Richard Nixon
Background Information
Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda,
California. He grew up in poverty, helping out at his
father’s grocery store. He was raised a Quaker,
graduating first in his high school class in 1930 - later
attending Duke University Law School.
 Nixon returned to Whittier where he joined the law firm
of Kroop & Bewley. In 1937 he moved to Washington
where he served in the Office of Price Administration.  Nixon joined the United States Navy as a lieutenant after
failing to engage in family business affairs. He left the
navy after four years when the Republican party asked
him to run for Congress. During the campaign, Nixon
attacked the New Deal, as well as accusing the
Democratic Party as an enemy of free enterprise. Nixon
was later elected to the House of Representatives,
 Nixon was invited to join the House of Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC)
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Chief Legislator
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Nixon passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking
Act to limit smoking. It required stronger health
warnings on cigarette packages and banned
advertisements on radio and television. "Warning:
The Surgeon General Has Determined that
Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health"
He also passed the U.S. Environment Protection
Agency (EPA) which protected human health and
the environment – they also wrote and enforced
regulations.
Grade: C – Nixon was able to pass some
legislation, but not a lot. What he did pass were
smaller bills that didn’t seriously impact the nation
as a whole.
Commander-in-Chief
As Commander-in-Chief, Nixon was unable to maintain a
military budget and planned on keeping troops in an
unnecessary war.
 Had it not been for the Case-Church Amendment prohibiting
further U.S. military activity in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia,
Nixon would have continued the Vietnam war indefinitely.
 Although, he did send one of his Secretaries of State, Henry
Kissinger, to bomb Cambodia and Laos for a campaign called
Operation Menu.
 The main objective of Operation Menu was to bomb the
People’s Army of Vietnam, and the National Front for the
Liberation of South Vietnam (better known as the Vietcong)
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Grade: F – If it wasn’t for the Case-Church Amendment, Nixon
would have continued the Vietnam war until who knows when,
spending a great deal of unnecessary funds and losing many
Chief Executive
One of Nixon’s cabinet members, Spiro Agnew, was not
loyal; he was charged with having accepted bribes
totaling more than $100,000.
 Even before the speculation about the bribes, Nixon
wasn’t very trusting with his cabinet members; when he
suspected someone of something, he would not let it go
until he found out the truth. He assumed the worst of
everyone.
 Once Agnew resigned, Gerald Ford became the new Vice
President, and was loyal to Nixon until Nixon resigned in
1974.
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Grade: C+ - He did trust his cabinet members, but only
after he accused them nonstop for long periods of time.
Without cabinet members you can trust, you can’t be a
good Chief Executive.
Head of State
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The entire public generally held the same bad opinion and view of
President Nixon.
Author Richard Reeves described Nixon as "a strange man of
uncomfortable shyness, who functioned best alone with his thoughts".
Nixon's presidency was doomed by his personality, Reeves argues: "He
assumed the worst in people, and he brought out the worst in them. ...
He clung to the idea of being 'tough'. Former president Harry Truman had a low regard for Nixon, stating in
1961: "Nixon is a shifty-eyed goddamn liar, and the people know it." In
1968, he added "He's one of the few in the history of this country to run
for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time
and lying out of both sides." In October 1999, several White House tapes were leaked with Nixon
insulting the Jews, saying "most Jews are disloyal," making exceptions
for some of his top aides. 1960 held the first televised Presidential debates, and some say Nixon's
appearance put him at a disadvantage next to the young, charismatic
Jack Kennedy, who won the presidency, but just barely. Out of the 70
million votes cast, JFK received a mere 113,000 more than Nixon did.
Grade: F. The entire public held the same general, horrible view about
Nixon, and the amount of critics not only stayed the same before he
resigned, but after as well.
Chief of Party
He was a good party chief because he got blue collar working class to
vote Republican by referring to them as the Silent Majority, and
claiming that he would put a stop to the anti-war protests and race
riots.  Elected to Congress in 1946, he quickly and successfully made a name
for himself as a militant anti-Communist while serving on the House
Un-American Activities Committee.
 During Nixon’s presidency, he delivered an apologetic explanation of
his finances, including the now-famous lines regarding his wife's
"respectable Republican cloth coat." Additionally, he told of a little dog
named Checkers that was given as a present to his young daughters. "I
want to say right now that regardless of what they say, we're going to
keep it."
