Category: Richard Nixon

My plan was to go to the Nixon Library with a few of my friends as a way to spend time with them. Since graduating high school, a lot of my friends went to different schools, so trying to allocate time with all of them is a headache. Until my grandparents overheard about this project where they basically invited themselves. But it turned out to be a fun day. We went to Polly’s Pie to eat a quick breakfast and drove to the museum right after. We went from room to room together and we all learned a lot. My grandfather loves museums, so he definitely enjoyed himself. As far as for me, I didn’t know what to expect. When I go to a museum, it’s usually art, like The Broad or LACMA. But after watching the 13 minute film in the beginning, I was quickly assured that I was going to enjoy it; especially getting the opportunity to spend some time with my grandparents.

The main theme that I got from the film was that President Nixon was not a quitter. So when the film was over, it was obvious that he was nowhere near a quitter through his many acts of service. Whether that was through his activism for women’s equality in government jobs or his support of Native Americans. What stood out to me the most was the fact that he would go to the Lincoln room and just work. That he didn’t really use the Oval office unless it was for ceremonial purposes. To most that seems like a small detail, but for whatever reason, I respect that a lot. It gives me insight of the type of historical figure he was. That although he was the leader of the free world, he still wanted to get away from the commotion (oval office, press) and just sit in a room by himself and just work. Where he can run wild with his thoughts and his use of many, many notepads.

The museum starts off by depicting images of what the country was going through before Nixon was elected into office. Unfortunate positions that people were put in. Situations like the Greensboro sit-ins where 4 African Americans wanted to eat lunch at a “whites only” part of a restaurant and they refused to leave. Or when the Ku Klux Klan planted a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church where the lives of 4 innocent African American girls were taken. I think the gallery begins with the 60s to show what Nixon was faced with when becoming president. The situations he was challenged to fix. Regardless of how violent they were, Nixon was entering an era called, “the wave of change.”

The gallery of the Vietnam War starts by displaying what Nixon faced before going into office. There were pictures and plaques discussing how previous presidents handle the war, but nothing came close to ending the war until Nixon was incharge. Nixon’s game plan was to help South Vietnam better their defense so they can take over the war, so he would be able to pull the U.S. troops out of Vietnam. Nixon signed a peace treaty and brought the troops home, but two years after the war had ended, South Vietnam had to surrender to the north, and became a communist country.

Before going to this museum, I never knew how much Nixon did to better this country. One of the most important domestic policies he started, in my opinion, was when he and Congress created OSHA. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sought to protect the working people of this country through better working conditions. Since then, workplace injuries and illnesses have decreased by 66%. Likewise, him lowering the voting age to 18. He argued that if people can fight in wars, they should be old enough to be able to vote as well. Another successful achievement that Nixon was a part of was the clean up of the Great Lakes. The largest reservoirs in the world were being polluted for decades by sewage and industrial waste. Canada and President Nixon committed to reinforce the cleanliness of the lakes. Nixon was a part of many other domestic achievements that are still in effect today. Not only are his achievements currently helping people, they’ll be helping the generations to come.

Through Nixon’s many foreign policy achievements, he has displayed innovation. He signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972 which limited the amount of anti-ballistic missile systems that the United States and the Soviet Union could have. Which the United States withdrew from in 2002. Nixon also helped saved Israel in 1973 by asking Congress for a $2 billion emergency aid. The Prime Minister later claimed that President Nixon helped save her country. Through Nixon’s diplomacy, he also dodged a second Missile Crisis that had to do with the Soviet base. Through his precise decision making, he has helped this country more than people think.

Nixon paid a visit to the communist People’s Republic of China to establish a U.S. trade mission with China. He met with Zhou Enlai, Chinese Premier where they resolved their cultural contracts. A controversy was stirred because he was the first president to visit the People’s Republic of China which opened an opportunity to trade with China and enhanced the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

A piece of the Berlin Wall was donated to the Nixon library by Carl and Margaret Karcher, who was the Carl’s Jr franchise founder. The couple donated a piece of the wall in 1992 to remind visitors the difficult and challenging task Nixon was handed when going into office.

