Green Island (Nissan Island).[44][49] His unit prepared manifests and flight plans for R4D/C-47 operations and supervised the loading and unloading of the transport aircraft. For this service, he received a Navy Letter of Commendation (awarded a Navy Commendation Ribbon, which was later updated to the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal) from his commanding officer for "meritorious and efficient performance of duty as Officer in Charge of the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command". Upon his return to the U.S., Nixon was appointed the administrative officer of the Alameda Naval Air Station in California. In January 1945 he was transferred to the Bureau of Aeronautics office in Philadelphia to help negotiate the termination of war contracts, and received his second letter of commendation, from the Secretary of the Navy[50] for "meritorious service, tireless effort, and devotion to duty". Later, Nixon was transferred to other offices to work on contracts and finally to Baltimore.[51] On October 3, 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant commander.[44][50] On March 10, 1946, he was relieved of active duty.[44] On June 1, 1953, he was promoted to commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, from which he retired in the U.S. Naval Reserve on June 6, 1966.[44]
U.S. House of Representatives (1947–1950)
See also: 1946 California's 12th congressional district election
Nixon's congressional campaign flyer

Republicans in California's 12th congressional district were frustrated by their inability to defeat Democratic representative Jerry Voorhis, and they sought a consensus candidate who would run a strong campaign against him. In 1945, they formed a "Committee of 100" to decide on a candidate, hoping to avoid internal dissensions which had led to previous Voorhis victories. After the committee failed to attract higher-profile candidates, Herman Perry, manager of Whittier's Bank of America branch, suggested Nixon, a family friend with whom he had served on the Whittier College Board of Trustees before the war. Perry wrote to Nixon in Baltimore, and after a night of excited conversation with his wife, Nixon gave Perry an enthused response. Nixon flew to California and was selected by the committee. When he left the Navy at the start of 1946, Nixon and his wife returned to Whittier, where he began a year of intensive campaigning.[52][53] He contended that Voorhis had been ineffective as a representative and suggested that Voorhis's endorsement by a group linked to Communists meant that Voorhis must have radical views.[54] Nixon won the election, receiving 65,586 votes to Voorhis's 49,994.[55]
Nixon in Yorba Linda, 1950

In June 1947, Nixon supported the Taft–Hartley Act, a federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions, and he served on the Education and Labor Committee. In August 1947, he became one of 19 House members to serve on the Herter Committee,[56] which went to Europe to report on the need for U.S. foreign aid. Nixon was the youngest member of the committee and the only Westerner.[57] Advocacy by Herter Committee members, including Nixon, led to congressional passage of the Marshall Plan.[58]
Nixon campaigning for the Senate, 1950

In his memoirs, Nixon wrote that he joined the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) "at the end of 1947". However, he was already a HUAC member in early February 1947, when he heard "Enemy Number One" Gerhard Eisler and his sister Ruth Fischer testify. On February 18, 1947, Nixon referred to Eisler's belligerence toward HUAC in his maiden speech to the House. Also by early February 1947, fellow U.S. Representative Charles J. Kersten had introduced him to Father John Francis Cronin in Baltimore. Cronin shared with Nixon his 1945 privately circulated paper "The Problem of American Communism in 1945",[59] with much information from the FBI's William C. Sullivan who by 1961 headed domestic intelligence under J. Edgar Hoover.[60] By May 1948, Nixon had co-sponsored a "Mundt–Nixon Bill" to implement "a new approach to the complicated problem of internal communist subversion ... It provided for registration of all Communist Party members and required a statement of the source of all printed and broadcast material issued by organizations that were found to be Communist fronts." He served as floor manager for the Republican Party. On May 19, 1948, the bill passed the House by 319 to 58, but later it failed to pass the Senate.[61] The Nixon Library cites this bill's passage as Nixon's first significant victory in Congress.[62]

