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Report by: Mike
5th Grade
Bennion Elementary
Taylorsville, Utah
Mrs. Hansen
Mike
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 Introduction:
Frank Nixon walked
from town to town doing odd jobs such as painting railroad cars,
sheering sheep and installing hand crank telephones. One winter
in Ohio Frank got bad frost bite. So he moved to the warm climate
of Southern California, where he'd meet Hannah Millhous. In June
1908 Frank and Hannah married. This marriage would bring a very
special boy.
In the year 1913 on the third
day of January a small boy was born, in a small WHITE HOUSE.
His parents Frank and Hannah named him Richard Millhous Nixon
When he was young, his grandmother
said he would grow up to be a lawyer or a preacher, because of
his LOUD RINGING VOICE.
When Richard was three he was
in a horse drawn buggy. He was refusing to sit down. When the
buggy went around a turn he toppled out of the buggy. One of
the wagon wheels brushed past his head leaving a deep cut. Richard
was rushed to the nearest hospital, miles away. Where the doctor
stitched his scalp back together.
Richard was a serious child, By
age six instead of reading comics in the paper, he was reading
and discussing current events with his father.
Richard was shy but he loved to
perform in front of an audience. He also showed a talent for
music. By age seven he was taking piano and violin lessons.
The Nixons had five sons Harold
in 1909, Richard in 1913, Donald in 1914, Arthur in 1918 and
Edward in 1930.
In 1922 Frank Nixon sold the house
and moved to Whittier California. The family had previously lived
in Whittier before moving to Yorba Linda, California. Whittier
was a small town with few roads and cars, but Frank saw the need
for a Gas Station. When the gas station was open the family worked
hard. Richard was also a hard worker at school. Richard was a
good debater. By eighth grade Richard was a champion debater.
When Richard was 12 his brother
Arthur got sick he would not eat, a couple months later Arthur
died.
In 1926 Richard entered into a
near by school in town called Fullerton. He had lots more work
to do. With sports to play, the store, school work, and church
he almost never slept.
Richard's challenges got harder.
Richard's brother Harold caught a disease called tuberculosis.
At the time people thought that dry climates would help. So Frank,
Hannah and Harold moved to a place called Prescott in the dry
Arizona Mountains. Richard spent the summers of 1928 and 1929
helping Hannah with Harold.
In 1928 a school bus service began
taking people to Whittier High School. Richard had transferred
there from Fullerton. Back in junior high he decided to study
and become a politition. In 1929 Richard won an award called
the Kiwanis Club award on his favorite subject the U.S. Constitution.
In Richard's senior year he won
the Harvard's Club of California's award for best all around
student. He got a scholarship to Harvard with it! (Harvard was
a very expensive university in the east.) One month before Richard
graduated from high school Richard's mother Hannah gave birth
to their fifth son Edward.
The Scholarship Richard had received
help pay for Harvard, but it still was to expensive so Richard
said "No" to it.
In 1930 Richard entered Whittier
College.
Richard's brother Harold died
of Tuberculosis in March 1933. This was a terrible blow to Richard.
In 1934 Richard graduated from
Whittier College second in his class.
After Graduating from Whittier
Richard entered Duke University wanting a scholarship from there.
Whittier College wrote to Duke saying we think Richard might
become a famous leader. Duke awarded Richard THE FUTURE PRESIDENT
AWARD and a scholarship. In1937 Richard graduated from Duke third
in his class!
One day Richard met a girl trying
out for a movie part . Before they had even dated Richard told
Thelma Pat Ryan, "Someday I'm going to marry you."
At age 27 in Riverside California, Richard and Pat were married.
In 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
In 1942 Richard decided to train for sea duty in World War II.
He was sent to sea to send supplies to wounded solders. By 1944
the war had calmed down. Richard went back to the USA and got
an award for saving the navy millions of dollars. By 1945 the
war had ended.
In September 1945 Richard's friend
Herman Perry called to see if Richard wanted to try out for the
candidate for congress. A committee of 100 Republicans were going
to interview several candidates. Nixon called Perry saying YES.
On November 2 Richard and some other candidates had a brief speech
in front of the committee of 100. Richard was concerned about
less government control and more individual freedom. He also
stated he could beat Jerry Vorhis, Nixon's opponent. On the morning
of November ninth Richard got a call from Perry saying he had
been chosen. Nixon started his campaign right away.
During Nixon's campaign Richard
and Pats first child was born! Her name was Tricia Nixon
During Nixon debates Nixon would
get Vorhis confused. On election day nobody knew who had won.
No polls had been taken during the campaign. Not until the next
day did people know who had won. Richard won 65,586 votes to
49,994. Richard was victorious. On January third Nixon was sworn
in as a member of the United States Congress. Nixon was also
assigned a member of the House of Un-American comittee. In spite
of Richard's great reelections he could no longer play the leading
role in the Un-American committee.
On July 1948 Nixons second child,
Julie was born.
Richard started looking forward
to the 1950 elections. Many Californians thought Nixon should
run for senate, Richard agreed. Richard knew more Democrats were
registered in California, but Nixon promised he would give a
hard Campaign. His opponent would be Helen G. Douglas, wife of
the movie star Melven Douglas. In the November elections, Richard
won by a margin of 680, 000, That was the biggest win of any
Senate that year. Richard was reelected twice for a two year
term in the house of Representatives then a six year term, he
only served two of those six years.
