"l
aQuitter":
Never
Been
%, ffiqF Have
Nixon
ofRichard
ffi # APortrait
OTTO FRIEDRICH
Ambrosehassaid,RichardNixon wantedto be oneof the
Stephen
As hk biographer
preLincoln.But theflaws in Nixon's character
a modern-day
ev)en
greatpresidents,
ventedhimfrom leauingthat kind of legacy.He did accomplkhmanypositivethings
duringhistenurein the WhiteHouse(1969-1973): thoughan ardentand dedicated
with
anti-Communktduing his entirepoliticalcareer,he efecteda rapprochement
(Jnion,
and fnally ended
ditentewith the Soviet
CommunistChina, established
achievein the VietnamWar. Thesewerespectacular
inuoluement
America'sdisastrous
him. But Nixon
asAmbrosedescibes
world'sNo. 1 anti-Communist,"
mentsfor_"the
the tJnited Statesin worldafwasto strengthen
aboyeall wdsa praglnatist:his objectiue
"tiangular
fairs by playing the Souietsand Chineseof againstone anotherthrough
diplomacy,"
theuotthat lowered
andsignedthe measure
militaryspending
At home,he reduced
in gettinglegislationenactedon
ing ageto eighteen,but he was not muchinterested
mostof his time and energywasthe antiwarmouement
CapitolHill. What occupied
with themand with what he
he wasobsessed
of his administration;
and otherenemies
Before
perceiued
to bea liberal,anti-Nixonslantamongthenation'smajornewspapers.
politics
the Nixon WhiteHouse:it uieweddomestic
long,a bunkermentalityperuaded
"us,"
"them"
inwith the Nixon administration
and
between
battlefield
asa desperate
"us"
"thern"
astheonlypatriotsand truesauiorsof
as traitorsand
identifying
creasingly
"national
viosecuity," the Nixon administrationflagrantly
Ameica. In the nameof
and
dissent,defeatopponents,
latedthe law and the Constitutionin itszeal to suppress
"enemies"
and not
a list of his
politics.Nixon himselfcompiled
upholdadministration
only had theirphonestapped,but alsoorderedthe lnternal RevenueSeruiceto audit
"campaign
the Water'
produced
of subversion"
them.Mostfighteningof all, Nixon's
to
with the Committee
It beganinJune 7972, whenfve menassociated
gatescandal.
head'
NationalCommittee
(CREEP)brokeinto theDemocratic
thePresident
Re-Elect
of burglary.For a time,
on a charge
D.C., and wereanested
in Washington,
quarterc
up his complicityin the break-inand the abuseoJexecutiue
couered
Nixon successfully
Carl Bernsteinand Bob Woodwardof theWashWhenreytorters
powerit represented.
ington Post exposedthe Watergatescandal,it precipitatedwhat one historiancalled
"thegreatest
crkisthecountryhadfacedsincethe Ciuil War." The cisis
constitutional
and euentuallybroughtdown Nixon's
shookAmericansof everypoliticalpersuasion
euerto
his ffice-thefirst AmeicanPresident
In August1973, he resigned
presidency.
dost-andflew backto Califtrnia in disgrace,
380
27
" I H A V E N E V E R B E E N A Q U I T T E R ' ' A: P O R T R A I TO F R I C H A R D N I X U N
"impeial
ltresidency,"
somehistorianshavelinked watergateto thegrowth of an
branch'LyndonJohnson
oJpower,tiltedto theexecutive
in an imbalance
whichresulted
Conwar in Vietnamandpressuring
by waginghis undeclated
theprocess
hadhastened
andfunding it. In the Watergatecisis,as historianWilliam H'
into endorsing
gress
insisting
of theitnpeialptesidency,
chafeput it, thecountryralliedagainstthe excesses
whim'"
of lawsratherthanpetsonal
on "a gouernment
he simplygot
Nixon'sonly cime was not, as ffianyAmericansstillcontend,that
havedone.Historianc. vann woodwardobserues
caughtd.oingwhatotherpresidents
"Heretofote,
lr Responsesof the Presidentsto Chargesof Miscondact (1974):
of thecrimeand misdemeanor
hasbeenprouedto be thechiefcootdinator
no president
noltresidenthasbeenheldto
againsthis oumadministration. . . HeretoJore,
charged
taken
ot oJmeasures
in his administration
of rnisconduct
betie chiefpersonalbeneficiary
haue
and misdemeanor
the malfeasance
of it. Heretofore,
to destroyof couerup euidence
ends'Heretofore'no
subuersiue
ideological
had no confessed
[)utpose'no constitutionally
govand secretlyusingestablished
subuerting
of extensively
presidenthasbeenaccused
justice'
and critics,to obstruct
opponents
ot discreditpolitical
to deJame
etnmentagencies
andprotectciminals,or to deltiuecitizensof theirigh* and lib'
misconduct
to conceal
units to
of creatingsecretinvestigatiue
no presidenthasbeenaccused
erties.Heretofore,
privatecitizensandtheirights'"
against
in covertand unlaufulactivities
engdge
asonehistoriantermedit, Ameicanvotersin 7974
backlash,"
In "a post-Watergate
uictoryin their entirehistory' Two
congressional
thesecond-bigest
gavethe Democrats
Republican
yearslater,theysentDemocratJimmycatter to the white House,ousting
ashis successor'
CeraldFord,whom Nixon hadchosen
otto Ffiedich descibesNixon'spainful and impoveished
In thefollowingselection,
Though
manhe became'
earlyyears,whichdid so muchto shapetheangry,ambitious
reltutationby smear
hightyintelligentandgifted,as Fiedich shows,Nixon madehis
such
He tationalized
softon cotnmunism'
thernoJbeing
accusing
ingpoliticalopponents,
"of coutseI knew
Jerry voorhk wasn'ta
tactiaon thegroundsthat he had to win.
