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150-614: Government Executive 's first issue, published in March 1969, featured a formal portrait of Richard Nixon and the headline: "What Government Can Expect from President Nixon". In 1987, the magazine was acquired by the National Journal Group, which was acquired a decade later by David G. Bradley , a businessman. In 1999, Bradley bought The Atlantic Monthly magazine and renamed his company Atlantic Media . In 2007, Government Executive 's information technology reporting

300-449: A Bryn Mawr graduate and grade school teacher. Priscilla, previously married to Thayer Hobson , had a three-year-old son, Timothy Hobson (September 19, 1926 – January 8, 2018). Hiss and Priscilla had a son, Tony Hiss. The couple separated in 1959 after 30 years of marriage, five years after his incarceration. In the 1960s, Hiss was introduced to Isabel (Dowden) Johnson, a model, freelance writer, and editor. Though Hiss asked Priscilla for

450-580: A Roman Catholic priest who had infiltrated labor unions in Baltimore during World War II to report on communist activities and had been given access to FBI files. Writing in a paper titled "The Problem of American Communism In 1945," Cronin wrote, "In the State Department, the most influential Communist has been Alger Hiss." With some reluctance, the Committee voted to make Nixon chair of

600-432: A brokered convention . Nixon secured the nomination on the first ballot. He was able to secure the nomination to the support of many Southern delegates, after he and his subordinates made concessions to Strom Thurmond and Harry Dent . He selected Maryland governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate, a choice which Nixon believed would unite the party, appealing both to Northern moderates and to Southerners disaffected with

750-399: A senior partner in the leading law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander . When announcing his California campaign, Nixon had pledged not to run for president in 1964; even if he had not, he believed it would be difficult to defeat Kennedy, or after his assassination , Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson. In 1964, Nixon won write-in votes in the primaries , and was considered

900-413: A "respectable Republican cloth coat". The speech was remembered for the gift which Nixon had received, but which he would not give back, which he described as "a little cocker spaniel dog   ...sent all the way from Texas. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers." The speech prompted a huge public outpouring of support for Nixon. Eisenhower decided to retain him on the ticket, and

1050-508: A 1960 presidential run. Nixon believed this would destroy his political career. When Eisenhower announced his reelection bid in February 1956, he hedged on the choice of his running mate, saying it was improper to address that question until he had been renominated. Although no Republican was opposing Eisenhower, Nixon received a substantial number of write-in votes against the president in the 1956 New Hampshire primary election. In late April,

1200-724: A 26-year-old Ukrainian whose three-year tour as a cipher clerk stationed at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa was coming to an end, defected from the Soviet Union and remained in Canada. In exchange for asylum, Gouzenko offered to Canadian authorities evidence about a Soviet espionage network actively working to acquire information about nuclear weapons, along with information that an unnamed assistant (or more precisely an "assistant to an assistant") to US Secretary of State Stettinius

1350-568: A bestselling book, Six Crises , which included coverage of the Hiss case, Eisenhower's heart attack, and the Fund Crisis, which had been resolved by the Checkers speech. Local and national Republican leaders encouraged Nixon to challenge incumbent Pat Brown for governor of California in the 1962 gubernatorial election. Despite initial reluctance, Nixon entered the race. The campaign

1500-584: A cessation of bombings. On October 22, 1968, candidate Nixon received information that Johnson was preparing a so-called " October surprise ", abandoning three non-negotiable conditions for a bombing halt, to help elect Humphrey in the last days of the campaign. Whether the Nixon campaign interfered with negotiations between the Johnson administration and the South Vietnamese by engaging Anna Chennault ,

1650-457: A college campus, where he fielded questions from students on U.S. foreign policy. The trip was uneventful until the Nixon party reached Lima , Peru, where he was met with student demonstrations. Nixon went to the historical campus of National University of San Marcos , the oldest university in the Americas, got out of his car to confront the students, and stayed until forced back into the car by

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1800-483: A communist or having personally met Chambers. Under fire from President Truman and the press, the Committee was reluctant to proceed with its investigation against so eminent a man. Congressman Richard Nixon, who later described Hiss's demeanor that day as, "insolent," "condescending," and "insulting in the extreme," wanted to press on. Nixon had received secret information about the FBI's suspicions from John Francis Cronin ,

1950-447: A consensus candidate who would run a strong campaign against him. In 1945, they formed a "Committee of 100" to decide on a candidate, hoping to avoid internal dissensions which had led to previous Voorhis victories. After the committee failed to attract higher-profile candidates, Herman Perry, manager of Whittier's Bank of America branch, suggested Nixon, a family friend with whom he had served on Whittier College's board of trustees before

2100-502: A conversational tone as much as possible. At the start of his junior year in September 1928, Nixon's parents permitted him to transfer to Whittier High School. At Whittier, Nixon lost a bid for student body president—his first electoral defeat. He often rose at 4 a.m. to drive the family truck to Los Angeles to purchase vegetables at the market and then drove to the store to wash and display them before going to school. Harold

2250-403: A crucial point. Infiltration and invisible political influence were immoral, but arguably not illegal. Espionage was treason, traditionally punishable by death. The distinction was not lost on the cleverest member of HUAC, Congressman Richard Nixon .... He had been studying the FBI's files for five months, courtesy of J. Edgar Hoover . Nixon launched his political career in hot pursuit of Hiss and

2400-497: A debilitating stroke , and died four days later . Rankings of his time in office have proven complex, with the successes of his presidency contrasted against the circumstances of both his ascension and his departure from office. Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, in what was then the township precinct of Yorba Linda, California , in a house built by his father, on his family's lemon ranch. His parents were Francis A. Nixon and Hannah (Milhous) Nixon . His mother

2550-725: A deferral due to his government service, Nixon nevertheless sought a commission in the Navy. His application was approved, and he was appointed a lieutenant junior grade in the United States Naval Reserve on June 15, 1942. In October 1942, he was given his first assignment as aide to the commander of the Naval Air Station Ottumwa in Wapello County, Iowa , until May 1943. Seeking more excitement, he requested sea duty; on July 2, 1943, he

2700-433: A divisive figure to some. Televised presidential debates made their debut as a political medium during the campaign. In the first of four such debates, Nixon appeared pale, with a five o'clock shadow , in contrast to the photogenic Kennedy. Nixon's performance in the debate was perceived to be mediocre in the visual medium of television, though many people listening on the radio thought Nixon had won. Nixon narrowly lost

2850-666: A divorce so they could marry, she did not grant him one. Johnson had a previous relationship with Communist writer Howard Fast , recipient of the Stalin Peace Prize , and had briefly married Communist screenwriter Lester Cole , of the Hollywood Ten . After Priscilla’s death in 1984, Hiss and Johnson married in 1986. Hiss was an Episcopalian. Hiss was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1947. In 1952, former US Ambassador to France William C. Bullitt testified before