 This would forever be referred to as Nixon's "Checkers Speech," it was
actually a political triumph for Nixon at the time it was given.
Eisenhower requested Nixon to come to West Virginia where he was
campaigning and greeted Nixon at the airport with, "Dick, you're my
boy." The Republicans went on to win the election by a landslide.
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Grade: C. Nixon came into office as a Republican after a long line of
Democrats, and didn't fully represent Republican views. His most
famous speech, ironically, is an apology.
Guardian of the Economy
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Nixon came into office, and inherited a mess. Johnson didn’t
listen to the advice of his economists, and resulted in soaring
inflation, up to 5%, while unemployment was at a low 3.3%.
At the beginning of his presidency, Nixon would accept
unemployment in order to cool down inflation.
Nixon called for a tight budget and restrictive monetary policy.
In 1969, Nixon passed a tax bill that repealed the investment
tax credits, and a removal of 2 million of the nation’s poor
from tax rolls. This program didn’t seem to work.
Later, Nixon embraced the concept of a “full employment
balanced budget”, which stated that if the nation made more
money than they spent, the more the large deficit and
unemployment would decrease. Nixon used this concept to embrace the Keynesian economic
principles to argue that government expenditures would pull
the nation out of recession.
Guardian of the Economy cont.
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Inflation and unemployment were both on the rise, so Nixon
shifted from a tight money policy (unemployment reached over
6%) to a new economic program -ending of the convertibility of
the dollar into gold. This stimulated American exports, while
Nixon announced a ninety-day freeze on wages and prices.
Inflation was temporarily halted and soon slowed down. By the beginning of 1972, with 2 million more people out of
work than in 1969, the administration began to stimulate the
economy. The economy seemed to be turning around. Inflation remained
under control, unemployment was dropping, and the recession
had ended.
Grade: C-. Whereas almost every other aspect of Nixon failed,
he EVENTUALLY succeeded in providing the country with a
stable economy. Nixon did, however, fail in many attempts to
reorganize the nation's economy and budget, shifting from
various principles. Thanks to Nixon n the end, the United States
had finally been pulled out of the unemployment and recession. Chief Diplomat
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Nixon was able to diffuse a dangerous situation (war) by
starting talks with Russia and China to try and become allies
through Triangular Diplomacy.
He sent Henry Kissinger and the U.S. Ping Pong team to
China as a sign of good will.
5 men were arrested for breaking into the Watergate office
complex in Washington D.C. They were taking money to put
in a slush fund that was used by the Committee to Reelect
the President.
Many of the President’s staff members were accused, but the
President was found to be guilty of trying to cover up the
break in. His voice was found on a tape recording system
from his office.
Grade: C- - Even though he was good at creating peace with
other countries, he was involved in the Watergate scandal in
his own country. If we can’t even trust our own president to
be honest, who can we trust?
Final Grade
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We think that Richard Nixon deserves a grade
of C- because hardly anyone liked him as a
president. He was involved in the Watergate
Scandal, forcing the country to decide if they
could trust their president or not and he
continued the Vietnam war longer than most
people felt he should have. Despite all of the
bad things, he was able to bring the economy
back up after a devastating depression, giving
him a decent overall grade.
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Overall Grade: C-
Works Cited List
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Bernstein, Carl. “Richard Nixon: Biography.” Spartacus International. 7 July 1998. 9
January 2011.
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http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAnixon.htm
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Byck, Samuel. “Richard M. Nixon: Personality and Public Image.” Museum of
Learning. 3 January 2011. 7 January 2011.
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http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/
Richard_M._Nixon::sub::Personality_And_Public_Image
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Dale, Jeffrey. “Richard Milhous Nixon: Domestic Affairs.” Miller Center of Public
Affairs. 20 December 2010. 9 January 2011. 
http://millercenter.org/president/nixon/essays/biography/4
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Fischer, Thomas. “Nixonomics.” Profiles of U.S. Presidents. 8 January 2011. 10
January 2011.
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http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Kennedy-Bush/Richard-M-Nixonnixonomics.html
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Whister, Jack. “Nixon’s Accomplishments and Defeats.” United States History. 7
December 2010. 7 January 2011.
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http://countrystudies.us/united-states/history-126.htm
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American Experience. The Presidents. Richard M. Nixon | PBS. 1996-2009. National
Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 10
January 2011
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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/37_nixon/index.html
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Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 2 December 2010. Media Wiki, Wikimedia. 10
January 2011