History UsefulNotes / RichardNixon

->“''I may not know much, but I know chicken sh*t from chicken salad…He’s like a Spanish horse, who runs faster than anyone for the first nine lengths and then turns around and run backwards. You’ll see – he’ll do something wrong in the end. He always does''”.
-->-- Lyndon Johnson as he prepared to turn over the White House to Nixon in 1969

* He appears in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', mostly set in 1973, portrayed by Mark Camacho. Oddly enough, this film offers one of Nixon's more sympathetic portrayals: He reluctantly authorizes the Sentinel program, [[spoiler:but eventually changes his mind after his life is saved by a mutant]].

->''"Being controversial in politics is inevitable. If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything. In the world today, there are not many good choices — only choices between the half-good and the less half-good."''
-->-- Quoted in an interview with the ''Chicago Tribune''; December 11, 1978

This would all set the stage for Nixon's actual first run for the White House, which came in 1960, making him the first incumbent vice-president to run for the top job in a century. This resulted in a surprise loss to UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, and while many blamed Nixon's defeat on a combination of bad luck and strategic errors -- particularly his poor performance in the first presidential debate (Nixon had suffered a bout of flu prior to the debate, and was still running a low fever during it, making him look rather pale and sweaty, which made him come across as nervous and uncomfortable -- Kennedy, on the other hand, had just returned home from a vacation, and as such had a healthy light tan and appeared energized and confident) [[note]]though the perception that he had performed poorly was made by people who ''watched'' the debate, which was the first to be televised; people who ''heard'' the debate on the radio actually felt he won[[/note]], and an AwesomeButImpractical attempt to campaign equally in all 50 states -- Nixon himself believed that the Kennedy family, along with Democratic running-mate UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and Chicago mayor Richard Daley, had all conspired to commit electoral fraud. While he certainly wasn't the only person to believe this,[[note]](In fact, many historians concur in retrospect that Daley almost certainly '''did''' engage in unethical, if not outright illegal actions in order to help Kennedy out, though it's debated as to whether or not this made the difference between Kennedy's winning or losing the state given that Kennedy was a Catholic, and thus would almost certainly have done well in Chicago anyway due to its high Catholic population. Regardless, evidence for Johnson rigging the result in Texas is far sketchier, and without that state, Nixon would have lost the election regardless of what happened in Illinois. For what it's worth, while Nixon thought Johnson had cheated, he also believed he'd have lost Texas regardless, due to a Republican congressman organizing a protest which ended up turning violent and resulted in Johnson's wife being assaulted)[[/note]] in retrospect it's often pointed to as his StartOfDarkness, with many close to him later saying it just made him more determined to win the White House than ever. Nixon was further humiliated in 1962, when he ran for Governor of California and lost in a landslide to popular incumbent Pat Brown (father of future California governor UsefulNotes/JerryBrown). He capped off his defeat with a long tirade [[NeverMyFault blaming the press for his defeat]], termed his "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon%27s_November_1962_press_conference Last Press Conference]]" (a term he ''actually used'' during said event) as everyone assumed that Nixon self-sabotaged his own career.