3000-406: A former State Department official, had been a Soviet spy, Nixon believed them to be true and pressed for the committee to continue its investigation. After Hiss filed suit, alleging defamation, Chambers produced documents corroborating his allegations, including paper and microfilm copies that Chambers turned over to House investigators after hiding them overnight in a field; they became known as

3150-654: A full partner in the firm the following year. In later years, Nixon proudly said he was the only modern president to have previously worked as a practicing attorney. During this period, Nixon was also the president of the Citra-Frost Company, which attempted to produce and sell frozen orange juice, but the company went bankrupt after just 18 months. In January 1938, Nixon was cast in the Whittier Community Players production of The Dark Tower in which he played opposite his future wife,

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3300-481: A fundraiser for the Republican party, remains a controversy. It is not clear whether the government of South Vietnam needed encouragement to opt out of a peace process they considered disadvantageous. In a three-way race between Nixon, Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace , Nixon defeated Humphrey by only 500,000 votes, a margin almost as close as in 1960, with both elections seeing

3450-401: A gap of less than one percentage point of the popular vote. However, Nixon earned 301 electoral votes to 191 for Humphrey and 46 for Wallace, a majority. He became the first non-incumbent vice president to be elected president. In his victory speech, Nixon pledged that his administration would try to bring the divided nation together . Nixon said: "I have received a very gracious message from

3600-551: A grocery store and gas station at what is now the corner of Whittier Boulevard and Santa Gertrudes Avenue. During this time period, the Nixon family attended East Whittier Friends Church. Richard's younger brother Arthur died in 1925 at the age of seven after a short illness. Richard was 12 years old when a spot was found on his lung; with a family history of tuberculosis , he was forbidden to play sports. The spot turned out to be scar tissue from an early bout of pneumonia . Nixon attended East Whittier Elementary School, where he

3750-650: A heart attack and his condition was initially believed to be life-threatening. Eisenhower was unable to perform his duties for six weeks. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution had not yet been proposed, and the vice president had no formal power to act. Nonetheless, Nixon acted in Eisenhower's stead during this period, presiding over Cabinet meetings and ensuring that aides and Cabinet officers did not seek power. According to Nixon biographer Stephen Ambrose , Nixon had "earned

3900-412: A high school teacher named Thelma "Pat" Ryan . In his memoirs, Nixon described it as "a case of love at first sight ", but apparently for Nixon only, since Pat Ryan turned him down several times before agreeing to date him. Once they began their courtship, Ryan was reluctant to marry Nixon; they dated for two years before she assented to his proposal. They wed in a small ceremony on June 21, 1940. After

4050-754: A honeymoon in Mexico , the Nixons began their married life in Whittier. They had two daughters: Tricia , born in 1946, and Julie , born in 1948. In January 1942, the couple moved to the Northern Virginia suburbs, where Nixon took a job at the Office of Price Administration in Washington, D.C. In his political campaigns, Nixon suggested that this was his response to Pearl Harbor , but he had sought

4200-440: A man who represented himself as a freelance writer. Hiss said that in the mid-1930s he had sublet his apartment to this "Crosley" and had given him an old car. Chambers, for his part, denied on the stand ever having used the alias Crosley, though he admitted to Hiss's lawyers in private testimony that it could have been one of his pen names. When Hiss and Chambers both appeared before a HUAC subcommittee on August 17, 1948, they had

4350-607: A memorandum arguing against Stalin's proposal (made at Dumbarton Oaks) to give one vote to each of the sixteen Soviet republics in the United Nations General Assembly . Fearing isolation, Stalin hoped thus to counterbalance the votes of the many countries of the British Empire, who he anticipated would vote with Britain, and those of Latin America, who could be expected to vote in lockstep with

4500-668: A mistrial due to a hung jury , Hiss was tried a second time, and in January 1950 he was found guilty and received two concurrent five-year sentences, of which he eventually served three and a half years. Arguments about the case and the validity of the verdict took center stage in broader debates about the Cold War , McCarthyism , and the extent of Soviet espionage in the United States . Since Hiss's conviction, statements by involved parties and newly exposed evidence have added to

4650-454: A political fund, maintained by his backers, which reimbursed him for political expenses. Such a fund was not illegal, but it exposed Nixon to allegations of a potential conflict of interest. With pressure building for Eisenhower to demand Nixon's resignation from the ticket , Nixon went on television to address the nation on September 23, 1952. The address, later named the Checkers speech ,

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4800-619: A potential industrial center. He visited Saigon and Hanoi in French Indochina . On his return to the United States at the end of 1953, Nixon increased the time he devoted to foreign relations. Biographer Irwin Gellman, who chronicled Nixon's congressional years, said of his vice presidency: Eisenhower radically altered the role of his running mate by presenting him with critical assignments in both foreign and domestic affairs once he assumed his office. The vice president welcomed

4950-410: A private-equity firm. In 2021, City & State was acquired by Government Executive Media Group. In 2021, longtime editor-in-chief Tom Shoop stepped down and was replaced by Tanya Ballard Brown, most recently of NPR . In 2021, GovExec also acquired 1105 Media Inc's Public Sector 360 Group, including Federal Computer Week and Washington Technology . This trade magazine–related article

5100-559: A representative and suggested that Voorhis's endorsement by a group linked to Communists meant that Voorhis must have radical views. Nixon won the election, receiving 65,586 votes to Voorhis's 49,994. In June 1947, Nixon supported the Taft–Hartley Act , a federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions, and he served on the Education and Labor Committee . In August 1947, he became one of 19 House members to serve on

5250-596: A second time. Pat Nixon did not always enjoy public life, being embarrassed, for example, by the need to reveal how little the family owned in the Checkers speech. She still managed to be supportive of her husband's ambitions. Nixon believed that with the Democrats torn over the issue of the Vietnam War , a Republican had a good chance of winning, although he expected the election to be as close as in 1960. An exceptionally tumultuous primary election season began as

5400-471: A segment titled "The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon" on the Howard K. Smith : News and Comment show on ABC television. (The Chicago Tribune reported targets of Hiss's "invective" and whom he "denounced as conspirators in a monstrous plot to convict him on concocted evidence" included: the presiding judge at his second trial, the three appellate court judges who rejected his appeal, J. Edgar Hoover and

5550-434: A serious contender by both Gallup polls and members of the press. He was even placed on a primary ballot as an active candidate by Oregon's secretary of state. As late as two months before the 1964 Republican National Convention , however, Nixon fulfilled his promise to remain out of the presidential nomination process and instead endorsed Arizona senator Barry Goldwater , the eventual Republican nominee. When Goldwater won

