Richard Nixon

**Richard Milhous Nixon** (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was an American politician who was the 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974, when he became the only president to resign. Before that, Nixon was the 36th vice president (from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower), and a U.S. Representative and Senator from California. He was a Republican.

Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. He attended Duke University and graduated from its law school in 1937. After graduating, he returned to California to practice law. In 1942, he and his wife Pat moved to Washington to work for the federal government. During World War II, he served on active duty in the Naval Reserve.

Nixon began his career in politics after he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. During this time, he became well known as an anti-Communist. In 1950, he was elected to the Senate. In 1953, he became the vice president of the United States, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He served in this position for eight years. In 1960, Nixon ran for president. He was defeated by John F. Kennedy. Two years later, in 1962, Nixon ran for governor of California. He also lost this election to Pat Brown. In 1968, he ran for president for a second time. He won the election, defeating Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace in a close election.

As president, Nixon ended the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. He stopped the military draft in 1973. In 1972, Nixon visited China. This visit would eventually create diplomatic relations between the two nations. The same year, he signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union.

Domestically, Nixon imposed wage and price controls for 90 days. He had Southern schools desegregated (ending the separation of people by their race). He established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). He also began the War on Cancer. He presided over the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969. In 1972, Nixon was re-elected in a landslide, defeating George McGovern.

In his second term, Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses in the Yom Kippur War, a war which led to the oil crisis at home. In 1973, he had lost a lot of political support because of the Watergate scandal. On August 9, 1974, Nixon resigned, becoming the first American president to do so. His successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him.

After resigning, Nixon wrote many books and visited many other countries. He died on April 22, 1994, after suffering a stroke. He is ranked lowly in presidential opinion polls. Despite this, evaluations of Nixon have been difficult, as he was viewed to have accomplished good things as president, even though he resigned due to a scandal.

## Early life, belief & Californian heritage
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Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 He attended Whittier High School, Whittier College, and Duke University. He served in the Navy during World War II. Later, he married Thelma Nixon (later Patricia Nixon) and had two daughters, Tricia and Julie. He also created the Environmental Protection Agency, supported anti-drug laws, supported anti-crime laws, and supported anti-discrimination laws. He continued the desegregation of Southern Schools. Starting after the 1969 court ruling mandating the immediate integration of schools. He led efforts with both black and white community leaders to reopen and integrate schools without violence, ending the segregationist dual school system for black and white children in the Southern States of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina. When inflation (meaning the value of money goes down and prices go up) was high, he ordered that prices should be frozen for 90 days.  Although, he was known as a conservative Republican before he became president, while he was president, he supported some of the liberal ideas that Democrats supported. In 1974, Nixon made a speech that outlined a plan for universal health care.

Nixon was re-elected by a landslide in 1972 with most Americans approving of him, but soon after, Nixon's reputation would be destroyed and most Americans would disapprove of him.  Due to a scandal called "Watergate" during which Nixon attempted to protect (or possibly ordered) men to burglarize the Democratic National Headquarters, Congress was going to put him on trial in a process called impeachment (to remove him from power). Nixon tried to cover up the scandal, but eventually, the Supreme Court ordered him to send his taped conversations (which included him talking about covering up Watergate) to them.  Alexander Haig thought Nixon would be convicted and kicked out of office. To prevent this, Nixon resigned (quit) the presidency in 1974.

## Post-presidency
Nixon's second vice president,The house where he was born is now part of the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. He was buried at the library.

## Related pages
* Death and state funeral of Richard Nixon

## References
## Other websites
* Nixon's White House Biography 
* Text, audio, and video of Nixon's famous "Checkers" speech