In foreign policy, Nixon worked with his National Security Adviser, UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger, to wind down UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, greatly reducing conscription (and abolishing it completely in 1973, making military service entirely voluntary) while turning over the defense of South Vietnam to their own forces in a process termed "Vietnamization". Although many of Nixon's tactics, such as increased bombing of North Vietnam and his 1970 invasion of Cambodia, were (and remain) extremely controversial, he was able to conclude American involvement in the war by the end of his first term.[[note]]It remains a point of considerable debate whether the Communist conquest of South Vietnam in 1975 would have happened had Nixon not been driven from office, though by that point Congress had severely limited the President's ability to with the War Powers Act anyway[[/note]] Most notable was Nixon's historic 1972 visit to China where he established US relations with Chairman UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's Communist regime for the first time. It earned widespread media coverage and coined the[[labelnote:*]]allegedly [[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry Vulcan]][[/labelnote]] phrase "only Nixon could go to China", to describe how a politician with an unassailable reputation on a certain cause can take action that would seem contrary to it without drawing criticism -- such as how Nixon could be trusted to visit and establish relations with Communist China given his unquestionable anti-Communist credentials[[note]]That might apply to American politics, but the firmly liberal Prime Minister of Canada, UsefulNotes/PierreTrudeau, defied his neighboring country's foreign policy and beat Nixon to it years earlier[[/note]]. The China visit had the side effect of reducing tensions with the Soviet Union, as Soviet Premier UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev was so shaken by the idea of the Chinese moving closer to America that it moved him to invite Nixon to Moscow to work out their differences. Together they agreed to two landmark arms control treaties, SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The two leaders emerged from their meeting to announce the treaties and a new shared foreign policy goal of peaceful coexistence between the two nations, an objective that became known as "détente". He is also remembered as the American President under which the CIA plotted to support the overthrow of the socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, by the Chilean military under general [[UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet Pinochet]], in the larger context of "Operation Condor", a political repression campaign organized by right-wing authoritarian regimes in South America with aid from the United States (and allegedly France) aimed at stopping [[RedScare "the spread" of socialism and communism]] in South American countries.

During his time as vice-president, Nixon avoided falling into VicePresidentWho, due to a combination of him turning out to know how to use the position to effectively assert influence, and Eisenhower personally entrusting him with a somewhat ununsual amount of responsibility in regards to both domestic and foreign policy; in fact, he was in hindsight the perhaps most influential US vice-president until UsefulNotes/DickCheney came along. Nixon would dutifully attend both Cabinet and National Security Council meetings and chaired them when Eisenhower was absent. However, when the Democrats took both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections of 1954, it caused a great crisis of faith in Nixon, who considered resigning once his term as vice-president was up. However, on September 24, 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution had not yet been proposed, so Nixon was instead asked by the cabinet to act as an unofficial interim president for six weeks, while Eisenhower recovered from his health scare. The event convinced Nixon to join Eisenhower's re-election campaign in 1956.

Despite his poor reputation today, Nixon had a very successful first term in office with many positive achievements. He continued to implement Johnson's policies of achieving racial integration in American society and oversaw the desegregation of schools. He oversaw the creation of the EPA and OSHA, the passage of the Clean Air Act and other policies aimed at preservation of the environment and natural resources, the Moon Landing (even though he cut funding for NASA almost immediately afterwards) and worked to reform the American health care system with a proposal that was eerily similar to UsefulNotes/BarackObama's Affordable Care Act, though only bits and pieces of it made it through Congress. In 1974, he signed into law an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act to raise wages and encompass more employees covered by the law. His administration also helped to advance women's rights, as he supported and oversaw the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment through Congress (even though it failed to achieve ratification after he left office) and oversaw the creation of social programs that expanded girls' athletics and skills training in schools. (Yes, the current US standard of girls having equal athletic and extracurricular programs as boys in in public schools is owed to Nixon.) He also oversaw the ratification of a constitutional amendment that lowered the voting age to 18. He signed the National Cancer Act of 1971, which was the first major national effort towards cancer eradication, generally considered to be the starting point of the War on Cancer. More controversially, he also launched the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnDrugs War on Drugs. He also implemented a number of sudden economic reforms that became known as the "Nixon shock", most notably ending the gold standard and turning the US dollar into a floating currency.

