In 1946, he was elected as a [[U.S. Representative]]. As a Congressman from [[California]], and as a member of the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]], he investigated [[Communist]]s and instigated the successful prosecution of [[Alger Hiss]] for spying for the Soviet Union during [[World War II]].
After two terms in the House, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in November of 1950. After losing his first presidential race to [[John F. Kennedy]] by a narrow margin in 1960, he unsuccessfully ran for Governor of California in 1962, losing to incumbent Edmund G Brown.
In 1968 he was elected president, and was reelected in 1972 by a landslide, but resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974 due to a threat of impeachment by Congress for the [[Watergate Affair]]. The main impeachment charge was that Nixon obstructed justice by telling employees to mislead FBI investigators about the Watergate burglary.
==Early Lifelife==
Richard Milhous Nixon was born in [[Yorba Linda, California]], on January 9, 1913. Soon after, his family moved to Whittier, California. Nixon's childhood years were not unusual for someone growing up in two small towns near Los Angeles. His parents, Frank and Hannah Nixon, were devout [[Quakers]]. Nixon had four siblings and saw two of his brothers die from [[tuberculosis]]. Nixon grew up relatively poor, as his father earned a modest income from his gas station and grocery store. Due to these hard times, he established a quality of determination and strong work ethic. A good student and a hard worker, Nixon excelled scholastically.
Nixon attended Fullerton High School and Whittier High School. He graduated second in his class from Whittier with honor in the study of [[Shakespeare]] and [[Latin]]. He was awarded scholarships to [[Harvard]] and [[Yale]] University, but declined due to his family's financial condition. He instead enrolled at [[Whittier College]], a local [[Quaker]] school, where he co-founded the "Orthogonian Society", a new organzation organization to the campus geared towards working-class students. At Whittier, Nixon, a formidable debater, was elected freshman class president, and served as student body vice president in his junior year and president in his senior year. While at Whittier, he taught Sunday school at [[East Whittier Friends Church]] and remained a member all his life.
A lifelong football fan, Nixon practiced with the team, but played little. In 1934, he graduated second in his class from Whittier, and went on to [[Duke University|Duke University School of Law]], where he received a full scholarship, was elected president of the Duke Bar Association, and graduated third in his class. In 1942 Nixon became a lawyer for the [[Office of Price Administration]], the wartime liberal [[New Deal]] program that regulated all prices and rationed basic commodities.
During World War II, Nixon served in the [[Navy]] as a reserve officer, 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 exceptional poker-playing skills, banking a large sum of money that helped finance his first campaign for Congress. He rose to the rank of lieutenant commander and resigned after the war in March, 1946.
==Congressional Careercareer==
:''See related article : [[Legacy of Alger Hiss]]
After service in the Navy he entered an entirely unstructured California political environment-- parties environment—parties hardly existed there in the 1940s, and many voters were recent arrivals. As a result , Nixon never built a secure base in California (or anywhere else). In 1946 he defeated five-term Democrat Representative Jerry Voorhis, a leading liberal. Two years later, Nixon ran for reelection in both the Republican and Democrat primaries and won endorsement of both parties in the general election. <ref>Only California allowed this sort of "cross filing," and they later dropped it and went to normal intra-party primaries. Richard Matthew Pious, ''The Presidents,'' pg. 515</ref> Nixon took typical positions for a California Republican: he was hostile to [[Communism]], internationalist in outlook, and middle-of-the road in economic and social issues.
