Richard Nixon was elected on November 5, 1968, as the 37th president of the United States of America. Nixon was a senator in California before his Vice Presidency in 1953. During him campaign to become Vice President, there were accusations that Nixon was running a corrupt campaign and that Nixon was stealing funds donated to him by his supporters. In order to show the citizens of the United States that he was an honest man, Nixon delivered his “Checkers” speech. This speech was broadcasted all over the United States on September 23, 1952, in hopes of clearing his name of these accusations.
In Nixon’s speech, he openly admits that he used the $18,000 that was donated to him by his supporters, but what he wants to emphasize is the fact that none of the money that was donated was used for his own personal use. Nixon states that these funds went directly to his campaign fund in order to avoid the United States citizens’ tax dollars going to pay for his campaign. It was also important to Nixon that the viewers understand that this fund was never kept a secret. In
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It is very obvious that he is reading the speech instead of speaking about something his is passionate about and in my opinion, it takes away a lot of the sincerity from the speech. I do believe that it was a credible speech. Nixon uses concrete evidence, such as the internal audit, to prove his innocence and I think that the citizens of the United States needed that solid amount of proof in order to trust Nixon again. Throughout his speech, Nixon also appeals directly to the audience by justifying his actions by saying he used the money in order to save the people’s tax dollars. This statement more than likely persuaded many listeners into believing