Despite his poor reputation today, Nixon had a very successful first term in office with many positive achievements. He continued to implement Johnson's policies of achieving racial integration in American society and oversaw the desegregation of schools. He oversaw the creation of the EPA and OSHA, the passage of the Clean Air Act and other policies aimed at preservation of the environment and natural resources, the Moon Landing (even though he cut funding for NASA almost immediately afterwards) and worked to reform the American health care system with a proposal that was eerily similar to UsefulNotes/BarackObama's Affordable Care Act, though only bits and pieces of it made it through Congress. In 1974, he signed into law an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act to raise wages and encompass more employees covered by the law. His administration also helped to advance women's rights, as he supported and oversaw the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment through Congress (even though it failed to achieve ratification after he left office) and oversaw the creation of social programs that expanded girls' athletics and skills training in schools. (Yes, the current US standard of girls having equal athletic and extracurricular programs as boys in in public schools is owed to Nixon.) He also oversaw the ratification of a constitutional amendment that lowered the voting age to 18. He signed the National Cancer Act of 1971, which was the first major national effort towards cancer eradication, generally considered to be the starting point of the War on Cancer. More controversially, he also launched the UsefulNotes/WarOnDrugs. He also implemented a number of sudden economic reforms that became known as the "Nixon shock", most notably ending the gold standard and turning the US dollar into a floating currency.

Despite his poor reputation today, Nixon had a very successful first term in office with many positive achievements. He continued to implement Johnson's policies of achieving racial integration in American society and oversaw the desegregation of schools. He oversaw the creation of the EPA and OSHA, the passage of the Clean Air Act and other policies aimed at preservation of the environment and natural resources, the Moon Landing (even though he cut funding for NASA almost immediately afterwards) and worked to reform the American health care system with a proposal that was eerily similar to UsefulNotes/BarackObama's Affordable Care Act, though only bits and pieces of it made it through Congress. In 1974, he signed into law an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act to raise wages and encompass more employees covered by the law. His administration also helped to advance women's rights, as he supported and oversaw the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment through Congress (even though it failed to achieve ratification after he left office) and oversaw the creation of social programs that expanded girls' athletics and skills training in schools. (Yes, the current US standard of girls having equal athletic and extracurricular programs as boys in in public schools is owed to Nixon.) He also oversaw the ratification of a constitutional amendment that lowered the voting age to 18. He signed the National Cancer Act of 1971, which was the first major national effort towards cancer eradication, generally considered to be the starting point of the War on Cancer. More controversially, he also launched the War on Drugs. He also implemented a number of sudden economic reforms that became known as the "Nixon shock", most notably ending the gold standard and turning the US dollar into a floating currency.

The trope RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman is named after him.

->''"When [the American people] look at you, they see who they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are."''
-->-- to a portrait of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, ''Film/{{Nixon}}''

* ''Film/TheTrialOfTheChicago7'' discusses Nixon's notorious decision to prosecute several antiwar leaders with conspiracy at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Nixon himself does not appear as a character, but his Attorney General John Mitchell (played by John Doman) makes clear to the prosecutors that neither he nor the President will accept anything less than a conviction of everyone in the case.

* ''Film/TheTrialOfTheChicagoSeven'' discusses Nixon's notorious decision to prosecute several antiwar leaders with conspiracy at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Nixon himself does not appear as a character, but his Attorney General John Mitchell (played by John Doman) makes clear to the prosecutors that neither he nor the President will accept anything less than a conviction of everyone in the case.

The investigation took a dramatic turn in the summer of 1973 as the [[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee Senate Watergate Committee]] held open hearings into the scandal, with numerous Nixon aides (notably [[HeelFaceTurn John Dean]], his former counsel) revealing presidential involvement in the cover-up. The committee learned from a seemingly minor witness, Alexander Butterfield, that there was a system in the White House that recorded Nixon's conversations.[[note]]While previous presidents had recorded some of their conversations, Nixon used a self-operating system that recorded ''every'' conversation in the White House, including ones that implicated him[[/note]] Pressure mounted on Nixon to turn the tapes over to Congress and Archibald Cox, but he refused on the grounds on executive privilege, offering to hand over redacted transcripts instead (and later offering to have them verified by longtime Senator John Stennis, who was both a Nixon supporter and partially deaf), which he said was necessary to prevent the exposure of sensitive info on national security. When Cox subpoenaed the White House for the tapes, Nixon moved to have him fired in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre", which also forced Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, to resign for refusing to fire Cox. Around the same time, Vice President UsefulNotes/SpiroAgnew [[FromBadToWorse resigned]] on unrelated charges of bribery and tax evasion, further eroding Nixon's credibility; Agnew was soon replaced by UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, the House Minority Leader. Ironically, Ford's appointment made Nixon's impeachment more likely, as Congress viewed him more favorably than the controversial Agnew.[[note]]Agnew, who was mostly known for colorfully insulting Nixon's political opponents, was called by many (including Nixon himself) as the President's "impeachment insurance", assuming Democrats would rather have the corrupt but competent Nixon as President than the corrupt ''and'' incompetent Agnew.[[/note]]

