Richard Nixon is the 37th President of the United States of America. Biography

In the history of the United States of America, only one of their presidents voluntarily left their posts ahead of schedule. They became Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974. But not only this act of his, he always entered the annals of times. There were other outstanding moments in his work. Both positive and negative.

Childhood and adolescence of the president

Richard Milhouse Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in a town called Yorba Linda, which is in sunny California. Both his parents belonged to the Quaker religious society and led a conservative way of life. Father Nixon Francis was an ethnic Scotsman from the Armstrong clan. His mother's name was Hannah, and it was under her influence that the whole family lived according to the canons of the Quakers.

In addition to Richard, named after King Richard of the Lionheart, the couple had four more sons. Their names also kept the memory of the British monarchs. Unfortunately, two of the brothers were not lucky enough to live to adulthood.

The Nixon family was poor. Parents tried to farm, but nothing good came of it. Then it was decided to leave Yorba Linda and move to another Californian city of Whittier. There the father of the family opened a small business, consisting of a gas station and a shop. Sons actively helped him in the trade. They grew modest, hardworking and thrifty.

The first school that Richard attended was the high school in Fourton. Richard Nixon was distinguished by his intelligence, great ambition, and also sports and musical talents. He finished school at the eighth on his student's progress and immediately went to college. He was offered Harvard, but to pay his son to live in another city, the family did not have the means.

In college, the future 37 US President proved himself to be a brilliant student and just as successfully studied at a university in Durham where he mastered the profession of a lawyer.

Start of work

After graduating from the university, Nixon had grandiose plans for a further life. He wanted to get a job at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but this venture was covered by a "copper basin". The young man had no choice but to return to California - in his native Whittier.

There he was taken with his hands and feet to the oldest law firm of Winger and Beli, where the newly-created lawyer from 1937 to 1945 was engaged in various corporate litigations.

Of course, the young ambitious dreamed of not such a career start. But later he admitted that this practice of law gave him a lot. And very useful in political activities. In addition, Richard Nixon became the youngest of the trustees of the college, which he once graduated. At that time he was only 26.

Activities during the Second World War

When the Second World War began in Europe, which was followed by America, the future president already lived with his family in Washington and worked in the Moscow department of price regulation. As a Quaker he was relieved of his duty to serve in the army, but after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor he was unable to stay at home. In its amicable ranks it was accepted by the Naval Forces of the USA. From 1942 to 1946 Nixon served as a supply officer in the very south of the Pacific. He returned home alive and unharmed with the rank of lieutenant-commander.

The beginning of political activity

After the dismissal, Richard Nixon, whose biography was so abruptly interrupted by military events, decided to radically change his life. In this he was helped by the familiar Republicans. Having considered Nixon an ambitious, competent and promising figure, they suggested him to nominate their candidacy from their political platform in the next elections to the American House of Representatives.

The proposal was accepted without hesitation, and Nixon won the election. Two years later, in 1948, he was re-elected to Congress, and in the 50th he got to the Senate from the State of California.

At the beginning of his political career, Richard Nixon proved to be an active anti-communist, successfully playing in this way on the relevant prejudices of voters. He also noted the participation in the development of the Marshall Plan.

Rise and fall

In 1952, Nixon was waiting for a serious career rise. The president of the United States was Republican General Dwight Eisenhower, and the vice president was the heir to the Scottish aristocrats, named after the legendary English king.

In this post, Richard Nixon managed to visit 56 countries and actually "steer" the United States. His influence on state policy was enormous. And since Eisenhower was often sick and out of work, his deputy actually became the chief.

Vice-president of America Nixon stayed for 8 years - exactly as much as the head of state Eisenhower, who in 56th was re-elected for a second term.

And after the end of the boss's authority, his loyal ward tried to take over the presidency himself, taking part in the 1960 elections. But he lost the race to John Kennedy.

Two years later, with the same deafening failure for him, the election of the governor of California ended. After this, Nixon decides to leave politics and again take up jurisprudence. And leaves. True, not for long ...

US President Richard Nixon: the long-awaited post

In the second half of the 1960s, the political situation in the country was "whispered" to Nixon to return. Republicans got stronger and were eager to fight. Once again, having headed his own party, the former vice-president made a second attempt to remove the prefix "vice" from the title of his post. And he did it!

In the 1968 elections, the Democrats, in the person of Huberton Humphi, lost to the Republicans. Separation of the latter was very small, but it was enough for Richard Nixon to become the first face of the country.

