Richard NIxon :: essays research papers

     Richard Milhous Nixon, thirty-seventh president of the United States, was born January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. Nixon was one of the most argu fitting politicians. He used the communist scare of the late forties and wee fifties to catapult his career, but as president he projecting tension with the Soviet Union and opened relations with Red China. He was president during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.      Nixon came from a southern-California Quaker family, where hard guide was emphasized. A terrific student, he was invited by Harvard and Yale to apply for scholarships, but his ripened brothers illness and the Depression forced him to stay near home. He go to Whittier College, where he graduated second in his class in 1934. He went on to law school at Duke University. He graduated leash in his class, and applied for jobs with both large Northeastern law firms and the FBI. His applications were on the wh ole rejected, however, his mother helped get him a job at a friends local law firm.     At the outbreak of WWII, Nixon went to work for the tire rationing class the Office of Price Administration in Washington, DC. Eight months later, he conjugated the Navy and was sent to the Pacific as a supply officer. He was popular with his men, and such an accomplished poker player that he was able to send enough of his comrades money back home to help entrepot his first political campaign.      After returning from the war, Nixon entered politics, answering a republican departy call in the newspaper for someone to run against the five-term parliamentary Congressman, Jerry Voorhis. Nixon seemed the perfect man for the job, and he was welcomed generously by the California republican party.     The style of Nixons first campaign set the tone for the early part of his political career, where he achieved fame as a devout anti-Commun ist. He accuse Congressman Voorhis of being a communist. This sort of straightforward communist-bashing was new at the time. Nixon defeated Voorhis with sixty percent of the vote.     Nixon later said "Of course I knew Jerry Voorhis wasnt a communist, but I had to win."     Nixon became the junior member of the House charge on un-American Activities. Nixons pursuit of Alger Hiss, a former adviser to Franklin Roosevelt, gave him matter exposure. Hiss had been accused of being a communist and of transmitting privy(p) State Department documents to the Soviets.