Sunday, January 15, 1956
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Threw
Te Rise of Richard Nixon
"I started with ideas of black or white. But I fo nd that it's hard to find anywhere.
where it's all black or all white .. . I found compromise is often what is right."
Nixon's Transformation From "The Greenest Congressman in Town"
To "One of the Great Leaders of Men"
r
* By PHIL BREEN "Are you available?" Perry
ICHARD M. NIXON, the Vice asked Nixon
President of the United States, "I am," Nixon quickly replied
Is a remarkable man. Nine short "Are you a Repubican?'
years ago he was a political non- "I guess so," Nixon answered. "I
entity, quiet, shy, and embarras- voted for Dewey in '44."
singly sincere. Today, he is a Nixon took a plane out to the
superb hand-shaker, a magnifi- Coast and appeared before the
cent back-slapper, and odds-on committee. They unanimously en-
favorite to win the 1956 Republi- dorsed him. He was on his way.
can presidential nomination, if At the age of 33, Richard Nixon,
Ike doesn't run. the man of Quaker ideals, had
Mr. Nixon is equipped with all taken the first step on the way to
the personal qualities and abilities becoming Richard Nixon, the poli-
important to a winning politician.jtician.
He is personable. He is energetic. A grass-roots candidate. he
He is ruthless. He cali shed a tear knew little about campaigning.
at the click of a flash-gun and he He learned fast. He canvassed the
can smile in the best toothpaste whole area, talking to business
ad style. He is bright-eyed, fat- and community leaders in every
checked, and cheerful-looking- town in the sprawling Twelfth
the picture of "Republican peace District. Finally, he imveigled his
and prosperity." His friends are Democratic opponent, Jerry Vor-
many and influential, and lie hass his, into meeting him in a public
organized a lesion of supporters ldebate.
behinid inisAt the debate Nixon accused
As the Nixon-foi Pesident Voorhis, who had served in the
bandwagson rolls up steam and the House of Representative's for ten
19.6 cmpaign draws near there' years, of being a "New Deal Soc-
will be much id and wilitte ialist" He produced documentary
shouted and u ispered about Vii evidense showing that VoorhisIs
PresidentNixon.The stblic will was endorsed by ai organization
want to know more about this ri itsoice of whose members belonged
ig young man from California, to the CIO Political Action Com-
and it will have a hard time sift- niltee, a siis sit uas then
ing the fact from the fable, separ- ciontrolled by Communists. Ham-
ating the trui tfrom the half- mrig away at Voorhis' alleed
truth and the half-truth from the radicalism, Nixont tent oii to winI
outright lie. he election by a big majority.
ICHARD Millious Nixon was At the outset of his political
i born on Janury 9, 1913 at career he had used a winning
Yoba Linda. California. ie is de- ascampain strategy which lie has
scended froim Quaker stock andd employed ever since: attack. Blast
he spent his formative years in away at every one of your oppon-
Whittier, California, a town which ent's weak spots, and say little,
was founded by pioneering Quak- if anything at all, about your own
ers in the 1880's and in which te policies and plans. Sell your per-
influence of Quaker virtue was sonality to the public, not your
still very heavy during the time ideas. Be quick, forceful, and dar-
Nixon was growing up. ins. "The gre.ter the risk, the.
Nixon's family operated a small greater the opportunity," as he
grocery, Nixon's Market, which his Ihas said.
brother Donald now runs. The
family business was a modest one, "Lost & Frustrated"
but enough to provide the Nixons
with a small'measure of prosperity AS A freshman Congressman he
and to enable Hannah and Frank "felt lost - frustrated." A
Nixon to educate three sons in the Washington newspaper even feat-
ways of Quaker tolerance and ured an article about him entitled,
generosity. "Greenest Congressman in Town"
In 1934 the newly-founded Duke But again he learned fast. He wasr
University Law School offered assigned to the Labor and Educa-t
him a scholarship and he accept- tion Committee of the House and
ed. He graduated from Duke in was instrumental in the passage of
1937 with honors and went back the Taft-Hartley Labor Relations
home to Whittier to practice law. Act and other important meas-
When World War II erupted ures.