Of course, he put a lot of effort into this and applied a lot of tactics. One of the most successful was the tactic of flirting with the voters of the conservative South and West, who traditionally voted for the Democrats.

In 1972, Nixon was re-elected for a second term. Which, however, to serve until the end he did not happen.

Domestic policy

37 the US president came to power when the country was "hot" with the prosperity of the economy, which caused strong inflation. Remaining a moderate conservative, Nixon conducted a series of reforms that helped to remove feverish processes.

For example, under his leadership, monetization was carried out. Nixon sharply reduced social benefits, introduced control over the size of wages, and markedly centralized the executive power in the country. All this practically stopped inflation, but by the end of the second term of the presidency, the goods in the country began to appreciate again.

Of course, such harsh actions caused protest moods in the society. What was the cost of cutting subsidies to farmers alone .... Perhaps this explains the attempt on Richard Nixon, which was prepared in 1974 by a certain Samuel Beek.

Bik worked as a salesman and was unsuccessful in his business. He wrote off troubles on power, and one day he decided to take revenge. He planned to hijack a plane to crash into the White House, destroying himself and the entire American leadership - including the president, whom, as it turned out, the unfortunate seller dreamed of killing several years. Fortunately, the criminal was stopped on time and, apart from himself, did not have time to harm anyone.

Richard Nixon's foreign policy

As for foreign policy, Nixon was guided in the first place by one of her campaign promises, which consisted in the conclusion of American wars from Vietnam and the conclusion of an "honorable peace".

To implement the promised by the president, even the doctrine that went down in history as the "Nixon doctrine" was accepted. According to her, the US was eliminated from direct participation in the struggle against the communist regimes in Asia. At the same time, the country did not withdraw from itself the functions of world leader of destinies, but announced that it would no longer send its soldiers to the fronts. And will support in other ways. The Allies were encouraged to rely more on their own strengths.

Nevertheless, under Nixon, troops were still deployed to another country. In 1970 she became Cambodia. As for relations with the Soviet Union, they were somewhat warmer during this period. President Richard Nixon visited the USSR himself and hosted Leonid Brezhnev, with whom they had quite pleasant, almost friendly conversations.

Watergate business and resignation

The elections of 1972 became for Nixon simultaneously a huge victory and the same deafening defeat. He confidently defeated the democrat George McGovern and received a "ticket" for the second presidential term. But in the end everything turned out to be a great shame.

Soon after summarizing the results of the voting, information was leaked to the press about the spies who were infiltrating the Democrats' office, located in the Watergate hotel, with eavesdropping devices. The personalities of the owners of "bugs" were established, and the "ears" clearly "grew" from the headquarters of opponents - that is, Republicans.

Personally, his involvement in this scandal, President Nixon denied to the last. But later, under public pressure, evidence and facts, he was forced to partially acknowledge it.

The US Senate and the House of Representatives launched an impeachment procedure. Before she came to the end, the disgraced president decided to resign himself. On his retirement he informed the American people on August 9, 1974. This happened in the history of the USA for the first time.

After resignation

Nixon spent the rest of his life after writing off the post of president, writing books. These were memoirs in which he tried to whitewash himself, as well as work on geopolitics.

And although the 38th US President Gerald Ford rehabilitated Nixon a month after the resignation of the latter, the shadow on the protagonist of the Watergate scandal lay until his death. In politics, he was ordered to enter, and to practice law practice is officially prohibited. Initially, the couple Nixon led a quiet and inconspicuous life in his Californian estate, and in 1980 moved to New York to be closer to children and grandchildren.

Personal life of Nixon

Richard Nixon had only one marriage. His wife - teacher Telmu Pat Ryan - he was very long and painfully sought. Persevering courtship brought fruits, and in 1940, a wedding took place. The couple gave life to two daughters.

Pat turned out to be a devoted wife. At the price of her own health, she pulled Nixon out of the abyss of insanity, into which he fell after a scandal and resignation. Tenderly nursing her husband, sitting over him day and night, Pat earned as a result of paralysis of the left side of the body. She died in 1993 from lung cancer. And her husband left on that light exactly 11 months later - on April 22, 1994.

Unfortunately, Richard Nixon, whose domestic and foreign policies were sufficiently effective, could not rehabilitate himself in the eyes of American society. Moreover, he cast a shadow on the very institution of the presidency and undermined the Americans' belief in the infallibility of the country's main person. But time passes, some generations are replaced by others, and much is gradually forgotten.