However, he garnered the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and won the general election that November, where he was elected the thirty-seventh President of the United States (1969-1974). Kennedy, and two years later he lost a bid to become Governor of California. In 1960, he lost a close election for the presidency to John F. He had a reputation for dirty campaign tactics and was disliked by many because of his personality, seeming to be insincere and calculating (Ambrose, 1987). Nixon served in the House and then in the Senate before becoming Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961). He was also very good at poker, winning enough to start a political campaign for Congress when the war ended.Įlected to public office, Nixon became nationally known for his role in the House Committee on Un-American Activities, where he forcefully investigated Alger Hiss, who had served in the State Department, for his secret Communist associations and espionage activities. He was popular in this structured environment. During World War II, he volunteered for the Navy, though as a Quaker he would have qualified for conscientious objector status. He later became an attorney in California. His brother's bout with tuberculosis had been costly.) After college, Nixon attended Duke University Law School on a scholarship he was an excellent student. To Harvard University and awarded a scholarship there, he could not afford to attend. He continued with this interest at Whittier College. His first formal debate was in seventh grade (Ambrose, 1 987, p.
At times, Nixon avoided his father when the atmosphere became too tense, often going off somewhere alone to read. His father (not a Quaker) was more emotional and punitive, and Nixon became interested in politics because of his influence (Ambrose, 1987). His mother's family was Quaker, and this background influenced his upbringing by emphasizing emotional control, modesty, and hard work. Nixon was raised (after age 9) in Whit-tier, California, where he worked in the family store. His older brother, Arthur, died of meningitis in 1925, and a younger brother, Harold, died of tuberculosis in 1933. Richard Milhous Nixon, born in 1913, was the second child of five boys.