"but
opponent, I hadto win' That'sthethingyou
hesaidof onedefeated
communist,,,
The importantthing is to win." Fiedrich goeson to showhow
don,t understand.
again,in a political
Nixon kept ising andfalling, risingandfalling, andfnally rising
motethana quarterof a century'
thatspanned
career
GL OSS A R Y
AGNEW, SPIRO Nixon's vice President
(1969-1973);he resignedafterbeing indicted for
graft and corruPtion.
BROWN, PAT Incumbent govemor of
California who defeatedNixon in the gubernatorial
"final
election of 1'962.Afterward Nixon held his
pressconference,"in which he told rePorters:
i'Think of what you've lost. You won't have Nixon
to kick aroundanYmore."
Soviet leader (first
BR-EZHNEV, LEONID
secretaryof the Communist parry) who with Nixon
signed itt tglZ SALT I treaty.In it, the United
SLtes and the Soviet Union agreedto limit
381
T H ES E V E N T I E S
"an interim accord"
antiballisticmissilesand reached
on restrictingoffensivenuclearweapons'
CHECKERS SPEECH Nixon's maudlin speech
on televisionduring the presidentialelectionof
1,952;inthat speecl, Nixon soughtto clearhis name
afternews of his $18,000slushfund donatedby
As
California businessmenhad come to the surface'
dog'
family
Nixon
the
of
he spoke,he told the story
name'
Checkers;hence the sPeech's
APPointedsPecial
COX, ARCHIBALD
prosecutorin the'Watergatecase;he..wasfired
"saturday night massacre".forinsisting
i.rrittg the
that Nixon turn over thi tapeshe had made of his
in the Oval Office'
conversations
DEAN, JOHN Nixon's legal counsel;he was one
of threeiop Nixon officialsinvolved in the cover-up
of the Watiergatebreak-in. The other two officials
wereAttorn."yG..r.talJohnMitchellandMitchell's
deputy,Jeb Siuart Magruder' Dean pleadedguilty
*t.tt'hJ was indicted for obstructingjustice in the
Watergateinvestigations.
DOUGLAS, HELEN GAHAGAN Nixon
defeatedthis former movie actressin the 1950
election in Californi a for a seatin the United States
Senate.She gavehim his pejorativenickname'
"Tricky DicL." Nixon won this mud-slinging
"the pink lady"-t1t"' tt'
election by calling Douglas
"pink
a Communist-and insiiting that shewas
right down to her underwear'"
EHRLICHMAN, JOHN Nixon's chief domestic
adviserwho was indicted by a grandjury for
obstructingjustice in the investigationofWatergate'
He resignJdhis office, stood trial for his part in the
'Watergite
scandal,and servedtime in a federal
prison.
FORD, GERALD United Statescongressmai^11d
1973
House minority leaderfrom Michigan who tn
president;
replacedSpiro Agnew asNixon's vice
Ford becam. pr.rid..tt when Nixon resignedthe
office in 1974-.One month later Ford pardoned
Nixon for his crimesin the'Watergatescandal'
382
HALDEMAN, H. R. Nixon's chief of staff' Like
was indicted by a grand
John Ehrlichman, Haldeman
justice
the Watergate
in
jury for obstructing
investigations.He, too, resignedfrom-theWhite
House, stood trial for his role in the'Watergate
scandal,and was confinedto a federalprison'
HISS. ALGER Servedin the StateDepartment
frorn 7936to 1'947;in that capacrtyhe helped
coordinateUnited Statesforeign policy' In 1948'
Whittaker Chamben, an editor and confessed
Communist courier, chargedthat Hisshad passedon
confidentialgovemmentdocumentsto the Soviets'
HUAC, led by Nixon, accusedHissof espionage;himself
found
and
charges
the
denied
he vigorously
indicied by a grandjury for perjury' He was later
found goiity of that-chatgeand sentencedto forry*tt never found guilty of
four mlnths in prison. Ht"made
Nixon a national
"rfio""g.. The Hiss case
figure."
HOOVER, J. EDGAR Powerful headof the
FederalBurJau of Investigationfrom 1'924to 1'972'
on
Hoover advisedNixon to order illegal wiretaps
his allegedenemies,asLyndonJohnsonhad done'
HUAC Acronym for the House lJn-American
Activities Committee (its official name was the
House Committee on Un-American Activities)'
"m"lign
ongnally establishedin 1938 to uncover
forligt influencesin the United States'"It was taken
orr"riy conservativeRepublicans.who'rn L947'
larrnchld widely publicized investigationsinto the
extent of Communist subversionin this country'
HUMPHREY, HLIBERT LyndonJohnson'svice
for
president(1'965-Ig6q and Democraticnominee
Nixon defeatedhim
iresident in the 1968 election;
by a narrow margin.
KISSINGER, HENRY Nixon's nationalsecuriry
adviserand secondsecretaryof state(1'973-1974);he
arrangedNixon's visit to Communist China tn 1'972
and negotiatedwith the North Vietnamesea ceasein North Vietnam that called for an
fire agr*eement
American withdrawal.