If you could write a Shakespearean tragedy about any United States president, none would be a more viable candidate than him. One of the least popular presidents -- if not ''the'' least popular -- among the general public today,[[note]]He ''was'' reelected with over 60% of the vote, carrying 49 states, but after his downfall few people would admit to having voted for him in 1972, and the only president who seems to rival him in terms of unpopularity is UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, notorious for his apathy towards the escalating tensions in America during his tenure that led to the Civil War[[/note]] Nixon is [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] for his role in the [[{{Scandalgate}} Watergate scandal]], which eventually led to his becoming the only president thus far to resign from the office.

While Nixon ''governed'' as a moderate, New Deal-era conservative, his ''rhetoric'' was a different matter entirely. Historians often look to Nixon as a progenitor of the "conservative revolution" that kicked off under UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in TheEighties, largely by spurring a realignment of American politics in response to the changes of TheSixties. He [[TropeNamers popularized]] the term "SilentMajority" to describe the great mass of Americans who, even if they may have disagreed with the war in Vietnam, weren't out in the streets protesting, and certainly weren't into all the drugs, sex, and other junk coming out of the [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippie movement]]. His personal grudge against the press, whom he blamed for his past political failures, helped mainstream accusations of "media bias" which remain commonplace in American politics. Needless to say, Nixon became the eternal enemy of the era's counterculture, perhaps best personified by Creator/HunterSThompson, who declared Nixon his ArchEnemy, along with more mainstream liberals already suspicious of him. His "Southern strategy" is often credited with cleaving away two key Democratic constituencies, white Southerners and white working-class Northerners, by appealing to their right-wing social views.

Playing to patriotism, religious conservatism, and backlash against the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, Nixon framed the Democrats of the era as the party of [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal "acid, amnesty, and abortion"]] -- riddled with the worst excesses of the counterculture that was happy to welcome [[DraftDodging draft-dodgers]] back in with open arms (the "amnesty" part) and force shocking new social mores on the rest of the country (the [[DrugsAreBad "acid"]] and [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion "abortion"]]), versus a Republican Party that stood for [[GoodOldWays the flag, faith, and family values]]. Nixon dreamed of a massive realignment of the political system, creating [[TakeAThirdOption a new party consisting of the conservative elements of both parties]] (he had as little use for "liberal Republicans" like UsefulNotes/NelsonRockefeller as he did Democrats), though in practice this never happened. He parlayed his longtime suspicion of the "Eastern Establishment" into a [[SlobsVersusSnobs populist anti-elitism]], emphasizing that he wasn't part of the upper crust that went to UsefulNotes/IvyLeague schools[[note]]He turned down a tuition grant from Harvard, instead going to Whittier College near his house so he could care for his sick father[[/note]], but was rather a WorkingClassHero raised on a ranch.