Nixon first gained national attention in August 1948, when his persistence as a HUAC member helped break the Alger Hiss spy case. While many doubted Whittaker Chambers's allegations that Hiss, a former State Department official, had been a Soviet spy, Nixon believed them to be true and pressed for the committee to continue its investigation. After Hiss filed suit for defamation, Chambers produced documents corroborating his allegations. These included paper and microfilm copies that Chambers turned over to House investigators after hiding them overnight in a field; they became known as the "Pumpkin Papers".[63] Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1950 for denying under oath he had passed documents to Chambers.[64] In 1948, Nixon successfully cross-filed as a candidate in his district, winning both major party primaries,[65] and was comfortably reelected.[66]
U.S. Senate (1950–1953)
See also: 1950 United States Senate election in California
Nixon campaigns in Sausalito, California, 1950

In 1949, Nixon began to consider running for the United States Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Sheridan Downey,[67] and entered the race in November.[68] Downey, faced with a bitter primary battle with Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas, announced his retirement in March 1950.[69] Nixon and Douglas won the primary elections[70] and engaged in a contentious campaign in which the ongoing Korean War was a major issue.[71] Nixon tried to focus attention on Douglas's liberal voting record. As part of that effort, a "Pink Sheet" was distributed by the Nixon campaign suggesting that Douglas's voting record was similar to that of New York Congressman Vito Marcantonio, reputed to be a communist, and their political views must be nearly identical.[72] Nixon won the election by almost twenty percentage points.[73] During the campaign, Nixon was first called "Tricky Dick" by his opponents for his campaign tactics.[74]

In the Senate, Nixon took a prominent position in opposing global communism, traveling frequently and speaking out against it.[75] He maintained friendly relations with his fellow anti-communist, controversial Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, but was careful to keep some distance between himself and McCarthy's allegations.[76] Nixon also criticized President Harry S. Truman's handling of the Korean War.[75] He supported statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, voted in favor of civil rights for minorities, and supported federal disaster relief for India and Yugoslavia.[77] He voted against price controls and other monetary restrictions, benefits for illegal immigrants, and public power.[77]
Vice presidency (1953–1961)
See also: Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Official Vice Presidential portrait

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was nominated for president by the Republicans in 1952. He had no strong preference for a vice-presidential candidate, and Republican officeholders and party officials met in a "smoke-filled room" and recommended Nixon to the general, who agreed to the senator's selection. Nixon's youth (he was then 39), stance against communism, and political base in California—one of the largest states—were all seen as vote-winners by the leaders. Among the candidates considered along with Nixon were Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft, New Jersey Governor Alfred Driscoll, and Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen.[78][79] On the campaign trail, Eisenhower spoke of his plans for the country, and left the negative campaigning to his running mate.[80]
Front cover of literature for the Eisenhower–Nixon campaign, 1952

In mid-September, the Republican ticket faced a major crisis when the media reported that Nixon had a political fund, maintained by his backers, which reimbursed him for political expenses.[81][82] Such a fund was not illegal, but it exposed Nixon to allegations of a potential conflict of interest. With pressure building for Eisenhower to demand Nixon's resignation from the ticket, the senator went on television to address the nation on September 23, 1952.[83] The address, later termed the Checkers speech, was heard by about 60 million Americans—including the largest television audience up to that point.[84] Nixon emotionally defended himself, stating that the fund was not secret, nor had donors received special favors. He painted himself as a man of modest means (his wife had no mink coat; instead she wore a "respectable Republican cloth coat") and a patriot.[83] The speech was remembered for the gift which Nixon had received, but which he would not give back: "a little cocker spaniel dog ... sent all the way from Texas. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers."[83] The speech prompted a huge public outpouring of support for Nixon.[85] Eisenhower decided to retain him on the ticket,[86] which proved victorious in the November election.[80]

Eisenhower gave Nixon more responsibilities during his term than any previous vice president.[87] Nixon attended Cabinet and National Security Council meetings and chaired them in Eisenhower's absence. A 1953 tour of the Far East succeeded in increasing local goodwill toward the United States, and gave Nixon an appreciation of the region as a potential industrial center. He visited Saigon and Hanoi in French Indochina.[88] On his return to the United States at the end of 1953, Nixon increased the time he devoted to foreign relations.[89]

Biographer Irwin Gellman, who chronicled Nixon's congressional years, said of his vice presidency:

    Eisenhower radically altered the role of his running mate by presenting him with critical assignments in both foreign and domestic affairs once he assumed his office. The vice president welcomed the president's initiatives and worked energetically to accomplish White House objectives. Because of the collaboration between these two leaders, Nixon deserves the title, "the first modern vice president".[90]

Los Angeles Times
San Francisco Chronicle
American newspaper covers of May 9, 1958, show student protests at the National University of San Marcos during Nixon's visit.