5700-425: A subcommittee that would seek to determine who was lying, Hiss or Chambers, at least on the question of whether they knew one another. Shown a photograph of Chambers, Hiss conceded that the face "might look familiar" and asked to see Chambers in person. Confronted with him in person in a New York hotel where HUAC was holding session, Hiss admitted that he had indeed known Chambers, but under the name "George Crosley,"

5850-779: A temporary assistant on the Senate's Nye Committee , investigating cost overruns and alleged profiteering by military contractors during World War I . During this period, Hiss was also a member of the liberal legal team headed by Jerome Frank that defended the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) against challenges to its legitimacy. Because of intense opposition from agribusiness in Arkansas, Frank and his left-wing assistants, who included future labor lawyer Lee Pressman , were fired in 1935 in what came to be known as "the purge of liberals." Hiss

6000-409: A volley of thrown objects. At his hotel, Nixon faced another mob, and one demonstrator spat on him. In Caracas , Venezuela, Nixon and his wife were spat on by anti-American demonstrators and their limousine was attacked by a pipe-wielding mob. According to Ambrose, Nixon's courageous conduct "caused even some of his bitterest enemies to give him some grudging respect". Reporting to the cabinet after

6150-607: A year as clerk to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. , before joining Choate, Hall & Stewart , a Boston law firm, and later the New York City law firm then known as Cotton, Franklin, Wright & Gordon . During the era of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's New Deal , Hiss became a government attorney. In 1933, he served briefly at the Justice Department and then became

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6300-475: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See tips for writing articles about magazines . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . This government -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States , serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of

6450-669: The 1962 race for governor of California, he announced his retirement from politics. However, in 1968 , he made another run for the presidency and narrowly defeated the Democratic incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey . Seeking to bring the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered military operations and carpet bombing campaigns in Cambodia. He ended American combat involvement in Vietnam in 1973 and

6600-477: The 1966 congressional elections in which he campaigned for many Republicans and sought to regain seats lost in the Johnson landslide. Nixon was credited with helping Republicans win major electoral gains that year. In 1967, Nixon was approached by an associate at his firm in Leonard Garment about a case involving the press and perceived invasion of privacy. Garment suggested Nixon to argue on behalf of

6750-652: The Environmental Protection Agency and passed legislation such as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Acts . He implemented the ratified Twenty-sixth Amendment , which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, and enforced the desegregation of Southern schools. Under Nixon, relations with Native Americans improved, seeing an increase in self-determination for Native Americans and his administration rescinded

6900-609: The Freedom of Information Act . On July 31, 1975, as a result of this lawsuit and follow-on suits filed by Peter Irons and by Alger Hiss and William A. Reuben , the Justice Department released copies of the "pumpkin papers" that had been used to implicate Hiss. One roll of film turned out to be totally blank due to overexposure, two others are faintly legible copies of non-classified Navy Department documents relating to such subjects as life rafts and fire extinguishers, and

7050-624: The Herter Committee , which went to Europe to report on the need for U.S. foreign aid. Nixon was the youngest member of the committee and the only Westerner. Advocacy by Herter Committee members, including Nixon, led to congressional passage of the Marshall Plan . In his memoirs, Nixon wrote that he joined the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) "at the end of 1947". However, he

7200-429: The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that Hiss had secretly been a communist while in federal service. Hiss categorically denied the charge and subsequently sued Chambers for libel . During the pretrial discovery process of the libel case, Chambers produced new evidence allegedly indicating that he and Hiss had been involved in espionage. A federal grand jury indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury. After

7350-686: The Republican Party , he previously served as a representative and senator from California and as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower . His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War , détente with the Soviet Union and China , the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration . Nixon's second term ended early when he became

7500-694: The Tet Offensive was launched in January 1968. President Johnson withdrew as a candidate in March, after an unexpectedly poor showing in the New Hampshire primary. In June, Senator Robert F. Kennedy , a Democratic candidate, was assassinated just moments after his victory in the California primary. On the Republican side, Nixon's main opposition was Michigan governor George Romney , though New York governor Nelson Rockefeller and California governor Ronald Reagan each hoped to be nominated in

7650-666: The Yom Kippur War , a conflict which led to the oil crisis at home. From 1973, ongoing revelations from the Nixon administration's involvement in Watergate eroded his support in Congress and the country. The scandal began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee office, ordered by administration officials, and escalated despite cover-up efforts by the Nixon administration, of which he

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7800-408: The hippie counterculture and the anti-war demonstrators. Agnew became an increasingly vocal critic of these groups, solidifying Nixon's position with the right. Nixon waged a prominent television advertising campaign, meeting with supporters in front of cameras. He stressed that the crime rate was too high, and attacked what he perceived as a surrender of the United States' nuclear superiority by

7950-691: The military draft the same year. His visit to China in 1972 eventually led to diplomatic relations between the two nations , and he then finalized the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. Domestically, Nixon pushed for the Controlled Substances Act and began the war on drugs . Nixon's first term took place at the height of the American environmental movement and enacted many progressive environmental policy shifts; his administration created

8100-521: The termination policy . Nixon imposed wage and price controls for 90 days, began the war on cancer , and presided over the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which signaled the end of the Space Race . He was re-elected in 1972 , when he defeated George McGovern in one of the largest landslide victories in American history . In his second term, Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli materiel losses in

8250-532: The " Pumpkin Papers ". Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1950 for denying under oath he had passed documents to Chambers. In 1948, Nixon successfully cross-filed as a candidate in his district, winning both major party primaries, and was comfortably reelected. In 1949, Nixon began to consider running for the United States Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Sheridan Downey , and entered

8400-585: The "Declaration of Liberated Europe" was created. The Declaration concerned the political future of Eastern Europe and critics on the right later charged that it made damaging concessions to the Soviets. Hiss stated that he was responsible for assembling background papers and documentation for the conference "and any general matters that might come up relating to the Far East or the Near East." Hiss drafted

8550-618: The "moral and intellectual fitness" required to be an attorney. Hiss was the first lawyer ever readmitted to the Massachusetts bar after a major criminal conviction. In 1988, Hiss wrote an autobiography, Recollections of a Life , in which he maintained his innocence. He fought his perjury conviction until his death from emphysema on November 15, 1996, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, four days after his 92nd birthday. In 1929, Hiss married Priscilla Fansler Hobson ,

8700-519: The 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage , but he was convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before the trial, Hiss was involved in the establishment of the United Nations , both as a US State Department official and as a UN official. In later life, he worked as a lecturer and author. On August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers , a former US Communist Party member, testified under subpoena before

