Richard Nixon

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Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994), was the 37th President of the United States of America, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was the 36th Vice President of the United States of America from 1953 to 1961, in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower. As a Congressman from California, he investigated Communists and instigated the successful prosecution of Alger Hiss. Nixon served as Vice President under President Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, and lost his first presidential race to John F. Kennedy by a tiny margin. 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 scandal. The main impeachment charge was that Nixon obstructed justice by telling employees to mislead FBI investigators about the Watergate burglary.

President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was the first President to visit the People's Republic of China. He appointed a conservative (William Rehnquist), two moderates (Warren Burger and Lewis Powell) and a liberal (Harry Blackmun) to the U.S. Supreme Court. Nixon was from a Quaker family. His foreign policy as president was marked by détente with the Soviet Union and the opening of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. His centrist domestic policies combined conservative rhetoric and liberal action in civil rights, environmental and economic initiatives. Nixon considered himself to be a Keynesian, that is, his economic views were shaped by economics John Maynard Keynes. [1] As a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned the presidency in the face of likely impeachment by the United States House of Representatives. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a controversial pardon that allowed Nixon to avoid prosecution. Speaking in later life, Ford stated that he felt the pardon was needed to stop a terrible rift developing in American social life.

Writings

• Victory Without War, New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1989.
• Beyond Peace, New York, NY: Random House, 1994.
• Four Great Americans: Tributes Delivered by President Richard Nixon. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973.
• In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
• Leaders New York, NY: Warner Books, 1982.
• Nixon in Retrospect, 1946-1962: Selected Quotations. Silver Spring, MD: Research Data Publishers, 1973.
• No More Vietnams, New York, NY: Arbor House, 1985.
• Real Peace. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
• RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
• Seize the Moment: America’s Challenge in a One- SuperpowerWorld. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
• Setting the Course; The First Year, New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1970.
• Six Crises. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
• Summons to Greatness: A Collage of Inspirational Though and Practical Ideas from the Messages and Addresses of Richard Nixon, Thirty-:Seventh President of the United States, Washington, D.C.: Friends of President Nixon, 1972.
• The Real War, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1980.

External Links

• Nixon Birthplace & Library, in Yorba Linda, California