Despite intense campaigning by Nixon, who reprised his strong attacks on the Democrats, the Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress in the 1954 elections. These losses caused Nixon to contemplate leaving politics once he had served out his term.[91] On September 24, 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack and his condition was initially believed to be life-threatening. Eisenhower was unable to perform his duties for six weeks. The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution had not yet been proposed, and the vice president had no formal power to act. Nonetheless, Nixon acted in Eisenhower's stead during this period, presiding over Cabinet meetings and ensuring that aides and Cabinet officers did not seek power.[92] According to Nixon biographer Stephen Ambrose, Nixon had "earned the high praise he received for his conduct during the crisis ... he made no attempt to seize power".[93]

His spirits buoyed, Nixon sought a second term, but some of Eisenhower's aides aimed to displace him. In a December 1955 meeting, Eisenhower proposed that Nixon not run for reelection and instead become a Cabinet officer in a second Eisenhower administration, in order to give him administrative experience before a 1960 presidential run. Nixon believed this would destroy his political career. When Eisenhower announced his reelection bid in February 1956, he hedged on the choice of his running mate, saying it was improper to address that question until he had been renominated. Although no Republican was opposing Eisenhower, Nixon received a substantial number of write-in votes against the president in the 1956 New Hampshire primary election. In late April, the President announced that Nixon would again be his running mate.[94] Eisenhower and Nixon were reelected by a comfortable margin in the November 1956 election.[95]

In early 1957, Nixon undertook another foreign trip, this time to Africa. On his return, he helped shepherd the Civil Rights Act of 1957 through Congress. The bill was weakened in the Senate, and civil rights leaders were divided over whether Eisenhower should sign it. Nixon advised the President to sign the bill, which he did.[96] Eisenhower suffered a mild stroke in November 1957, and Nixon gave a press conference, assuring the nation that the Cabinet was functioning well as a team during Eisenhower's brief illness.[97]
Nikita Khrushchev and Nixon speak as the press looks on at the Kitchen Debate, July 24, 1959, with What's My Line? host John Charles Daly at far left

On April 27, 1958, Richard and Pat Nixon reluctantly embarked on a goodwill tour of South America. In Montevideo, Uruguay, Nixon made an impromptu visit to a college campus, where he fielded questions from students on U.S. foreign policy. The trip was uneventful until the Nixon party reached Lima, Peru, where he was met with student demonstrations. Nixon went to the historical campus of National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, got out of his car to confront the students, and stayed until forced back into the car by a volley of thrown objects. At his hotel, Nixon faced another mob, and one demonstrator spat on him.[98] In Caracas, Venezuela, Nixon and his wife were spat on by anti-American demonstrators and their limousine was attacked by a pipe-wielding mob.[99] According to Ambrose, Nixon's courageous conduct "caused even some of his bitterest enemies to give him some grudging respect".[100] Reporting to the cabinet after the trip, Nixon claimed there was "absolute proof that [the protestors] were directed and controlled by a central Communist conspiracy." Secretary of State John Foster Dulles concurred in this view, as did his brother Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles in his own rebuke.[101]

In July 1959 President Eisenhower sent Nixon to the Soviet Union for the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. On July 24, Nixon was touring the exhibits with Soviet First Secretary and Premier Nikita Khrushchev when the two stopped at a model of an American kitchen and engaged in an impromptu exchange about the merits of capitalism versus communism that became known as the "Kitchen Debate".[102]
1960 presidential campaign
Main article: 1960 United States presidential election
John F. Kennedy and Nixon before their first televised 1960 debate
1960 electoral vote results