8850-464: The American South against exploitation and debt peonage by the cotton industry (Ware had died in 1935). According to Chambers, "the purpose of this group at that time was not primarily espionage. Its original purpose was the communist infiltration of the American government. But espionage was certainly one of its eventual objectives." As journalist and author Tim Weiner points out, "This was

9000-534: The Baltimore documents, Chambers admitted he had previously lied, opening both Hiss and himself to perjury charges. Chambers also gave a new date for his own break with the Communist Party, an important point in his accusations against Hiss. For over nine years, beginning September 1, 1939, he had claimed to have quit the Party in 1937. Chambers now began to claim the actual date was sometime in early March 1938,

9150-701: The Bible: "I was a Stranger and ye took me in; Naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me." Acheson's remarks enraged Nixon, who called Acheson's words sacrilege. The verdict was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit , and the Supreme Court of the United States denied a writ of certiorari . The case heightened public concern about Soviet espionage penetration of

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9300-552: The Court of Public Opinion , a book challenging in detail the prosecution's case against him, and maintaining the typewritten documents traced to his typewriter had been forged. Hiss separated from his first wife, Priscilla, in 1959, though they remained married until her death in 1984. In 1985 he married Isabel Johnson, who had been living with him since soon after they met in 1960. On November 11, 1962, following Richard Nixon's failed 1962 bid for governor of California, Hiss appeared in

9450-411: The Democrats. Nixon's Democratic opponent in the general election was Vice President Hubert Humphrey , who was nominated at a convention marked by violent protests . Throughout the campaign, Nixon portrayed himself as a figure of stability during this period of national unrest and upheaval. He appealed to what he later called the " silent majority " of socially conservative Americans who disliked

9600-412: The Democrats. Nixon promised " peace with honor " in the Vietnam War and proclaimed that "new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific". He did not give specifics of how he hoped to end the war, resulting in media intimations that he must have a "secret plan". His slogan of "Nixon's the One" proved to be effective. Johnson's negotiators hoped to reach a truce in Vietnam, or at least

9750-492: The FBI's William C. Sullivan who by 1961 headed domestic intelligence under J. Edgar Hoover . By May 1948, Nixon had co-sponsored the Mundt–Nixon Bill to implement "a new approach to the complicated problem of internal communist subversion   ... It provided for registration of all Communist Party members and required a statement of the source of all printed and broadcast material issued by organizations that were found to be Communist fronts." He served as floor manager for

9900-421: The FBI, assistant attorney general Alexander M. Campbell , federal prosecutor Thomas F. Murphy , members of the New York grand jury who indicted him, jury members in his two trials who convicted him, and HUAC members and particularly Richard Nixon and Karl Mundt ." ) His appearance led sponsors to withdraw from Smith's program when viewers bombarded ABC with complaints about letting a convicted perjurer appear on

10050-438: The Hill family in Time, Inc. v. Hill at the Supreme Court of the United States . Nixon studied strenuously in the months prior to the oral argument before the Court. While the final decision was in favor of Time Inc., Nixon was encouraged by the praise he received for his argument. It was the first and only case he argued in front of the Supreme Court. At the end of 1967, Nixon told his family he planned to run for president

10200-424: The Hisses' Woodstock typewriter for Chambers to pass along to the Soviets. One of the handwritten notes copied the contents of a telegram (received January 28, 1938) related to the November and December 1937 arrest and disappearance in Moscow of a Latvian-born man and his wife, an American citizen. Under questioning, neither Hiss nor his superior, Francis Sayre, recollected the incident. Hiss initially denied writing

10350-400: The McCarran Committee (the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee ) that in 1939, Premier Édouard Daladier had advised him of French intelligence reports that two State Department officials named Hiss were Soviet agents. When asked about it the next day, Daladier, then 68 years old, told reporters that he did not recall this conversation from 13 years previously. Also called to testify before

10500-699: The McCarran committee was economist Nathaniel Weyl , a former Communist Party member "at large" who had worked for the Department of Agriculture during the early days of the New Deal and had become disillusioned with what he considered the underhanded methods of the Communist Party. In 1950 Weyl had been interviewed by the FBI and had told them that in 1933 he had belonged to a secret Communist Party unit along with Harold Ware and Lee Pressman and confirmed that Alger Hiss had been present at some meetings held at Ware's sister's violin studio. In 1950, Weyl published an anti-communist book, Treason: The Story of Disloyalty and Betrayal in American History , that made no mention of

10650-424: The Navy, Nixon became a very good five-card stud poker player, helping finance his first congressional campaign with the winnings. In a 1983 interview, he described turning down an invitation to dine with Charles Lindbergh because he was hosting a game. Republicans in California's 12th congressional district were frustrated by their inability to defeat Democratic representative Jerry Voorhis , and they sought

10800-640: The Nixon campaign suggesting that Douglas's voting record was similar to that of New York Congressman Vito Marcantonio , reputed to be a communist, and their political views must be nearly identical. Nixon won the election by almost twenty percentage points. During the campaign, Nixon was first called "Tricky Dick" by his opponents for his campaign tactics. In the Senate, Nixon took a prominent position in opposing global communism , traveling frequently and speaking out against it. He maintained friendly relations with Joseph McCarthy , his fellow anti-communist , controversial U.S. Senate colleague from Wisconsin , but

10950-628: The President announced that Nixon would again be his running mate. Eisenhower and Nixon were reelected by a comfortable margin in the November 1956 election . In early 1957, Nixon undertook another foreign trip, this time to Africa. On his return, he helped shepherd the Civil Rights Act of 1957 through Congress. The bill was weakened in the Senate, and civil rights leaders were divided over whether Eisenhower should sign it. Nixon advised

11100-512: The President to sign the bill, which he did. Eisenhower suffered a mild stroke in November 1957, and Nixon gave a press conference, assuring the nation that the Cabinet was functioning well as a team during Eisenhower's brief illness. On April 27, 1958, Richard and Pat Nixon reluctantly embarked on a goodwill tour of South America . In Montevideo , Uruguay, Nixon made an impromptu visit to

11250-677: The Republican Party. On May 19, 1948, the bill passed the House by 319 to 58, but later it failed to pass the Senate. The Nixon Library cites this bill's passage as Nixon's first significant victory in Congress. Nixon first gained national attention in August 1948, when his persistence as a House Un-American Activities Committee member helped break the Alger Hiss spy case. While many doubted Whittaker Chambers 's allegations that Hiss,

