Richard Nixon: A Career As A Social Activist

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Richard Nixon was born on January 9th, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. He was second of five children from his parents, Frank Nixon and Hannah Milhouse Nixon. They lived a very tough life in poverty. Nixon received a scholarship from Harvard University, but was unable to attend because of the expensive travel costs. Instead of attending Harvard, Nixon continued his education at Whittier College and then onto Duke University Law School. After his graduation, he became a small town lawyer. He felt that he was capable of much more and that he was. He had many jobs leading his presidential term including the following: Office of Price Administration, member of the Navy, U.S. House of representatives, U.S. Senator, and Vice President. As you can see, Nixon had plenty experience in politics and was looking to take the next step in his career. …show more content…

His campaign was designed to reach out to the silent majority, which it did. Nixon main focus was on promoting peace. During this time period, there was a lot of antiwar and civil rights protests, so someone talking about creating peace really seemed to get the attention of voters. Nixon hated the media and referred to it as his “enemy”. Also during this election, there was a strong showing of the third party which could have easily helped Nixon get elected. Richard Nixon received 301 electoral college votes whereas his opponent, Hubert Humphrey, who received 191 electoral college votes. However, the popular vote was much closer. Nixon won 31,785,480 popular votes and Humphrey won 31,275,166 popular