In 1960 Nixon launched his first campaign for President of the United States. He faced little opposition in the Republican primaries[103] and chose former Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. as his running mate.[104] His Democratic opponent was John F. Kennedy and the race remained close for the duration.[105] Nixon campaigned on his experience, but Kennedy called for new blood and claimed the Eisenhower–Nixon administration had allowed the Soviet Union to overtake the U.S. in ballistic missiles (the "missile gap").[106] While Kennedy faced issues about his Catholicism, Nixon remained a divisive figure to some.[107]

Televised presidential debates made their debut as a political medium during the campaign. In the first of four such debates, Nixon appeared pale, with a five o'clock shadow, in contrast to the photogenic Kennedy.[104] Nixon's performance in the debate was perceived to be mediocre in the visual medium of television, though many people listening on the radio thought Nixon had won.[108] Nixon narrowly lost the election, with Kennedy winning the popular vote by only 112,827 votes (0.2 percent).[104]

There were charges of voter fraud in Texas and Illinois, both states won by Kennedy. Nixon refused to consider contesting the election, feeling a lengthy controversy would diminish the United States in the eyes of the world and that the uncertainty would hurt U.S. interests.[109] At the end of his term of office as vice president in January 1961, Nixon and his family returned to California, where he practiced law and wrote a bestselling book, Six Crises, which included coverage of the Hiss case, Eisenhower's heart attack, and the Fund Crisis, which had been resolved by the Checkers speech.[104][110]
Vice President Nixon and Lyndon Johnson leave the White House for the Kennedy–Johnson inauguration
1962 California gubernatorial campaign
Main article: 1962 California gubernatorial election

Local and national Republican leaders encouraged Nixon to challenge incumbent Pat Brown for Governor of California in the 1962 gubernatorial election.[104] Despite initial reluctance, Nixon entered the race.[104] The campaign was clouded by public suspicion that Nixon viewed the office as a stepping stone for another presidential run, some opposition from the far-right of the party, and his own lack of interest in being California's governor.[104] Nixon hoped a successful run would confirm his status as the nation's leading active Republican politician, and ensure he remained a major player in national politics.[111] Instead, he lost to Brown by more than five percentage points, and the defeat was widely believed to be the end of his political career.[104] In an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon blamed the media for favoring his opponent, saying, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."[112] The California defeat was highlighted in the November 11, 1962, episode of ABC's Howard K. Smith: News and Comment, titled "The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon".[113] Alger Hiss appeared on the program, and many members of the public complained that it was unseemly to give a convicted felon air time to attack a former vice president. The furor drove Smith and his program from the air,[114] and public sympathy for Nixon grew.[113]
Wilderness years
Nixon shows his papers to an East German officer to cross between the sectors of the divided City of Berlin, 1963

In 1963 the Nixon family traveled to Europe, where Nixon gave press conferences and met with leaders of the countries he visited.[115] The family moved to New York City, where Nixon became a senior partner in the leading law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander.[104] When announcing his California campaign, Nixon had pledged not to run for president in 1964; even if he had not, he believed it would be difficult to defeat Kennedy, or after his assassination, Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson.[116]

In 1964, Nixon won write-in votes in the primaries, and was considered a serious contender by both Gallup polls[117][118] and members of the press.[119] He was even placed on a primary ballot as an active candidate by Oregon's secretary of state.[120] Nevertheless, as late as two months before the 1964 Republican National Convention, Nixon fulfilled his promise to remain out of the presidential nomination process and instead gave his support to the eventual Republican nominee, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. When Goldwater won the nomination, Nixon was selected to introduce him at the convention. Although he thought Goldwater unlikely to win, Nixon campaigned for him loyally. The election was a disaster for the Republicans, as Goldwater's landslide loss to Johnson was matched by heavy losses for the party in Congress and among state governors.[121]

Nixon was one of the few leading Republicans not blamed for the disastrous results, and he sought to build on that in the 1966 Congressional elections. He campaigned for many Republicans, seeking to regain seats lost in the Johnson landslide, and received credit for helping the Republicans make major gains that year.[122]
1968 presidential campaign
Main articles: Richard Nixon 1968 presidential campaign and 1968 United States presidential election
See also: Presidential transition of Richard Nixon
Nixon and Johnson meet at the White House before Nixon's nomination, July 1968