In foreign policy, Nixon worked with his National Security Adviser, UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger, to wind down UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, greatly reducing conscription (and abolishing it completely in 1973, making military service entirely voluntary) while turning over the defense of South Vietnam to their own forces in a process termed "Vietnamization". Although many of Nixon's tactics, such as increased bombing of North Vietnam and his 1970 invasion of Cambodia, were (and remain) extremely controversial, he was able to conclude American involvement in the war by the end of his first term.[[note]]It remains a point of considerable debate whether the Communist conquest of South Vietnam in 1975 would have happened had Nixon not been driven from office, though by that point Congress had severely limited the President's ability to with the War Powers Act anyway[[/note]] Most notable was Nixon's historic 1972 visit to China where he established US relations with Chairman UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's Communist regime for the first time. It earned widespread media coverage and coined the[[labelnote:*]]allegedly [[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry Vulcan]][[/labelnote]]phrase "only Nixon could go to China", to describe how a politician with an unassailable reputation on a certain cause can take action that would seem contrary to it without drawing criticism -- such as how Nixon could be trusted to visit and establish relations with Communist China given his unquestionable anti-Communist credentials[[note]]That might apply to American politics, but the firmly liberal Prime Minister of Canada, UsefulNotes/PierreTrudeau, defied his neighboring country's foreign policy and beat Nixon to it years earlier[[/note]]. The China visit had the side effect of reducing tensions with the Soviet Union, as Soviet Premier UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev was so shaken by the idea of the Chinese moving closer to America that it moved him to invite Nixon to Moscow to work out their differences. Together they agreed to two landmark arms control treaties, SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The two leaders emerged from their meeting to announce the treaties and a new shared foreign policy goal of peaceful coexistence between the two nations, an objective that became known as "détente". He is also remembered as the American President under which the CIA plotted to support the overthrow of the socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, by the Chilean military under general [[UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet Pinochet]], in the larger context of "Operation Condor", a political repression campaign organized by right-wing authoritarian regimes in South America with aid from the United States (and allegedly France) aimed at stopping [[RedScare "the spread" of socialism and communism]] in South American countries.

In foreign policy, Nixon worked with his National Security Adviser, UsefulNotes/HenryKissinger, to wind down UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, greatly reducing conscription (and abolishing it completely in 1973, making military service entirely voluntary) while turning over the defense of South Vietnam to their own forces in a process termed "Vietnamization". Although many of Nixon's tactics, such as increased bombing of North Vietnam and his 1970 invasion of Cambodia, were (and remain) extremely controversial, he was able to conclude American involvement in the war by the end of his first term.[[note]]It remains a point of considerable debate whether the Communist conquest of South Vietnam in 1975 would have happened had Nixon not been driven from office, though by that point Congress had severely limited the President's ability to with the War Powers Act anyway[[/note]] Most notable was Nixon's historic 1972 visit to China where he established US relations with Chairman UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's Communist regime for the first time. It earned widespread media coverage and coined the phrase "only Nixon could go to China", to describe how a politician with an unassailable reputation on a certain cause can take action that would seem contrary to it without drawing criticism -- such as how Nixon could be trusted to visit and establish relations with Communist China given his unquestionable anti-Communist credentials[[note]]That might apply to American politics, but the firmly liberal Prime Minister of Canada, UsefulNotes/PierreTrudeau, defied his neighboring country's foreign policy and beat Nixon to it years earlier[[/note]]. The China visit had the side effect of reducing tensions with the Soviet Union, as Soviet Premier UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev was so shaken by the idea of the Chinese moving closer to America that it moved him to invite Nixon to Moscow to work out their differences. Together they agreed to two landmark arms control treaties, SALT I and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The two leaders emerged from their meeting to announce the treaties and a new shared foreign policy goal of peaceful coexistence between the two nations, an objective that became known as "détente". He is also remembered as the American President under which the CIA plotted to support the overthrow of the socialist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, by the Chilean military under general [[UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet Pinochet]], in the larger context of "Operation Condor", a political repression campaign organized by right-wing authoritarian regimes in South America with aid from the United States (and allegedly France) aimed at stopping [[RedScare "the spread" of socialism and communism]] in South American countries.

