Richard Nixon: Difference between revisions

Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9th, 1913 on his family's lemon ranch in Yorba Linda, California. Nixon's early life was marked by hardship. At a young age with his father's lemon business going under in 1922 and then losing his younger brother to illness in 1925, he suffered from a nasty case of pneumonia as a young child. However, things started to look up for Nixon in his teens when he joined Fullerton Union High School's debate and basketball teams, however, his older brother, Harold, developed tuberculosis that would later kill him a couple of years later. In 1928, Nixon began his political career on a bad note when he lost the election for student body president. Nixon graduated high school third in his class in 1930 and was offered a tuition grant to attend the prestigious Harvard University.

 

Nixon, however, turned it down to instead attend the local Whittier College, so he could more easily attend college while helping out at his father's grocery store. After finishing his Bachelor ''summa cum laude'' in 1934, Nixon was accepted into Duke University School of Law. After finishing Law School and passing the bar in 1937 Nixon began practicing law in Whittier, California where he met his future wife Pat. In January 1942, Nixon moved to Washington D.C. to work under the Officer of Price Administration. Nixon, however, did not enjoy working there so he joined the Navy and was made an officer in the Naval Reserve, serving between 1942 and 1946. In 1946, Nixon was convinced by a family friend to run in California's 12th congressional district election on the Republican ticket.

 

=== Road to the Presidency ===

After being elected as the Representative for California's 12th district in 1946 and 1948, Nixon would go on to be elected as a Senator from California in 1950. Nixon would remain as a Senator until 1961, when he resigned his Senate seat to assume the Presidency. During his time as Senator, Nixon would work closely with fellow Republican senator Joe McCarthy in his Grey Scare to root out suspected Fascists within the US federal government. Nixon's role in the Grey Scare would give him a reputation as an anti-fascist crusader.