McGOVERN, GEORGE Democraticnominee
for presidentrn 1972;Nixon soundlydefeatedhim'
27
, I H A V E N E V E RB E E N A Q U I T T E R " A:
general
MITCHELL, JOHN Nixon's attorney
'[gog
of
cover-up
-1972) who was implicated in the
ih. W"r.tgate break-in'
SALT I TRLATY
Seeltonid BrezhneY'
On the
SATURDAY NIGHT MASSACR-E
Nixon
olgltt of October 20,1973, a Saturday'
to fire
Richardson
.r-a"*a Attomey GeneralElliot
was
soecialprosecutorArchibald Cox' who
refused
the'W"tergatecase',Richardson
il;;tff;g
Attomey
Depury
did
so
Ni*orr;t ori", and resigned;
Alexander
C"n.r"l William Ruckelshaus'General
persuaded
H*ig, Ni*on's new chief of staff,then
The
Cox'
fire
SJZir.t GeneralRobert Bork to
"a
I-"rr".r."
left the Nixon administration
shambles."
presidential STEVENSON, ADLAI Democratic
eiectionsof
the
in
,ro*irr.. who lost to Eisenhower
mate'
1952arLd1956.As Eisenhower'srunning
much of his time in rhe 1'952campaign
Ni;;;*,
Stevensonof being soft on communism'
accusingTEAPOT DOME SCANDAL President'Warren
tg of Albert
G. Harding (1921,-1923)'at the "F
control of
f "U, *"t.rl"ry of the interior, transferred
Fall'sInterior
,t. ,r"rry', oil r"r"*t' in'Wyoming to
Fall leasedthe oil reservesto a couple
i'"p*tit."r.
of wealthy businessmenin return for almost
"loans'" Tried and convictedofbribery'
$SOO,OOO'ir,
Fall servedaYeairin Prison'
Nixon
VOORHIS, JERRY The liberalDemocrat
of 1946 in the
defeatedin the congressionalelection.
Los Angeles'
Twelfth CongressiJnalDistrict eastof
PORTRAIT OF
R I L H A K L J I \I A I
ichardNixon's fint consciousmemory was
He
of falling-falling and then running'
was three yean old, and his mother had
in a horsetaken him and his brother out riding
too fast
drawn b.rggy, and the horse turned a comer
wheel
on the way home' The boy fell out' A boggy"I
must
cut'
ran over his head and inflicted a deep
"but I
have been in shock," Nixon recalled later'
while my
managedto get up and run after the buggy
only afmother tried to make the horse stop'" The
was why
tereffect, Nixon said, was a scar' and that
parting it
he combed his hair straight back insteadof
on the side.
and
In a sense,Nixon spent his whole life faliing
politics of
running and falling again' A symbol of the
of his
anger, he was one of the most hated figures
in U'S' histime, and yet he was also the only man
and
tory ever to be .l..ted twice as Vice President
achieved
trwiceasPresident.In the'White House' he
Vietmany major goals: the U'S' withdrawal from
first major
,r"rn, ,.rrored relations with China' the
and much
arrns agreement with the Soviet tlnion
' asthe
more. But he will alwaysbe remembered '
the Waterchief perpetrator-and chief victim-of
in disgate scandal,the only Presidentever to resign
gface.
his
Despite all his gifts-his shrewd intelligence'
masteryof
dedication and senseof public service' his
political strategy-the'e w'is a quality of self-destrucaide he
,i.r"n.r, that haunted Nixon' To an admiring
"You continue to walk on the
once acknowledged,
years you
edge of the precipice becauseover the
the edge
have become fascinatedby how close to
you can walk without losingyour balance'"
then
He kept losing it, tumbling to great depths'
in the
gnrnly climbing back' After being defeated
gupresidentialrace of 1960 and then the California
reporters,
bernatorial race of 1962, he bitterly told
"I Have Never Been a Quitter"' Time' May 2'
Ono Friedrich,
by permission'
1994. Copyright @ 1994 Time Inc' Reprinted
383
TH E S E V E NTIES
:di9it
ff
3;;i;ii
:r!::-i
t
:;
,
1,.,
.:'j'",
i:t'i,j].;,
*;
Richard Nixon (number 23), the secondson of Frank and
Hanna I'l!xon, was named after the English King Richard the
Lion-Hearted.He attendedWhittier Collegeand wantedto play
"You
won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."
Six years later, he fought his way to another Republican presidential nomination, which he spoke of as
"the
culrnination of an impossible dream." But at his
last meeting with his Cabinet in August 1974, after
what seemed like the final defeat in a lifetime devoted to the idea of winning, he burst into tears.
"others
"Always
may hate you,
remember," he said,
but those who hate you don't win unless you hate
them-and
then you destroy yourself,"
From anyone else, that might have served as a
public farewell, but the disgraced Nixon spent more
than a dozen years in climbing once more out of the
384
"toostnallandslowto makethesturtingteam,"
football,but was
writesOtto Friedich,so "he showedup everydayfor practicein
theline." (JPI / Corbis-Bettmann)
abyss and re-creating himself as an elder statesman.
He wrote his memoirs in 1978, then eight more
books largely devoted to international strategy. He
moved to the wealthy suburb of Saddle River, New
Jersey (where he stayed until 1990, moving a mile
away to Park Ridge), and began giving discreet dinners for movers and shakers.President Reagan called
to ask his advice. So did President Bush. In November 1989, he became the first important American to
make a public visit to Beijing after the massacreat
Tiananmen Square.
The
hallmark
poveffy-poveffy
of
Nixon's
and f"-ily
youth
had
been
illness and endless
27
" I H A V E N E V E RB E E NA Q U I T T E R "A: P O R T R A I TO F R I C H A R DN I X O N
work. His father Frank, who had dropped out of
school and run away from home after the fourth
grade,was a combative and quarrelsome Ohioan'
After running through a string ofjobs, Frank moved
to Caiifornia in 1907, built a house in the desertedgetown of Yorba Linda and tried to grow lemons'
There Frank'spious Quaker wife Hannah gavebirth
on Jan. g, Ig1'3, to a second son' She named him
Richard, after the English King Richard the LionHearted, plus Milhous, her own family name' The
newborn baby, an attendant nurse later recalled' had
"powerful, ringing voice."
a
His mother sent him to school every day in a
starchedwhite shirt and a black bow tie, and he
worked hard for his good grades'He liked to recite
long poems and play the piano' One of his favorite
forms of competition was debating, which he did
well. Another was football. Too small and slow to
make the startingteam in Fullerton or Whittier High
School or at Whittier College, he showedup every
"'We used Nixon as a
day for practice in the line.