11400-545: The Republican primaries and chose former Massachusetts senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. as his running mate. His Democratic opponent was John F. Kennedy and the race remained close for the duration. Nixon campaigned on his experience, but Kennedy called for new blood and claimed the Eisenhower–Nixon administration had allowed the Soviet Union to overtake the U.S. in quantity and quality of ballistic missiles . While Kennedy faced issues about his Catholicism, Nixon remained

11550-555: The Soviet delegate to the conference, praised Hiss to his superior Stettinius for his "impartiality and fairness." Hiss later became full Director of the State Department's Office of Special Political Affairs. In late 1946, Hiss left government service to become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , where he served until May 5, 1949, the end of the presidential term to which he had been elected, when he

11700-466: The Soviets had entered German territory, that any of them might make a separate peace with the Nazi regime. Negotiations addressed the postwar division of Europe and configuration of its borders; reparations and de-Nazification; and the still unfinished plans, carried over from Dumbarton Oaks, for the United Nations. Before the conference took place, Hiss participated in the meetings where the American draft of

11850-568: The US government in the 1930s and 1940s. As a well-educated and highly connected government official from an old American family, Alger Hiss did not fit the profile of a typical spy. Publicity surrounding the case thrust Nixon into the public spotlight, helping him move from the US House of Representatives to the US Senate in 1950, to the vice-presidency of the United States in 1952, and finally to

12000-811: The United States. In the final compromise offered by Roosevelt and Stettinius and accepted by Stalin, the Soviets obtained three votes: one each for the Soviet Union itself, the Ukrainian SSR , and the Byelorussian SSR . Hiss was Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (the convention that created the UN Charter ), which was held in San Francisco from April 25, 1945 to June 26, 1945. Allen Weinstein wrote that Andrei Gromyko ,

12150-470: The Vice President, congratulating me for winning the election. I congratulated him for his gallant and courageous fight against great odds. I also told him that I know exactly how he felt. I know how it feels to lose a close one ." Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in

12300-414: The Whittier police chief, but they broke up in 1935. After graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Whittier in 1934, Nixon was accepted at the new Duke University School of Law , which offered scholarships to top students, including Nixon. It paid high salaries to its professors, many of whom had national or international reputations. The number of scholarships

12450-407: The age of 33, Charles assumed financial and emotional responsibility for his brother's widow and six children in addition to his own expanding family. Charles also helped his wife's favorite brother, Albert Hughes, find work at Daniel Miller. Hughes at first distinguished himself and was promoted to treasurer of the firm, but then he became involved in a complicated business deal and was unable to meet

12600-663: The air. Smith's show was cancelled in June 1963. The five rolls of 35 mm film known as the "pumpkin papers" had been characterized as highly classified and too sensitive to reveal and were thought until late 1974 to be locked in HUAC files. In 1975, independent researcher Stephen W. Salant , an economist at the University of Michigan, sued the US Justice Department when it denied his request for access to them under

12750-631: The alleged secret Communists of the New Deal." Rumors had circulated about Hiss since 1939, when Chambers, at the urging of anti- Stalinist Isaac Don Levine , went to Assistant Secretary of State Adolf A. Berle Jr. and accused Hiss of belonging to an underground communist cell at the Department of Agriculture . In 1942, Chambers repeated this allegation to the FBI . In 1945, two other sources emerged to implicate Hiss. In September 1945, Igor Gouzenko ,

12900-479: The burial of Nicholas Murray Butler . In 1988, he called Baruch a "vain and overrated Polonius much given to trite pronouncements about the nation." In 1936, Alger Hiss and his younger brother Donald Hiss began working under Cordell Hull in the State Department . Alger was an assistant to Assistant Secretary of State Francis B. Sayre (son-in-law of Woodrow Wilson ) and then special assistant to

13050-454: The chief investigator for the Hiss defense, Horace W. Schmahl, set off a race to find Hiss's typewriter. The FBI, with superior resources, was also searching for the typewriter, which the Hiss family had discarded some years earlier. Schmahl tracked it down first, and the Hiss defense introduced it with the intention of showing that its typeface would not be a match for that on the FBI's documents. It instead proved an excellent match and confirmed

13200-525: The defeat was widely believed to be the end of his political career. In an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon blamed the media for favoring his opponent, saying, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." The California defeat was highlighted in the November 11, 1962, episode of Howard K. Smith 's ABC News show, Howard K. Smith: News and Comment , titled "The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon". Alger Hiss appeared on

13350-564: The director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs. From 1939 to 1944, Hiss was an assistant to Stanley Hornbeck , a special adviser to Cordell Hull on Far Eastern affairs. In 1944, Hiss was named Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs, a policy-making entity devoted to planning for post-war international organizations. Hiss served as executive secretary of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference , which drew up plans for

13500-431: The dispute. In the 1990s, two former senior Soviet military officers responsible for the Soviet Union's military intelligence archives stated, following a search of those archives, that the "Russian intelligence service has no documents proving that Alger Hiss cooperated with our service somewhere or anywhere," and that Hiss "never had any relationship with Soviet intelligence." The 1995 Venona Papers provided evidence for

13650-573: The election, with Kennedy winning the popular vote by only 112,827 votes (0.2 percent). There were charges of voter fraud in Texas and Illinois, both states won by Kennedy. Nixon refused to consider contesting the election, feeling a lengthy controversy would diminish the United States in the eyes of the world and that the uncertainty would hurt U.S. interests. At the end of his term of office as vice president in January 1961, Nixon and his family returned to California, where he practiced law and wrote

13800-409: The financial obligation that was part of a joint agreement. In 1907, the year of great financial panic , Charles Hiss felt compelled to sell all his stocks to make good his brother-in-law's debts and to resign from the firm. After unsuccessful attempts by relatives to find him a job, Charles fell into a serious depression and committed suicide , cutting his throat with a razor. Minnie, who had made

13950-506: The five Nixon boys were named after historic British kings; Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart . Nixon's early life was marked by hardship, and he later quoted Dwight Eisenhower in describing his boyhood: "We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it". The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the family moved to Whittier, California . In an area of East Whittier with many Quakers, Frank Nixon opened

14100-488: The following exchange: Chambers's statements, because they were made in a Congressional hearing, were privileged against defamation suits; Hiss challenged Chambers to repeat them without benefit of such protection. When, on the national radio program Meet the Press , Chambers publicly called Hiss a communist, Hiss had attorney William L. Marbury Jr. file a libel lawsuit against him. Chambers retaliated by claiming Hiss

14250-601: The future United Nations. In November 1944, Hull, who had led the United Nations project, retired as Secretary of State due to poor health and was succeeded by Undersecretary of State Edward Stettinius . In February 1945, as a member of the US delegation headed by Stettinius, Hiss attended the Yalta Conference , where the Big Three, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin , and Winston Churchill , met to consolidate their alliance to forestall any possibility, now that

