about Richard milhous Nixon
Richard Nixon was born on January 9th, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. His family was poor but as he put it "We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it." He attended Fullerton High School but was transferred to Whittier High School were he ran for student body president and lost to a more popular student. It would be his only loss for 31 years. He finished second in his class and was offered a scholarship to Harvard, but his family couldn't afford to take him so he attended Whittier College where he earned a reputation as a great debater, a talented drama performer as well as a talented athlete. Upon graduation he was given a full ride scholarship to Duke University Law School. After working at a few law firms Nixon joined the Navy and rose to the rank of lieutenant commander and later resigned. He returned to his normal life were he was encouraged to run for congress. His Liberal opponent, Jerry Voorhis, fell to Nixon's strategy that exploited the weaknesses of his opponents.
Nixon carried this strategy throughout his career and got a reputation as a ruthless campaigner and as an anti-communist. He was given the nick name "Tricky Dick" after running for U.S. Senate against Helen Gahagan Douglas, because Nixon's people put out flyers that unfairly distorted Douglas's voting record as "Left-Wing". The nick name stayed with him for the rest of his political career. His anti-communist reputation earned him the attention of Eisenhower and ran as his Vice President but was almost removed from the ticket. The New York Post reported that Nixon had a secret "Slush Fund" provided by private donors for Nixon's own personal use. Nixon gave a public speech that was later named "The Checkers Speech".
Later in Nixon's career he ran against John F. Kennedy and lost. There were cases of voter fraud in some states and after recount Kennedy still won. Not wanting to cause a constitutional crises Nixon halted further investigations. He was admired for his dignity and professionalism in the face of defeat. After the disappointing defeat to Kennedy he ran for governor of California against Brown and lost by a large margin. Many experts thought it would be the end of Nixon's political career but Nixon being the fighter he is didn't give up. Nixon then ran for presidency in 1968 and won by 500,000 votes using his tactic of exploiting the weaknesses of his opponents.
Presidency
Nixon had a policy he called "New Federalism". This plan was meant to desegregate the south. Across the South, the Nixon administration established biracial committees to desegregate the schools. It worked rather well and was well excepted by the states and by the end of 1970 only 18 percent of black students were attending all black schools. Way down from 70 percent in 1968. Nixon also appointed many females to his administration and created a task force for women's rights. It was mostly to settle sex discrimination law suits. After the 1970 Earth Day Nixon saw a need and an opportunity he passed a Clean Air Act and established two new agencies: the Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Vietnam. Nixon's plans for Vietnam were controversial but then again what wasn't controversial about Vietnam? Nixon wanted to do what was known as the Nixon Doctrine or "Vietnamization" basically replace our troops with Vietnamese troops. Nixon also wanted to send in Special Ops troops rather than a lot of infantry. In addition he wanted more air force involvement via bombing North Vietnam.
Presidency
Nixon had a policy he called "New Federalism". This plan was meant to desegregate the south. Across the South, the Nixon administration established biracial committees to desegregate the schools. It worked rather well and was well excepted by the states and by the end of 1970 only 18 percent of black students were attending all black schools. Way down from 70 percent in 1968. Nixon also appointed many females to his administration and created a task force for women's rights. It was mostly to settle sex discrimination law suits. After the 1970 Earth Day Nixon saw a need and an opportunity he passed a Clean Air Act and established two new agencies: the Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Vietnam. Nixon's plans for Vietnam were controversial but then again what wasn't controversial about Vietnam? Nixon wanted to do what was known as the Nixon Doctrine or "Vietnamization" basically replace our troops with Vietnamese troops. Nixon also wanted to send in Special Ops troops rather than a lot of infantry. In addition he wanted more air force involvement via bombing North Vietnam.