The investigation took a dramatic turn in the summer of 1973 as the [[HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee Senate Watergate Committee]] held televised public hearings into the scandal, with numerous Nixon aides (notably [[HeelFaceTurn John Dean]], his former counsel) detailed presidential involvement in the cover-up. The committee learned from a seemingly minor witness, Alexander Butterfield, that there was a system in the White House that recorded Nixon's conversations.[[note]]While previous presidents had recorded some of their conversations, Nixon used a self-operating system that recorded ''every'' conversation in the White House, including ones that implicated him[[/note]] Pressure mounted on Nixon to turn the tapes over to Congress and Archibald Cox, but he refused on the grounds on executive privilege, offering to hand over redacted transcripts instead (and later offering to have them verified by longtime Senator John Stennis, who was both a Nixon supporter and partially deaf), which he said was necessary to prevent the exposure of sensitive info regarding national security. When Cox subpoenaed the White House for the tapes, Nixon moved to have him fired in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre", which also forced Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, to resign for refusing to fire Cox. Around the same time, Vice President UsefulNotes/SpiroAgnew [[FromBadToWorse resigned]] on unrelated charges of bribery and tax evasion, further eroding Nixon's credibility; Agnew was soon replaced by UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, the House Minority Leader. Ironically, Ford's appointment made Nixon's impeachment more likely, as Congress viewed him more favorably than the controversial Agnew.[[note]]Agnew, who was mostly known for colorfully insulting Nixon's political opponents, was called by many (including Nixon himself) as the President's "impeachment insurance", assuming Democrats would rather have the corrupt but competent Nixon as President than the corrupt ''and'' incompetent Agnew.[[/note]]

A major facet of Nixon's legacy is his endurance as the face of political corruption in America, as the Watergate scandal and his numerous abuses of power it revealed continue to [[OvershadowedByControversy outweigh any and all of his administration's positive achievements in the public consciousness]]. Successor UsefulNotes/GeraldFord's pardon of him generated widespread outrage and while Nixon again achieved good things as an elder statesman in TheEighties, such as his role in arranging the historic [[UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev Gorbachev]]-[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] talks (accompanied by this [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dwprnp62YFs/Uo5Q93C__FI/AAAAAAAAd8Y/ym3Rhc0JhAI/s1600/IMG_6759.JPG famous cover of a 1986 issue of Newsweek]] declaring "He's Back"), he never managed to shake off the legacy of Watergate. He has continued to serve as the prototype for a corrupt President in popular culture with the term "Nixonian" being been coined to describe behavior and abuses of power by politicians that are reminiscent of his. Likewise, virtually every major scandal in the Anglosphere (political or otherwise) will eventually be referred to with the suffix "-gate" as part of the snowclone {{Scandalgate}}, in reference to the Watergate scandal. Whenever a President is caught up in a scandal, comparisons to Nixon are almost mandatory. This was particularly the case when he served as the linchpin of the national debate over the impeachment of his friend UsefulNotes/BillClinton in 1998: Allies argued that his misdeeds were petty when compared to Nixon's while opponents argued that Clinton was undermining the rule of law in a manner just as severe as Nixon's. UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's numerous scandals and his two impeachments have brought Nixon once again at the forefront with many stating that Trump makes Nixon look tame.

Richard Nixon was born into the hardscrabble environment of a poor household in the Quaker colony of Whittier, Los Angeles County, UsefulNotes/{{California}}, in what was then the vast rural hinterland of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. The son of lemon farmers Hannah and Francis Nixon, he was the second youngest of a group of five brothers. Nixon's early years were marked by hardship and poverty; one of his brothers, Arthur, would die at the age of 7, while another, Harold, passed away from tuberculosis in his early twenties. Nixon would eventually work his way up through the education system, where he managed to distinguish himself by earning a bachelor's degree in history from Whittier College in 1934 and a law degree from Duke University in 1937.

[[caption-width-right:322:''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem "Well, when the President does it, that means that it is NOT illegal."]]'']]

* The film ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen'' tells the story of the reporters, Carl Bernstein (Creator/DustinHoffman) and Bob Woodward (Creator/RobertRedford), who uncovered the Watergate scandal. It was based on a non-fiction book of the same name written by the actual reporters.