14400-414: The high praise he received for his conduct during the crisis ... he made no attempt to seize power". His spirits buoyed, Nixon sought a second term, but some of Eisenhower's aides aimed to displace him. In a December 1955 meeting, Eisenhower proposed that Nixon not run for reelection and instead become a Cabinet officer in a second Eisenhower administration, to give him administrative experience before

14550-522: The investigation "a red herring." The second trial, presided over by Judge Henry W. Goddard , lasted from November 17, 1949, to January 21, 1950. At both trials, a key to the prosecution's case was testimony from expert witnesses, stating that identifying characteristics of the typed Baltimore documents matched samples typed on a typewriter owned by the Hisses at the time of his alleged espionage work with Chambers. The prosecution also presented as evidence

14700-695: The last minute due to budget cuts. He was admitted to the California bar in 1937, and began practicing in Whittier with the law firm Wingert and Bewley in the National Bank of Whittier Building . His work concentrated on commercial litigation for local petroleum companies and other corporate matters, as well as on wills . Nixon was reluctant to work on divorce cases, disliking frank sexual talk from women. In 1938, he opened up his own branch of Wingert and Bewley in La Habra, California , and became

14850-417: The leaders. Among the candidates considered along with Nixon were Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, Governor Alfred Driscoll of New Jersey, and Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois. On the campaign trail, Eisenhower spoke of his plans for the country, and left the negative campaigning to his running mate . In mid-September, the Republican ticket faced a major crisis when the media reported that Nixon had

15000-617: 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 Officer in Charge of the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command". Upon his return to the U.S., Nixon

15150-473: The middle of the 18th century. Hiss's paternal great-great-grandfather had emigrated from Germany in 1729, and changed his surname from "Hesse" to "Hiss." Minnie Hughes attended teacher's college and was active in Baltimore society. Shortly after his marriage at age 24, Charles Hiss entered the business world and joined the dry goods importing firm Daniel Miller and Co., where he became an executive and shareholder. When Charles' brother John died suddenly at

15300-452: The most of her former prosperity and social position, was then forced to rely on her inheritance and financial assistance from family members. Hiss was two years and his brother was two months old when his father died. As was customary in those days, they were not told of the circumstances of Charles Hiss's death. When Alger learned of it inadvertently years later from neighbors, he angrily confronted his older brother Bosley, who then told him

15450-423: The nomination, Nixon was selected to introduce him at the convention. Nixon felt that Goldwater was unlikely to win, but campaigned for him loyally. In the 1964 general election , Goldwater lost in a landslide to Johnson and Republicans experienced heavy losses in Congress and among state governors. Nixon was one of the few leading Republicans not blamed for the disastrous results, and he sought to build on that in

15600-468: The note, but experts confirmed it was his handwriting. Interrogated in 1949, Sayre stated that the telegram was unrelated to Hiss's duties, which concerned trade matters and told his questioners, "He could not understand why he was on the distribution list for this cable nor why the note would be made on it or especially why an exact copy should be made." In their previous testimony, both Chambers and Hiss had denied having committed espionage. By introducing

15750-606: The only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal . Nixon was born into a poor family of Quakers in Yorba Linda , Southern California . He graduated from Duke Law School in 1937, practiced law in California, and then moved with his wife Pat to Washington, D.C. , in 1942 to work for the federal government . After serving active duty in the Naval Reserve during World War II , he

15900-428: The painting of fire extinguishers, there were also images of State Department documents that were classified at the time. As a consequence of the revelation's dramatic staging, both the film and the Baltimore documents soon became known collectively as the " Pumpkin Papers ." The grand jury charged Hiss with two counts of perjury . He was not indicted for espionage since the period of limitations had run out. Chambers

16050-485: The position throughout the latter part of 1941. Both Nixon and his wife believed he was limiting his prospects by remaining in Whittier. He was assigned to the tire rationing division, where he was tasked with replying to correspondence. He did not enjoy the role, and four months later applied to join the United States Navy . Though he could have claimed an exemption from the draft as a birthright Quaker, or

16200-504: The presidency in 1968. Senator Joseph McCarthy made his famous speech at Wheeling, West Virginia , two weeks after the Hiss verdict, launching his career as the nation's most visible anti-communist. On March 22, 1951, Alger Hiss was sent to a maximum security federal facility. Although he had been sentenced to five years' imprisonment, Hiss served only three years and eight months in Lewisburg Federal Prison . He

16350-584: The president's initiatives and worked energetically to accomplish White House objectives. Because of the collaboration between these two leaders, Nixon deserves the title, "the first modern vice president". Despite intense campaigning by Nixon, who reprised his strong attacks on the Democrats, the Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress in the 1954 elections . These losses caused Nixon to contemplate leaving politics once he had served out his term. On September 24, 1955, President Eisenhower suffered

16500-422: The program, and many members of the public complained that it was unseemly to give a convicted felon air time to attack a former vice president. The furor drove Smith and his program from the air, and public sympathy for Nixon grew. In 1963 the Nixon family traveled to Europe, where Nixon gave press conferences and met with leaders of the countries he visited. The family moved to New York City, where Nixon became

16650-415: The race in November. Downey, faced with a bitter primary battle with Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas , announced his retirement in March 1950. Nixon and Douglas won the primary elections and engaged in a contentious campaign in which the ongoing Korean War was a major issue. Nixon tried to focus attention on Douglas's liberal voting record. As part of that effort, a " Pink Sheet " was distributed by

16800-465: The remaining two are photographs of the State Department documents that had been introduced at the two Hiss trials. A few days after the release of the Pumpkin Papers, on August 5, 1975, Hiss was readmitted to the Massachusetts bar . The state's Supreme Judicial Court overruled its Committee of Bar Overseers and stated in a unanimous decision that, despite his conviction, Hiss had demonstrated

16950-530: The so-called "Ware Group" and expressed doubt that Hiss was guilty of espionage. At both trials, FBI typewriter experts testified that the Baltimore documents in Chambers's possession matched samples of typing done in the 1930s by Priscilla Hiss on the Hisses' home typewriter, a Woodstock brand. At both trials, the testimony was directed to comparing two sets of typed documents and not to the typewriter eventually submitted into evidence. As early as December 1948

17100-626: The theory that Hiss was a Soviet spy. Author Anthony Summers argued in 2000 that since many relevant files continue to be unavailable, the Hiss controversy will continue to be debated, with political divisions marking belief in Hiss's innocence or guilt. Hiss himself maintained his innocence until his death in 1996. Hiss was born in Baltimore , Maryland, on November 11, 1904, Alger Hiss was one of five children of Mary "Minnie" Lavinia (née Hughes) and Charles Alger Hiss. Both parents came from substantial Baltimore families who could trace their roots to

