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Richard Nixon: Eisenhowers
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Nixon's political career began in 1946, when he was persuaded by a group of California Republicans to challenge the Democratic congressman Jerry Voorhis for a seat in the House of Representatives. His first campaign pegged him as a fierce anti-Communist, a distinction that he solidified by his participation in the renowned Alger Hiss case. On the strength of his two-term record in the House, Nixon was nominated for the U.S. Senate in 1950. But his tenure was cut short when the Republican national convention selected him to be General Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate.
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With Eisenhower's second term coming to an end, Nixon was the overwhelming choice of his party for the presidency in 1960. His Democratic opponent was the young Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Campaigning at top speed for nine weeks, Nixon drove himself, his staff, and his wife, Pat, who accompanied him, to the edge of exhaustion. The campaign was unique for the four television debates between Kennedy and Nixon, which played a crucial part in what proved to be one of the closest elections in U.S. history. Kennedy won 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219, but Kennedy's margin of victory in the popular vote was only about two-tenths of 1 percent.
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During his tenure as Vice-President, Nixon took a particular interest in foreign affairs and Eisenhower asked him to undertake a total of ten foreign visits, covering fifty-eight countries. His life was endangered by a mob during a visit to Venezuela. He chaired meetings of the Cabinet and National Security Council during Eisenhower's illnesses. He ... served as the partisan voice of the administration, allowing Eisenhower to appear above the political fray. He fought and won a battle to remain Eisenhower's running-mate in 1956. In 1960, after reaching agreement with his most likely challenger for the nomination, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, he won the Republican nomination for President by 1,321 votes to 10.
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In addition to his party leadership role, Nixon frequently served Eisenhower as an emissary abroad. At the president's request, the vice president visited 56 countries during his terms of office. Two of these trips were especially significant. In the spring of 1958, during a goodwill tour of South America, he and his wife were the targets of hostile demonstrations, partly Communist-instigated, in Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela. Eisenhower dispatched troops to the Caribbean to protect the vice president, but Nixon canceled further appearances in Caracas. His courage was hailed when he returned.
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Nixon used his fame to run for the U.S. Senate in 1950, defeating Democratic opponent and Congresswoman Helen Gahagen Douglas with a vicious red-baiting campaign. Nixon described her as "soft on Communism"- Douglas, Nixon said, was "pink right down to her underwear." At about the same time he impugned the reputation of Jerry Vorhees, a liberal whose voting record resembled the voting record of people with known communist connections. Two years later, the thirty-nine year old Nixon was tapped to run with Dwight Eisenhower on the Republican presidential ticket. Nixon was supposed to provide youthful vigor to complement Ike's paternal charm, but he brought with him a youthful indiscretion--opponents accused him of having a private "slush fund" of campaign contributions. Eisenhower was ready to dump him from the ticket, but Nixon saved himself by going on television to defend himself.
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In 1952, Nixon was elected Vice President on Dwight Eisenhower's ticket; he was 39 years old. In September 1952, during the campaign, the New York Post and other publications reported that Nixon had kept a "slush fund" for personal use. Democrats and leading Republicans pressured Eisenhower to remove Nixon from the ticket. Nixon convinced Eisenhower to let him defend himself. Nixon went on TV on September 23, and defended himself in a famous speech. He provided an independent third-party review of the fund's accounting along with a personal summary of his finances, which he cited as exonerating him from wrongdoing, and he noted that the Democratic Presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson... had a similar fund.
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