* Nixon appears in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' two-parter "The Impossible Astronaut" / "Day of the Moon" as a hard, paranoid man being followed by the voice of a CreepyChild. He enlists the Doctor and Canton to help him. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Despite his flaws being in full view for the episodes he actually comes off rather well due to how readily he helps the Doctor (said help being crucial in the Doctor's efforts against the Silence) and shows some genuine concern for the mysterious child calling him for help.]] Something especially notable given how universal his vilification and pillorying is in other media. Of course, it happened early in his presidency, and it turns out that some of his habits -- paranoia and taping everything he did -- may have been [[ProperlyParanoid prompted or encouraged by their encounter]].
** The Doctor pretty clearly hold disdain for him and mocks him about how his presidency will end. "Say hello to David Frost for me." The production team basically said that, given the Doctor's tendency to meet some of the greatest figures of history in the new series, they thought it'd be fun to have him bump into, in their words, "one of the rubbish ones."
** The episode also depicts Nixon as being accepting of interracial marriage (or at least, willing to be flexible about it), even [[PetTheDog offering to clear things]] on Canton's behalf to get him reinstated with the FBI, who fired him because of it. And after a stunned moment, he politely - if stiffly - lets Canton know where he's drawing the line when Canton explains that he actually wants to marry a black ''man'', before averting his face with an expression of mild horror.
--->'''Nixon:''' I think the moon is far enough for now, don't you, Mr Delaware?

* An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOQUnvI3CA&ab_channel=kiyoshi2 extended version]] of Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood's "Two Tribes" is introduced with a cut-up of Nixon's 1960 presidential address.
* Music/CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung's protest song "Ohio" explicitly blames Nixon for the Kent State shootings in May 1970.

If you could write a Shakespearean tragedy about any United States president, none would be a more viable candidate than him. One of the least popular presidents--if not ''the'' least popular--among the general public today,[[note]]He ''was'' reelected with over 60% of the vote, carrying 49 states, but after his downfall few people would admit to having voted for him in 1972, and the only president who seems to rival him in terms of unpopularity is UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, notorious for his apathy towards the escalating tensions in America during his tenure that led to the Civil War[[/note]] Nixon is [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] for his role in the [[{{Scandalgate}} Watergate scandal]], which eventually led to his becoming the only president thus far to resign from the office.

-->-- To a portrait of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, ''Film/{{Nixon}}''

If you could write a Shakespearean tragedy about any United States president, none would be a more viable candidate than him. One of the least popular Presidents--if not ''the'' least popular--among the general public today,[[note]]He ''was'' reelected with over 60% of the vote, carrying 49 states, but after his downfall few people would admit to having voted for him in 1972, and the only president who seems to rival him in terms of unpopularity is UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, notorious for his apathy towards the escalating tensions in America during his tenure that led to the Civil War[[/note]] Nixon is [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] for his role in the [[{{Scandalgate}} Watergate scandal]], which eventually led to his becoming the only President thus far to resign from the office.

Richard Nixon was born into the hardscrabble environment of a poor household in the Quaker colony of Whittier, Los Angeles County, UsefulNotes/{{California}}, in what was then the vast rural hinterland of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. The son of lemon farmers Hannah and Francis Nixon, he was the second youngest of a group of five brothers. Nixon's early years were marked by hardship and poverty; one of his brothers, Arthur, would die at the age of 7, while another, Harold, passed away from tuberculosis in his early twenties. Nixon would eventually work his way up through the education system, where he managed to distinguish himself, earning a bachelor's degree in history from Whittier College in 1934 and a law degree from Duke University in 1937.

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/richard_nixon_portrait.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem "Well, when the President does it, that means that it is NOT illegal."]]'']]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/richard_nixon_portrait.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem "Well, when the President does it, that means that it is NOT illegal."]]'']]

