Nixon the Friend

[PBrunsel]

Nixon the Friend

Event Date: 1-09-1913
Event Description: Richard Milhous Nixon is born to Frank and Hannah Nixon. During his birth, however, Nixon’s mother Hannah suffers complications, and dies the next day. The extremely religious Quaker Hannah Nixon is buried, and enters into eternity. Frank Nixon, not a religious man himself, does not show young Richard, or his older brother Harold, any guidance in spiritual matters. This leads the ever studious Richard to investigate the Quaker faith, and embrace the Society of Friends the way his late mother did.   

Event Date: 9-05-1931
Event Description: Richard Nixon, aged 18, begins his first day at the Quaker run Whittier College. Nixon majors in political science, pre-law and theology. In a paper he writes for an introductory English class, Nixon writes, “I wish to become a lawyer and a public servant, but most of all, I wish to be an honest man who is trusted by honest people.” This attitude is remembered by Nixon’s classmates and professors. “Richard Nixon was the finest and most decent boy I ever met,” theology Professor J. Louis Mathias would comment in an interview later in Nixon’s life.

Event Date: 5-15-1937
Event Description: Graduating as class valedictorian and voted “Duke Gentleman of Integrity,” Richard Nixon receives his degree from Duke University Law School. The honor of “Gentleman of Integrity” was what Nixon really honored on his graduation day. As a student, Nixon refrained from card playing, drinking, smoking and other such activities that law students engage in, leading some to label him a “prude.” However, Nixon was well liked for his sense of humor, patience while tutoring law school freshmen and his talent at playing the guitar, something he had picked up while being a camp counselor during the summers in California. 

Event Date: 8-10-1937
Event Description: Nixon returns back home to Whittier, California, and joins the law offices of Frank Wingert and David Bewley, two men he had known as a Sunday School Teacher at the Quaker East Whittier Friends Church. “This was the time of my life I truly enjoyed,” Nixon would write as an old man, “I would argue as a defense attorney, speaking for the underdog.”

Event Date: 1-12-1938
Event Description: Defense attorney Richard Nixon successfully defends Malcolm Robertson, an African-American man accused of breaking into the home of wealthy Los Angeles banker J.C. Bailey, a former Los Angeles City Councilor. Nixon’s closing argument is applauded by civil libertarians throughout the country. “The only crime that Mr. Robertson had committed is having a darker skin color than Councilman Bailey,” Nixon tells the jury, “Mr. Robertson is a minority, and he is receiving a raw deal for that reason. I myself am a minority, a religious minority: a Quaker. However, if a Quaker was to be accused of breaking into a home, with the shaky evidence the prosecution has, that minority would be treated fairly and equally, the rights of a full citizen. Mr. Robertson should be given these same rights, but he stands a chance of being sent to prison, on the same shaky evidence. Is that right, ladies and gentlemen of the jury? I tell you today that it is not, and it should never be considered real justice.”

Event Date: 2-12-1938
Event Description: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accepts Richard Nixon as an ACLU attorney, applauding his, “Defense of civil and constitutional rights in the Robertson v. Bailey Case.” Nixon, and his girlfriend Thelma “Pat” Ryan, mark this news by becoming engaged.

Event Date: 9-11-1938
Event Description: Richard Nixon and Thelma “Pat” Ryan are married at the East Whittier Friends Church, the same church where Nixon has taught Sunday school since he was twelve years old.   

Event Date: 11-06-1940
Event Description: Richard Nixon is elected to the California State Assembly as a liberal Republican, running with the endorsement of Governor Earl Warren. Nixon’s platform included strong support for state voting right’s action and the elimination of the death penalty. Many Whittier Republicans saw Nixon as too liberal of a Republican to give money to, but Nixon won by a wide margin with support from the progressive grassroots. 

Event Date: 12-09-1941
Event Description: Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Assemblyman Nixon declares he is a consciences objector to the conflict. As a devoted Quaker, Nixon sees no reason to engage in a conflict, as he is a very devout Quaker and thus morally opposed to all armed conflict. “I love my country,” Assemblyman Nixon tells the California State Assembly, “But I can not support a war, one that will kill tens of thousands. I don’t care what the political ramifications of my decision are, all I know is that I must follow my conscience and object to yet another global conflict.”

Event Date: 4-17-1941
Event Description: Arguing on behalf of several Japanese-Americans, Richard Nixon begins a quixotic legal case against Executive Order 9066, the decision by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to intern all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to camps. “This is the same idea of our enemies in Germany and Italy,” Nixon tells the Los Angeles Times, “Separate ‘the enemy’ from ‘the real Germans’ or ‘real Italians’. This is no different, no matter how the president or the Congress or Governor Warren spins it.” Nixon’s legal challenges against internment will be ignored by the court, and eventually be dropped by the ACLU.

Event Date: 6-06-1942
Event Description: Assemblyman Nixon is defeated in the Republican Primary by Lawrence Wiggins, a conservative and pro-internment Whittier attorney. Nixon refused to run from his record of opposing interment and the war, leading to his 51-49% defeat in the primary. “This is a minor setback,” Nixon tells his supporters that night, “Tonight is just the first of many setbacks that I’ll face, and we’ll all face, while in public life. I welcome the setbacks, for no man should ever follow a leader who does not limp.”

Event Date: 11-04-1942
Event Description: Democrat Roger Cameron, Senior, is elected to Nixon’s Assembly seat, defeating Republican Lawrence Wiggins. Nixon did not endorse either candidate for the office, leading the Republican Party of California to label as a “traitor” to the party. Nixon, however, saw it differently. As he wrote in his memoirs, “Had I endorsed Wiggins, an arch-conservative and supporter of Japanese internment, I would have been a ‘traitor’ to my own ideals.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-1943
Event Description: California Governor Earl Warren appoints former Assemblyman Richard Nixon to the Governor Legal Counsel, a prestigious appointment for any lawyer. Nixon accepts the job, and he and wife move to Sacramento, California. Civil libertarians see the Nixon appointment as Governor Warren realizing the error that eh and the federal government made in supporting Japanese Internment.

Event Date: 4-15-1943
Event Description: Nixon begins an investigation into the effects of organized crime in the California oil business. The next two years of Nixon’s life is spent, ironically, working with federal prosecutors whom he had opposed in courts many times before. “Nixon’s War on Corruption”, as the newspapers calls it, roots out crime figures from Los Angeles to Oakland, leading the Los Angeles Times to crown Nixon, “Righteous Richard”, a nickname that would stick to him for the rest of his life.

Event Date: 12-26-1944
Event Description: Nixon receives a master degree in theology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). His master’s thesis focuses is “The Immorality of War as Seen by St. Thomas Aquinas.”

Event Date: 1-03-1946
Event Description: Nixon resigns from his post as counsel to the governor and returns to Whittier, California. Upon his return to the town, he declares his candidacy for his old State Assembly seat.

Event Date: 6-04-1946
Event Description: Richard Nixon wins the Republican primary for State Assembly with 67% of the vote, defeating conservative dentist Robert L. Wyckoff and World War II veteran Douglas L. Dent. Nixon’s positions on Japanese Internment have begun to be more accepted, and his war on organized crime has made him a household name.

Event Date: 11-05-1946
Event Description: In a national Republican wave, Richard Nixon is elected to his old seat in the California State Assembly, defeating two-term Democratic Assemblyman Roger Cameron. Despite a bad year for his party, Congressman Jerry Voorhis, a Democrat, is easily reelected to fifth term in Congress, besting Whittier businessman Scott Railsback by a 57-43% margin.

Event Date: 1-20-1947
Event Description: Richard Nixon is seated as a member of the Assembly Committee on Ethics, an important legal committee. Nixon will excel in this position, once again rooting out corruption in California business and government.

Event Date: 10-31-1947
Event Description: In his biggest find on the Committee on Ethics, Assemblyman Nixon unveils before a packed closing of the 1947 Assembly session that the California Branch of the United Auto Workers (UAW) is being used as a front for massive money laundering by Los Angeles based crime figures. This find doesn’t just lead to the arrests of more than 200 mob figures, but also a reworking of UAW state leadership.

Event Date: 6-22-1948
Event Description: Assemblyman Richard Nixon nominates Governor Earl Warren for President in a speech before the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In his speech, Nixon hails Warren as, “A Bull Moose Republican” and attacks a growing splinter movement in the GOP calling on the outing of domestic communists. “I see no reason why our freedom of speech and though should ever be banned or banished no matter what the thought,” Nixon tells the convention, amongst scattered boos and overwhelming cheers. Governor Thomas Dewey will win the presidential nomination, with Warren as his running-mate.

Event Date: 6-23-1948
Event Description: Assemblyman Nixon attempts to influence the California Republican delegation to oppose a plank to the Republican Platform calling for a, “Swift and steady crackdown on internal communists.” His attempts are rebuffed, and the plank is added.   

Event Date: 9-10-1948
Event Description: With no Democrat opposing him in his bid for a second term in the State Assembly, Assemblyman Nixon introduces “A Resolution Apologizing to Japanese-Americans.” Obviously, the bill focuses on internment and is very controversial. While many conservative Democrats and Republicans are appalled by the bill, with House Republican Leader Wiley Fisher calling it, “Anti-American,” progressives around the country rally around Nixon. Governor Warren, the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, does not comment on the issue, hurting the GOP Ticket amongst Japanese-American voters in his home state.

Event Date: 11-08-1948
Event Description: Assemblyman Nixon is reelected with 93% of the vote, with a Prohibition candidate and scattered write-ins taking the remaining votes. His overwhelming victory is not shared by Republicans across his home state or the nation. Democratic President Harry Truman is reelected in an upset, Congressman Jerry Voorhis is reelected to a sixth term in office and the Democratic Party takes control of the California State Assembly.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-03-1949
Event Description: Richard Nixon becomes the ranking Republican member in the Assembly Ethics Committee, as the former chair was defeated for reelection in November. He wants to investigate more corruption in organized labor and government contracts, but the pro-labor Democrats who now control the Assembly do not allow him to investigate. “Now began a very difficult time in my life,” Nixon wrote in his memoirs, “A time of boredom, frustration and helplessness.”

Event Date: 3-19-1949
Event Description: Assemblyman Nixon introduces the Health and Welfare for Children Act, creating a Britain-like government health care program for all children in California under the age of fifteen. “I have always seen a healthy life as a right,” Nixon tells the press, “I know that this will give many impoverished and poor children the means of achieving this right.”

Event Date: 4-03-1949
Event Description: Governor Warren endorses Assemblyman Nixon’s children health care initiative. “We can and should embrace this plan,” Warren tells the press, “At long last; good health can become a civil right for all our children.” The State House, however, is not embracing the bill like the Governor’s Mansion, as many Assemblymen are calling for Nixon to resign from the Republican Caucus.

Event Date: 5-20-1949
Event Description: After much arm twisting, promise making and speechifying, the Health and Welfare for Children Act narrowly passes the California State Assembly, with more than half of Republicans signing onto the act condemned by some on their side of the aisle as, “Soviet like.” The bill will narrowly pass the State Senate, and be signed into law by Governor Warren. “Even if I never succeed again in my life,” Assemblyman Nixon tells his wife Pat, “I will always consider myself very successful, just for this one act.”

Event Date: 2-01-1950
Event Description: Congressman Jerry Voorhis (Democrat of California) announces his candidacy for the open U.S. Senate seat, throwing his own seat in Congress into contention. Assemblyman Nixon jumps at the opportunity to take the seat, but is opposed by conservative State Senator Ronald Greenleaf, a World War II Veteran and supporter of Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade.

Event Date: 5-19-1950
Event Description: Assemblyman Nixon and Senator Greenleaf square off at a debate at La Habra College. Senator Greenleaf attempts to paint Assemblyman Nixon as, “Squishy soft on communism” and, “A socialist in our midst.” The senator also attacks Nixon for not serving in World War II, questioning the patriotism of “Slacker Richard.” Nixon’s response to Greenleaf’s assertions is quick, “Senator, there are different ways to love one’s country. You loved yours by serving in a war; I served mine by fighting for equality in the State House. Your attacks on my patriotism show that you have no respect for the differing ways to love your country, and no man who can not respect these different ways has any business serving in Congress.” The line works like a charm and is printed in all the major California newspapers.

Event Date: 6-12-1950
Event Description: By a 55-45% margin, Assemblyman Nixon wins the Republican nomination for Congress. On the Democratic side, attorney George Kasem wins the nomination over State Senator George Cortez. In the U.S. Senate Primary, Congressman Jerry Voorhis defeats Congresswoman Helen Gahagan-Douglas for the Senate nomination. On the Republican side, Lieutenant Governor Goodwin Knight easily defeats several perennial candidates to enter the race as the favored candidate to win. 

Event Date: 10-08-1950
Event Description: In an “October Surprise” the Democratic Party of California releases a vicious radio spot attacking Assemblyman Nixon for his, “Radical views on war and peace.” The spot asks the question, “Will a Congressman Nixon vote for our nation’s security?” The Nixon Campaign retaliates with their own radio spot pinpointing Nixon’s positions on defense spending, helping to blunt the powerful advertisement.

Event Date: 11-05-1950
Event Description: Following a vicious fall campaign, Assemblyman Richard Nixon is elected to the U.S. Congress by a 52-47% margin over Democrat George Kasem. “Let us go forth with progress!” Nixon declares in his victory address. Lieutenant Governor Goodwin Knight defeats Congressman Jerry Voorhis by a 58-42% margin in the race for the U.S. Senate.

Event Date: 1-03-1951
Event Description: Richard Nixon is sworn-in as a U.S. Congressman, dedicating his term to, “Protecting and defending those who can’t do it themselves.” His committees are small, such as the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, but he stays true to his vow, beginning with a resolution protecting the worker’s rights of California’s migrant agricultural laborers.

