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Nixon had a difficult early life with many trials and hardships, which affected his character and way of thinking about the world and himself. The premature death of two of his brothers caused him deep-rooted trauma. He had a lifelong inability to trust other people. From the competition between his siblings, he got a keen sense of competition and struggle and a belief that in the end, he was alone against fate and his enemies.
He believed vehemently that "The mark of the man is to be resilient and continually return after set-backs. " Nixon believed that the successful competitor never lets his enemies have the final say in a contest of will. Some of his cruel attempts to discredit his political enemies may have come from the regular beatings his father used to keep Nixon in line. Nixon's ambition was the theme of his life story. Nixon was born in Orange County, California on January 9, 1913, the second of five sons of Francis A. and Hannah Milhaus Nixon. The Nixon's were longtime members of the Society of Friends, more commonly known as Quakers.
Nixon was nine at the time that his family moved to Whittier, California, where his father owned and operated a local gasoline station and country store. He attended public schools until the age of 17, when he entered Whittier Collage, a small local Quaker institution. Success in student politics and strong debating skills crowned Nixon's collage years. Upon graduation in 1934, he won a scholarship to Duke Law School in Durham, N.
C. Since his family was short of funds to pay for his lodging and books, he got a part time job. He graduated 3 rd in his class and was elected president of the Duke Bar Association. Nixon looked forward to a career with the FBI in Washington, D. C. , but returned instead to Whittier to join the town's oldest law firm. When the firm opened a branch office in La Habra, he transferred there and got some excellent practical experience.
Early in World War II, Nixon worked for six months in the Office of Emergency Management; an experience which he said disillusioned him with bureaucracy. At a play tryout during this time, Nixon met Thelma Patricia Ryan, a schoolteacher, whom he married on June 21, 1940. Though he wanted to move to a big city firm to be able to better support his new wife, World War II brought him to Washington, where he worked in the tire-rationing section of the Office of Price Administration. In August 1942 he joined the Navy as a lieutenant. He served in New Caledonia for the remainder of the war. He left the service four years later, in 1946 Before Nixon's release from active duty, Nixon decided to run for Congress.
Nixon's campaign was an example of the aggressive style characteristic of his political career. He accused his opponent of being 'soft' on Communism. In 1946, when the Cold War between the United States and the USSR was just beginning, this charge was very damaging. The two men confronted each other in a series of debates, and Nixon succeeded in putting his opponent on the defensive. Nixon won the election. Later, as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Nixon personally pressed the investigation of Alger Hiss, a high State Department official.
During the investigation Nixon gained a national reputation as a dedicated enemy of Communism, and in 1948, he was reelected to Congress after winning both the Republican and Democratic nominations! In 1950 the Republicans chose Nixon as their candidate for the U. S. Senate from California. His opponent was the liberal Helen Gahagan Douglas. In another bitterly fought campaign, Nixon linked her voting record with that of another member of Congress who was widely regarded as pro-Communist.
This is another excellent example of Nixon's deadly and effective political style. He won the election by a landslide! In 1952, Nixon was selected to be the running mate of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had won the Republican presidential nomination. In the campaign that followed, Nixon once again attacked the Democrats and their presidential candidate as "soft" on Communism. The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket won a resounding victory.
In 1956, Eisenhower and Nixon were reelected, after Nixon survived an attempt by some Republicans to replace him. As President Eisenhower neared the end of his second term, his vice president emerged as his successor, and the president publicly endorsed Nixon in March. However, even with this support, Nixon was narrowly beaten in the 1960 election by John F. Kennedy.
Nixon was beaten again in 1962 in a race for governor of California. After this, Nixon seemed to withdraw from political life, and even publicly stated that his political career was over. As if to confirm his withdrawal from politics, Nixon moved to New York City and accepted a partnership with a Wall Street law firm. He continued to speak at occasional fund-raisers, but neither he nor anyone else expected that any future presidential opportunities would be available to him. But he soon got on the campaign path again, and after much success in the polls, was assured the 1968 Republican presidential nomination.
Since the Democratic Party was split between pro-war and anti-war factions, Nixon exploited the situation by catering to the pro-war faction. But at the same time he made vague promises of ending the war, which appealed to the anti-war faction. He held on to his Republican base by focusing on restoring "law and order" after eight years of Democratic control of the presidency, which had torn the country apart. Nixon won resoundingly, taking 32 of 50 states.
Nixon began by removing many US troops from Vietnam, and thus reducing US casualties. He wanted to give "the South Vietnamese a reasonable chance to survive as a free people, " so he accelerated the training of Vietnam's armed forces. This was known as "Vietnamization. " A cease-fire was agreed upon on Jan. 28, 1973. The agreement allowed for the withdrawal of all American troops from South Vietnam. But various Vietnamese groups continued to fight each other, with the South still getting substantial U. S.
financial aid! In the Middle East, the 1967 cease-fire was disrupted by war between Israel and several Arab states in 1973. Pressure from Nixon and the USSR forced an end to the fighting. At the same time, the Middle East oil-producing countries imposed a brief embargo on petroleum products and then sharply increased their prices.
Inflationary pressures and the unemployment rate increased in the United States. Nixon imposed price controls, but these were ineffective and contrary to the economic principles of his political base (the Republican Party and its busi...
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Research essay sample on World War Ii Won The Election
