Inside Nixon's Enemies List

1 Inside Nixon’s Enemies List

For decades and decades now, perhaps since the American Civil War, when newspapers began transmitting articles from city to city by telegraph, print journalists have been guided by the 5 W’s and the H. techniques to write the beginning of a nonfiction article. The beginning, called the lede, pronounced leed. is the most crucial part of a news article. The lede capsulizes the article for the reader, often, but not always, in three brief paragraphs.

They are:

Who? Is the person famous, infamous, a notable person, known locally, regionally or nationally? Begin the article with that person by name.

What? What happened? Describe to the reader what happened to be gin the article.

Where? Is the location important? Begin there.

When? When did the event begin? Is the time important? — when did D-Day began in France — when did other events began —

Why? Why did the story begin? The writer — a print, or a broadcast reporter — may have to explain the why to the reader.

How? How did this event happen? (Often the why or how of an complicated story are not apparent until weeks or months later; an airliner crash, for instance. The how did this crash happen? may not be apparent until the aircraft black boxes’ can be found and examined for engine failure, weather conditions or other contributing factors to a crash.)

In One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon. Tim Weiner writes:

Richard Nixon led the United States through a time of unbearable turmoil. He made war in pursuit of peace. He committed crimes in the name of the law. He tore the country apart while trying to unite it. He sabotaged his presidency by violating the Constitution. He destroyed himself and damaged the nation through deliberate acts of folly.

He vowed to bring the tragedy of Vietnam to an honorable end; he brought death and disgrace instead. He practiced geopolitics without subtlety; he preferred subterfuge and brutality. He dropped bombs and napalm without remorse; he believed they delivered a political message beyond blood and fire. He charted the course of the war without a strategy; he delivered victory to his adversaries.

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Yet he had an undeniable greatness, an unsurpassed gift for the art of politics, an unquestionable desire to change the world. He wielded power like a Shakespearean king.

In his eyes, he stood above the law, and that was his fatal flaw, for he fell like a king fated to die in the final act of a tragedy. His arrogation of power created the criminal conduct that his White House counsel warned him was a cancer within, close to the presidency, that’s growing. It’s growing daily.

The White House counsel who warned Nixon about a cancer on the presidency was John Dean.

Richard Nixon’s childhood and family life might easily be called California hardscrabble. He was born January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California, the second of five boys (four of the five named for British kings: Harold; Richard; Francis Donald; Arthur and Edward. Richard was named after Richard the Lionhearted.) His younger brother Arthur died in 1928 after a short illness and his older brother, Harold, whom he admired, died in 1933 of tuberculosis.

In his last speech, before the assembled White House staff, just before he left by helicopter for the last time, he said:

I remember my old man. I think that they would have called him sort of a little man, common man. He didn’t consider himself that way. You know what he was? He was a streetcar motorman first, and then he was a farmer, and then he had a lemon ranch… And then he was a grocer. But he was a great man, because he did his job, and every job counts up to the hilt, regardless of what happens.

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Nobody will ever write a book, probably, about my mother. Well, I guess all of you will say this about your mother — my mother was a saint. And I think of her, two boys dying of tuberculosis, nursing four others in order that she could take care of my older brother for three years in Arizona, and seeing each of them die…. Yes, she will have no books written about her, but she was a saint.

One spectator, David Ransom, a Marine veteran, called Nixon’s rambling, self-absorbed, last speech pathetic.

And what of his father, the common man? He left his job as a streetcar motorman in Columbus, Ohio, after sustaining frostbite in an open streetcar. In California, despite his work, the family became impoverished and he was left a restless, frustrated and angry man, a mean-spirited person who psychologically abused his five sons and sometimes beat them. Nixon called his mother a saint or a Quaker saint. His father, originally a Methodist, became a Quaker when he married Nixon’s mother.

His mother’s Quaker background forbade alcohol, swearing and dancing.

Although Nixon apparently never did, we can describe this family as dysfunctional, based largely on the behavior of Nixon’s father and his mother’s Quaker religion.

Nixon attended high school in Fullerton, California, then Whittier, California. At that time, his brother Harold had been diagnosed with tuberculosis and his mother took him to Arizona for the drier climate; Richard’s obligations at home increased but he was able to graduate on time; third in his class of 207 students.

He was offered a tuition grant to attend Harvard, but travel costs would have been overwhelming for the family and he was still needed at home; he consequently attended nearby Whittier College, a Quaker college, paid for by a bequest from his maternal grandfather. He graduated in 1934 and was offered a full scholarship to Duke University Law School, then attempting to attract top students with full scholarships, which were reduced during their second and third years. Nixon kept his scholarship for all three years and graduated in June, 1937.