Event Date: 4-30-1951
Event Description: Congressman Nixon’s “A Resolution to Protect Migrant Laborers” finally passes the House Agricultural Committee, despite cries from House Republicans that the resolution should have been voted on by the House Labor Committee. Nixon realized this, but he knew that House Agriculture Chair Antonio M. Fernández (Democrat of New Mexico) was far more favorable to the resolution than House Labor Chair Herbert Bonner (Democrat of North Carolina).

Event Date: 5-03-1951
Event Description: Congressman Nixon meets with a group of community organizers from Arizona and California. Led by Los Angles United Farm Workers (UFW) leader Fred Ross, the group thanks Congressman Nixon for, as Ross says, “Giving a voice to those who could not find one.” Amongst the delegations is a 28-year old former migrant laborer turned activist César Chávez, who writes in his journal that, “Congressman Nixon lives up to his religion, he is indeed a true friend.” 

Event Date: 5-22-1951
Event Description: Congressman Nixon’s resolution passes the House of Representatives, with bipartisan support. “I don’t really see this as a pro-labor move,” House Minority Leader Joseph Martin (Republican of Massachusetts) tells the Washington Post, “I see it more as an anti-extortion move.” The resolution, as that, has no power to actually change the way migrant agricultural workers are treated by their employers, but it does open up the issue in America’s newspapers.

Event Date: 7-06-1951
Event Description: Governor Earl Warren demands an investigation into the treatment of migrant agricultural workers in California. Senators Hubert Humphrey (Democrat of Minnesota) and John Sherman Cooper (Republican of Kentucky) lead a Senate fact finding mission to Arizona, New Mexico and California to investigate the treatment of migrant agricultural laborers. “I’ve done one thing,” Congressman Nixon tells Paul Harvey, an ABC radio commentator, “I’ve opened the eyes of the world to the plight of many, which is always how you get major change.”

Event Date: 7-15-1951
Event Description:  With President Harry Truman sending troops to fight in Korea, Congressman Nixon begins an open protest against the war in the House of Representatives, refusing to leave the chamber until a formal vote is made on the police action. “I want a chance to vote no to yet another pointless conflict,” Nixon tells Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn from the House floor. Congressman James G. Donovan (Democrat of New York) joins Nixon in his protest, but nothing comes of it. Nixon, however, will march with protesters against the war in front of the White House.

Event Date: 1-12-1952
Event Description: Senator Pat McCarran (Democrat of Nevada) asks Congressman Nixon if he will co-sponsor The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a bill which has been in the works for many months now. Nixon’s fight for the migrant laborer has made him a rising star on the Hill, and the Democrats recognize that. Nixon asks Senator McCarran for a rough draft of the bill, and after reading it, can not go through with co-sponsoring it. “Congressman,” Senator McCarran tells Nixon, “This bill ends the Immigration Act of 1924, ending racial quotas in immigration law.” “It also gives the government the power to deport citizens for having different opinions,” Nixon tells the senator, “That is wrong. Remove that, and I will support the bill.” “That’s in there to win support from the far-right conservatives on the Hill,” Senator McCarran tells Nixon, “You know, the Tafts, the Hallecks and the Combes.” “Well, if you will give with one hand and take away with the other,” Nixon tells the senator, “I will not sign on.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-12-1952
Event Description: Senator Pat McCarran (Democrat of Nevada) asks Congressman Nixon if he will co-sponsor The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a bill which has been in the works for many months now. Nixon’s fight for the migrant laborer has made him a rising star on the Hill, and the Democrats recognize that. Nixon asks Senator McCarran for a rough draft of the bill, and after reading it, can not go through with co-sponsoring it. “Congressman,” Senator McCarran tells Nixon, “This bill ends the Immigration Act of 1924, ending racial quotas in immigration law.” “It also gives the government the power to deport citizens for having different opinions,” Nixon tells the senator, “That is wrong. Remove that, and I will support the bill.” “That’s in there to win support from the far-right conservatives on the Hill,” Senator McCarran tells Nixon, “You know, the Tafts, the Hallecks and the Combes.” “Well, if you will give with one hand and take away with the other,” Nixon tells the senator, “I will not sign on.”

Event Date: 3-03-1952
Event Description: Continuing his fight against Japanese Internment and its bitter legacy, Congressman Nixon introduces the Japanese-American Reimbursement Act of 1952. The act works hand-in-hand with American Japanese Claims Act", allowing Japanese Americans to apply for compensation for property losses which occurred as “reasonable and natural consequence of the evacuation or exclusion,” giving teeth to the bill. Nixon’s bill will allocate funds, up to ten million dollars, for all money lost because of internment. The bill is attacked on both sides of the aisle as a “give away” and “high way tax robbery.” “It’s funny,” Congressman Nixon tells a meeting of the ACLU in Washington, D.C., “Many of these men on the Hill who voted for the internment call this bill ‘unfair’ and ‘robbery.’ Where was this outrage when internment was first introduced in 1942? Was that not ‘unfair’ and a ‘robbery’ against innocent Japanese Americans?”

Event Date: 4-15-1952
Event Description: In a scathing letter, Congressman Nixon sends President Truman a purple heart that was sent to him by one of his constituents. “See the effects of your war, Mr. President,” Nixon writes, “War costs sons, and I know you’ve never had one, and neither have I, the difference is that I have never opted to cost someone their only son.” The letter is published in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Times, much to the embarrassment of President Truman, and the lauding of Congressman Nixon.

Event Date: 5-07-1952
Event Description: The Japanese-American Reimbursement Act of 1952 is defeated by the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by arch-conservative Congressman Jesse M. Combs (Democrat of Texas). Only three committee members vote for the bill, giving it a near unanimous defeat. “Just another setback,” Congressman Nixon tells the press, “One of many I have suffered, and one of millions more I will encounter.”

Event Date: 6-09-1952
Event Description: In another vicious Republican Primary, Congressman Nixon defeats retired army intelligence officer Patrick J. Hillings by a 52-48% margin. Captain Hillings had attacked Nixon’s patriotism and called him a “give away artist” for his Japanese-American Reimbursement Act. In the end, Nixon’s strong support from his hometown of Whittier gave him the victory, but the narrow margin of victory shows Congressman Nixon that he is not strongly supported by his own party. Democratic College Professor Woodrow Wilson Sayre will be Nixon’s opponent in November.   

Event Date: 7-09-1952
Event Description: The Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, nominates General Dwight David Eisenhower for President. The hero of World War II easily defeated Senator Robert Taft and Governor Earl Warren, Nixon’s choice, for the nomination. Congressman Nixon was not given the privilege of nominating Warren for president, as in 1948, due to his “radical” persona.

Event Date: 7-10-1952
Event Description: The battle for the Vice-Presidency begins at the GOP Convention, with Governor George T. Mickelson (South Dakota), Governor Harold Stassen (Minnesota), Governor Earl Warren (California), Senator John S. Cooper (Kentucky) and Senator Goodwin Knight (California) receiving nominations. Congressman Nixon was not even considered by any delegate for the second job. After three ballots, the GOP selects Governor Mickelson as General Eisenhower’s running-mate, appealing to the conservative wing of the party.

Event Date: 9-11-1952
Event Description: While celebrating his and his wife’s 14th anniversary, Congressman Nixon receives a phone call from actor and activist Ronald Reagan, who is working for the Eisenhower Campaign, asking him to make a speech defending General George Marshall from attacks by Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican of Wisconsin). “The general trusts you,” Reagan tells Nixon, “He sees you as a man who is a straight shooter and most of all, you’re already seen as a crackpot so you can break with the GOP line.” “I prefer the term ‘maverick’,” Nixon tells Reagan, and then he agrees to make the speech.

Event Date: 9-30-1952
Event description: In a speech that is generally ignored by the press, Congressman Richard Nixon attacks McCarthyism and defends General Marshall at a GOP Fundraiser in Los Angeles. “I hear more and more everyday that communism is our greatest threat,” Nixon tells the meeting, “That is a lie. Communism may be a threat, but McCarthyism is the far greater domestic crisis we face today.” Nixon gores on to outline how Americans now fear saying things that will make tem seem like they are “red”, and decries the loyalty oaths that government workers have to take. “Where has the constitution gone?” Nixon wonders out loud, “Why don’t our government leaders know it anymore? Why does General Marshall, a man who has served his country since the day he was born, have to defend his patriotism against a one trick pony senator?” The speech is smothered by the press, as it does not paint the picture that they want, but civil libertarians applaud the address. “The Los Angeles Address” will be read by civil librarians, constitutional scholars and liberal minded students in the future, and be applauded as a speech that was full of not just oratory, but foresight.

Event Date: 11-06-1952
Event Description: The Eisenhower-Mickelson Ticket wins a landslide election victory over the Democratic team of Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson and Alabama Senator John Sparkman.

Dwight Eisenhower/George Mickelson (R): 442 EV; 55.2% of the PV
Adlai Stevenson/John Sparkman (D): 89 EV; 44.3% of the PV
Others (Prohibition, Socialist Labor, etc.): 0 EV; 0.5% of the PV

Congressman Nixon, despite some of the controversy he brought upon himself, is reelected by a 61-38% margin over Democrat Woodrow Sykes and a Prohibition opponent.
 

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-05-1953
Event Description: With the GOP once again in control of the House of Representatives, Congressman Nixon requests a Chairmanship of a sub-committee. He has his eye on the Chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Commerce Justice Science and Related Agencies, but the conservative Speaker of the House Joseph Martin (Republican of Massachusetts) has no interest in giving, “That damned radical Quaker,” a chairmanship.

Event Date: 2-10-1953
Event Description: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, two convicted communist spies, make their final appeal to President Eisenhower to grant them clemency. President Truman had refused, but Congressman Nixon is sure that the, “Far more even headed Eisenhower will give them their lives.” Nixon, along with former Congressman Vito Marcantonio (Democrat of New York), former Vice-President Henry Wallace (Democrat of Iowa), physicist Albert Einstein and hundreds more march on the White House calling out for clemency. “Let us save lives not take them,” Congressman Nixon tells the protesters, “The communists deal with people by killing them, are we no better than communists?” President Eisenhower does not commute their sentences, with Nixon falling into a dark depression over the failure of Eisenhower to, “Do what was right and just.”

Event Date: 10-09-1953
Event Description: “He has a national name for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I believe we need on the Court,” says President Eisenhower as he nominates Governor Earl Warren for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Congressman Nixon, who at one time would have celebrated the nomination, instead offers much criticism for the governor. “The governor’s record on civil liberties and civil rights have been shaky at best,” Congressman Nixon tells a meeting of the Hiram Johnson Society, a progressive civil liberties organization in San Francisco, California, “He supported Japanese Internment, and will not admit he was wrong. He has been opposed to voter rights laws and equal pay for equal work. All in all, he has a checkered past on constitutional liberties.” Nixon’s “Checkered Speech” makes the California GOP go mad with anger. “I will vote for the governor,” Senator Goodwin Knight (Republican of California) tells the Los Angeles Times, “And Mr. Nixon can go to Hell and you quote me.” “That’s just fine and dandy,” Nixon would respond, “Coming from the White Knight of the Special Interests.”

Event Date: 11-11-1953
Event Description: In a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Congressman Nixon commemorates Veterans’ Day by calling for unilateral nuclear disarmament between the United States and the Soviet Union. “We must promise our children something better than mutually assured destruction,” Nixon tells a crowd of anti-nuclear weapons activists, “We need to give our children a society that does not hang from a cross of iron.” After his speech, Congressman Nixon introduces The Freeze Resolution, calling for a halting of the production of all nuclear weapons in the United States. 

Event Date: 12-05-1953
Event Description: The House Un-American Affairs Committee (HUAC) begins investigating Congressman Nixon for his support of unilateral nuclear disarmament. Speaker of the House Martin laughs at the nuclear freeze resolution, calling it, “A trite idea.”

Event Date: 12-31-1953
Event Description: The freeze Resolution, introduced late in the first session of the 84th Congress, is pigeon holed before any committee can even hold a hearing on the subject. “This will not die,” Congressman Nixon tells the New York Times, “I’ll introduce it next session. The freeze will be debated.”

Event Date: 1-20-1954
Event Description: On the one year anniversary of the Eisenhower Administration, Congressman Nixon once again introduces The Freeze Resolution, determined to get it into open debate on the House floor. House Armed Service Chairman Usher Burdick (Republican of North Dakota), the eloquent 77-year old House antique, states that the resolution will be considered, “But I can’t assure anyone it will pass.”

Event Date: 4-24-1954
Event Description: At long last, hearings are held at the House Armed Service Committee over Congressman Nixon’s Freeze Resolution. To the surprise of the resolution’s opponents, several prominent scientists speak in favor of a moratorium on nuclear weapons. Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves, two of the leading members of the Manhattan Project, both ask the Armed Service Committee to adapt the resolution. “In all humanity,” Oppenheimer pleads with the committee, “Stop the creature we created.” Albert Einstein, the famed physicist, sends a letter to be read before the committee. “Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent,” Eisenstein writes, “It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.” This favorable testimony will not last.

Event Date: 5-01-1954
Event Description: On May Day, a Communist holiday, Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson attacks the Freeze Resolution as, “A bid to sponge away our national security.” Secretary Wilson states that the mere discussion of freezing all production of nuclear weapons in the United States is, “Giving Khrushchev a reason to really celebrate this May Day.” General Maxwell D. Taylor, a former Commandant of West Point, states that the U.S. Military is, “Already is strapped for materials. Don’t take away the one weapon that keeps us powerful, and is also affordable.” “A humorous thing,” Congressman Nixon declares on the floor of the House, “We can have an Armageddon, and it won’t even cost us a trillion dollars. I guess that’s the kind of savings the Pentagon wants to hear.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 5-08-1954
Event Description: The Freeze Resolution is shot down in committee, as is the fate of most of Congressman Nixon’s resolutions. “I sometimes see myself as a man ahead of my time,” Nixon tells his wife Pat.