"V/hat
punching bag," one of his coachesrecalled'
startsthe process,really," Nixon later saidof his life"ate the laughsand slights
long passionfor winnirag,
and snubs when you are a kid' But if ' ' your
^nger is deep enough and strong enough,you leam
W-henHarold, the eidestson' was strickenwith tuberculosis,Hannah left the rest of the family to take
him to the drier air in Prescott,Arizona' She could
pay for this only by operating a clinic where other
TB patientswaited out their last weeks of iife' In
the summersDick found jobs nearby as a janitor' a
chicken plucker, a camival barker' After five years'
"We all grew up rather fast in those
Harold died.
years,"Nixon recalled.
Harold's illness was also a gteat financial drain'
Nixon had to tum down a scholarshipoffer from
Harvard fale was also interested in him) and save
money by attending tiny Whittier College' Duke
Univenity Law School wasjust startingwhen it offered Nixon one of the 25 scholarshipsavailableto a
classof 44. Lt first he lived in a $5-a-month room'
Later he shared a one-room shack that had no
piumbing or electricity; he shaved in the men's
room of the library' In three yearsat Duke, he never
once went out on a date. He finished third in the
classof 1937.
Nixon had shown an interestin politics sincethe
age of six, when he began readingnews of current
eventsand talking about them with his father' When
he was 11, the Teapot Dome scandalprompted him
"I'11be a iawyer they
to his mother,
announce
to
excellence'
by
attitudes
those
change
can
that you
"
can't bribe." The practice 9f law in Whittier was
personalgut Performance.
hardly so inspiring. Taken into the firm of a famtly
Nixon $ew up in Whittier becausehis father had
job
friend, he spenthis first day dusting the books in the
given up on citrus farming and found a new
his
ofiice library, then bungled his first case,losing all
there asan oil-field worker, then starteda gasstation'
client's money in a real estatedeal' But he persethen expandedit into a generalstore'HannahNixon
vered, beganjoining variousclubs,making speeches'
liked Whittier becauseit was largely a Quaker town
He evenjoined a local theatergroup, where he met
where nobody drank or smoked or carried on' But
namedThelma ("Pat") Ryan'
a schoolteacher
life was not easy.All through high school' Nixon
"I'd
her home from the theater,he said'
Driving
the
to
drive
and
moming
every
4
at
up
had to get
like to have a datewith You'"
SeventhStreetmarketsin Los Angelesto buy fresh
"Oh, I'm too busy," she replied' An orphan' she
vegetablesfor the familY store'
as well'
was not only working but attendingclasses
When Dick Nixon was !2, hts younger brqther
The secondtime Nixon drove her home, he again
Arthur, the fourth of the five boys, complained of a
asked for a date, again was shruggedoff' The third
headache;a month later he was dead of meningitis'
"someday I'm going
it happened,Nixon said,
time
weeks'
for
day
every
cried
he
that
iater
wrote
Nixon
385
THESEVENTIES
to marry you." It took t\ivo years of courtship before
she agreed in 1940; she converted to the Quaker
faith and used her own savings to buy the wedding
ritg.
Nixon probably would not have been content to
stay in Whittier forever, but Pearl Harbor uprooted
his whole generation. He knew that if he was ever to
have a political career, he would have to join the
armed forces. So despite the Quaker belief in pacifism, he won a commission in the N""y in June
1942. He served creditably as a supply officer in
New Caledonia, then the Solomon Islands' His most
remarkable activity, though, was to become a master
at bluffing in stud poker. By the end of the war, he
had won and saved a stake estimated at as much as
year
$10,000. He invested hf,f of it in the following
in launching his political career.
Democrat, had won
Jerry Voorhis, a popularliberal
five straight elections in the L2th Congressional District eastof Los Angeles, but a group oflocal business"an
men hoped to unseat him. Nixon promised them
aggressiveand vigorous campaign'" He began working up to 20 hours a day, making speechesabout his
war experiences, denouncing the New Deal' When
Pat gave birth to their first daughter Patricia (Tricia),
was out campaigning. (Confident of reelection, he stayed home when Julie was bom two
Nixon
yearslater.)
Voorhis was virtuimplied-falsely-that
"Remember," said one of Nixon's
ally a communist.
"Voorhis is a former registered Socialist and his
ads,
voting record in Congressis more socialisticand comNixon
munistic than Demo cratic-" This kind of smear was to
become a Nixon trademark. To one of Voorhis' supporters, Nixon later offered a very penonal rationale:
"Of
course I knewJerry Voorhis wasn't a communist'
but I had to win. That's the thing you don't understand. The important thing is to win."
Win he did' with 56% of the vote' This was part
of the end-of-the-war landslide that gave the G'o'P'
control of both houses for the first time since the
election following the Great Crash of 1929' Nixon
386
asked to be put on the Education and Labor Committee, which was going to rewrite the rules of labor
relations through the Taft-Hardey Act' In retum, he
was asked to serve on an eccentric committee [the
House Committee on (Jn-American Affairs] that de"un-Amerivoted its time to noisy investigations of
can activities." It was to be the making of his career'
Nixon began looking for experts on communist
influence in labor unions. This led him to a Maryknoll priest whose report on the subject included the
fact that a Ttl'tl senior editor named Whittaker
Chambers had told the FBI that he had belonged to a
communist cell in Washington, and that it included
Alger Hiss. It seemed incredible. A lawyer who had
once clerked for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Hiss had served as a State Department adviser at the
Yalta conference, had helped otgantze the United
Nations and was being touted as perhaps its fint Secretary-Generai.