17250-403: The ticket was victorious in the November election . Eisenhower granted Nixon more responsibilities during his term than any previous vice president. Nixon attended Cabinet and National Security Council meetings and chaired them in Eisenhower's absence. A 1953 tour of the Far East succeeded in increasing local goodwill toward the United States, and gave Nixon an appreciation of the region as

17400-560: The trip, Nixon claimed there was "absolute proof that [the protestors] were directed and controlled by a central Communist conspiracy." Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother, Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles , both concurred with Nixon. In July 1959, President Eisenhower sent Nixon to the Soviet Union for the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. On July 24, Nixon

17550-511: The truth. Shocked, Hiss resolved to devote the rest of his life to restoring the family's "good name." Although shadowed by melancholy, Hiss's early childhood, spent in rough-and-tumble games with his siblings and cousins who lived close by, was not unhappy. Their Baltimore neighborhood was described by columnist Murray Kempton as one of "shabby gentility." Hiss portrayed the economic circumstances of his childhood as "modest," but "not particularly shabby." Two further tragedies occurred when Hiss

17700-442: The typewriter itself. Given away years earlier, it had been located by defense investigators. This trial resulted in an eight-to-four deadlocked jury. "That, according to one of Hiss's friends and lawyers, Helen Buttenweiser , was the only time that she had ever seen Alger shocked—stunned by the fact that eight of his fellow citizens did not believe him." In the second trial, Hede Massing , an Austria -born confessed Soviet spy who

17850-481: The war. Perry wrote to Nixon in Baltimore , and after a night of excited conversation with his wife, Nixon gave Perry an enthused response, confirming that he was registered to vote in California at his parents' Whittier residence. Nixon flew to California and was selected by the committee. When he left the Navy at the start of 1946, Nixon and his wife returned to Whittier, where he began a year of intensive campaigning. He contended that Voorhis had been ineffective as

18000-451: The week. He played junior varsity football, and seldom missed a practice, though he rarely was used in games. He had greater success as a debater, winning a number of championships and taking his only formal tutelage in public speaking from Fullerton's Head of English, H. Lynn Sheller. Nixon later mused on Sheller's words, "Remember, speaking is conversation...don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them." Nixon said he tried to use

18150-493: The year of the "Baltimore documents," before finally settling during the trial, on April 15, 1938. On December 2, Chambers led HUAC investigators to a pumpkin patch on his Maryland farm; from a hollowed-out pumpkin in which he had hidden them the previous day, he produced five rolls of 35 mm film that he said came from Hiss in 1938, as well. While some of the film was undeveloped and some contained images of trivial content such as publicly available Navy documents concerning

18300-468: Was a Quaker , and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith. Through his mother, Nixon was a descendant of the early English settler Thomas Cornell . Nixon's upbringing was influenced by Quaker observances of the time such as abstinence from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. He had four brothers: Harold (1909–1933), Donald (1914–1987), Arthur (1918–1925), and Edward (1930– 2019). Four of

18450-550: Was a Soviet agent. When informed of this, Hoover assumed Gouzenko was referring to Alger Hiss. Three months later (in December 1945), Elizabeth Bentley , an American spy for the Soviet Union, who served also as a courier between communist groups, told the FBI, as documented in the FBI Silvermaster File that "At this time Kramer told me that the person who had originally taken Glasser away from Perlo's group

18600-415: Was a protégé of Felix Frankfurter , the future US Supreme Court justice. During his time at Harvard, the famous murder trial of anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti took place, ending in their conviction and execution. Like Frankfurter, who wrote a book about the case, and like many prominent liberals of the day, Hiss maintained that Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted unjustly. Hiss served for

18750-523: Was already a HUAC member in early February 1947, when he heard "Enemy Number One" Gerhard Eisler and his sister Ruth Fischer testify. On February 18, 1947, Nixon referred to Eisler's belligerence toward HUAC in his maiden speech to the House. Also by early February 1947, fellow U.S. Representative Charles J. Kersten had introduced him to Father John Francis Cronin in Baltimore. Cronin shared with Nixon his 1945 privately circulated paper "The Problem of American Communism in 1945", with much information from

18900-726: Was appointed the administrative officer of the Alameda Naval Air Station in Alameda, California . In January 1945, he was transferred to the Bureau of Aeronautics office in Philadelphia , where he helped negotiate the termination of World War II contracts, and received his second letter of commendation, from the Secretary of the Navy for "meritorious service, tireless effort, and devotion to duty". Later, Nixon

19050-682: Was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 25 and the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command (SCAT), where he supported the logistics of operations in the South Pacific theater during World War II . On October 1, 1943, Nixon was promoted to lieutenant . Nixon commanded the SCAT forward detachments at Vella Lavella , Bougainville , and finally at Nissan Island . His unit prepared manifests and flight plans for R4D/C-47 operations and supervised

19200-411: Was aware. On August 9, 1974, facing almost certain impeachment and removal from office, Nixon resigned. Afterward, he was issued a controversial pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford . During nearly 20 years of retirement, Nixon wrote nine books and undertook many foreign trips, rehabilitating his image into that of an elder statesman and leading expert on foreign affairs. On April 18, 1994, he suffered

19350-487: Was being threatened with deportation, and whom the first judge had not permitted to testify, provided some slight corroboration of Chambers's story. She recounted meeting Hiss at a party in 1935. Massing also described how Hiss had tried to recruit Noel Field, another Soviet spy at State, to switch from Massing's ring to his own. This time the jury found Hiss guilty. According to Anthony Summers, "Hiss spoke only two sentences in court after he had been found guilty. The first

19500-529: Was careful to keep some distance between himself and McCarthy's allegations. Nixon criticized President Harry S. Truman 's handling of the Korean War . He supported statehood for Alaska and Hawaii , voted in favor of civil rights for minorities, and supported federal disaster relief for India and Yugoslavia . He voted against price controls and other monetary restrictions, benefits for illegal immigrants, and public power. General Dwight D. Eisenhower

19650-457: Was clouded by public suspicion that Nixon viewed the office as a stepping stone for another presidential run, some opposition from the far-right of the party, and his own lack of interest in being California's governor. Nixon hoped a successful run would confirm his status as the nation's leading active Republican politician, and ensure he remained a major player in national politics. Instead, he lost to Brown by more than five percentage points, and

19800-401: Was diagnosed with tuberculosis the previous year; when their mother took him to Arizona hoping to improve his health, the demands on Nixon increased, causing him to give up football. Nevertheless, Nixon graduated from Whittier High third in his class of 207. Nixon was offered a tuition grant to attend Harvard University , but with Harold's continued illness requiring his mother's care, Richard