At the end of 1967, Nixon told his family he planned to run for president a second time. Pat Nixon did not always enjoy public life,[123] being embarrassed, for example, by the need to reveal how little the family owned in the Checkers speech.[124] She still managed to be supportive of her husband's ambitions. Nixon believed that with the Democrats torn over the issue of the Vietnam War, a Republican had a good chance of winning, although he expected the election to be as close as in 1960.[123]

An exceptionally tumultuous primary election season began as the Tet Offensive was launched in January 1968. President Johnson withdrew as a candidate in March, after an unexpectedly poor showing in the New Hampshire primary. In June, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a Democratic candidate, was assassinated just moments after his victory in the California primary. On the Republican side, Nixon's main opposition was Michigan Governor George Romney, though New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and California Governor Ronald Reagan each hoped to be nominated in a brokered convention. Nixon secured the nomination on the first ballot.[125] He selected Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate, a choice which Nixon believed would unite the party, appealing both to Northern moderates and to Southerners disaffected with the Democrats.[126]
Nixon campaigning July 1968

Nixon's Democratic opponent in the general election was Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was nominated at a convention marked by violent protests.[127] Throughout the campaign, Nixon portrayed himself as a figure of stability during this period of national unrest and upheaval.[127] He appealed to what he later called the "silent majority" of socially conservative Americans who disliked the hippie counterculture and the anti-war demonstrators. Agnew became an increasingly vocal critic of these groups, solidifying Nixon's position with the right.[128]

Nixon waged a prominent television advertising campaign, meeting with supporters in front of cameras.[129] He stressed that the crime rate was too high, and attacked what he perceived as a surrender of the United States' nuclear superiority by the Democrats.[130] Nixon promised "peace with honor" in the Vietnam War and proclaimed that "new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific".[131] He did not give specifics of how he hoped to end the war, resulting in media intimations that he must have a "secret plan".[131] His slogan of "Nixon's the One" proved to be effective.[129]
1968 electoral vote results; the popular vote split between Nixon and Humphrey was less than one percentage point

Johnson's negotiators hoped to reach a truce in Vietnam, or at least a cessation of bombings. On October 22, 1968, candidate Nixon received information that Johnson was preparing a so-called "October surprise", abandoning three non-negotiable conditions for a bombing halt, to help elect Humphrey in the last days of the campaign.[132] Whether the Nixon campaign interfered with negotiations between the Johnson administration and the South Vietnamese by engaging Anna Chennault, a fundraiser for the Republican party, remains a controversy. While notes uncovered in 2016 possibly support such a contention, it is questionable.[132] It is not clear whether the government of South Vietnam needed encouragement to opt out of a peace process they considered disadvantageous.[133]

In a three-way race between Nixon, Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace, Nixon defeated Humphrey by nearly 500,000 votes (less than a percentage point), with 301 electoral votes to 191 for Humphrey and 46 for Wallace.[127][134] He became the first non-incumbent vice president to be elected president.[135] In his victory speech, Nixon pledged that his administration would try to bring the divided nation together.[136] Nixon said: "I have received a very gracious message from the Vice President, congratulating me for winning the election. I congratulated him for his gallant and courageous fight against great odds. I also told him that I know exactly how he felt. I know how it feels to lose a close one."[137]
Presidency (1969–1974)
Main article: Presidency of Richard Nixon
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of the Richard Nixon presidency.
Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The new First Lady, Pat, holds the family Bible.

Nixon was inaugurated as president on January 20, 1969, sworn in by his onetime political rival, Chief Justice Earl Warren. Pat Nixon held the family Bibles open at Isaiah 2:4, which reads, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." In his inaugural address, which received almost uniformly positive reviews, Nixon remarked that "the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker"[138]—a phrase that found a place on his gravestone.[139] He spoke about turning partisan politics into a new age of unity:

    In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another, until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.[140]

Foreign policy
Main article: Foreign policy of the Richard Nixon administration
China
Main article: 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China
President Nixon shakes hands with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai upon arriving in Beijing, 1972
Nixon and Zhou Enlai toast during Nixon's 1972 visit to China