Event Date: 6-02-1954
Event Description: Congressman Nixon wins the Republican Primary in California’s 25th Congressional District by a 64-26% margin. Conservative Republicans ran banker Prescott O. Lieberg against Congressman Nixon, but he never caught on as a viable alternative to the ever raucous Nixon. Father John S. Sobieski, a Catholic priest, wins the Democratic nomination to oppose the liberal Republican Nixon.

Event Date: 11-02-1954
Event Description: Congressman Richard Nixon is reelected by a 65-35% margin over Father John Sobieski, the Democratic nominee. Many political analysts are amazed by Nixon's major wins in both the primary and the general election. “I voted for Nixon,” many voters tell the Los Angeles Times, “Because he is so loud and so idealistic.” “In Congress, few personalities shine brighter than Nixon,” CBS’s Walter Cronkite states on “You Are There”, “But he seems to show no interest in higher office. That is an admirable quality in any local political leader, and his constituents seem to be responding in kind.”

Event Date: 11-21-1954
Event Description: Congressman L. Brooks Hays (Democrat of Arkansas), the Chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, releases a report that Congressman Nixon, while not a Communist spy, has, “Cavorted with left-winged and pro-Soviet elements.” The report cites Nixon’s friendship with former State Department Official Owen Lattimore, his support of the progressive Hiram Johnson Society and his continual support of unilateral nuclear disarmament, which is, “Supported by Rosenberg like spies and red sympathizers.” The report, in the end, is a flop, with no major newspapers running with the story. “They can’t kick Nixon around!” the congressman tells a meeting of the ACLU in Washington, D.C.

Event Date: 1-06-1955
Event Description: With the Democratic Party once again in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Nixon is sent to even further obscurity when the GOP leadership knocks replaces him with Congressman Paul Cunningham (Republican of Iowa) as ranking member on the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management. Congressman Nixon, now facing oblivion, falls into a deep depression.



Event Date: 2-14-1955
Event Description: While driving home from his office, Congressman Nixon is struck from the side by a drunk driver. The crash kills the drunk driver, and leaves the congressman with serious head trauma and a fracture to his spine. “We can not be sure if the congressman will recover,” a doctor at George Washington University Medical Hospital tells the press, “All I can say is that a lot of hope will be needed.”

Event Date: 2-20-1955
Event Description: Congressman Nixon comes out of a comma, with his wife Pat and five-year old daughter Tricia standing at his bedside. “We thought we lost you,” Pat tells her husband. “I’ve never been a quitter,” Nixon says back. Over the course of the day, Nixon is visited by ACLU attorneys, African-American Congressional pages and reporters whom he was always kind to. Also, that night, House Minority Leader Joseph Martin and House Minority Whip Leslie Arends (Republican of Illinois) visit the injured congressman. “We’ve been praying for you, Dick,” Martin tells Nixon. “Which way?” is Nixon’s Wilsonian response.

Event Date: 4-21-1955
Event Description: With his family at his side, Congressman Nixon is wheeled out of George Washington University Hospital on a wheelchair. While his mental faculties have returned, he is still seriously injured from the car crash. “I am returning home to Whittier to rest,” Nixon tells the press as he leaves the hospital, “But to quote MacArthur, ‘I shall return.’”

Event Date: 9-10-1955
Event Description: Congressman Nixon arrives on the House floor, surprising Republican leaders. “I may be on crutches,” Nixon bellows from the floor, “But I can still stand up for what’s right.” Congressman Nixon cats a “no” vote against the Housing Act of 1955. This act reorganizes America’s residential zones into “green zones”, for high property values and “red zones”, for low property values. “I can see a back door segregation bill a mile away,” Nixon tells his colleagues, “This bill will simply make it impossible for poor Americans, many of them racial minorities, from purchasing homes in ‘green zones’ and ever escaping poverty.” Nixon’s voice is heard by enough Representatives that the bill is voted down by a 230-189 vote, with sixteen absent.

Event Date: 1-08-1956
Event Description: The United Farm Workers (UFW) of California meets with Congressman Nixon, and tells him that they want him to oppose Senator Goodwin Knight in the 1956 Republican Senate Primary. “You are the most decent man in Congress,” activist César Chávez tells Nixon, “You are needed in higher office.” “I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir,” Nixon tells Chávez, “My work in the House is not near completed, and furthermore, after the accident there is no way the missus would allow me to run. She’d tell me, ‘but your health’ and ‘but your family’, and that is exactly why I can’t run for higher office. I have a responsibility to my family right now, and that is where I stand.” “I’ll give you one thing,” Chávez tells the congressman, “You are a family man, through and through. Giving up potential power to watch out for your family, which is to be respected.”

Event Date: 5-09-1956
Event Description: Congressman Nixon returns to the House of Representatives, retaking his old seat following his accident.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 6-03-1956
Event Description: Congressman Nixon easily wins the Republican Primary for Congress, with no Republican opposing him this time around. No one wanted to challenge Nixon because of his accident, fearing they would appeal callous. “I guess getting into a car accident was a good career move after all,” Nixon quips. His Democratic opponent will once again be Father John Sobieski.

Event Date: 8-21-1956
Event description: At the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, Congressman Nixon creates a stir when he begins the “Dump Mickelson” Campaign. Mickelson, a conservative, has butted heads with Nixon over nuclear disarmament and labor relations. Congressman Nixon holds up Governor Christian Herter (Republican of Massachusetts) as the, “real choice for the Eisenhower Republicans.” Former Governor Harold Stassen (Republican of Minnesota) and former Senator John Cooper (Republican of Kentucky) join Nixon in his movement, but is fails to stop the convention from nomination the Eisenhower-Mickelson Ticket for another four years in the White House.

Event Date: 9-01-1956
Event Description: In an interview with TIME Magazine, Congressman Nixon offers his endorsement of the Democratic nominee for president, former Governor Adlai Stevenson (Democrat of Illinois). “Unlike President Eisenhower,” Nixon tells the magazine, “Governor Stevenson has endorsed nuclear proliferation and negotiations with the Soviet Union to freeze the production of such weapons. President Eisenhower’s own Defense Secretary, Chuck Wilson, told me to my face that his government will build thousands more of such bombs. That is unacceptable, and I have to out proliferation over party.”

Event Date: 9-03-1956
Event Description: The House Republican Caucus begins to hold hearings on whether or not to expel Congressman Nixon from their ranks. “His out of control behavior has gone too far,” House Minority Leader Martin tells the press, “We may finally be rid of Nixon today.” Congressman Nixon, to his credit, joked about the preceding, telling the press, “I’d rather have a conscience than a caucus.”

Event Date: 9-20-1956
Event Description: In a close vote, the House Republican Caucus votes 105-98 to allow Nixon to stay in the Republican Caucus. The closeness of this vote, however, shows Nixon that his antics in Congress have made him a less than trusted figure in his own party’s ranks.

Event Date: 11-06-1956
Event Description: President Dwight David Eisenhower and Vice-President George Mickelson are reelected in a landslide over former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee.

Dwight Eisenhower/George Mickelson (R): 457 EV; 57.3% of the PV
Adlai Stevenson/Estes Kefauver (D): 77 EV; 41.9% of the PV
Others (State’s Rights, Socialist Labor, etc.): 0 EV; 0.8% of the PV

In a rout, Congressman Richard Nixon is reelected to the U.S. Congress, taking 68% of the vote in his reelection bid. Despite his latest antic of endorsing the Democratic candidate for president, Congressman Nixon was the only serious candidate in the race, as Father Sobieski effectively ended his campaign in October following the death of his wife. Despite this fact, Sobieski still took 28% of the vote, with Prohibition Party nominee, dentist Robert L. Wyckoff, taking 4% of the vote.

[PBrunsel]

Event Description: 2-10-1957
Event Description: Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson goes before the House of Representatives requesting major spending increases for the armed forces. Congressman Nixon, while not a member of any committee related to defense, opines on ABC’s “Issues and Answers”, “I feel that the Pentagon is a monster that is never full. You could give it a billion dollars a day and it would find someway to misuse the funds and cry for more.” Nixon’s Quaker roots are also shown when he tells the audience, “When you give money to machines of war, our leaders will have no choice than to try to get their money’s worth from them.”

Event Date: 8-30-1957
Event Description: During floor debate over the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act, Congressman Nixon attempts to resurrect the long dead Freeze Resolution. Nixon introduces an amendment to the bill ending all testing of long and short range nuclear missiles on land, and ending all production of them after the year 1985. While Nixon and many other progressive members of Congress see the amendment as reasonable, it is voted down by a wide margin. “I see Mr. Nixon,” Congressman Charles Hoeven (Republican of Iowa) tells the press, “As a loud nuisance most of the time.”

Event Date: 9-09-1957
Event Description: Congressman Richard Nixon proudly votes for the Civil Rights Act of 1957, though he does admit that it is lacking in many ways. “The bill says it wants to let all African-Americans vote,” Nixon tells the House while speaking on the floor, “But it gives the Congress no power to make sure that happens. It outlaws lynching, but gives the police no power to arrest lynch mobs. In short, this is, as Lincoln once said, ‘As thin as a stew made from the shadow of a crow that starved to death.’”

Event Date: 10-21-1957
Event Description: A coalition of Southern Democrats, led by Senator J. Strom Thurmond (Democrat of South Carolina), fails to kill the Civil Rights Act of 1957, but they do amend it to make it even more useless. “Those jokers in the Senate are the real enemies to this country,” Congressman Nixon tells his wife.

Event Date: 12-26-1957
Event Description: With conservative Republicans in his home district breathing down his neck and a long hard primary and general election before him, Congressman Nixon announces he will not seek a fifth term in 1958. However, he does not retire from public life. “Today,” Congressman Nixon tells his constituents from his home in Whittier, “I declare my candidacy for Attorney General of California.”

Event Date: 3-20-1958
Event Description: The National Education Defense Act is passed by the House of Representatives, with Congressman Nixon voting against it. “This bill wants more of our children to become scientists to make satellites and missiles to create an arms race in space,” Nixon declared in a speech from the House floor, “So this bill proposes an education for death. That’s it, plain and simple.”

Event Date: 6-05-1958
Event Description: Congressman Nixon wins the California Republican Primary for Attorney General, defeating State Senator Lars Gilchrist, a conservative who attacked Nixon as, “A joke congressman.” Nixon’s primary victory comes from major wins in metropolitan centers, where minority voters voted in the Republican Primary simply to vote for Nixon. Nixon’s 58-42% win in the primary is seen as a major victory for the controversial congressman. Democratic Circuit Judge Stanley Mosk and Conservative Party nominee Dean Taylor also are vying for the position of Attorney General. In the 25th Congressional District, State Assemblyman Prescott O. Lieberg, a conservative banker, defeats attorney Arthur Ransom, an ally of Nixon, in the Republican Primary. Attorney and 1950 nominee George Kasem is the Democratic nominee for the congressional seat. In the primary for governor, Governor Harold Powers, a liberal Republican, narrowly defeats Senate Minority Leader William Knowland, winning just 52% of the vote to Knowland’s 48%. Attorney General Edmund “Pat” Brown, the Democratic nominee, is considered the front-runner in the governor’s race.   

Event Date: 7-21-1958
Event Description: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) does not endorse Congressman Nixon, but the apparently nonpartisan group comes very close to one. “We would urge the voters of California,” an ACLU memorandum published in the Los Angeles Times reads, “To remember who in Congress looks out for the minorities in society, and has been a champion of the law and justice since his days as a young defense attorney.”

Event Date: 9-18-1958
Event Description: While at a debate for California Attorney General, Congressman Nixon tells the audience that he would, “Not hesitate to protect protesters from the National Guard through the powers of the law.” The congressman explains that protesting should be a legally protected right, and not a, “Special privilege as has been the opinion of our State House.” Governor Harold Powers, the liberal Republican running for reelection, defends Nixon’s comments, applauding, “A real civil rights candidate for attorney general.”

Event Date: 11-04-1958
Event Description: Bucking the overwhelmingly Democratic year, both in California and the United States as a whole, Congressman Nixon is elected Attorney General of California. Adding to the surprise, Nixon wins by a 58-41% margin over Judge Stanley Mosk and a third-party challenger. Exit polling shows that self styled “liberals” voted for Nixon by a 63-37% margin, while self styled “conservatives” only voted for him by a 48-46% margin. The Democrats, however, win the governorship and all other state wide offices. In CA-25, Democratic attorney George Kasem defeats Republican Assemblyman Prescott O. Lieberg by less than 2,500 votes.     

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-1959
Event Description: Richard Nixon is sworn-in as California Attorney General, declaring in a brief acceptance address, “The goal of my post will be simple: justice for one and all.”

Event Date: 3-03-1959
Event Description: Attorney General Nixon petitions Governor Pat Brown to commute the sentences of 500 death row inmates in California. In a report released by the Department of Justice, these 500 inmates may have been falsely convicted after reviewing new evidence. These inmates will be saved from the electric chair, leading to much praise of Nixon by the press.

Event Date: 5-12-1959
Event Description: In an address before the California State Assembly, Attorney General Nixon calls for the end of the death penalty in California. “We must stop this practice of barbarism,” Nixon tells the legislators, “The death penalty has murdered the innocent and let the guilty receive an escape on the taxpayer’s dime. This practice must be ended, and I ask a state assemblyman, any one, to introduce a bill ending this practice.” Nixon does not get his wish fulfilled, but the speech does give him national headlines.

Event Date: 10-26-1959
Event Description: Attorney General Nixon endorses Governor Nelson Rockefeller (Republican of New York) for President of the United States. “Governor Rockefeller is the progressive voice our nation needs for the 1960s,” Nixon states at a Republican fundraiser in Oakland, California. The race for the GOP Nomination in 1960 is becoming a real horse race, as Vice-President George Mickelson is proving to be a far less popular figure nationally than his chief, President Eisenhower. Governor Rockefeller, Senator Barry Goldwater (Republican of Arizona), Secretary of State Christian Herter (Republican of Massachusetts), Senator Goodwin Knight (Republican of California) and Governor George Clyde (Republican of Utah) have all entered into the contest against Vice-President Mickelson, the former governor of South Dakota.

