Richard Milhous Nixon was born April 13, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. He graduated from Whittier College in 1934 and Harvard Law School in 1937. After graduating law school he joined his father’s real estate firm, where he worked until 1940. In 1942, during World War II, Nixon enlisted in the Navy Reserve and served aboard the USS Des Moines. Upon returning home, Nixon resumed working for his family’s real estate business.

Nixon ran for Congress in 1946, but lost the election. However, he won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1948. During his time in office, Nixon became known for being outspoken against communism. He opposed the Marshall Plan because it was funded by the Soviet Union. In 1950, Nixon resigned from Congress, citing ill health.

In 1952, Nixon ran for president again and defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson. Following his victory, Nixon took a trip to China. On September 23, 1972, Nixon announced that he had secretly met with Communist leaders in Peking. This meeting led to the opening of relations between the US and China.

On October 8, 1973, Nixon announced that he would resign as president. His resignation letter stated, “I am fully aware of the constitutional responsibilities involved here.” In August 1974, Nixon was charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy. He pleaded guilty to both charges in July 1975.

Early life and education

Richard M. Nixon was born on January ninth, 1913, in Yorva Linda, California, in the home of his father, Francis B. Nixon, Sr., a successful businessman who owned a wholesale grocery store. At the time of Nixon’s birth, his father was president of the Wholesale Grocery Company, which sold groceries door-to-door throughout Southern California. In 1914, the Nixons moved to Whittier, California, where Dick attended public school. He graduated from high school in June 1929 and enrolled at Duke University, where he majored in history and political science. After graduating in 1933, he returned to Whittier High School, where he taught English and coached football and baseball.

In 1937, Nixon married Ethel Walker, a young widow whose three children lived with her. They had one daughter together, Patricia Ann Nixon, known as Tricia. During World War II, Nixon served in the United States Navy aboard the USS West Point from 1941 to 1945. While serving aboard the ship, he received a Purple Heart medal for wounds suffered while fighting in the Battle of Okinawa during the closing months of the war.

Primary and secondary education

Richard Nixon graduated from Whittier College in June 1932. During his college days, he worked part-time at a grocery store, washing fruits and vegetables. In addition to being a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, he was active in the campus Republican Club.

In 1931, Nixon ran for student body president against incumbent John Farrow. As it turned out, Nixon won by one vote.

Nixon transferred to UCLA in 1933, and began studying law. However, he never completed his degree because he joined the Navy during World War II.

College and law school

Nixon attended Whittier College, where he majored in economics and political science. In addition to playing varsity sports, he worked part-time as a bookkeeper at a local department store. His father had died while he was still in high school, and his mother, Hannah Coxe Nixon, took over the family grocery store in Yorba Linda, California. She sold it in 1929, and Nixon became her full-time manager.

In 1931, Nixon graduated from Whittier College with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science, magna cum laude. During his college career, he served as president of the student body, editor of the campus newspaper, chairman of the debate committee and member of the Greek letter fraternity Phi Kappa Psi.

He received a scholarship to study at Duke University Law School, and he earned his law degree there in 1933. At Duke, he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and he was elected to membership in the Order of the Coif, the national legal honor society.

After graduation, Nixon returned home to manage the family grocery store. However, his mother wanted him to return to Whittier College to teach economics and politics, and she persuaded him to do so. Nixon taught economics and political science at Whittier College for one semester before deciding to enroll at Harvard Law School.

Early career and marriage

David Eisenhower, President Nixon, Tricia Nixon Cox, Edward Cox, and Edward Cox Jr.:

– David Eisenhower was born on May 15, 1924, in New York City. His father was Dwight D. Eisenhower, former president of Columbia University and general of World War II fame. His mother was Abigail “Abby” Dows.

– As a child, David played football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and golf. He graduated from Duke University in 1943, where he majored in political science.

– At age 17, he enlisted in the Navy and served during World War II. He was discharged in 1946, having attained the rank of lieutenant commander.

– In 1947, he married Patricia Ann Ryan, daughter of William A. Ryan, a prominent Washington attorney. They had three children together: David, Julie, and Christopher.

– After college, he worked as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News. He joined the Republican National Committee in 1952, and became chairman in 1956.

– In 1958, he ran unsuccessfully for vice president under Richard M. Nixon.

Military service

In January 1942 the couple moved from Whittier to Washington, D.c., where Nixon took a position at the Office of Price administration. He began working there on December 17, 1941, just days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

In his political campaigns, Nixon had suggested that this was his answer to the draft board’s question about why he did not register for the draft. But it wasn’t true. On September 26, 1940, he registered for the draft and was classified 4-F because of a heart murmur discovered during physical examination.

He told the truth again in April 1942, when he applied for a commission in the Navy Reserve. The Navy accepted him into the reserves as an aviator on June 12, 1942.

On July 2, 1943, he was assigned to the USS Hornet, flying off the aircraft carrier in the Pacific theater. He was promoted to lieutenant on August 10, 1944, and became executive officer of the USS Enterprise on November 19, 1944.

Rising politician

Nixon ran as a Republican in 1946, defeating incumbent Democrat Jerry Voorhis by nearly 10 percentage points. He won again in 1948, easily defeating his opponent by over 20 percentage points. Nixon was born February 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California, the fifth of six sons of Frank Nelson Nixon and Hannah Milhous. His father owned a gas station and grocery store in Yorba Linda, where young Nixon grew up. He attended public schools and Whittier College in nearby Whittier, graduating in 1934. After graduation, he briefly worked as a lawyer in Los Angeles, but returned to school to earn a law degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

In 1938, Nixon moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the OPA, a New Deal agency established during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency. While working there, he met Pat Ryan, a teacher and amateur actress who had been cast alongside him in a production of “The Emperor Jones.” They fell in love and began dating while Nixon continued working for the government. In June 1940, they were wed in San Francisco.

After returning home in 1941, Nixon ran unsuccessfully against Democrat Jerry Voorhis in the newly redrawn 12th Congressional District, taking just over 50% of the vote. During World War II, Nixon served in the Navy Reserve from August 1942 until May 1945. In 1944, he received a commission as a naval aviator and flew combat missions in the South Pacific aboard the USS Saratoga.

Following the war, Nixon resumed practicing law in Washington. In 1948, he won election to Congress as a Republican representing the 10th District, based in Orange County. As a freshman congressman, he voted against the Taft–Hartley Act, a labor reform bill signed into law by President Truman in 1947. He later supported civil rights legislation such as the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960.

During his tenure in Congress, Nixon became known for his hardline anti-communist views; he once referred to Joseph McCarthy as a “demagogue,” and refused to condemn Senator Joe McCarthy’s accusations of Communist infiltration within the federal government.

In 1952, Nixon lost reelection to Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas, the first woman ever nominated for president by a major party. Although she had defeated incumbent Vice President Alben Barkley in the primary, Nixon still managed to win the popular vote. However, because of the Supreme Court decision in favor of Eisenhower in the presidential election case of _Brown v. Board of Education_, Nixon carried only nine states.

U.S. Senate (1950–1953)

Nixon ran for the United States Senate in 1950, defeating Democrat Sheridan Downey. During the campaign he pledged to “fight Communism wherever it rears its ugly head.”

In the Senate, Nixon took up many issues important to him, including civil liberties, defense spending, international trade policies, and the Cold War.

He remained active on foreign policy matters throughout his career; he opposed the Korean War and supported the Vietnam War.