Nixon laid the groundwork for his overture to China before he became president, writing in Foreign Affairs a year before his election: "There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation."[141] Assisting him in this venture was Henry Kissinger, Nixon's National Security Advisor and future Secretary of State. They collaborated closely, bypassing Cabinet officials. With relations between the Soviet Union and China at a nadir—border clashes between the two took place during Nixon's first year in office—Nixon sent private word to the Chinese that he desired closer relations. A breakthrough came in early 1971, when Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman Mao Zedong invited a team of American table tennis players to visit China and play against top Chinese players. Nixon followed up by sending Kissinger to China for clandestine meetings with Chinese officials.[141] On July 15, 1971, with announcements from Washington and Beijing that astounded the world, it was learned that the President would visit China the following February.[142] The secrecy had allowed both sets of leaders time to prepare the political climate in their countries for the visit.[143]

In February 1972, Nixon and his wife traveled to China after Kissinger briefed Nixon for over 40 hours in preparation.[144] Upon touching down, the President and First Lady emerged from Air Force One and were greeted by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Nixon made a point of shaking Zhou's hand, something which then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had refused to do in 1954 when the two met in Geneva.[145] More than a hundred television journalists accompanied the president. On Nixon's orders, television was strongly favored over printed publications, as Nixon felt that the medium would capture the visit much better than print. It also gave him the opportunity to snub the print journalists he despised.[145]
Mao Zedong and Nixon

Nixon and Kissinger immediately met for an hour with CCP Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou at Mao's official private residence, where they discussed a range of issues.[146] Mao later told his doctor that he had been impressed by Nixon's forthrightness, unlike the leftists and the Soviets.[146] He said he was suspicious of Kissinger,[146] though the National Security Advisor referred to their meeting as his "encounter with history".[145] A formal banquet welcoming the presidential party was given that evening in the Great Hall of the People. The following day, Nixon met with Zhou; the joint communique following this meeting recognized Taiwan as a part of China and looked forward to a peaceful solution to the problem of reunification.[147] When not in meetings, Nixon toured architectural wonders, including the Forbidden City, the Ming tombs, and the Great Wall.[145] Americans took their first glance into everyday Chinese life through the cameras that accompanied Pat Nixon, who toured the city of Beijing and visited communes, schools, factories, and hospitals.[145]

The visit ushered in a new era of US–China relations.[127] Fearing the possibility of a US–China alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to pressure for détente with the United States.[148] This was one component of triangular diplomacy.[149]
Vietnam War
Main articles: Vietnam War, Vietnamization, and Role of the United States in the Vietnam War
Nixon delivers an address to the nation about the incursion in Cambodia

When Nixon took office, about 300 American soldiers were dying each week in Vietnam,[150] and the war was widely unpopular in the United States, the subject of ongoing violent protests. The Johnson administration had offered to suspend bombing unconditionally in exchange for negotiations, but to no avail. According to Walter Isaacson, Nixon concluded soon after taking office that the Vietnam War could not be won, and he was determined to end it quickly.[151] He sought an arrangement that would permit American forces to withdraw while leaving South Vietnam secure against attack.[152]

Nixon approved a secret B-52 carpet bombing campaign of North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge positions in Cambodia beginning in March 1969 and code-named Operation Menu, without the consent of Cambodian leader Norodom Sihanouk.[153][154][155] In mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with the North Vietnamese, sending a personal letter to their leaders, and peace talks began in Paris. Initial talks did not result in an agreement,[156] and in May 1969 he publicly proposed to withdraw all American troops from South Vietnam provided North Vietnam did so, and suggesting South Vietnam hold internationally supervised elections with Viet Cong participation.[157]
Nixon visits American troops in South Vietnam, July 30, 1969