Nixon moved to Washington to 1948 saw him easily re-elected1
work for a government agency and he returned to Congress to
- which badly needed lawyers. By take a post on the House Un-'
law his Quaker religion exempted American Activities Committee. It'
him from military service. He felt, is reported that he had serious
however, that this was a war misgivings about joining the Com-c
which "had to be fought." He ob- mittee, that he was afraid the
tained a Navy commission in 1943 work of the Committee might
and saw combat in the South damage the basic American free-'
Pacific. Near the end of the war doms.
he was transferred to an office in "We are deeply concerned," he
Baltimore to work on Navy con- said, "that in our efforts to com-'
tracts bat and break up subversivec
"Amateur Candidate" moeet., we do not impair
or destroy any of the rights and
vsNE SUMMER day, in 1945, lberties which we hold so funda-
while he was observed in the mental in America."
routine of his desk job, he received Subsequently he publicly de-
a telephone call from a long time clared for the rights of accused
friend of the family, banker Her- individuals to refrain from giving
man Perry. Perry told Nixon that self-incriminating evidence, and
a 100 man committee of the Re- he urged some coded procedure1
publican leaders of California's governing the actions of all chair-'
men of Congressional investigat-1
Twelfth District were looking for ing committees.
a man to run for Congress, In It was, however, because of hisi
1940 the committee, in deaperate work on the Un-American Activi-f
need of a candidate, had bought ties Committee that Nixon firsti
space in the state newspapers ad- gained national fame. He became1
vertising themselves, to use the an expert Red-hunter, springing
Saturday Evening Post's words, suddenly into the national spot-
as "amateur politicians searching light when the Committee explod-
for an amateur candidate," and ed the Alger Hiss-Whittakeri
Perry was just helping them out. Chambers case. Nixon quickly be-f
came the prime mover in the af- nary speeches in the annals of during his recent illness, Nixon
fair, making headlines every day. political history. has taken over many of the ad-
He became wonderfully adept at Pouring out the details of his ministrative duties of the Presi-
appearing before cameras and family's penury, he claimed that dent. He has presided at meet-
microphones, giving speeches and the fund was necessary to defray ings of the Cabinet, of the Na-
holding press conferences. the many expenses of Senatorial tional Security Council, and of
Nixon the Quaker was fast be- life that a Senator's salary ordi- groups of legislators. He has
coming Nixon the actor, Nixon the narily couldn't afford, and that handled these and other adminis-
orator, and above all, Nixon the the contributors of the fund did trative tasks with much success.
politician, not expect and did not receive any A few months ago when Nixon
special favors. . returned from a trip to the Cari-
BY 1950 the transformation was Choked with emotion, he bbean, the President is reported
complete. He had become, as made references to his wife and to have aid the following: "tt is
good to have Vice-President Nixon
back. You know, polities is some-
thing like a bale. and the coin-
manding officer usight fall in that
battle. Ii is reassuring to have
a man who is capable of steppim
into his place
u &Many look upon this and simi-
l'r statemen s by the Presiient
sniate ssttafIke 'sill not ruin
in and silltisis official
bi ssitto u a aoist1956. Yhey
sfuel taeatsis)1 ixnnerds t
is iii
TE 1there es1on" e erl le
in the GC who sill dio e-ery-
h ng in thei r u' c i block
N on's nomination. Thy feel
as a candidate for President
too paltiraly immature.
T tase these feeliugs mainly
hr evidence that Richard
f., no riefined policy
a "hate Nixon" cam-
pt as the ca h 'd
Persapst ' P at po)i
ehic < a t ci ass "s
whicl incites t , Jt n or, il;
part of so many peospe.