Event Date: 2-15-1960
Event Description: In a standoff with the Chief of the California State Patrol, Attorney General Nixon argues that random police checks of automobiles violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. “Random searches of cars violate the constitutional protection against, ‘unreasonable searches and seizures’,” Nixon argues, “Without a just cause to search vehicles, patrolmen have no right to look through a person’s car.” The case of Nixon v. California State Patrol begins.

Event Date: 5-24-1960
Event Description: The California Supreme Court rules with Attorney General Nixon that random vehicle checks by the California State Patrol are illegal under both state and federal constitutional laws. The State Patrol, however, begins appealing the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, believing it will give them a more favorable ruling.

Event Date: 7-25-1960
Event Description: At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, Attorney General Nixon nominates Governor Nelson Rockefeller for President of the United States. “Let’s go with a proven winner and a proven leader,” Nixon urges his fellow Republicans, “Let’s ride with Rocky to victory in November!” Nixon’s speech also calls on the Republican Platform Committee to call for a nuclear freeze and an abolition of the death penalty. These statements lead to strong booing from conservative delegates, who have lined themselves up behind Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. When their boos begin to drown out Nixon’s speech, the Attorney General reminds the crowd, “This is still a free country, even if Senator Goldwater would like it differently.”

Event Date: 7-28-1960
Event Description: The Republican National Convention selects Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York for President and former Senator Goodwin Knight of California for Vice-President. Knight’s nomination came as a surprise to Nixon, who thought that Rockefeller would never accept the archconservative Knight as a running-mate. The Rockefeller-Knight Ticket, comprised of the two largest states in the union, is seen as the strongest possible ticket to take on the Democratic team of Senator John F. Kennedy (Democrat of Massachusetts) and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson (Democrat of Texas).

Event Date: 8-19-1960
Event Description: Attorney General Nixon and Senator Claire Engle (Democrat of California) begin an investigation into illegal child labor being utilized in major urban centers in California. “Many of the stories I have heard coming out of Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento and San Diego,” Nixon tells the press, “Sound like they were taken right from an Upton Sinclair novel.”

Event Date: 9-26-1960
Event Description: Governor Rockefeller and Senator Kennedy meet for the first ever televised presidential debate, in which both men perform very well. The urbane Governor Rockefeller is able to shake much doubt about his inexperience through strong arguments and a mastery of facts about foreign policy. Senator Kennedy is also able to make people see him as presidential. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t up there,” Nixon tells his wife while watching the debates, “I would probably come off looking like some poorly shaven mad man.”

Event Date: 11-08-1960
Event Description: Governor Nelson Rockefeller defeats Senator Kennedy in the closest presidential election of all time in respect to the popular vote.

Nelson Rockefeller/Goodwin Knight (R): 271 EV: 50.1% of the PV
John F. Kennedy/Lyndon Johnson (D): 245 EV; 49.8% of the PV
Unpledged State’s Rights Electors: 19 EV; 0% of the PV
Others (Prohibition, Socialist Labor, etc.): 0 EV; 0.1% of the PV

In CA-25, Congressman George Kasem, a Democrat, proves to be a one-term wonder, as he is defeated by Republican National Committee Member John H. Rousselot by a 59-41% margin.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-03-1961
Event Description: President-elect Rockefeller’s transition team offers Attorney General Nixon the position of Chief White House Counsel, but he turns down the offer. “I have too much I have to do in California,” Nixon tells the Rockefeller representatives.

Event Date: 1-20-1961
Event Description: Nixon attends the Inauguration of President Rockefeller, applauding the loudest when President Rockefeller states in his Inaugural Address, “No person should be treated with a lack of dignity, no matter their race, creed, religion or gender. That is not the American way or the way of decency.”

Event Date: 4-11-1961
Event description: The Engle Report is released to the Senate, showing that farm implement companies and agricultural product producers throughout California are employing undocumented immigrants and, in some extreme cases, children as young as ten years old. “This is unacceptable,” Senator Engle tells his colleagues, “And I have called upon California Attorney General Richard Nixon to prosecute all companies involved in this ring if exploitation.”

Event Date: 4-20-1961
Event Description: More than forty companies are simultaneously sued by the State of California for employing undocumented workers and using illegal child labor. “Today the rule of law returns to California commerce,” Attorney General Nixon declares, and the biggest legal case in California history begins.

Event Date: 10-31-1961
Event Description: After more than six months of litigation, the state of California has successfully sued every company for more than $30 million, resulting in firing of management. Criminal procedures have also been made against the owners of every company involved, leading the California State Legislature to pass the first laws in American history against employing undocumented workers. “Mr. Nixon, through his tough legal work and never ending belief in the justice system,” anchorman Walter Cronkite tells his news audience that night, “Has made history in law, and will continue to do so, and that’s the way it is.”

Event Date: 1-05-1962
Event Description: “I will not seek the Governorship of California this year,” Attorney General Nixon tells the press, “I will, however, seek reelection as Attorney General of California.” With Nixon withdrawing his name from the running, two men emerge as the front-runners for the Republican nomination for California Governor: liberal republican San Francisco Mayor George Christopher and conservative Republican Congressman Robert Wilson.

Event Date: 3-12-1962
Event Description: In Nixon v. California State Patrol, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that random automobile searches violate the Fourth Amendment, ending such random checks across the nation. “Today was an important day for civil liberties,” Nixon tells the press, “But the work does not end today, this is merely yet another beginning.”

Event Date: 4-07-1962
Event Description: Senators Everett Dirksen (Republican of Illinois) and Hubert Humphrey (Democrat of Minnesota) introduce the Civil Rights Act of 1962, which is supported by President Rockefeller. The Civil Rights Act of 1962 is a blanket civil rights act, ending Jim Crow Laws in the South and all types of racial segregation throughout the United States. While liberals like California Attorney General Richard Nixon cheer the act, the United States Senate will prove to be a much more difficult hurdle for the president to jump. 

Event Date: 5-24-1962
Event Description: Mayor George Christopher and Attorney General Richard Nixon make a joint campaign appearance at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, with both focusing on the issue of civil rights. With President Rockefeller recently introducing the Civil Rights Act of 1962, Nixon tells the Republican function, “Civil Rights and equality are the principles of the Republican Party, let us embrace them and reject the reactionary nonsense being spewed by some in the party.” Former Senator William Knowland (Republican of California), seeing this as an attack on him and the conservative wing of his party, Knight comments to the Los Angeles Times, “I can see why they call that place the Cow Palace, I’ve never heard more bull in my life.”

Event Date: 6-08-1962
Event Description: Primary day in California is a red letter day for the liberal Republican movement championed by Attorney General Nixon. Nixon wins 98% of the vote in the Republican Primary for Attorney General, as he faced no opponent in the primary. His Democratic opponent is San Francisco District Attorney Thomas Lynch, who defeated former Judge and 1958 nominee Stanley Mosk by a 66-34% margin in the Democratic Primary. In the Republican Primary for Governor of California, liberal San Francisco Mayor George Christopher bests conservative Congressman Robert Wilson by a 52-48% margin. Christopher will face a tough campaign against popular Democratic Governor Pat Brown. In the U.S. Senate primaries, liberal Republican U.S. Senator Thomas Kuchel easily wins his primary against conservative businessman Tom Walker, a perennial candidate for elected office. On the Democratic side, State Controller Alan Cranston dispels of State Senator Richard Richards by a 71-29% margin.

Event Date: 9-14-1962
Event Description: By a 63-37 vote, The Civil Rights Act of 1962 passes in the U.S. Senate. With the House of Representatives passing the act three days ago, President Rockefeller signs the bill into law. “The time of equality has come,” President Rockefeller declares as he signs the Civil Rights Act, with California Attorney General Richard Nixon standing behind him applauding as loud as anyone.

Event Date: 10-25-1962
Event Description: President Rockefeller faces the Cuban Missile Crisis, and reacts to it in a peaceful way. Through a strategic blockade of the isle of Cuba, Soviet missile transport ships turn around; leading them to, “blink.” This masterful handling of the crisis shoots up the Presidents approval ratings to 71%, the highest of his administration, and bolsters the Republican Ticket nationally.

Event Date: 11-06-1962
Event Description: The California Republican Party wins several strategic victories in the 1962 Midterm Elections. San Francisco Mayor George Christopher defeats Governor Pat Brown by a 51-48% margin. Attorney General Richard Nixon defeats District Attorney Thomas Lynch by a 62-38% margin. The Republican Party retakes the California State Senate, giving them control of the State Legislature. Senator Thomas Kuchel is reelected by a 58-42% margin over State Controller Alan Cranston.

Event Date: 12-25-1962
Event Description: Governor-elect George Christopher and Attorney General Richard Nixon attend a Christmas Day party at the California Republican Party headquarters. “Things are looking bright,” Christopher tells Nixon. “They seem so now,” Nixon tells Christopher, “But things can change easily, and God knows they will.”

Event Date: 4-12-1963
Event Description: Senator John F. Kennedy (Democrat of Massachusetts) declares his candidacy for the 1964 Democratic nomination, declaring he is the candidate who will, “Stand up to the Russians and the spread of communism.” Kennedy attacks President Rockefeller as, “A grade ‘A’ appeaser of communist aggression.” Kennedy also calls for anti-communist allies of the United States to join it in the intervention in Vietnam.

Event Date: 7-18-1963
Event Description: The Vietcong overrun the city of Saigon, South Vietnam, forcing the American backed capitalist government into exile. The Rockefeller Administration had cut off nearly all funding for the corrupt regime, leading to the collapse. Conservative Republicans and Democrats, along with anti-communist hawks, howl against Rockefeller, with some attacks on the president being quite brutal. “That man in the White House,” Congressman Richard Roudebush (Republican of Indiana) tells the press, “Ought to be impeached.”

Event Date: 10-21-1963
Event Description: Governor George Christopher and Attorney General Richard Nixon announce that they will begin formulating a comprehensive Bill of Rights for undocumented workers. “These residents of California are mistreated more than any human being should ever be,” Governor Christopher tells the state, “Thus Mr. Nixon and I will be working to protect them.” This move is attacked by conservatives as giving aid to those who break the law, a comment in which Attorney General Nixon responds, “I do not see how any human being can be called ‘illegal.’”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 2-15-1964
Event Description: Senator Kennedy wins the New Hampshire Primary with 66% of the vote, defeating Senator Hubert Humphrey (Democrat of Minnesota), Senator Henry Jackson (Democrat of Washington) and Governor George Wallace (Democrat of Alabama). On the Republican side, President Rockefeller wins just 58% of the vote, to Senator Barry Goldwater’s (Republican of Arizona) 40% and 2% for Congressman John Ashbrook (Republican of Ohio). This lackluster performance shows the president, and Richard Nixon, that the Republican Party is shifting strongly to the right.

Event Date: 5-05-1964
Event Description: The Undocumented Laborers’ Rights Act is voted down by the California State Assembly, with only thirty-five Republicans voting for the bill. “Our party is in a strong shift,” Nixon tells the governor, “And it’s not towards are brand of republicanism.”

Event Date: 6-04-1964
Event Description: Primary day in California shows that the Republican Party unity of 1962 has evaporated in less than two years. In the GOP U.S. Senate Primary, former Congressman Robert Wilson, who was defeated in the 1962 GOP Primary for Governor, defeats liberal actor George Murphy by a 51-49% margin. Democratic Senator Pierre Salinger, who was appointed to the Senate in 1961 following the death of Senator Claire Engle, is defeated for renomination by the man who appointed him, former Governor Pat Brown. Brown defeats Salinger by a 54-46% margin. 

Event Date: 7-16-1964
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, nominates Senator John F. Kennedy for President and Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson for Vice-President. The ticket is a “Military Hawk” ticket, with both nominees declaring that President Rockefeller had, as Kennedy states in his acceptance address, “Sold out freedom in Southeast Asia and around the globe.”

Event Date: 7-20-1964
Event Description: With the Democratic Party adopting a platform plank endorsing and supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1962, Southern Democrats replay the 1948 election by creating a State’s Rights Democratic Ticket and nominating Senator J. Strom Thurmond (Democrat of South Carolina) for President. Senator John Stennis (Democrat of Mississippi) is selected by the party to serve as running-mate. While neither senator accepts these nominations, the State’s Rights Democratic Party manages to get their names on the ballots in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Event Date: 8-21-1964
Event Description: The Republican National Convention opens in San Francisco, California, with the civil war in the California GOP being broadcasted around the country. As Governor George Christopher gives his welcoming address, conservative Republican delegates from California boo and hiss until he is forced to step down from the podium. Liberal Republicans are just as vehement, with them storming out of the Cow Palace when conservative actor Ronald Reagan takes the stage to deliver a speech in favor of the insurgent candidacy of Senator Goldwater.

Event Date: 8-22-1964
Event Description: Attorney General Nixon throws gas on the fire while giving a speech seconding the nomination of President Rockefeller for a second term. “Rocky has fought against the reactionary spirits of some in this party!” the colorful Nixon declares, “He fought for civil rights when Goldwater’s goons were telling him no. He fought against increased military spending when Ashbrook and his laccolites were telling him not to. He kept are nation and young men out unneeded conflicts and foreign wars while [Senator Robert P.] Griffin’s guys were weighing down on him. President Rockefeller stood up and told them all, ’No!’ We need that spirit in the White House; we need Rocky in the Oval Office!” While Republicans tear each other down from inside the convention hall, President Rockefeller and Vice-President Knight are nominated for another four years in office.