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, [[TheSeventies from 1969 to 1974]]. The 14th President from the Republican Party, he served between UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson and UsefulNotes/GeraldFord. Prior to that he was the Vice President under President UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower from [[TheFifties 1953–61]].

If you could write a Shakespearean tragedy about any United States president, none would be a more viable candidate than him. One of the least popular Presidents--if not ''the'' least popular--among the general public today,[[note]]He ''was'' reelected with over 60% of the vote, carrying 49 states, but after his downfall few people would admit to having voted for him in 1972, and the only president who seems to rival him in terms of unpopularity is UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, notorious for his apathy towards the escalating tensions in America during his tenure that led to the Civil War[[/note]] he is [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] for his role in the [[{{Scandalgate}} Watergate scandal]] which led to his resignation. Nixon remains the only President so far to resign from the office.

Nixon was born into a poor household in the Quaker colony of Whittier, Los Angeles County, UsefulNotes/{{California}}, in what was then the vast rural hinterland of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. The son of lemon farmers Hannah and Francis Nixon, he was the second youngest of a group of five brothers. Nixon's early years was marked by hardship and poverty; one of his brothers, Arthur, would die at the age of 7, while another, Harold, passed away from tuberculosis in his early twenties. Nixon would eventually work his way through the education system, where he managed to distinguish himself, earning a bachelor's degree in history from Whittier College in 1934 and a law degree from Duke University in 1937.

While he originally planned to use his law degree to join the FBI, Nixon would instead drift into working as a practicing attorney. In 1938, while a part of a community theater play, he met the high school school teacher Thelma "Pat" Ryan. Though reluctant at first, Pat eventually agreed to date him, and they eventually married in 1940. When World War II broke out, Nixon, setting aside his birthright as a Quaker which exempted him from the draft, sought a commission in the US Navy. His application was successful, and he was appointed a lieutenant junior grade in the United States Naval Reserve on June 15, 1942. He would continue to serve in active duty until 1946.

Nixon's political career began in earnest in 1947, when local Republicans in California's 12th congressional district asked him to head their challenge against the Democratic incumbent Jerry Voorhis. Nixon, who had already participated in school politics in his youth, found the prospect exciting and accepted the nomination. In a bit of foreshadowing of his future career in politics would turn out, Nixon's campaign was mainly rooted in attacking Voorhis for vague second-hand connections to communist organisations and insinuating that he held radical views. Nixon eventually defeated Voorhis with about 15,000 votes in his favor.

** Nixon was evidently a BerserkButton for Roth as many of his works reference him, or even discuss him at length, inevitably in a highly disparaging light. ''Literature/AmericanPastoral'' includes several scenes where the protagonists discuss the Watergate scandal, and Roth devotes a large section of ''I Married a Communist'' to an AuthorFilibuster about Nixon's funeral and his harmful impact on American politics.

Nixon's equally popular for fictional portrayals. One can even make the case that he and his Presidency is the most frequently depicted in popular culture as HistoricalDomainCharacter, far more than any office-holder other than Lincoln. One reason for this is that his presidency coincided with the politically charged period of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood, where films like ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen'' that were released during Watergate and in its aftermath cemented him in popular memory before the setting-in of the halo that earlier scandal-plagued presidents underwent. This ensured that film critical of Nixon established itself as a market for Hollywood. Ironic, since Nixon -- a Southern California native (indeed, he was the first person born on the West Coast to be President)[[note]]The only other one is UsefulNotes/BarackObama, born in Hawaii. The two other Presidents who had California as their home state were born in the Midwest (UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover was born in Iowa; UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan was born in Illinois).[[/note]] -- was [[TheMovieBuff a huge movie buff]] and [[http://articles.latimes.com/2003/aug/17/entertainment/ca-dargis17 indeed provided tax cuts]] to the motion picture industry during the same period, whcih helped create the very conditions for this politically charged era of film history. While Nixon's unique appearance and idiosyncrasies make him such an appealing subject for caricature, it also makes it hard to find an actor who actually resembles him, at least by conventional standards of leading men.