Nixon’s staff gifted him with an Irish setter right before he took office as a birthday present. The family had already had two other dogs with them already in which they brought over to the White House as well. It was known that Nixon would keep dog treats in his Oval Office. Besides the pets receiving a warm welcome, First Lady Pat Nixon often surprised guests during White House tours. She wanted to open the house to everyone and not just the “important” ones. Pat Nixon also held Halloween parties for the less fortunate with the help of her daughters. As well as implemented a tutoring program to help those from disadvantaged neighborhoods.

In 1972, the Watergate Hotel held the Democratic National Committee when McGovern and Nixon were opponents for the presidency. Some of Nixon’s staff broke in to the hotel and put recording chips in the phones where they stole some of the Democratic’s voting methods. He got away with the crime for some time, but eventually, the FBI got involved and the secrets came out. At first Nixon denied all the allegations, but it became clear that he was losing this battle overtime. I think what Nixon did was not okay. I think he should’ve believed in himself enough to have been able to be elected into office without cheating his way in. He has done plenty to show that he was the number one candidate. However, like Clinton said at his funeral, I don’t think his legacy should be remembered with this scandal. Although he should’ve been elected the right way without cheating, he has done plenty to be remembered for more than this crime.

One of the things that I found interesting inside his birthplace were all the instruments he knew how to play. Nixon knew how to play the violin, piano, and the clarinet. I was also fascinated to actually see the original instruments he learned on. I also learned that he went to live with his uncle for a year to learn music because his family thought he would be a concert pianist. Although the docent didn’t allow us to see Nixon’s mother’s sewing room, I found it interesting how the four brothers had to share a small room upstairs and the mom got her own sewing room. Moreover, seeing the friendship quilt that rests on the bed where he was born was also pretty fascinating. How under each design is a hand sewn signature of every friend who had the quilt sometime in their life.

My favorite part of the museum would be seeing his birthplace. I’ve always had this obsession to see original historic pieces. To just stand there and try to imagine a historic person using that exact object sometime in their life and to think that it is right there in front of me. And to also think about the thousands of people who have traveled to see it as well. In the tour, seeing the exact bed that he was born in was extremely fascinating and kinda overwhelming. Seeing the picture frames that President Nixon made with his own hands also. As well as the tiny bathtub they used to bathe and just trying to imagine how anyone could fit in it. The thought of his aunt keeping the exact furniture makes me wonder if she knew what Nixon would become and the legacy he would leave.

I would recommend this museum to other college students because you get to learn history at your own pace and at your own understanding. All too often, college students get thrown information to them left and right and expected to memorize it quickly and swiftly. But going to museums like this, you get to go at your own pace, in the sense of not going to the next gallery until you’re ready, and also asking the volunteers some questions. They are there because they want to be and encourage the visitors to ask questions. And sometimes students get insecure to ask a teacher for help because they get too much in their head and think their question isn’t valid. Going to museums allow you to be yourself and also makes a favorable memory whether you go by yourself or a loved one.

At the age of twenty-six, American author Joe McGinniss wrote what would become one of American history’s most influential political books, The Selling of the President 1968. This work was originally published in 1969 after President Richard Nixon took office. It was later reprinted in 1988 with the title The Selling of the President. This 252-page, non-fictional book only took McGinniss four months to produce. He wrote the book in a way that was easy to understand and that allowed the reader to visualize the Nixon campaign events as they unfolded. McGinniss chronicled the advertising and marketing strategies that were utilized around the presidential campaigns which ultimately led to the election of President Nixon in 1968. Rare, backstage access was granted to McGinniss which allowed him to accurately convey how an unflattering candidate could be portrayed as a confident, decent man by swooning the American people through the use of carefully strategized campaigning.

