Nixon

"Going Places"

Nixon was still a Lt. Commander in the Navy when he received

this letter from California Bank of  America Vice President

H. L. Perry.  Nixon ultimately won his congressional campaign

and took office January 1947 at age 34.

He would be re-elected to a 2nd House Term in 1948

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Nixon defeated 5-term Democrat Jerry Voorhis by working 1946 in the district

and Voorhis did not return from Washington until August 1946 to focus on the election. 

Nixon campaigned by casting Voorhis as not effective

and receiving an endorsement of a communists linked group. Such a tactic would be used again by Nixon. 

The anti-communist period of the late 1940's and 1950's would be an ally of Nixon and his early political career.

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Ironically Richard Nixon and John Kennedy enter the House of Representatives at the same time in 1947.

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Nixon and early congressional activity

Nixon and the Marshall Plan - 1947

The Mundt-Nixon Bill

The Taft-Harley Act

The Taft-Hartley Act followed the National Labor Relations Act

of 1935. It somewhat balanced the one sided Labor rights of unions

codifed in the NLRA of 1935. It reduced or attempted to reduce the Labor gains of the NLRA of 1935

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Richard Nixon and John Kennedy were members of the House Labor Committee

during the passing of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. They were chosen to debate

the Act prior to passing it at McKeesport PA. While no vote was taken who won the

debate, both returned to Washington that night on a train with Nixon winning the lower sleep berth via straw vote with Kennedy.

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Nixon and the Alger Hiss Case

January 3, 1947

Nixon is sworn in as Representative for the Twelfth Congressional District of California. His tenure lasts until his resignation in November 1950 following his election to the Senate.  He was assigned to House Education and Labor Committee and House Committee on Un-American Activities

Nixon was then appointed to a subcommittee of the Un-American Activities committee with two other congressmen to attempt

to determine who was lying about the Communist affiliation that Whittaker Chambers declared that Alger Hiss was a Communist.

Ultimately Alger Hiss was convicted on two perjury counts and sentenced. He was not convicted of being un American or a Communist due to statute of limitations had run out.

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Fascinated about these elements of the Nixon Library, it became clear to me as a visitor that Nixon was a homeland and anti-Communist warrior so to speak and the Alger Hiss case would have died had it not been for Nixon and the tenacity of his pursuit of Hiss. It would also propel him to Senator in 1949. Nixon diligently worked hard at all that he did.

Nixon meets with General Eisenhower in May 1951 at

NATO Headquarters Belgium. Both leave each other mutually impressed.

They go on with Ike President and Nixon V. President in 1953.

Kennedy and Nixon at the

White House April 1961

Chiang Kai-shek  and Mao Tse-tung
In 1949 Mao won rule of China with
Chiang Kai-shek fleeing to Taiwan

Soviet dictators Brezshnev and Krushchev.
Nixon moment with Krushchev in July 1959, then
Vice President Nixon had a "kitchen debate"
with Krushchev in Moscow at an American exhibit.

Churchill DeGaulle Sadat

The Nixon Library recognizes leaders that many of us recall

and where Nixon crossed paths with most of them and under

what circumstances.

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This segment briefly covers a period in Nixon's political life. I now think Nixon was brilliant, tenancious in direction and policymaking. He was not charismatic, charming nor always agreeable in nature. He was tense in character.