Event Date: 8-23-1964
Event Description: Amongst a divided convention, President Rockefeller makes his acceptance address. “I realize that I was not the first choice amongst some of those at this convention,” President Rockefeller tells the 239 Goldwater and 31 Ashbrook delegates; “I hope to gain your support during the campaign.” He also thanks his longtime supporters, like Nixon, “To those who have always supported me, I will never go back on my belief in civil rights, common sense military spending and a foreign policy that honors human life.” The convention leaves just as divided as it began, with President Rockefeller trailing Senator Kennedy by a 52-45% margin in the latest Gallup Poll. “As a praying man I’ll hope for a miracle,” Nixon tells his wife after the convention, “But I know sometimes the Lord has other plans than a miracle in my favor.”

Event Date: 9-13-1964
Event Description: At a campaign rally for President Rockefeller in Los Angeles, California, Attorney General Nixon encounters a large group of hecklers in the crowd. When Nixon calls Senator Kennedy, “A man running on war, an endless war against a vague ‘red enemy,” hecklers from the John Burch Society begin to yell, “Comrade Nixon.” “Well, everyone,” Nixon wryly states, “It looks like the folks from Nuremburg have come to California.” The Nazi comparison is yet another wedge in the Republican Party of California, separating liberals and conservatives even more.

Event Date: 10-10-1964
Event Description: President Rockefeller and Senator Kennedy meet for the first presidential debate of the 1964 Election, with the two men arguing most about the ongoing civil war in Vietnam and how the U.S. should respond to the crisis. “I have stood, and will always stand, by the assertion that a defeat in Vietnam to communist forces would mean humiliation for the United States,” Senator Kennedy tells the audience, “There is a domino effect in South east Asia that will cause every nation in that important region to fall to Soviet style communism.” “Senator,” President Rockefeller responds, “That theory is full of more holes than your father’s financial transactions.” This personal attack on Kennedy’s father does not go over well with the public, and Kennedy wins the crucial first debate.

Event Date: 11-03-1964
Event Description: Senator John F. Kennedy defeats President Nelson Rockefeller in a rematch of the 1960 Election. Senator Kennedy, running on a “Peace Through Strength” platform, wins a comfortable victory over the liberal incumbent.

John F. Kennedy/Henry Jackson (D): 331 EV; 51.1% of the PV
Nelson Rockefeller/Goodwin Knight (R): 172 EV; 44.8% of the PV
J. Strom Thurmond/John Stennis (SRD): 35 EV; 3.4% of the PV
Others (Prohibition, Socialist Labor, etc.): 0 EV; 0.7% of the PV

In California, the divided Republican Party suffers massive election defeats from local elections to the United States Senate. Former Governor Pat Brown is elected to the senate over former Congressman Robert Wilson, by a 59-41% margin. The Democratic Party also retakes the State Senate, and comes within five seats of claiming the State Assembly. “I feel like a captain washed up on an island,” Nixon tells Governor Christopher at a Republican function on Election night, “My ship was sinking, there was nothing I could do about it and, in the end, I was sent packing by the wreckage.”

Event Date: 11-05-1964
Event Description: Attorney General Nixon begins a long, self imposed exile from private life. His long battle with depression, which he was able to overcome most of his life, returns with renewed vigor following the collapse of his political organization. It will take him months to return to work, and to find a new passion in life.

Event Date: 1-07-1965
Event description: A small delegation of California State Assemblymen and Senators arrive at the home of Attorney General Nixon in Whittier, California. Lead by Assemblyman Bobby Duncan, a Republican, they tell Nixon that they are interested in introducing a bill outlawing the death penalty in California. Immediately, the light returns to the Attorney General’s eyes. “For years I’ve looked for men with spines,” Nixon tells them, “Men who would bolt their own party to do what was right. Today, I can thank God that such men really do exist.”

Event Date: 1-30-1965
Event Description: The Death Penalty Abolition Act is introduced in the California State Assembly, amidst mixed reactions. While many in the chamber support the bill, others are vehemently opposed to it. “This bill,” the Los Angeles Times opines, “May be the most polarizing piece of legislation introduced to the State Legislator in fifty years.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 2-22-1965
Event Description: Attorney General Nixon testifies before the California State Assembly, outlining the inefficiencies and expenses of the death row system. “The appeals alone make the death penalty a burden on our budget and legal system,” Nixon tells the legislators, “The death penalty is not just expensive and inefficient, however, it is also inhumane.” Nixon’s budget and legal arguments are not argued with, but his “inhumane” comment is. “Mr. Nixon does not seem to care about the victims of murder, and rape,” Assemblyman Michael Villines states on the Assembly floor, “Is it ‘humane’ to pardon the crimes of murderers?” “I have always lived by the belief,” Nixon responds, “That, as the Bible states, ‘Revenge is mine says the Lord.’”

Event Date: 3-09-1965
Event Description: U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell attacks the Nixon backed death penalty ban as, “Another attempt by local legislatures to destroy U.S. law and institutions.” Bell, who was appointed to appease Southern Democrats, further attacks Nixon as, “Another West Coast ‘do-gooder.’” “I welcome these attacks,” Nixon jokes in an interview with the San Francisco Courier, “If a guy like Bell doesn’t like me, I must be doing something right.”

Event Date: 3-21-1965
Event Description: Governor George Christopher, who has been quiet on the issue of the death penalty so far, comes out for the bill. “I feel that this legislation will do wonders for the California legal system,” Christopher declares at a press conference, “It will stop needless appeals backlog, and that alone is a good reason to support it.” When asked by a reporter if he agrees with Attorney General Nixon’s comment that the death penalty is, “inhumane,” the governor responds, “That is for priests to decide, not politicians.”

Event Date: 4-02-1965
Event Description: The California State Assembly passes the Death Penalty Abolition Act by a narrow margin, but the far more liberal State Senate will embrace the bill and pass it by an overwhelming margin in a week.

Event Date: 4-10-1965
Event Description: In a ceremony surrounded by protesters outside of the Capitol in Sacramento, Governor Christopher signs the Death Penalty Abolition Act, making California the first state to outlaw the death penalty in the United States. “Today is a day for celebration,” Attorney General Nixon tells the press, and as a strict Quaker, celebration is something Nixon rarely encourages.

Event Date: 8-10-1965
Event Description: Conservative actor Ronald Reagan announces that he will challenge Governor George Christopher for the Republican nomination for Governor of California. “I represent the decent citizens of California,” Reagan tells the people of California in a televised announcement, “The people who are opposed to the radical agenda of Governor Christopher, including his abolition of the death penalty and his continual support of murders and thugs over the rights and safety of law abiding citizens.” It is true that the crime rates have gone up under Governor Christopher, but much of that has been caused by the growing population of California. None the less, Reagan’s “law and order” campaign catches on with many Middle Class voters who are turned off to Christopher and Nixon’s liberal views. These voters are called by Reagan: “The great silent majority.”

Event Date: 9-08-1965
Event Description: Filipino American farm workers initiate the Delano grape strike on to protest for higher wages, César Chávez and the UFW support them. Attorney General Nixon also defends their strike, calling it, “A human rights crusade.”

Event Date: 9-22-1965
Event Description: President Kennedy and the Democratic Congress approve of sending American forces to Vietnam to prop up the abandoned American ally in South Vietnam. Since 1963, the capitalist government has been fighting a constant defensive war from the hamlet of Loc Nihn. “Today we begin the offensive against communism once again,” President Kennedy declares, “We will defeat the enemies of freedom in Southeast Asia, and show the Communist nation where America really stands in the battle of our generation.”

Event Date: 9-30-1965
Event Description: In San Francisco, California, 30,000 citizens take to the streets in protest against the Kennedy Administration’s re-ignition of hostilities in Vietnam. Attorney General Nixon marches in the streets with the protesters, including among them famed actor Henry Fonda and Professor John Lilly. “The president has signed the death sentences for countless young men,” Nixon tells a crowd in an impromptu speech, “We have to end this war before it can be started again.”

Event Date: 11-03-1965
Event Description: Gallup releases damming news for Governor Christopher, and Nixon’s liberal Republicans. The governor’s approval ratings stand at 43% with 55% of Californians disapproving of his administration. Republicans in California also state that they prefer Ronald Reagan as the 1966 Republican governor nominee by a 58-37% margin. Further damaging for Nixon is that 61% of Californians polled support repealing the Death Penalty Abolition Act. In once sign of good news, however, Attorney General Nixon’s approval ratings stand at 64%, and in a hypothetical GOP Gubernatorial Primary with Reagan, Nixon only trials by a 52-44% margin.

Event Date: 11-09-1965
Event Description: Seeing the writing on the wall, Governor George Christopher announces he will not seek a second term as Governor of California. This opens the window for Nixon to throw his hat into the race.

Event Date: 11-12-1965
Event Description: Attorney General Richard Nixon announces his candidacy for Governor of California. He wanted to do it the day before, but he was advised that due to his pacifist beliefs, he should not make the announcement on Veterans’ Day. “I seek the governorship to revolutionize the office,” Nixon declares from Whittier City Hall, “Not to return to the status quo.” Nixon outlines that as governor he will institute migrant worker’s protection laws, fight to increase the minimum wage, fight for prison reform, continue regulation of the growing California oil industry, protect small business and farmers from corporations and, “Keep human life first and foremost in my administration.” Nixon vs. Reagan: the battle of titans has begun.

Event Date: 11-25-1965
Event Description: Delano Grape Company is sued by Attorney General Nixon for violating congressional statues on payment of migrant agriculture workers. The statues, written and introduced by then Congressman Richard Nixon, are used by the federal government in a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Delano Grapes, which they will win.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-09-1966
Event Description: It is reported by the U.S. Department of Justice that California has seen a 15% increase in murders and a 21% increase in car thefts since 1964, an amazing number for Attorney General Nixon to deal with in his bid for governor. “Mr. Nixon runs as a ‘reformer with results,” Ronald Reagan tells a rally in San Diego, “But all his and Governor Christopher’s ‘reforms’ have ended up with are terrible ‘results.’ As governor, I will return the rule of law to Sacramento.” Nixon argues that Reagan is, “Manipulating the facts to match his own, preconceived version of the truth.”

Event Date: 2-13-1966
Event Description: As the first American combat troops touch down in South Vietnam, Nixon attacks the, “Notion of President Kennedy and Mr. Reagan that the only way to deal with problems is through violence.”

Event Date: 3-03-1966
Event Description: In a speech from Oakland, Attorney General Nixon strikes back at Reagan’s constant talk of, “Doubling the rate of convictions in California.” “The Constitution of the United States does not just say ‘law and order’ or ‘double the rate of convictions,’” Nixon tells his audience, “The Preamble of the Constitution states, ‘to establish justice,’ and that means fair trials and respect for all human beings. If Mr. Reagan does not know this passage, then I will personally give him a copy of the document.”

Event Date: 3-17-1966
Event Description: Senator Barry Goldwater (Republican of Arizona), the front-runner for the 1968 Republican Presidential nomination, makes a campaign stop with Ronald Reagan in Bakersfield, California. “The Republican Party is throwing off the big spending ways of it’s past,” Senator Goldwater tells the cheering rally, “And it is embracing a new, conservative future.” Former President Rockefeller, who is stumping for Nixon, tells the Los Angeles Times, “Senator Goldwater and Mr. Reagan represent a major step backwards, back into the reactionary days of the 1940s, not a step forward.”

Event Date: 5-10-1966
Event Description: Attorney General Nixon and Mr. Reagan square off in a televised debate at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The debate was expected to be a mismatch: Nixon, an experienced debater who has been involved in public life since 1943, against Reagan, a career actor and radio announcer who never did debate in school and was making his first bid for public office. The commentators were right, it was a mismatch, but in Reagan’s favor. The debate, focusing on the issues of crime and rise of protests against the Vietnam intervention, is dominated by the charismatic Reagan. Nixon, though a strong public speaker, lacks the charismatic quality of Reagan. In pure desperation towards the end of the debate, Nixon asserts that, “Mr. Reagan will be controlled by reactionary puppet masters as governor. He’s a man who has never had an original idea in his life, and he is trying to win off of his face and voice, and that is sick and wrong and terrible!” The usually controlled Nixon looked like, as one voter comments to the Los Angeles Times, “Like a crazed man,” as he said that comment. Reagan simply shrugs off the statement, “There you go again, Dick.” “It looks like a star has been born in California tonight,” a local news reporter states after the debate “And it’s not Mr. Nixon.”

Event Date: 5-13-1966
Event Description: Following a defeat in the televised republican debate, Attorney General Nixon approves of something he’s never done before: a negative campaign attack. Three television ads attack Ronald Reagan as, “A puppet of bug business and out of state interests.” The advertisements have an effect on the race, narrowing the latest Los Angeles/Literary Digest Poll to a 46-44% Reagan lead. “I feel terribly dirty,” Nixon tells his wife Pat after letting the advertisements air.

Event Date: 6-03-1966
Event Description: Primary day in California is not a good one for Richard Nixon. Ronald Reagan defeats the attorney general by a 55-45% margin, far larger than anyone expected. On the Democratic side, California House Speaker Jesse Unruh defeats Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, State Assemblyman George Wagner and two other mi or candidates in a primary just as bitter as the GOP battle. After delivering his concession address from Hoover Hotel in Whittier, Richard Nixon goes to bed. “We’ll get back in the arena some day,” Nixon tells his supporters, and himself.

Event Date: 6-15-1966
Event Description: In a gesture of party unity, Attorney General Nixon appears at a Reagan for Governor Rally in San Bernardino. “This state has thrived under Republican leadership,” Nixon tells the crowd, “It is imperative that this state remains under Republican control.” It is interesting to note, however, that never once in his entire address did Nixon ever mention Reagan, the candidate he was supposedly campaigning for.

Event Date: 9-11-1966
Event Description: The California Supreme Court upholds the Death Penalty Abolition Act, ruling that the law is not just constitutional, but mandated by the constitution. “This is quite the wedding anniversary gift,” an elated Nixon tells his wife.