Nixon's first major breakthrough in the national limelight came in 1948 after an illegal break-in, misuse of the [[FBI]] and intelligence agencies, domestic spying and violations of civil rights, a cover-up, Congressional investigations, and a claim of Executive Privilege by [[President Truman]]. <ref>[http://www.conservativebookclub.com/book/blacklisted-by-history Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies], M. Stanton Evans, Three Rivers Press, 2009.</ref> The scandal began when the [[OSS]] and [[FBI]] illegally broke into the offices of [[Amerasia]] magazine, arrested 6 co-conspirators on theft of classified documents and espionage charges. <ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19500630&id=jrU0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=_WYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3758,8707518&hl=en Nixon May Request Investigation Of Amerasia Scandal], ''Associated Press'', Lewiston Evening Journal, 30 June 1950.</ref> The Truman administration covered up the illegal break-in, stonewalled the ensuing investigations, and ultimately claimed Executive Privilege when subpoenaed in response to a Congressional subpoena.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xCaDcYsr0sgC&pg=PA579&lpg=PA579&dq=%22Executive+Privilege%22+Truman%2BNixon%2BCondon&source=bl&ots=j6GRl1ITST&sig=yQX0vyElknnNFyzxSYIqz5FpQTQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwievdiQ45bNAhVT0mMKHTpPCX4Q6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=%22Executive%20Privilege%22%20Truman%2BNixon%2BCondon&f=false Blacklisted by the House UnHistory: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies], M. Stanton Evans, Three Rivers Press, 2009, pp. 579-American Activities Committee583. </ref>
Nixon broke the impasse of the [[Alger Hiss]] spy case. The idea that Hiss--a Hiss—a former senior adviser to President [[Franklin Roosevelt]]-- was —was a Soviet spy alarmed the nation, and won the lifelong hatred of the left, whose veneer of patriotism was dissolved. [[Image:Eisenhower_Nixon.jpg|left|thumb|275px|Eisenhower and Nixon on a 1952 Campaign Stop.]]
In 1950 Nixon was elected to the [[United States Senate]] by defeating a leading Hollywood liberal, Helen Gahagan Douglas using tough campaign tactics that emphasized her votes with the far left.
In the midst of the campaign questions arose about a group of seventy-six [[business]]man from southern California who had contributed to a secret slush fund for Richard Nixon, being paid $900 a month (totaling $18,168 up to that point). There was talk of Nixon dropping from the ticket. Nixon claimed that money was used for office expenses only. On September 23, 1952 he gave the now infamous "Checkers Speech" in which he said that he and his wife, [[Patrica Nixon|Pat Nixon]] do not live lavishly, saying that his wife had not even owned a fur coat but only "a respectable Republican cloth coat". He went on to bring up a gift someone gave his [[child]]ren, a "little cocker spaniel [[dog]]" named Checkers, and said defiantly, "regardless of what they about it, we're going to keep it." The speech was meet with overwhelming public approval. In November, Eisenhower and Nixon swept their way in office, winning 55 percent of the vote, to 44 percent for Democrat opponent [[Adlai Stevenson]].
As Vice President Richard Nixon occasionally presided over the Senate and chaired the President's Commission on [[Government]] Contracts, which dealt with racial and religious discrimination by government contractors, and the Cabinet Committee on Price Stability for Economic growth (although Nixon had little influence over it). Nixon also chaired the [[National Security Council]]. However, in a [[press]] conference President Eisenhower was asked to give an example of Richard Nixon's contributions as Vice President, to which Eisenhower replied, "If you give me a week, I might think of one."
Nixon did have an influential role in [[White House]] political operations. He campaigned for Republican members of Congress in 1954 and 1958. Nixon positioned himself as Presidential and his famous 1959 "Kitchen debate" in [[Moscow]] with [[Soviet Union]] President [[Nikita Khrushchev]] boosted his public appeal. By the end of the Eisenhower administration Nixon had become the top contender to be the Republican nomination for the 1960 Presidential election.
==1960 Presidential Campaign==
''{{Main Article: [[|United States presidential election, 1960]]''}}
Nixon easily won the Republican nomination for the presidency, but ran a poor campaign in the general election. Despite division over the modern [[civil rights]] movement, the country was enjoying a period of relative prosperity.
