Dayhoff Soundtrack: History.com: Jan 9, 1913: Richard M. Nixon is born

The son of Quaker parents, Nixon grew up in the southern California city of Yorba Linda. Early on he proved himself to be a stellar student, attending Whittier College and graduating from Duke University Law School with honors. Nixon then joined the Navy and served during World War II as a lieutenant commander in the Pacific theater. After the war, he gravitated toward Republican politics, joining the post-war anti-communist crusade.

In 1950, Nixon ran against Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas for a seat in the House of Representatives for California, earning the less-than-complimentary nickname Tricky Dick during the campaign for his ruthless red-baiting of his opponent, including alleging that Douglas was pink down to her panties. He won and gained national attention when, as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Nixon relentlessly grilled Alger Hiss, a Roosevelt New Deal liberal and former secretary general of the United Nations, at a hearing regarding allegations that Hiss facilitated communist infiltration of the U.S. government. Hiss, legally immune from espionage charges, was later convicted of perjury. The conviction, despite Hiss' denial of any wrongdoing, equaled an admission of guilt in the eyes of hard-line anti-communists. Largely due to his record of relentlessness in combating communism, Nixon earned the vice-presidential spot on the Republican ticket with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.

Early on in his career, Nixon was shadowed by allegations of accepting inappropriate campaign funding from big business and the Mafia. During his 1952 vice-presidential campaign, Nixon tried to dispel those accusations in what became known as the Checkers speech. The name was derived from a dog, named Checkers, that was given to his daughter by a corporate supporter. Playing on sentiment for his little girl, Nixon adamantly vowed to keep the dog. Americans charmed by Nixon's heart-warming, seemingly old-fashioned values helped vote the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket into the White House.

On the whole, though, Nixon did not owe his success in politics to personality or charm; in fact, some staunch supporters described him as cold, aloof, crude, arrogant and paranoid. Even Eisenhower claimed that his vice president would never win the presidency because the people don't like him. In 1968, Nixon proved his former boss wrong, but left the office in disgrace in 1974… http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/richard-m-nixon-is-born?catId=9

[19130109 Richard M Nixon is born]

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