McGinniss aimed to reveal his first-hand encounter of the effort it took to market Nixon during the 1968 election when he wrote this book. To better understand the process of developing a presidential campaign, McGinniss contacted Harry Treleaven, creative director over Nixon’s campaign. Treleaven was hired by Len Garment, Nixon’s law firm partner and his supervisor. Treleaven discussed with Garment the possibility of McGinnis being present during the campaign process. Garment agreed to allow McGinniss to “shadow for… several months and watch the advertising being created” (McGinniss, 1988, p. xvi). Nixon had previously run for president in 1960 where he lost to President John F. Kennedy, a handsome, poised and confident man. The American people did not favor Nixon because he came across as a cold, dark, and unhappy individual. When Nixon decided to run for president again, his team of advisers were concerned that his old image would ruin his chance of winning the 1968 election against Hubert Humphrey. They found it necessary to recreate his public image and aimed to make him appear like an honorable, more personable, and charismatic man. Nixon’s team of advisers relied on television to advertise his new and warmer public image. McGinniss sat on the sidelines and watched as they packaged Nixon to sell like a new car.

In The Selling of the President, McGinniss provided the reader with background knowledge of how this work came into existence. It was noted that he was a well-travelled American journalist who had lunch with Gene Prakapas, the editor-in-chief of the Trident Press. The two discussed a book that Theodore “Teddy” White was in the process of writing regarding the presidential campaign. McGinniss thought there could be additional insight, “a striking new phenomenon—the marketing of political candidates as if they were consumer products” (McGinniss, 1988, p. xv). Prakapas liked the idea of a book that detailed how candidates were marketed and paid McGinniss $500 to make it happen. McGinniss resigned from his job and focused on the book. Initially he sought out to land the Hubert Humphrey account, but he was turned away. Without hesitation, he reached out to Nixon’s people and they naively agreed to let him quietly observe the campaign process. McGinniss wondered why they agreed, but he came to the conclusion that “they were doing nothing of which they thought it necessary to be ashamed … and [his] answer [was] that in all probability they did not take [him] very seriously” (McGinniss, 1988, p. xvii). He was granted access to some of the most intimate moments in creating a campaign. He had behind the scenes access, was allowed in the conference rooms, and was present while Nixon’s advisers strategically planned out the campaign. Without this personal encounter, he would not have been able to provide the reader with details about how President Nixon was marketed.

Behind the scenes of Nixon’s campaign was Frank Shakespeare, former president of CBS

that was hired to direct Nixon’s advertising campaigns. In October of 1968, Shakespeare worked to design a set that appeared sophisticated, yet not too staged. The stage set included bookcases, a desk, and a window that allowed natural light into the space. Shakespeare felt that the window added a lighter feel to the overall mood of the recording. Initially, Nixon was going to be placed behind the desk, seated in a chair when speaking. However, Nixon felt that leaning against the desk made him appear more personable and relatable. Nixon taped a series of one to five minute commercials that addressed hot topic issues such as the crime rate in Buffalo and Erie County, concerns with the south, and an impromptu commercial regarding the teacher strike in New York. It took multiple attempts to capture the perfect commercial. Nixon was aware of his mistakes when recording and wanted to make sure he didn’t come across as too stern. He was also aware of his word choices and cautious not to offend the voters. Nixon’s advisers also created commercials in which Nixon did not physically have to appear or speak. These commercials included photos that captivated his audience as he spoke in the background. The aimed to appeal to the emotional aspects of the photographs.

Nixon’s fall campaign involved traveling from Massachusetts to Texas. His team of advisers wanted to get him in front of a carefully selected audience away from the press. They wanted Nixon to “get through the campaign with a dozen or so carefully worded responses that would cover all the problems of America in 1968” (McGinniss, 1988, p. 63). Shakespeare, Treleaven, and Garment wanted a balanced panel of approximately six to seven people. The panel was made up of primarily Caucasian people with one African American present. He addressed his panel with confidence. He was vulnerable to this new situation and faced a panel only armed with his wits. The old version of Nixon had been buried and the new version alive and thriving. His confidence was restored. “His statements flowed like warm milk, bathed the audience, restored faith in the Founding Fathers, and rekindled memory of a vigorous Eisenhower, of ten, of fifteen years before” (McGinnins, 1988, p. 70). His comments to the panel’s questions were well-received and applauded. Nixon was finally able to captivate his audience. His team of advisors were finally successful in covering up his flaws and marketed him in a way that appealed to the voters. They no longer saw the old Nixon from 1960. They saw a changed man who appeared confident, yet caring. With the new changes came presidential victory.