Hiss, then president of the Carnegie Endowment'
denied ever having met anyone named Whittaker
Chambers. Nixon had both men summoned before
the committee to confront each other' Hiss finally
admitted knowing Chambers slighdy under a difterent name. Chambers insisted that they had been
"close friends . . . caught in a tragedy of history'"
But nothing could be proved until Chambers Pro"pumpkin papers," microfilms of State
duced the
Department documents that he said Hiss had given
him for transmissionto Moscow' Hiss was convicted
of perjury in January 1950, served 44 months in
prison and has sPent the rest of his long life denying
guilt.
The Hiss case made Nixon a national figure and
launched him into a run for the Senate in 1950
against Helen Gahagan Douglas, a former actress
who had served six years in the House as an ardent
New Dealer. Since red hunting was a national marit
in these Korean'War days, Douglas foolishly tried to
accuseNixon of being soft on communism, and invented the name that haunted him for the rest of his
life: Tricky Dick. But when it came to mudslinging'
27
A P O R T R A I Tu r
, I H A V E N E V E RB E E N A Q U I T T E R ' ' :
"Oncenominated
as VicePresiNixonandDwight Eisenhower'
"Nixott wasassigned
to play hatchet
out'
dent,"Friedich points
'cornrnt'tnisrrr
and com'tption'while Eisenhower"-the
man ort
statesmanlik'e'"
nominee
for President-"retnained
Republican
KrLn^'\Y
for Nixon
slushfund provided
thesecret
During thescandalouer
Checkers
Nixon gave hisfamous
by CaliJorniabusinessmen'
"You'temy
in public'
proclaimed
afterwhichEisenhowet
speech,
"
! (\JPI/ Cotbis-Beftmann)
bov
complicated maneuvering'
to back him' ln some
forward a resoluthe Eisenhower forcesPut
;.;;;,
disputed
"nt"i i"av" "--"ddeclaredthat shewas
give them a number of
would
that
tion
He won by the biggest
who had alreadybeen
delegations'Nixon'
down to her underwear'"
Southem
for Eisenhower'percandidatethat year'
out asa running mate
pfrrrrfrr, of any Senate
sounded
beservingin the Senate
Nixon had hardly begun
s u a d e d t h e C a j i f o r n i a d e l e g a t e s t o b a c k tforgave
hisresoluover
Warren never
leadershipstartedfighting
won'
Republican
Eisenhower
the
so
fore
t[", ""U
nomination should go
a betrayal'
1gllpresidential
rhe
whether
Nr*on for what he considered
imthe
to
or
Taft
Robert
President'Nixon was asto conservativeSenator
Once nominatedasVice
The
and
Dwight Eisenhower'
o"
play hatchet
mensely popular General
to
signed
which
:""
*:mmunism
statesmanof deadlocking' in
while Eisenhower remained
convention *"' lt' d""*"'
"it*prl."i
WarGovernor Earl
caseit might turn to Clhfo'nia
l i k e . N i x o n w a s a l l t o o e a g e r t o c o m p l yas
.Hede_
'Warren's plan' and all the
Adlai Stevenson one
nominee
ren' That was certainly
Democratic
,.nU.a
Nixon' were pledged
California dtl"g"t"'' i"tl"dl"g
her the
a champion' He called
against
up
was
she
"pink right
387
THESEVENTIES
"holds
a Ph.D. from fSecretary of State Dean]
Acheson's College of Cowardly Communist Con-
Khrushchev in the kitchen of an American model
tainment."
To some extent, Vice Presidents' tasksare defined
by their own skills and experiences. Nixon knew
who
The Democrats got their revenge when the press
discovered and trumpeted that Nixon had a secret
slush fund of $18,000 provided by Califomia businessmento help finance his activities. Nixon insisted
that the fund was perfectly legal and was used solely
for routine political expenses,but the smell of scan-
home.
more about politics than almost anyone else in
Eisenhower's Administration, so he became the
G.o.P.'s chief campaigner. When Eisenhower's second term expired, Nixon was the inevitable successor; he was nominated to run againstthe Democrats'
dal thickened. At Eisenhower's urging, Nixon went
before a TV audience estimated at 58 million with
"Pat
and I
an impassioned defense of his honesry.
John F. Kennedy.
Eisenhower and others warned Nixon not to accept Kennedy's challenge to a televised debate-
have the satisfaction that every dime we've got is
honestly ours," he said. The only personal present he
"a
little cocker spaniel dog in a
had received was
Nixon was the Vice President, after all, and far better
known than the junior Senator from Massachu-
crate. Black-and-white-spotted. And our iittle girlTricia, the six-year-old-named it Checkers. And
you know, the kids love that dog." Hundreds of
thousands of listeners cabled or wrote their support
of Nixon, and Eisenhower settled his future by say"You're
my boy!"
ing publicly,
Eisenhower won 55% of the vote, and the freshman Senator from Caiifornia, still only 39, found
himself the second youngest Vice President. He also
found that a President and Vice President rarely like
each other very much, because the latter's only real
job is to wait for the former's death. Nixon faced the
great test of this uneasy relationship when Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in September 1955. It
was up to Nixon to chair Cabinet meetings and generally run the-White House machinery without ever
seeming to covet the power that lay just beyond his
fingertips. He did the job tactfully and skilHully
throughout the weeks of Eisenhower's recovery.
One major function of modern Vice Presidents is
to travel, and Nixon tumed himself into a latter-day
Marco Polo: nine trips to 61 countries. Everywhere
Nixon took pride in his long experience
as a debater. He also ignored advice to rest up for the
setts-but
debate and went on campaigning strenuously until
the last minute. So what a record 80 million Americans saw on their TV screenswas a devastating contrast. Kennedy looked fresh, tanned, vibrant; Nixon
looked unshaven, baggy-eyed, surly. The era of the
politics of TV imagery had begun, and the debates
were a major victory for KennedY.