Event Date: 10-09-1966
Event Description: In an interview with the Sacramento Bee, Nixon apologizes for his behavior during the Republican Gubernatorial Primary. “I acted in a way I never thought I could,” Nixon tells the paper, “I approved of negative attacks, smeared my opponent, mocked his views and even called him ‘sick’ on statewide television. That was an inappropriate way to act, especially to a gentleman like Mr. Reagan.” He goes on to say that running for a major office like governor, “Brings out the worst in people, and I wish I could say I was an exception, but I am not.” Nixon also endorses Reagan for governor in the interview, helping to cement the party behind the former actor in the race for governor.

Event Date: 11-02-1966
Event Description: The Republican Party makes major gains in California and around the nation, as is the case in most midterms with the opposition party in the White House. Ronald Reagan defeats Jesse Unruh by a 53-46% margin, much larger of a margin than was expected. The Democrats, however, pick-up the California Attorney General’s seat, as San Francisco District Attorney and 1962 nominee Thomas Lynch defeats Los Angeles District Attorney Evelle Younger, a Nixon ally.

Event Date: 1-10-1967
Event Description: Outgoing Attorney General Richard Nixon attends the inauguration of Governor Ronald Reagan, shaking hands with the man and wishing him, “All the luck in the world.”

Event Date: 1-30-1967
Event Description: Nixon is hired as a Professor of Pre-Law and Political Theory at his Alma Matter, Whittier College. “I can think of no place I would rather want to teach,” Nixon tells the Whittier Post-Gazette, and that comment is true as he was offered professorships at Harvard University, UCLA and Duke Law School.

Event Date: 4-26-1967
Event Description: Nixon formally endorses Governor William Scranton (Republican of Pennsylvania) for President of the United States, becoming Scranton Campaign Chairman for California.

Event Date: 7-01-1967
Event Description: A national draft is begun to support what has now become the Vietnam War, and Professor Nixon comes out in full force against the government action. “I will do all in my power to stop the draft,” Professor Nixon tells the California ACLU, “Not that I have much power, but still I have to try.”

Event Date: 9-15-1967
Event Description: While leading a protest against the Vietnam War in Los Angeles, Nixon encourages several young men to burn their draft cards. “The bums who gave you these things won’t serve in the war themselves!” Nixon tells the draftees, “So why should you? Burn these cards, not the people of Vietnam!” This call to burn draft cards is heard around the country, and it becomes a rallying cry for the anti-war movement.

Event Date: 9-30-1967
Event Description: Protest writer Phil Ochs, who had marche4d in Mississippi for the 1962 Civil Rights Act, releases his latest song, “Here’s to the State of Richard Nixon.” The song honors Nixon’s fight against injustice, the death penalty and the War in Vietnam. The song is sung by young protesters across the country, making Richard Nixon an almost household word.
 
Event Date: 12-31-1967
Event Description: Leading a mass rally on New Years Eve in Washington, D.C., Professor Nixon is arrested by Capitol police for, “Inciting riots.” Nixon will be released due to a lack of evidence for holding, but as the man who invented “Draft Card Burning”, Nixon will be kept under close surveillance by the government.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-18-1968
Event Description: The FBI begins wiretapping Professor Nixon telephone in his office at Whittier College. U.S. Attorney General Bell also adds Nixon to a list of, “Supposed Communists in Academia.”

Event Date: 1-30-1968
Event Description: With American forces, aided by the powerful American air force, closing in on overrunning the entire north, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese launch the Tet Offensive. The battle will rage until September, and be rebuffed in each of the fifteen areas selected for the offensive.

Event Date: 4-03-1968
Event Description: Professor Nixon releases his first book, “The War for Peace.” The book discusses how the Vietnam Peace Movement is, “A much larger movement than one against a war in Southeast Asia.” Nixon outlines how it has become a counter-cultural movement, and how that movement must now be controlled so it does not kill itself. Nixon outlines that the “Hippy Movement” should reject drug usage and “free love” and instead embrace liberal Christianity and aim for social justice. Nixon’s book is endorsed by Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior, and César Chávez, Nixon’s longtime friend and ally.

Event Date: 4-04-1968
Event Description: Professor Nixon and Dr. King meet in Memphis, Tennessee, to organize a garbage worker’s strike. The strike begins, and both men leave the city unharmed, except for counter-protesters throwing some garbage on both of them. “I was hit with more garbage than that when I ran for governor,” Nixon tells King, “I also think I threw more than that too.”

Event Date: 7-06-1968
Event Description: A mass meeting of “Nixonites” rally at UC-Berkley. “Nixonites” are members of the anti-war Hippy movement who have embraced the philosophy of Richard Nixon. While Professor Nixon, who teaches at Whittier College, does not attend the rally, but sends his words of encouragement.

Event Date: 8-06-1968
Event Description: The Republican National Convention in Miami, Florida, nominates Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona for President and Governor James Rhodes of Ohio for Vice-President. This ticket is a victory for the conservative wing of the Republican Party. “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!” Senator Goldwater tells the nation in his acceptance address, “Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Professor Nixon, who did not attend the convention, tells his wife Pat, “Well, we just lost the election.”

Event Date: 10-31-1968
Event Description: In a Halloween Night march, Professor Nixon and 100,000 others march on City Hall in Los Angeles, demanding an end to the Vietnam War. The UFW, Dr. King and “The Nixonites” all join in on the march, the largest in California history.

Event Date: 11-05-1968
Event Description: President John F. Kennedy wins a comfortable reelection victory over Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater’s conservative message was not rejected as much as President Kennedy’s successes were embraced by American voters.

John F. Kennedy/Henry Jackson (D): 396 EV; 56.1% of the PV
Barry Goldwater/John Rhodes (R):142 EV; 42.6% of the PV
Others (Prohibition, Socialist Labor, etc.): 0 EV; 1.3% of the PV

In California, former State Controller Alan Cranston, the Democrat, defeats conservative State Instructor of Public Instruction Max Rafferty, who defeated liberal Republican Senator Thomas Kuchel in the primary, by a six-point margin. With this defeat, the liberal Republican movement in California has all but been ended.

Event Date: 3-11-1969
Event Description: Senator Mike Gravel (Democrat of Alaska) meets with Professor Nixon at his office in Washington, D.C. Senator Gravel asks Professor Nixon, now a very popular protest leader, to assist his staff in writing a bill ending the draft. Nixon, who had wanted to do that while he was in Congress but never did, heartily accepts the offer.

Event Date: 7-04-1969
Event description: Professor Nixon addresses a two-hundred thousand strong protest on The Mall in Washington, D.C. against the Vietnam War. “The president and the newspapers say we are winning in Vietnam,” Nixon tells the protesters, “That is not the way the hundreds of boys brought home in body bags everyday from the rice paddies feel about the war!” In all honesty, however, the war is coming to an end, with Secretary of Defense Omar Nelson Bradley, a Hero of World War II, overseeing a, “Smart and quick war.”

Event Date: 8-15-1969
Event Description: The Treaty of Paris is signed, with the North Vietnamese accepting defeat in the Vietnam Conflict. With the Vietcong all but destroyed and most key officials in the North Vietnamese government killed in bombing raids, the Communists simply could not keep up the struggle. The treaty allows the United States to maintain a permanent base on the 17th Parallel. This move enrages the Soviets, but is accepted by the North Vietnamese government. “Today the war in Vietnam has been concluded,” President Kennedy tells the nation, “It ended in victory, and not humiliation, for the forces of freedom.”

Event Date: 8-20-1969
Event Description: In an interview with the New York Times, Professor Nixon states that he is, “Overjoyed,” with American victory in Vietnam and, most of all, which the war is ending. “I never said I was rooting for America to lose the war,” Nixon tells the paper, “I was rotting for the war to end, and it looks like we get a victory and an end.”

Event Date: 12-31-1969
Event Description: A group of California Republicans, led by San Francisco College Professor S.I. Hayakawa, ask Professor Nixon if he is interested in opposing Senator Pat Brown (Democrat of California) in the 1970 U.S. Senate election. “No, gentlemen,” Nixon tells the delegation, “I do not feel I could unite the party, or even be supported by our own governor. Above all, I will not run a negative campaign, and that is what would be needed to defeat Senator Brown.” Liberal Republicans in California will turn to Congressman Paul “Pete” McCloskey, who will announce his candidacy for the seat in January.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-10-1970
Event Description: Professor Nixon accepts the position of legal advisor to the Paul McCloskey for Senate Campaign. Also today, State Supervisor of Public Instruction Max Rafferty, the 1968 Republican senate nominee, enters the race for senate in 1970.   

Event Date: 3-16-1970
Event Description: The National Draft Abolition Act is introduced into the United States Senate by Senator Mike Gravel. The bill, written in part by Professor Richard Nixon, finds wide support in the U.S. Senate.

Event Date: 5-05-1970
Event Description: The U.S. Senate passes the National Draft Abolition Act by a wide margin, with both of California’s senators (Cranston and Brown) voting for the bill. The U.S. House of Representatives is also expected to pass the bill, but stiff conservative opposition will stall the bill for many months.

Event Date: 6-08-1970
Event Description: Conservative Max Rafferty defeats Congressman Paul McCloskey by a 54-46% margin in the Republican Primary for Senate. Running alongside popular conservative Governor Ronald Reagan on the primary ballot, Rafferty was able to overtake McCloskey, who was seen as flakey by many California Republicans. Senator Pat Brown is challenged by Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, and bests the perennial candidate by a 68-32% margin. In the race for governor, Governor Reagan and former Speaker Unruh will face off in a rematch.

Event Date: 9-30-1970
Event Description: The U.S. Department of Justice sues the state of California over its abolition of the death penalty. The case will be argued before the California Supreme Court, with Richard Nixon, a licensed attorney, arguing for the State of California.

Event Date: 11-03-1970
Event Description: “The Six Year Curse”, though not as strong as for other presidents, affects President Kennedy in a mild way. The Republican Party picks up five seats in the U.S. Senate, but not in California. Supervisor of Public Instruction Max Rafferty is narrowly defeated by Senator Pat Brown by a 50-48% margin, the closest senate margin in California since the 1930s. Governor Reagan is reelected over former Speaker Jesse Unruh by a 59-41% margin, establishing him as the leader of the conservative movement in the United States.

Event Date: 12-09-1970
Event Description: The case of Fitzhugh v. California hears its first arguments before the Supreme Court of California. John “Jack” Fitzhugh argues for the U.S. Department of Justice, declaring that, “The death penalty abolition is based on a faulty principle. That is that the death penalty is, ‘cruel and unusual punishment.’” Richard Nixon, arguing for the state of California, argues that not only is this principle constitutionally valid, “It is mandated by the Constitution.”

Event Date: 12-10-1970
Event Description: The House of Representatives passes the National Draft Abolition Act, with President Kennedy signing the bill, much to the surprise of his conservative allies. “I never thought,” Professor Nixon tells a group of students at Whittier College, “That I would see the day when the forced conscription of citizens, the very staple of war for eons, would be eradicated from my country. Today is a day of happiness.”

Event Date: 2-03-1971
Event Description: The California Supreme Court rules in favor of Nixon and California in Fitzhugh v. California. This ruling allows states to have individual laws outlawing the death penalty. The Department of Justice declares it will take the case to the Supreme Court, to, as Fitzhugh states, “Find real, unbiased justice.”
 
Event Date: 4-10-1971
Event Description: In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Professor Nixon declares that he would support Governor Reagan for president if he won the Republican nomination, “But I would not vote for the man in the primary.” Nixon himself is apart of the “Draft Ford for President” movement, urging House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford (Republican of Michigan) to seek the presidency in 1972.

Event Date: 6-08-1971
Event Description: House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (Republican of Michigan) announces that he will not seek the presidency in 1972, declaring, “There are few jobs I would want less than that of President of the United States.” However, he does not rule out in his after address press conference that he would not be interested in the Vice-Presidency.

Event Date: 10-10-1971
Event Description: The Supreme Court accepts the case of Fitzhugh v. California, allowing a debate over the death penalty to rise to national prominence. Richard Nixon will once again be representing the state of California, and John Fitzhugh arguing for the Department of Justice. The case will hear opening statements in the case in February 1972.

[PBrunsel]

Event Description: 2-17-1972
Event Description: “If the death penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment,” councilor Richard Nixon tells the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Potter Stewart, “Then our government has lost the true meaning of the Eight Amendment.” This impassioned defense is heard well by the more liberal Potter Court, and Mr. Fitzhugh’s strong defense of the practice is largely unaccepted in the opening arguments.

Event Date: 3-23-1972
Event Description: In a 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court declares in Fitzhugh v. California that the death penalty is unconstitutional under the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments. Chief Justice Potter Stewart, as one of the majority, wrote that “These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual.” Professor Nixon, with tears in his eyes, tells the press as he leaves the Supreme Court building, “God, and the law, be praised, and that is all that has to be said.”

Event Date: 7-11-1972
Event Description: The Republican National Convention in Miami, Florida, nominates Governor Ronald Reagan for President and House Minority Leader Gerald Ford for Vice-President. In the primaries, the likable Reagan steamrolled to victory over former Vice-President Goodwin Knight (Republican of California), Governor John Rhodes (Republican of Ohio), Governor George Romney (Republican of Michigan), Senator Hiram Fong (Republican of Hawaii) and Senator John Tower (Republican of Texas). “I see an America led astray by big government policies and a nanny state gone mad,” Governor Reagan tells the cheering Republican convention, “I see a Supreme Court which legislates from the bench to the most radical aspects of our society, and I do not like what I see. I, do, however see something bright: I see change coming!” Richard Nixon, who attended the convention as a Hiram Fong Delegate from California, tells a friend, “Compared to Vice-President Jackson, Reagan is far better, even if he opposes my defense before the court.” 

Event Date: 8-21-1972
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention, also in Miami, Florida, nominates Vice-President Henry Jackson of Washington for President and Congressman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas for Vice-President. “I told you,” Nixon tells his wife as he watches the convention at home in Whittier, “The Democratic Ticket would be ten times worse than Governor Reagan.”