McGinnis did a wonderful job capturing the intricate details of what is takes to market a president. His persistence, first-hand knowledge, and backstage access are what made this book a success. After reading this book, the reader will see how important it is to package or repackage a candidate for a better chance at winning a campaign. With the correct team of advisors, who have many years of experience in television or advertising, a flawed candidate can be made to appear like a shiny new car in a junk yard. The book was enlightening and educates the reader on how political candidates carefully devise an alternate image to gain votes.

I find this book to be a valuable asset to the study of politics, government operations, and campaign insight.

After Being chosen by Dwight D. Eisenhower as a running mate in the election of 1952, allegations were made by the New York Times that Richard Nixon had accepted bribes throughout his career in exchange for government influence. Under normal circumstances a vice-president candidate would have denied any such claims and then stepped off the ticket to save face, however the medium of television was finally coming into play in politics. Nixon wrote and delivered a televised speech in which he denied any claims that he accepted bribes, and only admitted to receiving the gift of a dog named checker from a man in Texas. Nixon’s use of Aristoteles appeals is effective because he uses hard proof and factual evidence to convey his message.

Nixon began his address by stating why he was before the public. He told the American people that “ the best and only answer to a smear or to an honest misunderstanding of the facts is to tell the truth”. Instead of being a coward or lying to the American public, Nixon decided not only to just go public with his answer but to address the issue on television. This means that you can see his facial expressions and arm gestures he expresses throughout the speech. For the most part of this speech Nixon sits behind a desk with his arms folded. This meant that he made very few arm gestures and his points were punctuated predominately through facial expressions. Now why is this a big deal? Well it’s very important because he can use that to his advantage to persuade public opinion by using pathos and logos to more effectively. Nixon uses many appeals to ethos, pathos and logos throughout the speech. From the very beginning, Nixon argues that any normal politician would have denied any claims made against them regardless of their content however he was standing in front of them and facing them in a honest and straight forward fashion. This is an attempt to gain the trust of the American people by addressing the issue head-on. Later on in the speech, Nixon begins to present all claims made against him and reads receipts and audits that he believes will prove that he never gained and money unlawfully. This is an appeal to logos, as he is using facts and figures to prove he never took any bribes. Also, later in the speech Nixon references his time as a congress man and a senator and his stats fighting communism and corruption. He sites that because of this he would never fall victim to corruption. This is once again an appeal to logos.

Nixon does not appeal heavily to pathos throughout this speech, his only use of it was when he says that his kids have fallen in love with the dog and he admits that though it may have been wrong that he accepted it, he will not give it back no matter the repercussions.

Essentially what this speech is trying to convey to the American public is why he and Dwight D. Eisenhower are the best men to deal with the issues both domestic and foreign of the time and to prove that he never accepted any bribes illegally.

The United States of America makes roughly 5 percent of the world population, yet funny enough it houses more than 25 percent of all people incarcerated throughout the world (Coates). The hardest hit communities are by far those of color in urban areas. This paper will focus on how America used the War on Drugs to wage war against its own citizens, those of color anyway. It will look at policies set forth by the war and how it systematically destroyed those urban communities, particularly African American communities.

In June of 1971 president Nixon declared a war on drugs, which would later be a catchphrase used by countless politicians for years to come. By declaring a war on drugs and proclaiming that drug abuse was “public enemy number one” President Nixon was able to get millions of dollars to fight this new “war” increasing the size and presence of federal drug control agencies.

While the Guardian newspaper would have one believe that Nixon started this “war” because of drug use by soldiers fighting in Vietnam, John Ehrlichman Nixon’s top aide said otherwise:

You want to know what this is really about. The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the anti-war left and Black people. You understand what I’m saying, we knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. (Fulwood)

Nixon’s “war” on drugs was a way to attack the communities of color, taking aim and targeting black communities especially. A year earlier Nixon signed into law the Controlled Substance Act (CSA) which created a schedule system (classification) of drugs based on the likelihood of the drug having addictive tendencies. What this meant was that if a drug was a schedule I drug it had a high potential of being addictive and thus being abused. Schedule V represents the least potential for being abused (DEA.gov).