The vote was incredibly close, with
Kennedy
50.4% of the popular vote and Nixon
49.6%. He accepted the bitter defeat and returned to
winning
Califomia. Then Nixon's legendary political shrewdness abandoned him. He let himself be talked into
running for Governor of California against the popular Edmund G. ("Pat") Brown, and tried to imply
that Brown was a dangerous leftist. It was after his
crushing defeat that Nixon blew up at reporten and
"last
pressconference."
announced that this was his
Still only 49, he decided to move to New York
City and make some money by practicing colporate
law. He joined a prosperous Wall Street firm, which
thereupon became Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie
and Alexander. But he never really retired from poli-
he went, he conferred, orated, debated, press-conferenced. In Moscow to open a U.S trade exhibit in
tics. He was just biding his time. He thought Jack
Kennedy would be unbeatable in 1964, and Lyndon
1959, Nixon got into a finger-pointing argument on
communism with Soviet Pa.ty Secretary Nikita
Johnson soon appeared almost as much so. Nixon
played elder statesman,letting Barry Goldwater and
388
27
T F R I C H A R DN I X O N
, I H A V E N E V E RB E E NA Q U I T T E R "A; P O R T R A I O
Nelson Rockefeller fight for the G'o'P' nomlnatlon'
Nixon stumped loyally for Goldwater, and when
that campaign ended in disaster,he became the logical man to reunite the splintered parry in 1968'
Following the advice of a young advertising man
named H. R. Haldeman, he finally learned how to
make effective use of television: not in speechesor
press conferences but answering questions from
"rypical voters" and then carefuily editing the results'
If that was artificial, so in a way was the whole 1968
campaign. Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey
dared not repudiate Johnson's doomed Vietnam pol"the politics of joy'"
icy and talked instead about
of
Nixon, who had agreed with Johnson's escalation
in
the war and hoped to court segregadonist votes
"peace
the South, spoke mainly in code words about
"law and order" at
with honor" in Vietnam and
home. In a year of assassinationsand ghetto riots'
Nixon sounded reassuring, or enough so to defeat
was
Humphrey and the war-torn Democrats' But it
close: 43.4% for Nixon, 42'7yo for Humphrey'
13.5% for George'Wallace'
Nixon's first term included sweeping innovations'
often surprisingly liberal. He was the first President
Soin years to cut military spending; the first to tie
insticial Securiry increasesto the cost of living' He
"revenue sharing" to funnel $6 billion a yeat rn
tuted
He
federai tax money back to the states and cities'
And he
signed the act lowering the voting age to 18'
to the
benefited from Kennedy's decision to go
moon. When Neil Armstrong landed there in 1969'
"this is
Nixon somewhat vaingloriously declared that
since
the greatest week in the history of the world
the Creation."
howHis imaginative measures were shadowed'
each
ever, by Vietnam. Nixon, who had supported
deprevious escalation-and indeed repeatedly
campaigned on a promise to
manded more-had
"with honor," meaning no surrender
end the war
and no defeat. He called for a cease-fireand negotiaAnd
dons, but the communists showed no interest'
while U.S. casualtiescontinued at a rate of about 400
a month, protestsagainstthe war grew in size and violence.
Nixon announced
To quiet antiwardemonstrators,
(J'S'
forces,starting
that he would graduallywithdraw
with 25,000 in June 1969. From now on, the war
would be increasinglyfought by the Vietnamese
in CamboWhen, from their sanctuaries
themselves.
dia, the North Vietnamesebegan harassingthe retreating Americansin the springof 1970,Nixon ordered bombing raids and made a temporary
"incursion" into the country' The main effectof this
expansionof the war wasan explosionof new antiwar
outcrieson collegecamPuses'
Thesewere fiercely contentioustimes, and Nixon
was partly to blame for that' He had alwaysbeen the
fighter rather than the conciliator, and though he
had millions of supportersamong what he liked to
"the Silent Majority" in "middle America," the
call
increasingconflicts in American politics made it difficult to govern at all. Nixon, as the nation leamed
later when it heard the Watergatetapes'brought to
the White House an extraordinarily permanent
fil1ed
anger and resentment.His staff memos were
with furious instructions to fire people, investigate
"knock off this craP'"
leaksand
Together with this chronic anger' the mistrustful
Nixon had a passion for secrecy' He repeatedly
launched military operationswithout telling his own
Defense Secretarf,Melvin Laird, and major dipiomatic initiatives without telling his Secretary of
'William
Rogers. All major actions went
State,
through his White House staff members' particularly
National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and
Nixon's two chief domestic aides,Bob Haldeman
andJohn Ehrlichman.
Nixon hatedleaksto the
Just as he loved secrecy'
press(though he himselfwas a dedicatedleakerto fa,ror.d reporters).And so when he first ordered an
unannounced air raid againstcommunist basesin
read
Cambodia in April !969, he was furious to
about it in a'W.ashingtondispatchin the New York
389
THESEVENTIES
Times. rnr chief J. Edgar Hoover told the President
that the only way to find the leaker was to start tap'When
Nixon entered the White
ping phones.
House and dismantled the elaborate taping system
that Johnson had installed, Hoover told him that the
FBI, on Johnson's orden, had bugged Nixon's campaign plane. Now Nixon started down the same
path, getting Attomey GeneralJohn Mitcheil to sign
the orders for 17 taps.
When a series of secret Vietnam
documents
known as the Pentagon Papers began appearing in
the Ner.rzYork Times in June 1971, Kissinger per"must
suaded Nixon that the leaker, Daniel Ellsberg,
be stopped at all costs." The FBI turned balky at ex"Then
tralegal activities, so Nixon told Ehrlichman,
by God, we'll do it oufselves. I want you to set up a
little group right here in the White House."
