1913- . 37th president of the USA 1969-74, a
Republican. He attracted attention as a
member of the Un-American Activities
Committee 1948, and was vice president to
Eisenhower 1953-61. As president he was
responsible for US withdrawal from Vietnam,
and forged new links with China, but at home
his culpability in the cover-up of the
Watergate scandal and the existence of a
`slush fund' for political machinations
during his re-election campaign 1972 led to
his resignation 1974 after being threatened
with impeachment. Of Quaker family, Nixon
grew up in Whittier, California; he became a
lawyer, entered Congress in 1947, and in
1948, as a member of the Un-American
Activities Committee, pressed for the
investigation of Alger Hiss, accused of being
a spy. Nixon was senator for California from
1951 until elected vice president. He lost
the presidential election 1960 to J F
Kennedy, partly because televised electoral
debates put him at a disadvantage. He did not
seek presidential nomination in 1964, but in
a `law and order' campaign defeated
Vice-President Humphrey 1968 in one of the
most closely contested elections in US
history. In 1969 he formulated the Nixon
Doctrine abandoning close involvement with
Asian countries, but escalated the war in
Cambodia by massive bombing. Re-elected 1972
in a landslide victory over George McGovern,
he resigned 1974, the first US president to
do so, under threat of impeachment on three
counts: obstruction of the administration of
justice in the investigation of Watergate;
violation of constitutional rights of
citizens, for example attempting to use the
Internal Revenue Service, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and Central Intelligence
Agency as weapons against political
opponents; and failure to produce `papers and
things' as ordered by the Judiciary
Committee. He was granted a pardon 1974 by
President Ford.