President Richard M. Nixon Library 2012

On November 6, 1946, Nixon defeated Democratic Congressman Jerry Voorhis by more than fifteen thousand votes. He and Pat moved to Washington D.C. to begin his political career.

Nixon served on the Herter Committee, which traveled to Europe to prepare a preliminary report on the Marshall Plan.

In 1948, as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), he took the lead in investigating charges against former State Department official Alger Hiss of spying for the Soviet Union before and during World War II. The case turned the young congressman into a national figure.

Richard M. Nixon 37th President. The Presidential Library is located in Yorba Linda, CA. 

The Presidential Library dedicated in 1990 is located on the former site of the Nixon Family's small citrus farm. It is also his birth place.

The Nixon Family also operated a family grocery store in 1950 in Whittier, CA.

 

1956 finds Ike and Dick on their reelection campaign trail.

The result for the presidential election was a lopsided win for Eisenhower and Nixon over Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver. Eisenhower/Nixon vs Stevenson/Kefauver in popular vote was 57.4% to 42%, the electoral votes favored Ike and Nixon by 457 to 73.

 

Nixon's opponent Senator John F. Kennedy was the eventual presidential winner in 1960.

Kennedy won the popular vote by a slim margin of approximately 100,000 votes.

 

Nixon in presidential bid against Hubert Humphrey campaigning in Santa Barbara, CA. 1968

Mrs Pat Nixon with daughters, Julie, Tricia and David Eisenhower at the Republican National Convention 1968 in Miami, Florida.

Note from a Nixon supporter offering his viewpoint on the debate with John Kennedy. Read the last sentence, isn't that priceless?

President Nixon, China Premier Zhou, Enlai, and Pat Nixon. 

During 21-28 February 1972, President Richard Nixon spent an extraordinary week in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The first U.S. president to visit China, Nixon was playing a central role in opening up a new political relationship with the PRC after decades of mutual estrangement. The highlight of Nixon's trip was his meeting with Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong but its substance lay in a series of almost-daily extended conversations with Premier Zhou Enlai.

Twenty seven years after these events, the National Archives has finally declassified the Nixon-Zhou conversations in response to a mandatory declassification review request made by the National Security Archive in 1994. Once highly classified--"Top Secret/Sensitive/Exclusively Eyes Only"--all but three of the documents were released in their entirety. Significant excisions appear in the Nixon-Zhou discussions of Taiwan, Japan, South Asia, and the Soviet Union.

The repercussions of the Nixon visit are vast, and included a significant shift in the Cold War balance, pitting the PRC with the U.S. against the Soviet Union. Nixon going to China has since become a metaphor for an unexpected or uncharacteristic action by a politician.

 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and President Nixon working towards a Middle East settlement 1974.

In 1978 Sadat signed the Camp David Peace Accords with Israel's President Menachem Begin, they subsequently received the Nobel Peace Award for their accomplishment.

Anwar Al Sadat was assassinated on October 6, 1981 during a military parade in Cairo. He would have become the first Arab leader to broker peace with Israel. 

President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed a series of treaties, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. The limitation of ABMs became an important step as an excess of anti-ballistic missiles actually encouraged offense.

President Nixon was also the first U.S. president to visit Russia.

The year 1972 also proved to be pivotal for Chiang Kai-shek and Taiwan because United States President Richard Nixon visited the People's Republic of China. President Nixon also agreed that Taiwan was a part of China. These diplomatic setbacks, mixed with a long bout of pneumonia, had many questioning Chiang Kai-shek's ability to lead the country.

 His son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who was appointed premier in May, assumed most of Chiang Kai-shek's duties. For the last three years of his life, Chiang Kai-shek was the ceremonial leader of the Republic of China, but his son was the practical leader. Chiang Kai-shek suffered a fatal heart attack and died on April 5, 1975.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek played a prominent role in the politics of the Republic of China and was the sister-in-law of Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Republic of China preceding her husband. She attended school in the United States graduating from Wellesley College near Boston.

President Nixon greets Lt. Commander John McCain III.

 Captured October 26, 1967

Released March 15, 1973

McCain, now a U.S. Senator from Arizona, was shot down over Hanoi during a bombing raid. He was held for 51/2 years, mostly in solitary confinement in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton".

The dedication of the Nixon Library was attended by four living presidents.

