President Richard Nixon’s suspicions of the press, nurtured throughout his career, made him almost paranoid about what the fourth estate was doing to undermine his presidency, his administration policies, and his re-election hopes. Pictured: President Richard Nixon.
Next month will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation from the presidency, the only president to have done so. The next several columns will examine the events that led to Nixon’s downfall.
Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994), served as Vice-President of the United States under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. In an attempt to succeed Eisenhower in 1960, he lost to Senator John F. Kennedy. Rising from the political ashes in 1968, he reclaimed the presidency in one of the most turbulent years in American history. When Nixon was inaugurated in 1969, he faced a country on fire about Vietnam, Civil Rights, and the threats of youth demonstrations on the streets, at college campuses, and in city centres.
Facing re-election in 1972 he thought he may have to defeat Ted Kennedy or a high-profile Democratic candidate like former Vice-President Hubert Humphrey or his erstwhile running mate, Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine. When those candidacies failed to materialize and Nixon’s opponent became liberal Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, the road to victory seemed assured. Wanting to take no chances, the Nixon team concocted a zealous effort to ensure they knew what Democrats planned to do in the upcoming campaign. The ensuing break-in at Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel Complex led to the most famous political scandal in American history and the first presidential resignation.
Geoff Shephard was deputy counsel on Nixon’s team during the Watergate Hearings. He knows more than most and has written about the upcoming anniversary warning people about the forthcoming shows and programming that will mark the milestone. His insights should help those interested in the events to piece together a more complete puzzle than the one the media has propagated for half a century. My undertaking will cover six areas, beginning with the prologue.
Nixon carries many burdens as a historical figure. The press never fancied him nor his anti-communist investigations. During the Eisenhower era, Nixon had played the loyal soldier and always backed up administration policy. After all, Ike’s decision to select the young senator from California arose from the Republican convention in 1952 in Chicago and surprised most observers. Eisenhower wanted a younger man to offset his age (62 – can you imagine that being considered old in 2024?), balance the geography of the ticket (Eisenhower was born in Texas and grew up in Kansas while Nixon was born in and represented a congressional district in California), and ideologically steady the more right-wing elements of the party. The partnership worked well, though there were points of disagreement. In 1954 as the French exited Indo-China (what became South Vietnam), Nixon preferred America play a more active role in the unfolding exodus. He planned to give a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors supporting the possibility of American ground troops. When Eisenhower caught wind of this, Nixon had to amend his wording. The other disagreement may say more about the generational difference between the two men. In 1954, the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court ruling ended public school desegregation. Ike had concerns about the decision, but Nixon completely supported it.
By the end of the Eisenhower Administration, Nixon was the obvious choice to succeed his mentor. Facing off against his friend and congressional colleague, John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Nixon fell short. There were only small policy differences between the two Cold War warriors in both foreign and domestic issues. Kennedy performed better on TV during their debates, but the election was close with Kennedy squeaking out a small popular vote win, and edging Nixon in the electoral vote tally thanks to victories in ten states of tallies less than ten thousand votes.
The brush with victory forced Nixon to consider his future. A rematch in 1964 seemed unlikely. When the governor’s job in California opened up in 1962 Nixon threw his hat in the race. After a devastating defeat to Governor Pat Brown, and a press conference where he seemed to announce his retirement from politics at age 49, a career in a high-priced law firm looked inevitable. Nixon could not resist politics, however, and by 1966 he was campaigning for Republican candidates across the country.
The off-year elections offered the Republican party a chance to recover from the shellacking they took in 1964. Nixon knew this would be his last opportunity. His hard work and relentless efforts helped Republicans gain 47 House seats, three Senate seats, and seven governor’s races. In the first post-1965 Civil Rights election, the Republican Party won a resounding victory with millions of more black Americans voting. Ironically, in 1968, Nixon and the GOP devised a Southern Strategy that played on racial divides to turn out white voters. In an election even closer than the one he lost to Kennedy, Nixon defeated the incumbent vice president, Hubert Humphrey, to claim the long-sought prize.
Once sworn into office, Nixon governed more to the middle, while also continuing an aggressive effort to win the war in Vietnam. His suspicions of the press, nurtured throughout his career, made him almost paranoid about what the fourth estate was doing to undermine his presidency, his administration policies, and his re-election hopes. When the Washington Post and its editor Ben Bradlee published the Pentagon Papers in 1971, Nixon’s secretive tendencies accelerated. Surrounding himself with men who also mistrusted the press did not help. To ensure the press had nothing on him and hoping to uncover their game plan for 1972, he put together a team called The Committee to Re-elect the President. This committee later became known as the White House Plumbers for reasons that will be discussed in the next section of this retrospect, The Break-in.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who now works part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, where he earned a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