In the presidential elections
of 1952 as General Eisenhower's running mate Richard was brought
into the second Highest office in the land. (Vice President.)
In Richards Vice President he visited Asia on his first trip!
In 1954 when Vietnam divided into
two parts the Vietnam war started.
Richard almost became President
on September 25, 1955 when Eisenhower suffered a HEART ATTACK.
For two months Richard would play the role a President while
Eisenhower recovered.
In 1956 Eisenhower and Richard
ran again. But Richards father Frank did not see him reelected
he died during the campaign.
In 1957 Eisenhower suffered a
stroke, one of Richard's chief staff members said "you might
be President in 24 hours." But Eisenhower came back to the
White House. Eisenhower said if anymore accidents occurred he
would become president.
In 1958 Nixon was asked to go
to South America. After visiting a couple places Nixon ended
up having sticks stones and other objects thrown at him, so he
ended up going back to the U.S.A.
In July Nixon visited Moscow,
he and Russia's leader Krushekev had a great time.
In 1960 Richard ran for President
but lost to Kennedy.
In 1962 Richard ran for Governor
of California, but lost.
On June fifth 1968 when Robert
Kennedy was nominated for the Democratic candidate for President,
he was shot and killed by an assassin that night. So Lyndon B.
Johnson's Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, was nominated Democratic
candidate for President. Richard Nixon was nominated Republican
candidate for President. Richard's mom never saw him President,
she died the year before. On election day, polls showed Nixon
and Humphrey running neck and neck, but Nixon pulled off the
victory.
In 1968 Richards daughter, Julie, married Dwight D. Eisenhower
the second. Eisenhower II was Dwight Eisenhower grandson.
During Nixons first term he cut
taxes and the military draft was cut. Nixon also made progress
in the area of civil rights.
Ever since China had been taken
over by the Communists, the U.S. had no relations with China.
In 1972 Nixon took a trip to China for a week. He met with the
leader of China, they had a great time. Some people said it was
a week that changed the world, by bringing two powerful, but
different leaders together.
In 1971 Nixons daughter, Tricia,
was married to Edward Cox.
In 1972 Richards family visited
Russia again. Right now Russia was building lots of nuclear missiles.
USA urged Nixon to make more missiles, but Nixon disagreed and
Russias leader Brezhnev signed a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
known as the SALT agreement. On June thirteenth, 1971, the New
York Times ran a story saying that Nixon and the Pentagon had
not told Congress the truth about the Vietnam war. Someone on
Richards staff kept on leaking information to the media, The
leaks were damaging the USA's relations with other countries.
So Nixon set up hidden microphones all over the White House,
to see who was leaking the information. These tapes would contribute
to Nixon's downfall, which would be known as the Watergate affair.
In 1972 Nixon was nominated to
be the Republican candidate for president by a vote of 1347 to
1.
In the summer of 1972, 5 men were
arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters
in Washingtons Watergate hotel. They were trying to plant listening
devices. One of the men worked for Nixons re-election committee.
The FBI cleared those at the White House from involvement in
Watergate. But newspapers were saying otherwise.
Nixon was re-elected in 1973.
Nixon tried to negotiate a peace treaty with North Vietnam, but
the peace talks bogged down. 3 days after Nixon's inauguration,
the cease fire in Vietnam was announced. Nixon withdrew all the
American troops. North and South Vietnam continued to fight until
South Vietnam surrendered in1975. By siding with South Vietnam,
the United States lost their first war.
In March of 1973, the Democrats
voted to begin an investigation of the 1972 Republican campaign
and the Watergate break in. Gradually Nixon found out how involved
some of his aides had been in the Watergate break in and wrong
doing in the 72 campaign. Nixon hid facts from the investigation,
to protect himself and his aides. As the investigation continued,
Richard and his staff were attacked by the media. Many of his
accomplishments had been overshadowed by the investigation findings.
Talks of impeachment were beginning to be heard.
Nixon's vice-president, Spiro
Agnew, was being accused of taking bribes and not paying full
income taxes. On October 10th,1973, Spiro Agnew resigned. Two
days later, Gerald R. Ford, was nominated as vice-president.
That month, Egypt and Syria attacked
Israel. Nixon involved our forces in this fight. After a cease
fire was signed, Nixon worked hard to bring peace to these countries.
The charges, against Nixon and
his staff continued. Nixon looked worse and worse even though
some of the charges were not true.
Nixon made some successful trips
to the Middle East, where he met with the leaders that had fought
in the war with Israel. He also made another trip to Russia.
Nixon knew he could no longer
stand the charges against him. He resigned from office on August
9th, 1974. He was the first and only President to do so.
In September, 1974 , President
Gerald Ford (Nixon's vice-president) granted Nixon a full pardon.
The next month Nixon got sick and almost died. He recovered and
did further writings about his life,and world affairs.
In the following years the Nixons
lived in San Clemente, California and Saddle River, New Jersey
were Richard Nixon continued to write his memoirs.
Richard Nixon died of a stroke
in 1994, at age 81.
Closing
In closing, after
moving to Saddle River a reporter asked Nixon how he'd think
he'd be rated in the future Nixon replied "If it wasn't
for Watergate I think I would be rated rather high, but it depends
on who is doing the rating." I also think he made peace
with other countries like China.
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