This family photo was taken in Saddle River, NJ in 1990 three years before Pat Nixon death in 1993.

Pat Nixon died of lung cancer at her New Jersey home on June 22, 1993. She was born in Ely, Nevada where as a young girl help tend their family farm. She graduated from the University of Southern California in 1937 while working five jobs to pay her tuition. She met her husband while both were involved with the amateur playhouse in Whittier, CA.

Click here to Read Pat Nixon bio

Grave sites of Richard (1994) and Pat (1993) Nixon at the Nixon Presidential Library

The Richard Nixon Birthplace is where Richard Nixon was born and lived from 1913 to 1922.
It was built in 1913 in the California style by his father, Francis A. Nixon from a home building kit.

On December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley paid a visit to President Richard M. Nixon at the White House in Washington, D.C. The meeting was initiated by Presley, who wrote Nixon a six-page letter requesting a visit with the President and suggesting that he be made a "Federal Agent-at-Large" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Of all the requests made each year to the National Archives for reproductions of photographs and documents, one item has been requested more than any other. That item, more requested than the Bill of Rights or even the Constitution of the United States, is the photograph of Elvis Presley and Richard M. Nixon shaking hands on the occasion of Presley's visit to the White House.

I know Elvis is a tough act to follow, but I sure like this picture of Donna at the reflective pool!

Inside the Quad of the Nixon Presidential Library.

Another view of the quad.

Nixon Library lobby.

One of the highlights of a trip to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is the chance to step aboard Army One--the helicopter used by Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford.

Perhaps his most famous use of the helicopter was his last, on August 9, 1974. On that day, President Nixon resigned and flew in the helicopter from the South Lawn of the White House to Andrews Air Force Base, where he boarded Air Force One for a flight to his private residence in San Clemente, California.

One of the many beautiful roses cultivated at the Nixon library.

The Watergate Scandal

Nixon was re-elected President in 1972 in what is considered one of the largest landslide victories in United States election history. Unfortunately, Nixon was willing to use any means necessary to ensure his re-election. 

On June 17, 1972, five men were caught breaking into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C to plant listening devices. Nixon’s campaign staff believed the devices would provide information that could be used against the Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. While the Nixon administration initially denied involvement in the break-in, two young newspaper reporters for the Washington Post, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, obtained information from a source known as “Deep Throat” who became instrumental in tying the administration to the break-in. 

Nixon remained defiant throughout the scandal, and in a televised statement on November 17, 1973, infamously stated, “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.” 

During the investigation that followed, it was revealed that Nixon had installed a secret taping system in the White House. A legal battle ensued with Nixon reluctantly agreeing to the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts from what became known as the “Watergate Tapes.” Mysteriously, there was an 18 1/2 minute gap on one of the tapes which a secretary claimed she had accidentally erased.

Impeachment Proceedings and Nixon’s Resignation

With the release of the tapes, the House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment proceedings against Nixon. On July 27, 1974, with a vote of 27 to 11, the Committee voted in favor of bringing articles of impeachment against Nixon. 

On August 8, 1974, having lost the support of the Republican Party and facing impeachment, Nixon delivered his resignation speech from the Oval Office. When his resignation became effective at noon the next day, Nixon became the first President in United States history to resign from office. 

Nixon’s Vice President Gerald R. Ford assumed the office of President. On September 8, 1974, President Ford granted Nixon a “full, free and absolute pardon,” ending any chance for an indictment against Nixon.

Richard Nixon the 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1973 when he resigned facing almost certain impeachment for his role in the Watergate Scandal. He was the first American president to resign from office.

Richard Nixon attended Fullerton High School but later transferred to Whittier High School. There he ran for student body president, but lost to a more popular student. The loss would be his last for 31 years. Nixon graduated high school second in his class and was offered a scholarship to Harvard. But his family couldn’t afford the travel and living expenses so he attended local Whittier College. Upon graduation from Whittier in 1934, Nixon received a full scholarship to Duke University Law School in Durham, N.C. 

Returning to Whittier to practice law at the firm of Kroop & Bewley, he met Thelma Catherine (“Pat”) Ryan, a teacher and amateur actress, after the two were cast in the same play at a local community theatre. The couple married in 1940 and had two daughters, Tricia and Julie.

The president is frequently described as the most powerful person in the world and must discharge his duties of the office with respect and honor at all times.