Marijuana was labeled a schedule I drug, which meant it had the harshest penalties. Cocaine, because it offered some me medicinal benefits, namely as an anesthetic for eye surgery and in dentistry was labeled a schedule II drug which meant the consequences were less than that of marijuana (Reuter 87). Just a couple of years later the Drug Enforcment Agency of DEA was created which served as the agency responsible for stopping preventing any distribution of illegal narcatics in the United States. By 1974 the DEA budget was a staggering 788 million dollars, but would grow to an astronomical number in years to come. The DEA was tasked with impmenting and enforcing the laws directly related to laws as a result of the controlled substance act. Thus Nixon laid the foundation for which only Ronald Reagan would not only continue the work started by President Nixon, but take it to new heights.

While the presidencies of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter were relatively mild, as far as the war on drugs goes, it wasn’t until Ronald Reagan came into office that the war on drugs was put into overdrive. If $788 million was a lot of money directed at this new “war” by the end of Reagans presidency in 1989 it had ballooned to over $6.6 billion (Reuter). During the same period the prison population exploded! From the 1970s to the mid 1980s the prison population doubled from 150 per 100,000 people to 300 per 100,000.

With Reagan in office his administration and his wife took aim at the drug issue. In 1984 Nancy Reagan began created the “just say no” anti-drug campaign. By 1986 “the house of representatives, then controlled by democrats, overwhelmingly passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act” (Hallinan). The bill passed in large part due to the media sensitization of the deaths of two well known athletes just days apart from each other in 1986 (Reuter). Politicians were able to capitalize off of the deaths of these two athletes, using them as a way to spread fear while at the same time gaining widespread support on both sides of the isle for tougher drug laws. In fact, during this time to be seen as “weak” on drug crime was political suicide so many politicians appeared and supported tougher laws. That was how Reagan was able to pass with huge support from the democratic party, even though he himself belonged to the republican party, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act.

What the anti-drug abuse act did would set the stage for millions of people to get trapped in the criminal justice system for decades to come. Due in large part to the act getting passed, between then and 1990 congress passed numerous mandatory minimum penalties targeting violent crimes and especially drug related crimes. The mandatory minimums were an attempt by lawmakers to deter crime by creating fixed and lengthy prison sentences (Vagins).

The most damaging part of the bill was related to crack cocaine, cocaine in a rock-like form that is smoked instead of snorted. Because powder cocaine was seen as a “rich, white” persons drug and crack-cocaine was seen as a “poor, colored” problem crack got the stiffer punishment. Because crack was a black and brown problem plaguing urban centers congress specified a relationship between the penalties for powder cocaine, and cocaine in rock form, or crack.

The distribution of up to 5 grams of crack the mandatory minimum was a prison sentence of 5 years, the same sentence that was handed out for 500 grams of cocaine in its powdered form. This would come to be known as the 100:1 ratio, even in the absence of evidence that proved crack was 100 times worse that powdered cocaine. Ignoring the street value of such amounts of drugs, policy makers justified this by claiming to go after big-time drug dealers and not small-time dealers. The mandatory minimums forced judges to hand out five- and ten-year sentences without having a choice in the matter (Hallinan). Obviously this was a way to stop the public and others from protesting this bill. By 1985 the prison population reached 500,000 but by 1995, less than a decade later that number doubled to more than one-million people (Bureau of Justice Statistics).

If crack was a problem, it was colored communities that were paying the price. Studies hae shown that white people smoked crack at higher rates than that of their black counterpart yet black men were sent to prison at higher rates. By 1995 black men accounted for over 80 percent of all people sent to federal prison for trafficking crack cocaine. Interesting enough the average federal prison sentence for murder was only six years, while the average prison sentence for crack-cocaine was eleven years (U.S. Sentencing Commission).