==1968 Presidential Campaign==
''{{Main Article: [[|United States presidential election, 1968]]''}}
By 1967 Nixon's financial backers were raising funds to bankroll another bid for the White House. In the Republican primaries and caucuses moderates and liberals supported [[Michigan]] Governor [[George Romney]] and later [[New York]] Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]], while [[conservative]]s supported [[California]] Governor [[Ronald Reagan]]. Nixon was able to win support from southern conservatives and pass Reagan in the polls, eventually winning the nomination. In Nixon's second attempt for the Presidency the United States was in the midst of the [[Vietnam War]], with Democrats associated with the violence. With President [[Lyndon Johnson]] losing [[credibility]] because of the increasingly unpopular [[war]], he declined to run for another term. [[Vice President of the United States of America|Vice President]] [[Hubert Humphrey]] narrowly won the Democrat nomination. [[Alabama]] Governor [[George Wallace]], a strong segregationist, entered the race as a third party candidate. Nixon promised to end the bombing in [[Vietnam]], unify the nation and restore law and order to the country.
==1972 Reelection Campaign==
''{{Main Article: [[|United States presidential election, 1972]]''}}
President Nixon's reelection campaign got underway in 1972. He had high approval ratings for his handling China and the Soviet Union. Nixon's Democrat opponent, [[South Dakota]] Senator [[George McGovern]] was viewed too [[liberal]] by many Americans. However, there was still concern in the Nixon camp because of his close victory in 1968 and the continued involvement in the Vietnam War. He chose to engage in tactics that included an effort to steal information in the Democrat Party's headquarters. Five Nixon supporters broke into the party's office at the Watergate complex in [[Washington, D.C.]] on June 17, 1972. However, this did not become an issue in the campaign, with President Nixon trumping McGovern in 49 out of 50 states.
==Presidency (1969-1974)==
===Administration===
=== Vietnam War ===
[[Image:PresidentNixon.jpg|left|thumb|275px|President Nixon points out the NVA sanctuaries along the Cambodian border in his speech to the American people announcing the Cambodian incursion, 04/30/70]] Two months after coming into office American deaths in Vietnam reached thirty-six hundred. Nixon appointed [[Harvard]] Professor [[Henry Kissinger]] as National Security Adviser, who had secret peace talks with the North Vietnamese. Peace negations dragged on throughout Nixon's first term. His Vietnam strategies included "Vietnamization," a policy aimed at reducing U.S. casualties and troops, while convincing the American public that the Vietnamese people could assume the primary responsibility of waging war. To win support for the war among the "[["silent majority,"]] ," Nixon pursued the "[["politics of polarization."]] ." Instrumental to this cause was Nixon's first vice president [[Spiro T. Agnew]], who criticized opponents of the war as "nattering nabobs of negativism," and an "effete corps of impudent snobs." Nixon also sought to instill in the North Vietnamese the belief that he was volatile and unstable, and willing to use nuclear weapons in the war, a strategy known as the "madman scenario."
On April 30, 1970, ten days after announcing that 150,000 American troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam in the following year, Nixon announced that U.S. troops had invaded Cambodia. This announcement brought widespread protests and violence at college and university campuses across the nation. Four students died at [[Kent State University]] in Ohio and two died at [[Jackson State University]] in Mississippi. Many campuses shut down, some for the remainder of the academic year. The [[Paris Peace Accords]] were signed on January 27, 1973, signaling the beginning of the peace process that ended with the evacuation of the last American personnel two years later on April 30, 1975.
=== Policy of Detente ===
[[Image:Leonid_Brezhnev_and_Richard_Nixon.jpg|right|thumb|275px|Richard M. Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev, 05/19/73.]] Nixon worked to establish a friendlier relationship with the Soviet Union and [[China]]. The Soviets were not pleased of Nixon, a man who spent his career attacking communism, had become President. Although still a strong [[anti-communistCommunist]], Nixon understood the growing role of China and Western Europe, realizing that he had to be more diplomatic. With the help of National Security Adviser [[Henry Kissinger]], Nixon created an approach called DetenteDétente, which was relaxed tensions between the United States and its two major communist Communist rivals, the Soviet Union and China. Nixon began the policy of detente détente by lifting trade and travel restrictions.
After a long series of highly secret negations between Kissinger and Chinese leaders, Nixon announced that he would visit China in February 1972. During the historic trip, the leaders of both nations agreed to have a more normal relationship. Nixon told the Chinese during a banquet toast, "Let us start a long march together, not in lockstep, but on different roads leading to the same goal, the goal of building world structure of peace and justice." In taking the trip, Nixon hoped to both strengthen ties with China but also believed it would encourage the Soviet Union to be more diplomatic. He proved to be correct.
Shortly after the public learned about China, the Soviets proposed an American-Soviet summit, a high -level diplomatic meeting that was held in May 1972. President Nixon flew to Moscow for a week -long summit, thus becoming the first American President since [[World War 2]] to visit the Soviet Union. The two superpowers signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, or SALT 1, a plan to limit nuclear arms that the two nations had been working on for years. Nixon and Soviet President [[Leonid Brezhnev]] also agreed to increase trade and exchange scientific information. President Nixon had made a significant mark on the world stage with major foreign policy triumphs.
=== Expansion of government ===
===Impeachment proceedings===
Nixon's enemies went back 20 years and consisted of many individuals and [[partisan]]s who were outraged that a Congressional back-bencher disgraced an [[FDR]] protégé, a principal author of the [[United Nations]] Charter, and its first Secretary General.<ref>United Nations Oral History, [http://www.unmultimedia.org/oralhistory/2011/10/hiss-alger/ Interview with: Alger Hiss], 13 February 1990. www.unmultimedia.org</ref> [[Alger Hiss]] was an obvious choice to carry on the New Deal tradition in the post-[[World War II]] era, but Nixon won a successful prosecution against him that landed Hiss in prison.<ref>[http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/nixononhisscase.html "What was the Hiss Case?": An answer for Tricia], by Richard Nixon, ''Six Crises, Doubleday, 1962. law2.umkc.edu</ref>. From there, Nixon got himself elected Senator, Vice President, and eventually President.
Watergate was a vendetta among [[leftist]]s for Nixon tarnishing the reputation of a celebrated New Dealer to advance his own career.<ref>[http://www.conservativebookclub.com/12366/author-interviews/does-america-owe-richard-nixon-an-apology-author-geoff-shepard-says-so Does America Owe Richard Nixon An Apology? Author Geoff Shepard Says So], Book Review by Christopher N. Malagisi. www.conservativebookclub.com .</ref> The irony of Nixon's downfall however must not be overlooked: Nixon was attempting to cover up the mistakes of the two previous Democratic administrations.<ref><small>The Pentagon Papers for example revealed the Congressional congressional [[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]] to be a fraud. The [[Tonkin incident]] was cooked up so President Johnson could win a Authorization for Use of Military Force Authorization from the overwhelmingly Democratic controlled Congress. Just as [[Barack Obama]] was not a member of Congress and did not vote to authorize the [[Operation Iraqi Freedom|use of force in Iraq]] nor carry the baggage his opponents did over [[Weapons of Mass Destruction]], likewise Nixon had clean hands when the Pentagon Papers were leaked showing Johnson and the Democratic Congress's Authorization for Use of Military Force Authorization was a fraud. Nixon was protecting his partisan enemies who voted for the Tonkin Resolution as the backlash of [[public opinion]] turned against the war that the Democrats had started under a false pretext. [http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9606/28/index.shtml Pentagon Papers: The Secret War], TIME, June 28, 1971. CNN.com</small></ref> The leak of the [[Pentagon Papers]] largely pertained to decisions made during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations; Nixon avoided blame.<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB48/nixon.html THE PENTAGON PAPERS: SECRETS, LIES AND AUDIOTAPES], The National Security Archive (2013). gwu.edu</ref> Nixon was old school - he did not see the leak of classified government secrets in partisan terms of Democrats vs Republicans, but rather American interests vs anti-American interests. Once again, as in the [[Amerasia]] and Hiss cases, the theft of government secrets and classified documents by [[extremist|extreme]] leftists was something Nixon was all too familiar with.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913336&dat=1950063019500623&id=jrU0AAAAIBAJxdRSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_WYFAAAAIBAJzH8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=37585002,87075186762431&hl=en Nixon May Request Investigation Of House Probe of Amerasia ScandalSuggested by Coast Congressman], ''Associated Press''The Deseret News, Lewiston Evening JournalAP, Jun 23, 30 June 1950.</ref> FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] was reluctant to act, based upon Hoover's own experience in the foregoing cases.<ref>[http://millercenter.org/presidentialclassroom/exhibits/first-domino-nixon-and-pentagon-papers First Domino: Nixon and the Pentagon Papers], Jordan Moran. millercenter.org</ref> So Nixon authorized the creation of a secret, non-governmental "Plumbers unit" to fix government leaks. The outfit was funded by his 1972 re-election committee.
But Nixon's enemies were ready to pounce based on any scintilla of evidence of wrongdoing. It began before he took office, during the transition when Nixon deeded over a portion of his vice-presidential papers to the National Archives to qualify for a charitable tax deduction. The remainder would be deeded over later to offset future income.<ref>[https://ia902300.us.archive.org/15/items/statementofinfor10unit/statementofinfor10unit.pdf Statement of information : hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-third Congress, second session, pursuant to H. Res. 803, a resolution authorizing and directing the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its constitutional power to impeach Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America. May-June 1974]. Page 31 (page 43 pdf),
by United States Congress. House Committee on the Judiciary.</ref> Since the time of [[George Washington]] it was customary to allow presidents to treat their papers as their own personal property.,<ref>[http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/N%20Disk/Nixon%20Richard%20M%20President%20Watergate%20Files/Papers%20Donation%20to%20National%20Archives/Item%2028.pdf Nixon Still Has $1.5 Million in Papers], Lou Cannon, ''Washington Post''. jfk.hood.edu</ref> Midway but midway through his first year Congress eliminated the deduction for the gift of papers completely and established a retroactive cutoff date.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Jlx-bcbx8_oC&pg=PA290&lpg=PA290&dq=eliminated+deduction+for+papers+retroactive+cutoff+date&source=bl&ots=mKd_9MoEuf&sig=Ve9qy707n5XIY134n-IttDmDW-8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMsfHzi5LNAhVB9WMKHVdTC5cQ6AEIHzAA#v=onepage&q=eliminated%20deduction%20for%20papers%20retroactive%20cutoff%20date&f=false Citizen Hughes], Michael Drosnin, Howard Hughes, Broadway Books, 2004, p. 290.</ref> Nixon aides backdated some documents to make it appear the donations of the remaining papers had taken place before the cutoff date.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WugCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44&dq=Nixon+Tax+Scheme+Vice-Presidential+Papers+Tad+Szulc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwio-KD9i43NAhVX0GMKHZ1dCZ0Q6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=Nixon%20Tax%20Scheme%20Vice-Presidential%20Papers%20Tad%20Szulc&f=false How Nixon's Tax Scheme Backfired], Tad Szulc, ''New Yorker'', April 15 , 1974.</ref>
Several times throughout Nixon's presidency he voluntarily requested the Congressional congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to examine his affairs. Nixon invested his $576,000 tax refund in real estate, properties that became known as the "Florida White House" and the "Western White House" in San Clemente, California. But Nixon's enemies still couldn't attach the aura of scandal in the public's eyes until after the 1972 election. Nixon won re-election, carrying a full one-third of all Democratic voters with him in his [[Silent Majority ]] coalition.<ref>[http://presidentelect.org/art_cooper_e1972an.html An Interpretation of the 1972 Presidential Election Landslide], by CRAIG W. COOPER, 1975.</ref>
Amidst the charges that Nixon illegally misused the [[IRS ]] to harass enemies, the IRS promptly turned around and audited a sitting president to display its independence.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/26/irs-chief-defied-nixon/2360951/ Former IRS chief recalls defying Nixon], David Dykes, ''USA Today'', May 26, 2013.</ref> Nixon's $576,000 deduction - nearly three times his annual salary - meant he paid virtually no taxes for several years. The IRS found nothing wrong and gave him a clean bill of health, but the press implied Nixon was unscrupulous. This is when Nixon made his famous remark in a press conference with 400 [[Associated Press]] managing editors:
{{Cquote|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.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/111873-1.htm Nixon Tells Editors, 'I'm Not a Crook'], By Carroll Kilpatrick, ''Washington Post'', November 18, 1973.</ref>}}
As is readily apparent, Nixon's statement had nothing to do whatsoever with the Watergate burglary. But it was raw meat for a [[bias]]ed, [[liberal]] media to impugn Nixon and somehow make the connection in the public's mind, which til now had difficulty understanding what, if anything, Nixon did wrong in either Watergate or his tax troubles. To this day, "scholars" and "reputable journalists" still attempt to link the context of Nixon's remarks to Watergate.
The IRS re-opened the audit. Nixon again asked the JCT to look into the matter. By then, the notorious [[segregation]]ist Sen. Sam Ervin was becoming an afternoon television matinee idol of the left with his Senate Watergate Hearings.
The second IRS and JCT audits disallowed the charitable deduction and found a tax deficiency. Congressman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, who co-chaired the JCT and later resigned from Congress in a sex scandal of his own, predicted the findings would force Nixon to resign.<ref>[http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/F8723E3606CD79EC85256FF6006F82C3?OpenDocument President Nixon's Troublesome Tax Returns], William D. Samson, April 11, 2005. http://www.taxhistory.org/ </ref> Nixon agreed to pay $465,000 in back taxes, which cut Nixon's net worth in half. Neither the JCT or IRS accused Nixon of [[fraud]], but the House Judiciary Committee made a public announcement that it might investigate Nixon for the possibility of tax fraud.<ref><small>[[John Dean]] later wrote: "By a vote of 26 to 12, the House Judiciary Committee decided against including an article in the bill of impeachment charging Nixon with tax fraud. And President Ford's pardon eliminated any risk of a criminal tax prosecution. But nothing hurt Nixon more in the public's eyes. The public understood tax fraud, and in particular, the backdating of a document such as Nixon's deed of gift." [http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20030425.html Reviving The Creative Works Tax Deduction: Why the CARE Act, Pending In Congress, Should Be Made Law], By JOHN W. DEAN, Apr. 25, 2003. writ.news.findlaw.com</small></ref> A 26 year old staffer, future [[Hillary Clinton First Lady|First Lady]] and [[United States presidential election, 2016|Democratic nominee for President]], [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]], served as a researcher for the Committee.<ref>[http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2015-11-05/how-richard-nixon-created-hillary-clinton How Richard Nixon Created Hillary Clinton], Sam Tanenhaus, Nov 5, 2015. bloomberg.com </ref> In the immediate aftermath of Nixon's August 1974 the resignation, Congress established the National Study Commission on Records and Documents of Federal Officials (88 Stat. 1698), also known as the Public Documents Commission chaired by former [[Attorney General]] Herbert Brownell. The panel was tasked to : {{quotebox|"study the problems with respect to control, disposition, and preservation of records and documents produced by or on behalf of, Federal Officials". <ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=KdsUcUIJcLEC&pg=PA304&lpg=PA304&dq=National+Study+Commission+on+Records+and+Documents+of+Federal+Officials+%2888+Stat.+1698%29.&source=bl&ots=36y0mVXBQR&sig=Abit0wB_6FQ94UdBeOW5nEgolng&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlg5PPu5TNAhUQ4GMKHddBDBcQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=National%20Study%20Commission%20on%20Records%20and%20Documents%20of%20Federal%20Officials%20%2888%20Stat.%201698%29.&f=false Statutory Law and Intelligence 2011], David Alan Jordan. </ref>}}
=== Watergate ===
The president, citing [[Executive Privilege]], refused to turn the tapes over to the committee. In October 1973 Nixon ordered Elliot Richardson, the attorney general, to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor who had subpoenaed the tapes, but Richardson resigned in protest. Richardson's assistant, William Ruckelshaus, also refused to fire Cox and was fired by Nixon. Finally, Solicitor General Robert Bork fired Cox. The incident, which was trumped in the press as the "Saturday Night Massacre", led to widespread calls for Nixon's impeachment.