Event Date: 9-03-1972
Event Description: The Arab Oil Embargo and a growing national debt caused by the Vietnam War and the Kennedy War on Poverty leads to an economic collapse on Wall Street, nicknamed by economists as, “Black Monday.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average, dropping over the last two weeks, tumbles 900-points, the most in one day ever. This economic panic all but ensures the presidency for Governor Reagan.

Event Date: 9-17-1972
Event Description: Professor Nixon is awarded an honorary degree by the University of California- Berkley, for, “Dedication to the causes of peace and justice in society.” “I don’t know what to say,” Professor Nixon tells the attendees at his honorary dinner; “Except I wish everyone could receive such a degree, as it would mean all had decided to live lives of peace and justice.”

Event Date: 10-28-1972
Event Description: Guru Ran Dass, the unofficial leader of the “Nixonites”, visits the Nixon home, being welcomed warmly by the Nixon Family. He tells them that the writings of Nixon in “The War for Peace” stopped him from experimenting with psychogenic drugs, and instead using his position as a professor to lead a group of students to an impoverished village in South America, serving as missionaries and social workers. “It was this trip that taught me that the cultural movement we are in today is not about drug usage,” Dass tells Nixon, “It is about making life truly easier for others, and not just giving off a façade of better life through a hazy drug ridden curtain.” Te guru also tells Nixon he has a wide following throughout the country, and that the “Nixonites” will be ready to work for him whenever he, “Comes out of his hermit home in Whittier.”

Event Date: 11-07-1972
Event Description: Governor Ronald Reagan wins a wide victory over Vice-President Henry Jackson in the presidential election.

Ronald Reagan/Gerald Ford (R): 365 EV; 56.2% of the PV
Henry Jackson/Wilbur Mills (D): 173 EV; 43.4% of the PV
Others (Socialist Labor, Libertarian, etc.): 0 EV; 0.4% of the PV

Event Date: 11-22-1972
Event Description: More than two-hundred “Nixonites” begin a camp out in front of the Reagan home in an affluent Sacramento Suburb, all demanding that Professor Nixon be appointed to a cabinet post or an ambassadorship in the upcoming Reagan Administration.

Event Date: 12-03-1972
Event Description: Wanting to get Nixon and his supporters out of his hair, President-elect Reagan announces that Professor Nixon will be given the position of Ambassador to South Vietnam. Nixon accepts, “The singular honor.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-20-1973
Event Description: Ambassador-designate Richard Nixon attends the inauguration of President Reagan, where the conservative new president declares, “The answer to the problem is not government, government is the problem.” “Well governments can be evil,” Nixon tells Secretary of State-designate Alexander Haig, “But they also can do a world of good. I hope President Reagan does not forget this.”

Event Date: 2-02-1973
Event Description: The United States Senate approves of Richard Nixon as Ambassador to South Vietnam by an 85-13 margin. Senator J. Strom Thurmond (Republican of South Carolina) was one of the leaders against the nomination, declaring that Mr. Nixon was, “Far too liberal a thinker to represent the United States in any place outside of la-la land.” Senator Robert F. Kennedy (Democrat of Massachusetts) defended Nixon, however, calling him, “The man of the right temperament to have in such a stormy area of the world.”

Event Date: 2-12-1973
Event Description: Ambassador Nixon and his wife Pat arrive in Saigon, South Vietnam. “In this once war torn land of Vietnam,” Nixon tells the papers as he enters his office, “I hope we can see a new birth of peace under my time as ambassador.” Outgoing Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker tells Nixon, “I fear that will be unlikely, as Laos and Cambodia seem to be the new communist interests in the region.”

Event Date: 4-15-1973
Event Description: The Communist Pathet Lao begins their civil war against the Royalist Government in Laos once again, using the holiday of Bun Pi Mai (Laotian New Years) as the date to begin again their war against the government. “It is imperative that the United States and South Vietnam oppose the communist rebels in Laos,” President Reagan tells the nation, but Ambassador Nixon disagrees, though not in public.

Event Date: 5-01-1973
Event Description: 10,000 American and South Vietnamese soldiers cross the southern border of Laos, determined to support the anti-communist Royalist Government. “If we allow Laos to fall to Communism,” President Reagan tells the nation, “Then the rest of Southeast Asia will be put under the red flag of Marxism-Leninism.” Ambassador Nixon laughs at the “Domino Theory” but does not attack the intervention into Laos, as he feels that the Reagan Administration is as opposed to prolonged war as he is.

Event Date: 5-06-1973
Event Description: American Troops capture the communist held city of Salavan, Laos, with the backing of local militias. This victory is seen by Ambassador Nixon, as he writes in an op-ed for the New York Times, “The Laotian people rejecting the Pathet Lao, as the South Vietnamese rejected the Vietcong.”

Event Date: 8-19-1973
Event Description: Laotian monks meet with Ambassador Nixon, warning him that the Royalist Government of Laos is, “No friend to the servants of the cloth.” The monks outline to the Nixon the atrocities that the Laotian secret police have performed against members of the Hindu and Christian faiths alike. “Brining of churches, murdering of priests and desecration of our most holy cities,” one monk tells Nixon, and these stories surprise the ambassador. While he knew that the regime was politically repressive, he had no idea that it attacked churches and holy men.

Event Date: 8-21-1973
Event Description: In a memorandum to President Reagan, Nixon describes what the monks told him two days ago about the human rights abuses of the Royalist Government of Laos. While the State Department assures Nixon that they will investigate these claims, Nixon’s appeal for the U.S. government to withdraw support for the regime is ignored.

Event Date: 11-05-1973
Event Description: Communist forces are defeated outside of the city of Savannakhet, once a hotbed for leftist activity. American involvement, however, is increasing, with an additional 2,500 American soldiers joining the fight, all being plucked from a base in The Philippines. “More and more,” Nixon writes to former Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Junior, “It appears as if the administration has devoted itself to a full-scale land war in Laos. This is a very, very dangerous policy, and one I really do not support.” However, Nixon keeps these opinions to his letters to his close friend.

Event Date: 1-01-1974
Event Description: The Royal Laos Army begins a brutal crackdown on “left-winged sympathizers” in the Laotian capitol of Vientiane, resulting in the systematic murder of more than five-hundred people. “I am sickened that our government can support such butchers,” Ambassador Nixon writes his daughter Tricia, “Furthermore, I am disgusted that I can not say a thing about it, without being labored a ‘communist; myself.”

Event Date: 1-20-1974
Event Description: Ambassador Nixon begins “Operation Apple”, trying to raise funds for a decent public school in every city and village in South Vietnam. “This is goal that all civilized societies have,” Nixon tells reporters, “Every child should be given the chance to have a decent education, and I will do all I can to assure that ever child in South Vietnam be given that right.” This effort also takes Nixon’s mind off of the ongoing conflict in Laos. 

Event Date: 3-03-1974
Event Description: Cambodia flares into civil war, as the left-winged Khmer Rouge against the democratic Lon Nol government. While this civil war is not seen as important as the battle in Laos, the Pentagon begins sending aide to the Lon Nol government, but no U.S. troops.

Event Date: 6-12-1974
Event Description: The nations of France, the United Kingdom, West Germany and Japan pledge a total of $12.5 million dollars to “Operation Apple”, with the United States sending $15 million to the worthy educational cause. “With all the money spent around the world on armaments,” Ambassador Nixon tells the press, “It is a pleasant surprise to me that so much could still be given for education.”

Event Date: 7-09-1974
Event Description: Ambassador Nixon digs the first shovel of gravel for a new modern public school to be built in the city of Dac To, South Vietnam. The agricultural city, which recently was given a modern water treatment center, welcomes the new public school with a massive celebration. “I can sure you that the kids of this town won’t be as happy,” Nixon quips as the first beams are set up for the school.

Event Date: 8-21-1974
Event Description: President Reagan signs a massive tax cut at his ranch in California, with Governor Robert Finch (Republican of California) attending the ceremony. While Governor Finch is a social moderate, he is as economically conservative as President Reagan and Senator Goldwater. “Governor Finch” writes conservative commentator William Safire, “May one day set the political scene aflame with his unique brand of conservatism.”

Event Date: 10-30-1974
Event Description: The Washington Post publishes “The Ambassador Accords”, letters from, “An anonymous U.S. ambassador” against the war in Laos. The letters, obtained by reporter Bob Woodward, are written by Ambassador to South Vietnam Richard Nixon, but Woodward, an admirer of Nixon, does not want him to be fired from his post. Ambassador Nixon stays quiet on the letters but promises his wife, “I will tell the truth about them, I know that is the best possible things for me and the country.”

Event Date: 11-05-1974
Event Description: Governor Robert Finch, the Republican nominee, defeats Secretary of State Jerry Brown, the Democratic nominee, for Governor of California. Governor Finch wins by a margin of less than 30,000 votes, the closest race for governor in more than sixty years. This victory, applauded by Ambassador Nixon, keeps the Republican Party in control of the California Governor Office for sixteen years straight, a record for any party in the Golden State. In the U.S. Senate election, Senator Alan Cranston is reelected by a 56-42% margin over conservative State Senator Herman L. Richardson. This defeat is seen as a major defeat for President Reagan, who had made several speeches for Richardson.   

Event Date: 12-25-1974
Event Description: On Christmas Day, Ambassador Nixon writes President Reagan that the letters in “The Ambassador Accords” belonged to him. “I have never been one to keep my opinions to myself,” Nixon writes the president, “I, also, have never been one to show disrespect for a kindness shown to me. You showed me a great kindness in giving me the ability to help the people of South Vietnam, so I did not want to publicly attack your administration’s conduct in Laos. I wrote letters to my family and a close friend because I felt they would never tell anyone these opinions, and I thus could keep my post. I now know that I was living a lie in doing this, and would not blame you if you were to request my resignation.” 

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 12-28-1974
Event Description: White House Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein invites Ambassador Nixon to meet with him in the White House on New Years Eve. The affable Duberstein tells Nixon over the phone, “The White House would like you to check in and tell us about your progress in Vietnam.” Nixon, after the phone call, tells Pat, “They want me to resign in person.”

Event Date: 12-31-1974
Event Description: In a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein, Ambassador Nixon is given the option to stay on as Ambassador to South Vietnam. “Your work for public schools and public health in South Vietnam has made us quite popular in the region,” Duberstein tells Nixon, “We would hate to lose you.” However, if he is to stay on, Duberstein states, “You have to keep quiet about the letters.” “I can not do that, sir,” Nixon tells Duberstein, “As a boy, I vowed never to tell a lie and to do such a thing would be the worst kind of lie.” Nixon resigns his commission as Ambassador to South Vietnam.

Event Date: 1-06-1975
Event Description: In an interview with Bob Woodward, former Ambassador Nixon tells the world what he truly thinks about the War in Laos. “We have too many soldiers in Laos and all of Southeast Asia,” Nixon tells Woodward, “As ambassador, there was little I could do about it, and that always made me very frustrated. The war needs to be ended.” Nixon also attacks the U.S., “Propping up another dictatorship, this time in the form of the Royal Government of Laos.”

Event Date: 1-07-1975
Event Description: The political bombshell of the “Woodward/Nixon Interview” hits the presses, with political leaders throughout the world responding. “Mr. Nixon is entitled to his opinion,” Press Secretary James Brady tells the press, “Even if such an opinion is wrong.” Senator Hubert Humphrey (Democrat of Minnesota), a potential 1976 Democratic presidential candidate, applauds, “The courage of Mr. Nixon. By standing up to the Reagan Administration’s ongoing support of dictators, he has shown that he lives up to his namesake. He really is ‘lionhearted.’”

Event Date: 2-14-1975
Event Description: Nixon is welcomed back to the faculty at Whittier College, taking his old job as a professor of pre-law and political theory. He promises his wife that he will stay out of public service, and devote his life to his professorship and writing books on his experiences in public life.

Event Date: 6-12-1975
Event Description: “As Humble a Servant” is released, Richard Nixon’s first book about his career in the United States Congress from 1951-1959. The book is not a defense of his actions, but a record of actions and anecdotes. “I truly do not want to become my own greatest defender,” Nixon tells his publisher, “That is not the way of a man who wishes to walk humbly with God.”

Event Date: 7-10-1975
Event Description: The Royalist Government of Laos declares victory in the Laotian Civil War, with the Pathet Lao retreating into Cambodia. President Reagan now faces a dilemma: should the U.S. follow the communists into Cambodia, thus sending forces into the Cambodian Civil War?

Event Date: 7-12-1975
Event Description: The Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot, is victorious in the Battle of Kamport, taking control of the main waterway in Cambodia. This decisive victory gives President Reagan and Secretary of Defense Laurence Eagleburger enough alarm to send troops into Cambodia. “Operation Eagle Claw” begins, with Major Colin Powell, a leader of the 65,000 men expedition, writing to Professor Nixon, “We may be able to get into Cambodia without problem, but it won’t be half as easy getting out.”

Event Date: 7-20-1975
Event Description: “Like clockwork”, as one TIME Magazine reporter opines, Professor Nixon and his “Nixonites” take to the streets in Los Angeles, protesting the invasion of Cambodia. “When will our propping up of vicious dictatorships end?” Nixon asks his followers, “I fear it never will, and our land of liberty will forever be chained to tyrants.” “That was another speech by the ever reliable Mr. Nixon,” Reagan Communications Official Pat Buchanan writes in an op-ed for the Washington Times, “Yet another speech, taken from the same template which defended the Japanese in World War II, the communists in Korea and the Vietcong in Vietnam. Nixon was wrong on each of those military actions, and he is just as wrong with this one.”

Event Date: 8-01-1975
Event Description: Professor Nixon takes a job as a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times. His first article, entitled “The Domino War in Cambodia”, discusses, “The folly of the ‘Domino Theory.’ The only real ‘Domino Theory’ is that once we get involved in a war in one part of Southeast Asia, it seems we have to then get involved in another.”