"plumbers." Its only
Thus was born the team of
known job involving Ellsberg was to break into his
psychiatrist's office that September in search of evidence against him. But once such a team is created,
other uses for it tend to be found. The following
June, seven plumbers (five of them wearing surgical
rubber gloves) were arrested during a burglary of
Democratic national headquarters in the Watergate
office and apartment comPlex.
They admitted nothing, and nobody connected
'White
House itself was althem with Nixon. The
ready doing its best to block any FBI investigation,
but it formally denied any involvement in what press
"a
third-rate bursecretaryRon Ziegler dismissedas
glary attempt." Nobody has ever disclosed exactly
. what the burglars were looking for or what they
found, if anything.
The Watergate burglary quickly faded from the
front pages. Nixon was campaigning hard for reelection, portraying himself as a global peacemaker.
In February 1.972he had reversed nearly 30 yean of
American policy by flying to Beijing, ending restrictions on trade with China and supporting China's
entry into the U.N. In May he had signed the first
arms-control agreement with Soviet leader Leonid
390
Brezhnev, placing sharp restrictionson antiballistic
missiles.And although Kissinger'sprotracted secret
negotiationswith the Vietnameseconununistshad
not yet brought a truce agreement,Nixon pulled out
the lastU.S. combattroops in August.
Nixon trounced SenatorGeorge McGovern that
fall, capturingnearly 61%of the vote. Then, afterone
last spasmof belligerencein the carpetbombing of
Hanoi at Christmas,Nixon announcedin January
"We today have concluded an agreementto
1,973,
end the war andbring peacewith honor to Vietnam."
But the Watergate mystery remained. In court,
five of the burglan pleaded guilty in January 1973
(the other t\,vowere quickly convicted), but they still
admitted nothing. FederalJudge John Sirica angrily
sentencedthem to iong prison terms (up to 40 year$
and indicatedthat he might reduce the punishment
more fully. One of the seven,James
if they confessed
"others inMcCord, wrote Sirica on March 20 that
'Watergate
oPerationwere not identivolved in the
fied during the trial." In two secret sessionswith
Watergate committee counsel Sam Dash, he later
named three top Nixon officials: Attorney General
Mitchell; Mitchell's deputy, Jeb Stuart Magruder;
and White FlousecounselJohn Dean.
Caught lying-but still denying any wrongdoingNixon saidhe wasorderinga new investigationof the
situation. Two federal grandjuries were alsoinvestigating.So wasthe press.Though a lot of this probing
was only looselyconnectedto the burglary,the term
Watergatebeganto apply to a whole seriesof misdeedsthat seriouslytaintedNixon's greatelectionvictory. Not only did more than $100,000donatedto
Nixon's campaignend up in the bank accountof one
of the plumbers,but the entire fund-raisingoperation
was marked by illegalities, irregularities and deceptions. Congressdecidedto investigateall this too. It
chosea selectcommitteeto be headedby North Carolina'sfolksy SenatorSamErvin.
Two and a half weeks before the committee was
scheduledto open televisedhearingsrn May 1'973,
Nixon made a stunning announcement:his two
27
O F R I C H A R DN I X O N
N I H A V E N E V E RB E E N A Q U I T T E R ' ' A
: PO RTRAI T
in thewake
thePresidency
On Augustg, 1974,havingresigned
to hisstaf andCabinetin
Nixonbadegood-bye
of Watergate,
chief White House aides, Haldeman and Ehrlichman, were resigning, as were Attorney General
Richard Kleindienst (who had succeededMitchell)
"There can be no
and'White House attorneyDean'
whitewashat the White House," Nixon said'
The Senatehearingssoon showedotherwise'Mabeen
gruder testified that Mitchell and Dean had
the
d..pty involved. Then the dismissedDean took
had
stand.in June and testified that Nixon himself
White
been lying, that he had known about the
F{ousecover-uP attempts since at least September
1.972.He also disclosedthat the White House kept
"enemieslist" and usedtax
hundredsof nameson an
But
investigationsand other methodsto harassthem'
That question
how could anyoneprove suchcharges?
his son-inthe East Roomof the Wite House' To his ight is
Photos)
(Arehives
law, DauidEisenhower.
later when a
received an astonishing answer a month
Butformer'White House oficial named Alexander
that
terfield almost ofihandedly told the committee
that seNixon had installed voice-activated recorders
cretly taped all his'White House conversations'
When the senate committee promptly demanded
privithe tapes, Nixon refused, claiming Executive
1.g.. ih. new Attorney General, Elliot Richardson'
Cox
had appointed Harvard law professor Archibald
and Cox
as a special prosecutor in the whoie case'
Nixon
sent a subpoena for tapes he wanted to hear'
demand'
refused him too' Judge Sirica upheld Cox's
Appeals'
so Nixon resistedhim in the U'S' Court of
which backed Sirica.
391
T H ES E V E N T I E S
Nixon then offeredto produce an editedsummary
of the tapes.When Cox rejectedthat idea,Nixon on
Oct. 20 angnly told Richardson to fire Cox.
Richardsonrefusedand resignedinstead.Nixon told
'William
Ruckelshaus to
Depury Attorney General
fire Cox; he too refused and resigned. General
'V7hite
A-lexanderHaig, Haldeman's successoras
House chief of stafl finally got Solicitor General
"Saturday
Robert Bork to do the job, and so the
Night Massacre"ended,leavingthe Nixon Administration a shambles.0n the midst of all this, it was almost incidentalthat Vice PresidentSpiro Agnew resigned under fire for having taken graft and that he
was replaced by Michigan CongressmanGerald
Ford.)
The House began on Oct. 30 to look into the
possibilitiesof impeachment. Inside the besieged
White House, Nixon raged like a trapped animal.