After Duke, he attempted to join the FBI, but got no response to his letter of application; he later learned that he had been accepted by the FBI, but the position was lost as a result FBI budget cuts.

He was admitted to the California bar in 1937 and joined the law firm of Wingert and Bewley, working on litigation for California petroleum companies. He was reluctant to work on divorce cases because he didn’t want hear frank sexual talk, especially from women. He became a full partner in the firm in 1939.

Previously, in January 1938, he was cast in the Whittier Community Players production of the play The Dark Tower and met a high school teacher, Thelma Pat Ryan. He said it was love at first sight for him, but apparently not for her. She said no several times before even dating him once. They dated for two years before she accepted his marriage proposal; they were married in a small ceremony June 21, 1940. They had two daughters Tricia, born in 1946 and Julie, in 1948. The Nixons stayed married throughout his career; Pat Nixon died June 22, 1983, at 81.

In January, 1942, the Nixons moved to Washington, D.C., where Nixon took a job at the Office of Price Administration. In his political campaigns, Nixon suggested, or implied, that this was his response to Pearl Harbor, but he had sought the position during the last half of 1941. Both Nixon and his wife believed he was limiting his opportunities by staying in Whittier. He was assigned to the tire rationing division, where he had to reply to incoming correspondence He did not enjoy that role and after four months, applied to join the Navy.

As a birthright Quaker, he could have sought an exemption from the draft; he also could have sought an exception because he was working in government service. But he sought a commission in the Navy; he was appointed a lieutenant junior grade in the U.S. Naval Reserve June 15,1942.

In October, 1942, he was assigned as aide to the commander of the Naval Air Station Ottumwa, in Iowa, until May, 1942,. Seeking more than a stateside assignment, he requested sea duty and on July 2, 1943, was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 25 and the South

Pacific Combat Air Transport Command (SCAT) supporting the logistics of operations into South Pacific Theater. On October 1, 1943, Nixon was promoted to lieutenant; he commanded the SCAT forward detachments at Vella Lavella, Bougainville and finally at Green Island (Nissan Island). His unit prepared manifests and flight plans for R4D/ C-47 operations and supervised the loading and unloading of the transport aircraft. For this service, he received a Navy Letter of Commendation (awarded a Navy Commendation Ribbon, which was later updated to the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal) from his commanding officer for meritorious and efficient performance of duty as Office in Charge of the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command.

Upon his return to the U.S., Nixon was appointed the administrative officer of the Alameda Naval Air Station in California. In January, 1945, he was transferred to the Bureau of Aeronautics office in Philadelphia to help negotiate the termination of war contracts, and received his second letter of commendation, from the Secretary of the Navy, for meritorious service, tireless effort, and devotion to duty. Later, he was transferred to other offices to work on contracts. He was finally transferred to Baltimore. On October 3, 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant commander. On March 10, 1946, he was relieved of active duty. He resigned his commission on New Years Day, 1946. On June 1, 1953, he was promoted to commander; he retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve on June 6, 1966.

Nixon won the first political race he entered, in 1946; 22 years later, after suffering major, catastrophic political defeats, he was elected President; the 37th President of the United States.

While still in the east, in late 1945, he received a call; would he return to California and enter the Congressional race against popular Democratic candidate, Jerry Vorhiss? He was nominated by a branch manager of the Whittier Bank of America, who knew Nixon. The Nixons talked the idea over and by the next day agreed to return to California. In early 1946, he began an intense year-long campaign. He suggested that Vorhiss had been ineffective as a congressman and had accepted funds from a group linked to communism, thereby implying that Vorhiss must have radical views. Nixon received 65,586 votes to 49,994 for Vorhiss. He learned from his first experience; it would not be the last time he would invoke the specter of communism regarding political opponents.

In February, 1947, he joined the House Un-American Activates Committee (commonly abbreviated HUAC). His maiden speech in Congress focused on enemies to the HUAC committee. He had his name on a (Karl) Mundt-Nixon bill, in 1948, which provided for registration of all known Communist party members and required a source of all printed and broadcast material believed to be issued by communist front organizations. The bill passed the House of Representatives 319 to 88 votes, but failed to pass in the Senate; it was, however, still considered Nixon’s first congressional victory.

Nixon first gained national attention in August, 1948, when his persistence as a member of the HUAC committee helped break the Alger Hiss spy case. While many doubted Whittaker Chambers’s allegations that Hiss, a former