As Richard H. Rovere points out
RICHARD M. NIXON ... "The greatest error you can make in Harper's: "It is astonishing
.O T g s ethat when one 'thinks of Nixon
in politics is to get mad, in relation to the history of the
past three years there is no single
Robert Coughlan has put it, "a children, and even to the family item of substantive policy that
completely political man," mach- dog Checkers which an admirer one can identify him with
ine-like in his "ability to digest from Texas had sent him, ("You Nixon appears to be a politician
political factors and come up Oith know, the kids love that dog, with an advertising man's ap-
the predictions." As candidate for and I want to tell you right now,' proach to his work. Policies are
the Senate from the State of Cal. that regardless of what they say products to be sold to the public-
ifornia, he was a natural. about it, we're going to keep this one today, that one tomorrow,
He based his campaign on the it.") depending .. .on the state of the
"failure of the Administration's As a result of the speech Nixon market."
Far Eastern policy which had received some two million, favor- Nixon is all things to all men-
made the Korean War inevitable, able letters and telegrams and the or rather, as the Reporter put it,
made the Korean War inevitable," unanimous re-endorsement of the "all things to all Republicans."
and he linked disloyalty in the GOP. Yet perhaps it is not altogether
Government, as evidenced by the Afterwards, speaking about his fair to say that he has no policy.
Hiss case, with this policy. performance, he gushed: "I told His is perhaps a more unique kind
Nixon accused his Democratic my wife I didn't think I could do of policy than has ever before, or
adversary, Helen Gahagan Doug- it. But it was like before starting at least recently, been exhibited
las of being subversively inclined in a football game. You're all in the national political arena.
and pointed out that in the House keyed up, you're praying, your It is not the kind that can be
of Representatives she had voted knees are full of water. But then broadly categorized into foreign
354 times for the same bills Com- they blow the whistle and you get and domestic. Rather, it is of a
munist Congressman Vito Mar- in there and hit that line. I more personal nature, bordering
cantonio had voted for. probably had been preparing to do almost on a general philosophy of
2T;ass nciive victor Auue1n i'eis-assroy.14#- t se
His decisive victory added to the it all my life."
Republican landslide of 1950. Nix-
on had now won three in a row, NIXON had been spared the'
and he was ready for the next political axe, but his influence
one. The prospect of California's and prestige among fellow Re-
32 electoral,.votes and Eisenhow- publicans was seriously damaged.
er's personal liking for the man His performance as vice-president
boomed him into the Republican has been a real political comeback.
vice-presidential nomination in No one stand higher in the
1952. eyes of President HEsenhower than'
Nixon. Ike has described the Vice-
"Nickels for Nixon" President as "one of the great
. leaders of men" and as "the most
HE WAS vigorousl campaign- valuable member of my team."
ing for the GOP cause when In the Eisenhower Administra-
the story of a secret fund (which tion Nixon has achieved the repu-
Democrats facetiously 1 a b e 1 e d tation of "Mr. Fix-it"-the man
"Nickels for Nixon") which had who is most responsible for any
been raised for him while he was semblance of harmony in the Re-
a Senator was brought before the publican Party. He has become
public. Party leaders were shocked, the liason man between the White
feared the outcome of the election House and stubborn Congressional
was in serious jeopardy, and asked leaders, the mediator between the
Nixon to resign from the race. left and right wing of the GOP.
Nixon demanded a chance to
vindicate himself, and on October PRESIDENT Eisenhower has al-
1952, before a radio and television lowed Vice-President Nixon to
audience estimated at 50 million, become a kind of "assistant pres-
gave one of the most extraordi- ident." During Ike's absences, and
life.
He has explained it best in the
following words:
"I started with ideas of black
or white. But I found that it's
hard to find anywhere where
it's all black or all white . . . I
find compromise is often what
is right."
In the coming fight for the
Republican presidential nomina-
tion Nixon will find much deter-
mined opposition. Some of it will
come from men in his own home
state like Governor Goodwin
Knight and Senator William
Knowland. The rest will be lodged
with men like Harold Stassen and
Milton Eisenhower, the President's
brother.
Whether he wins the nomina-
tion or not, Richard Nixon will
still be very much with us. He
figures to be around for a long
time to come. Although he may
no longer have the virtues of the
Quakers, he still has their deter-
mination.