In July 1969, Nixon visited South Vietnam, where he met with his U.S. military commanders and President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Amid protests at home demanding an immediate pullout, he implemented a strategy of replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops, known as "Vietnamization".[127] He soon instituted phased U.S. troop withdrawals,[158] but also authorized incursions into Laos, in part to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail passing through Laos and Cambodia and used to supply North Vietnamese forces. In March 1970, at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by Pol Pot's then-second-in-command, Nuon Chea, North Vietnamese troops launched an offensive and overran much of Cambodia.[159] Nixon announced the ground invasion of Cambodia on April 30, 1970, against North Vietnamese bases in the east of the country,[160] and further protests erupted against perceived expansion of the conflict, which resulted in Ohio National Guardsmen killing four unarmed students at Kent State University.[161] Nixon's responses to protesters included an impromptu, early morning meeting with them at the Lincoln Memorial on May 9, 1970.[162][163][164] Nixon's campaign promise to curb the war, contrasted with the escalated bombing, led to claims that Nixon had a "credibility gap" on the issue.[158] It is estimated that between 50,000 and 150,000 people were killed during the bombing of Cambodia between 1970 and 1973.[154]

In 1971, excerpts from the "Pentagon Papers", which had been leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, were published by The New York Times and The Washington Post. When news of the leak first appeared, Nixon was inclined to do nothing; the Papers, a history of United States' involvement in Vietnam, mostly concerned the lies of prior administrations and contained few real revelations. He was persuaded by Kissinger that the Papers were more harmful than they appeared, and the President tried to prevent publication, but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the newspapers.[165]

As U.S. troop withdrawals continued, conscription was phased out by 1973, and the armed forces became all-volunteer.[166] After years of fighting, the Paris Peace Accords were signed at the beginning of 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops without requiring withdrawal of the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South.[167] Once American combat support ended, there was a brief truce, before fighting resumed, and North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975.[168]
Latin American policy
See also: U.S. intervention in Chile § 1973 coup, and Operation Condor
Nixon with Mexican president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (to his right); motorcade in San Diego, California, September 1970

Nixon had been a firm supporter of Kennedy during the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion and 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. On taking office in 1969, he stepped up covert operations against Cuba and its president, Fidel Castro. He maintained close relations with the Cuban-American exile community through his friend, Bebe Rebozo, who often suggested ways of irritating Castro. The Soviets and Cubans became concerned, fearing Nixon might attack Cuba and break the understanding between Kennedy and Khrushchev that ended the missile crisis. In August 1970, the Soviets asked Nixon to reaffirm the understanding, which he did, despite his hard line against Castro. The process was not completed before the Soviets began expanding their base at the Cuban port of Cienfuegos in October 1970. A minor confrontation ensued, the Soviets stipulated they would not use Cienfuegos for submarines bearing ballistic missiles, and the final round of diplomatic notes were exchanged in November.[169]

The election of Marxist candidate Salvador Allende as President of Chile in September 1970 spurred a vigorous campaign of covert opposition to him by Nixon and Kissinger.[170]: 25  This began by trying to convince the Chilean congress to confirm Jorge Alessandri as the winner of the election, and then messages to military officers in support of a coup.[170] Other support included strikes organized against Allende and funding for Allende opponents. It was even alleged that "Nixon personally authorized" $700,000 in covert funds to print anti-Allende messages in a prominent Chilean newspaper.[170]: 93  Following an extended period of social, political, and economic unrest, General Augusto Pinochet assumed power in a violent coup d'état on September 11, 1973; among the dead was Allende.[171]
Soviet Union
Nixon with Brezhnev during the Soviet leader's trip to the U.S., 1973

Nixon used the improving international environment to address the topic of nuclear peace. Following the announcement of his visit to China, the Nixon administration concluded negotiations for him to visit the Soviet Union. The President and First Lady arrived in Moscow on May 22, 1972, and met with Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party; Alexei Kosygin, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers; and Nikolai Podgorny, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, among other leading Soviet officials.[172]

Nixon engaged in intense negotiations with Brezhnev.[172] Out of the summit came agreements for increased trade and two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I, the first comprehensive limitation pact signed by the two superpowers,[127] and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles. Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence". A banquet was held that evening at the Kremlin.[172]

Nixon and Kissinger planned to link arms control to détente and to the resolution of other urgent problems through what Nixon called "linkage." David Tal argues:

    The linkage between strategic arms limitations and outstanding issues such as the Middle East, Berlin and, foremost, Vietnam thus became central to Nixon's and Kissinger's policy of détente. Through the employment of linkage, they hoped to change the nature and course of U.S. foreign policy, including U.S. nuclear disarmament and arms control policy, and to separate them from those practiced by Nixon's predecessors. They also intended, through linkage, to make U.S. arms control policy part of détente ... His policy of linkage had in fact failed. It failed mainly because it was based on flawed assumptions and false premises, the foremost of which was that the Soviet Union wanted strategic arms limitation agreement much more than the United States did.[173]

Seeking to foster better relations with the United States, China and the Soviet Union both cut back on their diplomatic support for North Vietnam and advised Hanoi to come to terms militarily.[174] Nixon later described 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.[175]

In 1973, Nixon encouraged the Export-Import Bank to finance in part a trade deal with the Soviet Union in which Armand Hammer's Occidental Petroleum would export phosphate from Florida to the Soviet Union, and import Soviet ammonia. The deal, valued at $20 billion over 20 years, involved the construction of two major Soviet port facilities at Odessa and Ventspils,[176][177][178] and a pipeline connecting four ammonia plants in the greater Volga region to the port at Odessa.[178] In 1973, Nixon announced his administration was committed to seeking most favored nation trade status with the USSR,[179] which was challenged by Congress in the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.[180]

During the previous two years, Nixon had made considerable progress in U.S.–Soviet relations, and he embarked on a second trip to the Soviet Union in 1974.[181] He arrived in Moscow on June 27 to a welcome ceremony, cheering crowds, and a state dinner at the Grand Kremlin Palace that evening.[181] Nixon and Brezhnev met in Yalta, where they discussed a proposed mutual defense pact, détente, and MIRVs. Nixon considered proposing a comprehensive test-ban treaty, but he felt he would not have time to complete it during his presidency.[181] There were no significant breakthroughs in these negotiations.[181]
Middle Eastern policy

Nixon with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, June 1974.
Nixon with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, June 1974.
Nixon with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, June 1974

As part of the Nixon Doctrine, the U.S. avoided giving direct combat assistance to its allies and instead gave them assistance to defend themselves. During the Nixon administration, the U.S. greatly increased arms sales to the Middle East, particularly Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia.[182] The Nixon administration strongly supported Israel, an American ally in the Middle East, but the support was not unconditional. Nixon believed Israel should make peace with its Arab neighbors and that the U.S. should encourage it. The president believed that—except during the Suez Crisis—the U.S. had failed to intervene with Israel, and should use the leverage of the large U.S. military aid to Israel to urge the parties to the negotiating table. The Arab-Israeli conflict was not a major focus of Nixon's attention during his first term—for one thing, he felt that no matter what he did, American Jews would oppose his reelection.[a]

On October 6, 1973, an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, supported with arms and materiel by the Soviet Union, attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Israel suffered heavy losses and Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses, cutting through inter-departmental squabbles and bureaucracy and taking personal responsibility for any response by Arab nations. More than a week later, by the time the U.S. and Soviet Union began negotiating a truce, Israel had penetrated deep into enemy territory. The truce negotiations rapidly escalated into a superpower crisis; when Israel gained the upper hand, Egyptian President Sadat requested a joint U.S.–USSR peacekeeping mission, which the U.S. refused. When Soviet Premier Brezhnev threatened to unilaterally enforce any peacekeeping mission militarily, Nixon ordered the U.S. military to DEFCON3,[183] placing all U.S. military personnel and bases on alert for nuclear war. This was the closest the world had come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Brezhnev backed down as a result of Nixon's actions.

Because Israel's victory was largely due to U.S. support, the Arab OPEC nations retaliated by refusing to sell crude oil to the U.S., resulting in the 1973 oil crisis.[185] The embargo caused gasoline shortages and rationing in the United States in late 1973, and was eventually ended by the oil-producing nations as peace in the Middle East took hold.[186]

After the war, and under Nixon's presidency, the U.S. reestablished relations with Egypt for the first time since 1967. Nixon used the Middle East crisis to restart the stalled Middle East Peace Negotiations; he wrote in a confidential memo to Kissinger on October 20: