Garrick Bridges 5D
March 11, 2010
Richard M. Nixon: A Great Man
This was a man with great things that happened in life and bad ones. But he always
figured out a way to escape them he loved to write books and serve his country. He will
always be remembered. His name is Richard Milhouse Nixon our 37th President
Richard Milhouse Nixon was born January 9th, 1913in Yorba Linda, California.
He loved his public school and had very good grades. His mother loved taking care of her
family while the father worked at there family store and gas station witch Richard worked
at. His two little brothers Arthur and Harold died at very young ages from Tuberculoses.
This affected the whole family a lot. He loved playing football. He was also on the debate
team and played violin. He won many prizes on the debate team. His mother was a
devoted Quaker. Her whole life just like Richard. He had many jobs like pool janitor
and bean picker. In high school he graduated 1st in his class.
When Richard went to college he went to Whittier College and duke University
for law. He loved being in plays and one day he was at class he met a young women
named Thelma Catherine Patricia (Pat) Ryan. He was so in love he even purposed to her
the night he met her! Of course she said no. But they dated for 2 years and then got
married. During that time he drove her to other dates because she didn’t have a car. He
had two daughters: Patricia and Julie. He was in the Navy for 4 years (1942-1946). He
then became senator. He was thr youngest senator at the time. He was 38. Then 2 years
later he became Vice Presidents with General Dwight D. Eisenhower. They won in
1952.They also won in 1956.President Eisenhower made him do a lot more work than
most Vice Presidents. He took over once while he had t a stroke. He had him go to attend
cabinet meetings. He made Nixon make important decisions. Kept Nixon what was
happening. He was part of the House of Un – Americans. It was a group that found
communist spies and put them in jail. Nixon famous for putting Alger Hiss a communist
spy in jail for 5 years. Nixon had a dog named Checkers that was a gift from the
Republicans. He had a speech called the “Checkers Speech”. (Since you can only run for
8 years General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Nixon time was up)
In the year of 1969 Richard Milhouse Nixon became the 37th of the United States
of America. 8 years before he ran against John F. Kennedy and lost by only by 118,000
out of 68 Million. But after Kennedy died his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson took
over. Then after 4 years it was Richards’s time to shine. But before he became President
Nixon wrote a book called 6 Crises. It took him 6 years to write it. After he wrote that he
ran for governor of California. Nixon lost big. Before Nixon was President America
joined the Vietnam War. The war was the North Vietnam wanted south Vietnam to be
came communist not capitalist. But when Nixon became President he wanted to end the
war in Vietnam. So he started sending more troops. But some hippies didn’t like that so
they had many protest. They usually had them on university campuses. One time during a
protests police killed 4 people! This got some people really mad. Nixon had too Vice
Presidents Spiro T. Agnew and Gerald Ford. He ran against John F. Kennedy Hubert
Humphrey and George McGovern. Nixon then tried to fix relationships with communist
countries like then Soviet Union and China. When Nixon went to China February 22,
1972 it was 25 years since Americans were there. They were greeted and many camera
crews were there and he walked on the Great Wall of China. And he talked to the
ambassador of China. Then one of Nixons greatest achievements was when he sent a man
to the moon. And in 1969 Neil Armstrong steeped on the moon. And everyone of the
U.S.A was watching and Nixon talked to them on T.V. and he told them he was very
proud of them. They put a plaque on the moon that said “ We the people of the United
States of America set foot one the Moon”. It was signed by the astronauts and Richard
Nixon when they got back to Earth he gave them medals. During Nixons election they
nicknamed him “Tricky Dick”. Nixons first term went smooth. Until the second term
Nixon was a great President. But during the Election of 1973 Nixon cheated. Now people
didn’t know this until a year after the election. What Nixon did was he was recording the
Democrats phone calls and he would steal papers from them. Lots of people didn’t now
this and the ones who did were mad at them at him. This became known as the
Watergate Scandal. This gat out into the media and every one was mad at the president.
That is when Richard Millhouse Nixon choose to be the first president to Resign. He
knew he would be the first President to do that but he didn’t want to get hurt or any of his
family hurt. So August 8th, 1974 he resigned. He and his family then packed up and on
August 9th, 1974 he left the Whitehouse. That same day Gerald Ford was sworn in as the
president. Gerald Ford sent a letter to Nixon pardoning all of his crimes. He flew to his
house and retired there
After Nixon resigned he went on speech tours and wrote book like Rn: The
memoirs of Richard Nixon (1978),
Real Peace (1983), No More Vietnams (1985), Victory Without War (1988), Into the
Arena (1990), Seize the Moment (1992), Beyond Peace (1994) He retired in San
Clement, California. He offered information to presidents about foreign affairs.
Sadly Richard Milhouse Nixon Died April 22, 1994 four days after he suffered a
stroke. He will always be remembered in the hearts of many Americans.