Nixon
Most Americans know that former President Clinton just had his library dedication in Arkansas. He was a popular president and even the Monica Lewinski scandal was not enough to taint his legacy. Unfortunately, Richard Nixon's library does not seem to have the same prestigious following as Bill Clinton seems to have. Consider that just after Christmas of last year; the Nixon's Foundation and Library won an award that almost no American on the street knows anything about. I have to admit that before I saw the Dimitri Simes who is the current President of the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C., I never even considered that there was a Nixon Foundation. "The Nixon Center is the Nixon Foundation's programmatically independent public policy institute. It recently celebrated its 10th anniversary by acquiring The National Interest, a prestigious foreign policy journal, and by presenting its Distinguished Service Award to Mikhail Baryshnikov at a gala dinner in Washington." (C-SPAN) Because I knew so little about the only American President in United State's history to have to disgracefully resign his post as the most powerful man in the world rather than to be impeached, this report will attempt to take a look at the life of former President Richard Milhous Nixon's life before, during and after the infamous Watergate Scandal.
Birth To President
Most of Nixon's life seems to have been whitewashed by the Watergate scandal and his forced resignation. But he obviously had a life before being President. Richard M. Nixon was born in Yorba, California in a house his father named 'the Linda Farmhouse' on January 9, 1913. "I was born in a house built by my father." (Nixon) It is funny to think that his father actually built the farm house out of a catalogue kit on a little more than eight acres a year before Richard was born. Since we don't build our modern day houses from catalogues any more, the Nixon family home has been saved and can still be seen as a part of the Richard Nixon Museum.
To become President of the United States today, one has to be pretty smart and must obviously have been pretty successful in school. Although he did some pretty stupid things in his professional career, he was no exception to the idea of being a bright guy. As a matter of fact, Richard Nixon was a brilliant student his entire life. He was an honors graduate of Whittier College and then a top of the class Duke University Law School graduate. He was a highly sought after attorney when he eventually began practicing law.
His home life was also pretty good compared to his professional life. Nixon married Patricia Ryan in 1940. The couple had two daughters named Patricia often called Tricia and Julie. His daughters always seemed to love their father a great deal and had few to no complaints to their family's privileged lifestyle attained from their successful father.
When World War II brought the United States into the war, Richard Nixon proudly served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific realm. Although he did not achieve hero status like many potential politicians, he was more than successful enough to platform his military career and his legal career into politics. Thus, upon his discharge from military service, Nixon began a campaign to enter the United States Congress as a representative of California. He easily won election to Congress for his California district. He raised the bar and in 1950 he won a seat as one of California's Senators. After a being recognized as mover and a shaker he was selected as General Eisenhower's running mate for the 1952 Presidential election. Richard Nixon was only 39 at the time.
When Eisenhower became President, newly elected Vice President Richard Nixon became an instrumental part of the Eisenhower Administration. In other words, he was far from being known as the type of Vice President who had no role or as being overshadowed by a powerful President. As a matter of fact, he was such a good Vice President that his party nominated him to run for his own presidency in 1960 where he barely lost to John F. Kennedy. Some political historians feel that the introduction of television may have been the only thing that kept Nixon out of the White House in 1960. John F. Kennedy was a youthful looking individual who seemed to be more photogenic than Nixon. But that did not stop Nixon from winning the party nomination in 1968 and he went on to crush his competition from Vice President...
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