19950-540: Was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 . His work on the Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist . In 1950 , he was elected to the Senate . Nixon was the running mate of Eisenhower, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 1952 election , and served for eight years as vice president. He narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy . After his loss in

20100-554: Was forced to step down. On August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers , a former Communist Party member, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to denounce Alger Hiss. A senior editor at Time magazine, Chambers had written a scathingly satirical editorial critical of the Yalta agreements. The group, which Chambers called the " Ware Group ," had been organized by agriculturalist Harold Ware , an American communist intent on organizing black and white tenant farmers in

20250-643: Was greatly reduced for second- and third-year students, creating intense competition. Nixon kept his scholarship, was elected president of the Duke Bar Association, inducted into the Order of the Coif , and graduated third in his class in June 1937. After graduating from Duke, Nixon initially hoped to join the FBI . He received no response to his letter of application, and learned years later that he had been hired, but his appointment had been canceled at

20400-400: Was heard by about 60 million Americans, which represented the largest audience ever for a television broadcast at that point. In the speech, Nixon emotionally defended himself, stating that the fund was not secret and that his donors had not received special favors. He painted himself as a patriot and man of modest means, mentioning that his wife had no mink coat; instead, he said, she wore

20550-495: Was in his twenties: his elder brother Bosley died of Bright's disease and his sister Mary Ann committed suicide. Hiss learned to compartmentalize and to seek out paternal surrogates. At school, he was popular and high performing. He attended high school at Baltimore City College and college at Johns Hopkins University , where he was voted "most popular student" by his classmates, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa . In 1929, he received his law degree from Harvard Law School , where he

20700-600: Was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department." Bentley also said that the man in question, whom she called "Eugene Hiss" worked in the State Department and was an adviser to Dean Acheson . In both cases (Gouzenko and Bentley), the FBI decided that Alger Hiss was the likely match. Hoover put a wiretap on Hiss's home phone and had him and his wife investigated and tailed for the next two years. In response to Chambers's accusations, Hiss protested his innocence and insisted on appearing before HUAC to clear himself. Testifying on August 5, 1948, he denied having ever been

20850-423: Was needed at the store. He remained in his hometown, and enrolled at Whittier College in September 1930. His expenses were met by his maternal grandfather. Nixon played for the basketball team; he also tried out for football, and though he lacked the size to play, he remained on the team as a substitute and was noted for his enthusiasm. Instead of fraternities and sororities, Whittier had literary societies. Nixon

21000-643: Was never charged with a crime. Hiss went to trial twice. The first trial, presided over by Judge Samuel Kaufman , started on May 31, 1949, and ended in a hung jury on July 7. Chambers admitted on the witness stand that he had previously committed perjury several times while he was under oath, including deliberately falsifying key dates in his story. Hiss's character witnesses at his first trial included such notables as future Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson , Supreme Court Justices Felix Frankfurter and Stanley Reed , and former Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis . President Truman famously called

21150-482: Was nominated for president by the Republicans in 1952. He had no strong preference for a vice-presidential candidate, and Republican officeholders and party officials met in a " smoke-filled room " and recommended Nixon to the general, who agreed to the senator's selection. Nixon's youth (he was then 39), stance against communism, and political base in California—one of the largest states—were all seen as vote-winners by

21300-618: Was not fired, but allegations that during this period he was connected with radicals on the Agriculture Department 's legal team were to be the source of future controversy. In the meantime, Hiss also served initially as "investigator" and then "legal assistant" (counsel) to the Nye Committee from July 1934 to August 1935. He "badgered" DuPont officials and questioned and cross-examined Bernard Baruch on March 29, 1935. In 1947, Baruch and Hiss both attended

21450-538: Was not merely a communist, but also a spy, a charge he had not made earlier; and, on November 17, 1948, to support his explosive allegations he produced physical evidence consisting of sixty-five pages of re-typed State Department documents, the last of which was dated April 1, 1938, plus four notes in Hiss's handwriting summarizing the contents of State Department cables. These became known as the "Baltimore documents." Chambers claimed Hiss had given them to him in 1938 and that Priscilla had retyped them (Hiss could not type) on

21600-574: Was president of his eighth-grade class. His older brother Harold had attended Whittier High School , which his parents thought resulted in Harold's dissolute lifestyle, before he contracted tuberculosis (that killed him in 1933). They decided to send Nixon to the larger Fullerton Union High School . Though he had to ride a school bus an hour each way during his freshman year, he attained excellent grades. Later, he lived with an aunt in Fullerton during

21750-436: Was released from prison on November 27, 1954. While in prison, Hiss acted as a volunteer attorney, adviser, and tutor for many of his fellow inmates. After his release in 1954 at age 50, Hiss, who had been disbarred , worked as a salesman for a stationery company in New York City. From 1958 to 1960 he worked as an administrative assistant to R. Andrew Smith, a comb manufacturer, earning $ 20,000/year. In 1957, he published In

21900-530: Was snubbed by the only one for men, the Franklins, many of whom were from prominent families, unlike Nixon. He responded by helping to found a new society, the Orthogonian Society. In addition to the society, his studies, and work at the store, Nixon engaged in several extracurricular activities; he was a champion debater and hard worker. In 1933, he was engaged to Ola Florence Welch, daughter of

22050-578: Was spun off into a new publication: NextGov , which covers technology and the future of government. In 2013, the company founded Defense One , which covers emerging national security issues. In 2015, it founded Route Fifty , which covers ideas in state and local government. The four publications, plus an associated events division and the Studio 2G content marketing division, became known as Government Executive Media Group. In 2020, Atlantic Media sold Government Executive Media Group to Growth Catalyst Partners,

22200-446: Was to thank the judge. The second was to assert that one day in the future it would be disclosed how forgery by typewriter had been committed." On January 25, 1950, Judge Goddard sentenced Hiss to five years' imprisonment on each of the two counts, to run concurrently. At a subsequent press conference, Secretary of State Dean Acheson reacted emotionally, affirming, "I do not intend to turn my back on Alger Hiss." Acheson quoted Jesus in

22350-425: Was touring the exhibits with Soviet first secretary and premier Nikita Khrushchev when the two stopped at a model of an American kitchen and engaged in an impromptu exchange about the merits of capitalism versus communism that became known as the " Kitchen Debate ". In 1960, Nixon launched his first campaign for President of the United States, officially announcing on January 9, 1960. He faced little opposition in

22500-488: Was transferred to other offices to work on contracts, and he moved from the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia, New York and finally to Baltimore. On October 3, 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant commander . On March 10, 1946, he was relieved of active duty. On June 1, 1953, he was promoted to commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and he retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve on June 6, 1966. While in

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