There were unconfirmed reports that he was drinking heavily,that he couldn't sleep,that he evenwanderedaround late at night and spoketo the paintings
on the walls. To a meeting of AssociatedPressedi"I
tors, he piteouslydeclared, am not a crook."
SpecialprosecutorCox had by now been replaced
by a conservativeTexas attomey, Leon Jaworski,
who appearedno lessdetermined to get the tapes.
Still resistinginch by inch, Nixon released1,,254
pagesof edited transcript.They were a revelationof
'White
House, a
the inner workings of the Nixon
sealed-offfortresswhere a characterdesignatedas P
in the transcripts talked endlesslyand obscenely
"I
about all his enemies. want the most comprehensive noteson all thosewho tried to do us in," P said
"'W'e have
to Haldeman at one point, for example.
not used . . . the JusticeDepartment,but things are
going to changenow." The edited tapesstill left uncertaintiesabout Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover-up, however, so Jaworski insistedon the
uneditedoriginalsof 64 specifictapes,transcriptsand
other documents.Nixon refused.Jaworskifiled suit.
The SupremeCourt ruled unanimousiythat a President cannot withhold evidence in a criminal case
392
(Mitcheli,
Haldeman, Ehrlichman
and others were
by now under indictment, and Nixon himself had
"unindicted
cobeen named by the grand jury as an
conspirator'1).
During all this, the House Judiciary Comrnittee,
headed by New Jersey's Democratic Congressman
Peter Rodino, had been conducting hearings on impeachment. It soon decided to impeach Nixon on
three counts: obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential powers and defiance of the comrnittee's subpoenas.
Nixon meanwhile sat out in his beach house in
San Clemente, California, reading a biography of
Napoleon and staring at the ocean. But he had also
been listening to some of the disputed tapes, and he
"smoking
threathad found one-the
*n"-that
ened to destroy his whole case. It was a talk with
Haldeman on June 23, 7972, a time when Nixon
had long pretended to know virtually nothing about
the'Watergate break-in just six days earlier. This tape
recorded
Nixon
talking
with
Haldeman
about
Mitchell's involvement, ordering a cover-up, planning to use the FBI and CIA to protect himself For
good measure, the tape also included presidential
slurs on Jews, women, homosexuals, Italians and the
press.The reaction to the new tape, when Nixon finally released it, was disastrous.Even conservatives
like Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater demanded
Nixon's resignation, as did G.o.P. chairman George
Bush. A congressional delegation told the President
he had no more than 15 votes in the Senate, about
the same in the House. Shortly after, Nixon told his
"'We're
going back to Califomia." His
family,
daughten burst into tean; his wife did not.
Two days later, on Aug. 8, 1974, Nixon made his
"I
last televised statement from the White House:
have never been a quitter. To leave office before my
term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in
my body. But as President I must put the interest of
America first . . . Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow." There remained
then only a seriesof farewells. He spoke once again
2 7
U I
H A V E
N E V E R
B E E N
A
Q U I T T E R ' , :
A
P U T TI K r l I I
\ J f
I \ I L I I , T I T g
campaign
2 What was Nixon's favorite issuein his
House
againstJerry Voorhis for a seatin the national
for a seatin
and his campaignagainstHeien Douglas
political atthe United StatesSenate?Describethe
made that issuesuch a sucmosphereat the time that'What
was Nixon's role on
cessfulone for Nixon'
to national
HUAC? What famouscaserocketedhim
prominence?
'What
aspresident?
were Nixon's greatestsuccesses
3
diplomatic
Why was he able to achievemomentous
and the
breakthroughs with Communist China
do so?We
Soviet Union when nobody else couid
policies
saw in selection24 that Lyndon Johnson's
he did.
war in
trapped the United States in a stalemated
camein !978' and then
His first public appearance
inPerhaps' Vietnam. How was Nixon able to end American
the long, slow processof self-rehabilitation'
amount of
volvement there?\MhY did he do so?
in his l"rt y."rr, having regaineda certain
'Watergate scandal' How was the
admiration'
4 Discuss the
public respect and even some grudging
did Nixon lie
and all the
Nixon White House involved? Why
h"rrirrg acquired four grandchildren
break-in and
finaliy found a
about his knowledge of the Watergate
comforts of leisurely wealth, Nixon
it up? Why
anger
with the help of his aides try to cover
littie peace, finaily got over that mysterious
tell the public the truth? What
thathadfueledhisambitionthroughouthisionglife' didn't Nixon simply
causing
finatly brought down the Nixon presidency'
Perhaps.
ever to
him to become the first American president
Gerald Ford
resign his office? Do you think that
TO CONSIDER
shouldhavePardonedNixon?
"We think that when we sutof winning and losing.
It is only a
fer a d.efeat,that all is ended' Not true'
beginning,alwaYs."
When he
And so it was, once again,for Nixon'
yet be
left Washington, there was a chancehe might
later by
prosecuted.Gerald Ford fixed that a month
Nixon from
irr.ri.rg a presidentialpardon protecting
in conneclegal penaltiesfor anything he had done
was poor'
tion with'Watergate- But Nixon's heaith
ptrlebitis
his psychic shock obvious' An attack of
that he heard
,r."r1y'kiJ1.dhim. He later told friends
"Richard, pull yourselfback'" And so
voicescalling,
QUESTIONS
shapedhim
1 What in Richard Nixon's background
How did
into the angry, ambitious man he became?
career?What
his character traits affect his political
the most imdid he teil a supporter ofJerry Voorhis
'What
does this tell you about
portant thing was?
Nixon's character?
as one
5 Nixon's political careerhasbeen described
rising and
of rising .rra AUittg, rising and faiiing'
account for his
falling, and rising again'How do you
Tricky
resiliency? Do you think the nickname'
How would
Dick, was approPriateor inappropriate?
Roosevelt'
you rate him aspresidentcomparedwith
Truman, and Eisenhower?
393
:
I