Richard M. Nixon

as  reported by Kathi Nunley

From the earliest days of his political career, to the final wave at the door of Air Force 1, Richard Milhouse Nixon and the press shared an adversarial relationship.  The press had an important impact on Nixon throughout his career and, for the most part, the impact was negative. Newspapers were openly antagonistic, most notably the Washington Post.  His public spat with Post publisher Katherine Graham was legendary.  And of course it was the Post’s coverage of Watergate that eventually led to his resignation of the Presidency in 1974.

But Nixon’s relationship with mass media wasn’t always negative.  In fact, Nixon’s early political career was ignited, in part, because of his commanding presence over the radio airwaves and early television appearances.

Nixon’s political career began in 1946, shortly after he left the Navy, where he served as a lieutenant commander in the Pacific theater during WWII.  He was elected to congress in his California district, at a time when our nation’s fear of communism was reaching a peak.  He managed to defeat the incumbent congressman Jerry Voorhis by accusing him of being a communist sympathizer and distorting his voting record.   As a result of his powerful speaking voice and oratorical skills, and most certainly the innuendo about Voorhis’ political affiliation, Nixon was widely believed to have won the debate (Morris, 1990).  Several debates followed and in the final debate, Nixon emphasized his hard-line support of anti-communist efforts.  While neither candidate “made a serious error, Nixon was the much more effective debater and speaker” (Morris, 1990, p. 85).

As a result of his strong anti-communism stance, Nixon was asked to serve as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee.  Still a freshman congressman, he wasn’t well known publicly outside of his district.  But that changed, almost overnight, on August 17, 1948. Televised proceedings of a HUAC session featured Nixon cross-examining accused communist sympathizer Alger Hiss.  Nixon caught Hiss in an apparent lie, Hiss was convicted of perjury, and Nixon became a household name. (PBS Television, 2006)

Two years later, Nixon was elected to the senate.  Just two years after that, in 1952, General Eisenhower selected Nixon to be his vice presidential running mate.  His meteoric rise in politics was extraordinary.

But it was about to hit a wall.  Just a few weeks after being named Eisenhower’s running mate, a headline in the New York Post declared, “Secret Rich Men’s Trust Fund keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond his Salary” (The History Place , 2008).  For the first time, Nixon had run up against serious negative publicity in the press.

But Nixon handled it brilliantly, delivering his now famous “Checkers Speech” on September 23, 1952, via the new medium of television.  In the speech Nixon denied any financial impropriety, and declared that the only gifts he had accepted were “his wife’s respectable Republican cloth coat” and Checkers, a little dog given to his daughter.  “I want to say right now that, regardless of what they say, we’re going to keep it” (The History Place , 2008).  The speech also included his famous “I am not a quitter” line for the first time.  Eisenhower and Nixon won the election by a landslide.

Nixon was nominated for President in 1960, running against the Democratic candidate, John F. Kennedy.  In contrast to the ruggedly handsome, charismatic Kennedy, Nixon had a sullen personality and eternal frown that was amplified by the new visual medium.  His was widely viewed as having lost a televised debate with Kennedy, which many believed cost him the presidential election.  At the time, this debate was the largest televised event in history.

It is interesting to note that the polls from the radio audience, however, showed that he had won the debate.  But Nixon learned from this experience, and once again used the media to his advantage when, in 1968, he made another run for the presidency against Hubert Humphrey.  Humphrey’s pro-Vietnam stance did not sit well with voters, and Nixon used this to his advantage.  One particularly compelling Nixon campaign television ad featured graphic photos of the Vietnam war, and ended with the words, “This time vote as if your whole world depended on it.”

Nixon was widely popular during his first term in office, with significant accomplishments.  He ended the draft, and proposed the Environmental Protection Agency, which began operation in 1970.  At the beginning of his term, 70% of black children in the south attended segregated schools.  By 1970, as a result of state committees to plan and implement desegregation, only 17% were segregated (PBS Television, 2006).  He improved relations with China and Russia.  He was president when we landed men on the moon.

He won re-election over George McGovern in 1972, but Nixon’s luck with the press was about to run out.  Prior to the election, five men had been arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee office at the Watergate hotel.  After they were convicted, it was revealed that one of the men was a GOP security aide.  Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward became suspicious, and tapped a secret source, Mark Felt, Deputy Director of the FBI.  Felt, known as Deep Throat, spilled the beans – implicating high-level officials and Nixon himself.  Watergate was the first wide political scandal involving a sitting president.  To avoid certain impeachment, Nixon resigned from office on August 8, 1974.  His speech included the words, “I have never been a quitter”, echoing the statement that put his political star on the map more than two decades prior.

A Final Footnote:  On April 1, 2011 the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California opened a special wing devoted entirely to the Watergate era.  Featured exhibits include the actual wiretapping devices used, and excerpts from the infamous Watergate tapes.

REFERENCES

Morris, R. (1990). Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician. New York City: Henry Holt and Company.

PBS Television. (2006, January). Domestic Politics: Richard M. Nixon, 37th President. Retrieved February 28, 2011, from American Experience: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/37_nixon/nixon_domestic.html

The History Place . (2008, January). Great Speeches Collection: Richard M. Nixon: The Checkers Speech. Retrieved March 1, 2011 , from HistoryPlace.com: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/nixon-checkers.htm