The White House released edited transcripts of the tapes in April 1974, and eventually the tapes themselves, after the Supreme Court rejected Nixon's claim to executive privilege. The House Judiciary Committee issued three [[Articles of Impeachment|articles of impeachment ]] on July 30, 1974.
"In all of this," the articles of impeachment summarize, "Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States." After conferring with Republican Senators Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. Nixon was succeeded in office the same day by [[Gerald Ford]]. Ford later pardoned Nixon.
The Nixon White House was also involved in [[Henry_KissingerHenry Kissinger#Latin_AmericaLatin America| controversies in Latin America]], which included [[Henry_KissingerHenry Kissinger#The_Schneider_AffairThe Schneider Affair| an alleged assassination attempt]] in [[Chile]], among [[Henry_KissingerHenry Kissinger#Major_ControversiesMajor Controversies| other questionable activities]].
==Family==
[[File:Pat nixon.jpg|300px|center]]
==Liberal falsehoods about Nixon==
Mostly because of his involvement in the Watergate affair as well as his testifying against [[Alger Hiss]] during the McCarthy Era, Nixon has frequently been demonized by various liberals and members of the left-wing, many times even attributing any bad or unpopular stuff to him even when he had little if any involvement in them.
One example is claiming that Nixon had been behind the Watergate break-in, even though Nixon actually had no prior knowledge to or support of the break in at all.
Another example, generally given by the anti-war left, involved claiming that he had been responsible for American involvement in the Vietnam War as a form of American imperialism. This is ignoring that the Vietnam War actually had its roots with [[John F. Kennedy]] sending military advisors into Vietnam, and it was escalated under [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s watch. Nixon was elected to end a "Democrat war", which he did.
==References==
* Dallek, Robert. ''Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Nixon-Kissinger-Partners-Robert-Dallek/dp/0060722312/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200450337&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Frick, Daniel. ''Reinventing Richard Nixon: A Cultural History of an American Obsession''. (2008). 344 pages
* Graham, Otis L. ''Toward a Planned Society: From Roosevelt to Nixon'' (1976)
* Greenberg, David. ''Nixon's Shadow: The History of the Image'' (2004), influential study of his changing reputation [http://www.amazon.com/Nixons-Shadow-History-David-Greenberg/dp/0393326160/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200450337&sr=1-9 excerpt and text search]
* Hoff, Joan. ''Nixon without Watergate'' (1994) a favorable estimate of the presidential years; also titled ''Nixon Reconsidered''; [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=99580185 online edition]
*The Real War, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1980.
==External Linkslinks==
* [http://www.nixonfoundation.org Nixon Birthplace & Library], in Yorba Linda, California
* [http://genealogy.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_Nixon_(1913) Genealogy Wiki] Nixon Family History
* [http://www.californiaresortlife.com/orange/yorba_linda.htm Birthplace Tour]
* http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/ * http://www.nixonfoundation.org/ * http://www.nixonlibrary.org/* [https://librivox.org/author/10724 Works by Richard Nixon - text and free audio] - [[LibriVox]]
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