Event Date: 12-10-1975
Event Description: Senator George McGovern (Democrat of South Dakota) visits Professor Nixon at his home in Whittier, and presents himself as, “The peace candidate for president in 1976.” Nixon is impressed by Senator McGovern’s dedication to peace in Southeast Asia, as well as working with the Soviet Union rather than the tough talk of the Kennedy and Reagan Administrations. Nixon tells McGovern that he will have his support, but, “I would rather keep it private for as long as I can. I have a Republican family, after all.”

Event Date: 1-03-1976
Event Description: The city of Kamport is retaken by joint American-South Vietnamese-Cambodian soldiers, taking away the one decisive victory of the Khmer Rouge. These victories, coupled with a slow, but steady, economic recovery, put President Reagan approval ratings above 60%, the highest of his administration.

Event Date: 1-12-1976
Event Description: Governor Robert Finch (Republican of California) and President Reagan hold a Republican fundraiser at the Los Angeles-Hilton, thus dashing the hopes of Professor Nixon that Finch would oppose Reagan in the primaries. While Congressman Paul McCloskey (who won his old seat in Congress back in 1974) has declared his candidacy for president, this bid is seen by Nixon as a vanity run more than a serious discussion of the issues.

Event Date: 3-04-1976
Event Description: The Khmer Rouge begins a guerilla war against the government, starting with a terror campaign in the American held city of Siern Reap. The next three months will see the most massive usage of arson and bombings in any guerilla campaign since the 1890s.

Event Date: 6-10-1976
Event Description: “The Way Out” is published by Professor Nixon, discussing how the United States can end the Cold War peacefully, and stop, “The never-ending battle of West vs. East.” Nixon advocates a system called “détente”, which means working with the Soviets to lower dangerous weapons and to stop the, “Neo-imperialistic proxy wars being fought all over Eastern Asia.” Nixon will release a special edition of the book in October, highlighting the guerilla war in Cambodia.

Event Date: 7-02-1976
Event Description: In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court upholds its decision that capital punishment is “cruel and unusual punishment.” The liberal Stewart Court was expected to stay the course on Fitzhugh v. California, if for any reason that Richard Nixon argued again for the suspension of the death penalty.   

Event Date: 7-04-1976
Event Description: Professor Nixon celebrates the 200th birthday of the United States by attending the naturalization of a family of Mexican immigrants whom he had helped by paying their eldest son’s way through school.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-25-1976
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention in New York City nominates Governor Reubin D. Askew of Florida for President and Senator George McGovern of South Dakota for Vice-President. The 1976 Democratic Primary was full of, as Nixon would comment, “Light weights,” and the national ticket is seen as a sacrificial lamb ticket.

Event Date: 8-02-1976
Event Description: Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, along with three associates, is killed in a bombing raid over the Mekong River Valley, where the communists had built up their strongest base of support. The death of Pol Pot serves the purpose of throwing the left-wing guerillas into disorder for several weeks.

Event Date: 8-05-1976
Event Description: In a speech to Amnesty International in Washington, D.C., Professor Nixon attacks the Mekong River Valley Bombing as, “Stone age barbarism.” He points out that in order to kill Pol Pot, “More than two-thousand innocent men, women and children were killed or severely injured. These men and women were doing nothing but living in a war zone.” The speech is taken up by Senator George McGovern, the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee, and made into one of his major talking points during the election.

Event Date: 8-18-1976
Event Description: The Republican National Convention nominates President Ronald Reagan and Vice-President Gerald Ford for another four years in the Oval Office. “I saw a world filled with turmoil and a war against communism on the brink of failure four years ago,” President Reagan tells the cheering crowd, “Today I see a future as bright as a thousand points of light. The sun has come up, and it is morning again in America!” “I see explosions that bright in Cambodia and Laos,” Professor Nixon tells his wife as he watches the speech.

Event Date: 9-11-1976
Event Description: After spending the afternoon with his wife for their anniversary, Professor and Mrs. Nixon attend an Askew-McGovern Fundraising Dinner in Los Angeles. While the dinner is winding up, Professor Nixon is beckoned to give a speech to the assembled Democrats, and the old Republican tells them, “No, I could not.” After much prodding, however, Nixon relents to go to the podium. “President Reagan speaks of ‘morning in America’,” Nixon tells the crowd, “His morning, however has come through war and robbery from the neediest in society. His ‘morning’ is not for lovers of peace or equality, but for those who turn a blind eye to such noble endeavors.” The passionate Nixon then looks down in shame, “I think I have said far too much.” With this, the professor leaves the podium and takes his coat, leaving a cheering crowd behind him.

Event Date: 9-12-1976
Event Description: Nixon’s “Morning Speech” is published in newspapers around the country, despite the speech being very short (less than 120 words) and the fact that he wanted the address to be kept a secret amongst the dinner goers. Governor Askew picks up the speech, as does Senator McGovern. “It looks like Mr. Nixon, a Republican,” Walter Cronkite comments as he sings of from the CBS Evening News, “Has given the Democratic Ticket all of it’s words and main points this election, and that’s the way it is.” Professor Nixon, himself, is quite embarrassed by the publicity, and even writes a letter of apology to the president, which Reagan not only reads but answers. “It’s all politics professor,” the good natured Reagan responds.

Event Date: 10-03-1976
Event Description: Professor Nixon arrives in Saigon, South Vietnam, for a celebration in his honor. South Vietnam President Vu Van Mau welcomes Nixon at the airport, and drives him to one of the more than two hundred modern schools Operation Apple has built in poverty stricken nation. That night at a mass dinner, attended by the teachers and faculty of Nixon’s schools, the always humble Nixon tells the audience, “I am not the hero of this dinner, it is everyone here. It is every teacher, principal and faculty member in this hall tonight, who teaches the future of not just South Vietnam, but the world.”

Event Date: 10-11-1976
Event Description: President Reagan greets Professor Nixon as he leaves his airplane at Los Angeles International Airport. “Congratulations, professor,” the president tells Nixon, in which Nixon responds, “Well, it’s good to know I made a difference in someone’s life.” As President Reagan rides with Nixon back to his home in Whittier, Nixon further apologizes for his September 11th comments, with President Reagan once again saying that they were, “Just politics, no need to take it personally.” As Nixon and his wife leave the limousine, Reagan tells Nixon a parting fact, “I voted for you in 1958 and 1962, just for the record.”

Event Date: 11-02-1976
Event Description: President Reagan is reelected by a landslide over Governor Reubin Askew, with victories in the economy and in Cambodia and Laos contributing to the wide victory.

 

Ronald Reagan/Gerald Ford (R): 439 EV; 58.3% of the PV
Reubin Askew/George McGovern (D): 99 EV; 41.5% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, Socialist Worker, etc.): 0 EV; 0.2% of the PV   

The Republican Party moves farther to the right, picking up Senate seats in such conservative states as Indiana, Texas and Wyoming. In California, however, liberal Republican Professor S.I. Hayakawa defeats Senator Pat Brown by a 50-49% margin, as well as liberal Republicans winning across California in both urban and rural settings. “It appears,” Nixon writes to his old friend Hayakawa, “That our breed is not as dead as some would like us to think.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-12-1977
Event Description: Professor Nixon tells his wife that he may seek his old seat in the State Assembly in 1978. “I enjoy the world of academia,” Nixon tells her, “But I have to get back into the game of politics. I have to be back in the action of it all.”

Event Date: 2-03-1977
Event Description: Senators S.I. Hayakawa (Republican of California) and Spark Matsunaga (Democrat of Hawaii), both freshmen senators, introduce a Bill to Establish a Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Despite the long title, the Hayakawa-Matsunga Act was an, “Even more ridiculous name,” as Senator Hayakawa tells the Washington Post. The bill, if passed, would create a special Senate committee to investigate the legacy of Japanese Internment, and allocate reparations for the unfair treatment. While such a bill would be mocked and refused twenty years ago, Senator Majority Leader Robert Byrd (Democrat of West Virginia) declares, “The bill will be given a fair hearing by this chamber.” “That alone,” Professor Nixon comments to a colleague, “Is a victory in of itself.”

Event Date: 4-12-1977
Event Description: The Senate passes a Bill to Establish a Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians by a 67-31 margin, with both Republicans and Democrats signing onto the bill.

Event Date: 4-18-1977
Event Description: With Professor Nixon in the balcony, the House of Representatives passes the Bill to Establish a Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, which was introduced in the House by Congressman Les AuCoin (Democrat of Oregon) and Congresswoman Yvonne Burke (Democrat of California). Passing with more than 300 votes, Professor Nixon declares in a meeting with senators Hayakawa and Matsunaga, “What I fought for so hard in the 1950s, is finally a reality.” “Are you not upset that you have been mentioned so little during these proceedings?” Senator Matsunaga asks Nixon. “No,” Nixon responds, “I am happy that the right thing finally happened.”

Event Date: 4-18-1977
Event Description: President Reagan signs the Bill to Establish a Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, with Professor Nixon one of the honorary dignitaries at the signing. After proudly singing the bill and apologizing for the, “Uncalled for and unneeded internment of Japanese-American citizens,” President Reagan gives Professor Nixon one of the pens he used to sign the bill. “You’ve been waiting for this pen for a long time,” the president tells Nixon. “I have,” Nixon responds, “But it was worth the wait.”

Event Date: 5-11-1977
Event Description: “Years of Infamy” is published, Richard Nixon’s first book about his struggle against Japanese Internment. It is a recollection of his battles with the California Supreme Court over the issue, and how the battle soured his relationship with California’s progressive Governor Earl Warren. “Warren was a man who did not like being trifled with,” Nixon wrote, “When I said he was wrong on internment, he was not going to like me, no matter how much politics we had in common.” This view of Warren, a hero for progressives, leads some on the left to accuse Nixon of “sour grapes” that he could never reach the pinnacle of the governorship. “That’s poppycock,” Nixon tells the Los Angeles Times in an interview, “If being governor meant that I had to be a yes man for American concentration camps, well, I guess I was never meant to be a governor.”

Event Date: 6-06-1977
Event Description: More than 16,000 young men and women gather at Whittier College, the home of their icon Richard Nixon. “We are the generation of Nixon,” John Lennon, the famous singer declares as they march on the small college, “And this is a celebration of the man.” Whittier College was not prepared for such a mass rally, but with the unwitting founder of “The Nixonites” on faculty, Dean Roger Cunningham is not surprised. “I’ve been waiting for such a symposium,” Dean Cunningham tells the Whittier Press-Gazette, and it is a good thing that the college was. The next five days are filled with “Nixonites” performing protests against the police action in Cambodia, the move of the more conservative Supreme Court (do to Reagan appointments) to reinstate the death penalty and, generally, liberal causes across the land. This rally, however, has none of the drugs; “free love” and other such behavior the “hippies” have been attacked for by conservative opponents. Professor Nixon himself comes out to greet his supporters, and is informed that his book, “The War for Peace”, has started a counter-culture phenomenon across the country. “Well, what do you know?” Nixon asks the crowd as he speaks at the podium, “I have become a symbol for the kids of America, a bum like me.”

Event Date: 7-01-1977
Event Description: Professor Nixon, encouraged by the rally held at Whittier College, begins a cross country tour to see all “The Nixonite” cells around the country. Mrs. Nixon, not wanting to go on such a trip, will stay behind, but the professor will stay in close contact with her the entire time. Another reason, however, that Pat Nixon may have turned down the trip is because Nixon will be riding a motorcycle, a long time passion of his, throughout much of the trip!   

Event Date: 7-12-1977
Event Description: In San Francisco, California, Professor Nixon meets a branch of Nixonites who are heading up a soup kitchen and rehabilitation center for the homeless many whom are addicted to psychedelic drugs. “In your book, Mr. Nixon,” one volunteer tells the professor, “You talked about service to the community, and this is our way of serving the city.” Many other Nixonites at the soup kitchen tell the professor that this is their way of, “Protesting society, by trying to make it better.”

Event Date: 7-30-1977
Event Description: In San Diego, California, Professor Nixon and his old friend César Chávez meet, with the United Farm Workers (UFW) presenting a “Lifetime Achievement Award” to Nixon. Many UFW workers, or their children, have become Nixonites, or have at least read “The War for Peace.”   

Event Date: 8-09-1977
Event Description: Leaving California, Professor Nixon and the band he is traveling with arrive in Yuma, Arizona, where the Nixonite culture has even been embraced by Mayor William J. Anderson. “We’ve reformed our prison system to make the prisoners give back to society,” Mayor Anderson tells Professor Nixon, “This is done through litter pick-up, laying cement for streets, painting public building, things you outlined in your book. In addition, we are giving prisoners who desire it higher education, and requiring those who can not read or speak English to attend classes, as also said in your book.” The system appears to be working, as Yuma, once a city with high crime rates and even higher prison return rates, has managed to turn both around.

Event Date: 8-15-1977
Event Description: A former wealthy businessman welcomes Professor Nixon to Phoenix, Arizona. This Nixonite sold his successful chain of bike stores to begin the Phoenix Center for Troubled Youths. “I make nowhere near the money I used to,” the businessman tells Nixon, “But I help far more people in this line of work then in my old.”

Event Date: 9-11-1977
Event Description: Nixon marks his 39th wedding anniversary by arriving in Houston, Texas, and touring a former minor league baseball stadium which was converted into a massive free clinic by wealthy Texan businessmen and physicians. Also today, Mrs. Nixon joins her husband on the last leg of the tour, provided he rides in a car. That night, an exhausted Nixon tells her, “It was an anniversary gift in itself to see that words I wrote inspired those good people to give so much money to such a noble endeavor.”

Event Date: 10-05-1977
Event Description: In St. Louis, Missouri, a large group of community organizers, led by the Reverend Samuel DeWitt Proctor, meet Professor Nixon with a tumultuous reception. The Reverend Proctor tells Nixon that his movement “Has done more to return this community to church than anything I can remember.” Nixon is the guest of honor at the St. Louis Church of Christ, where the Reverend Proctor applauds him as, “A man who teaches both the salvation of Christianity, and its call to service of the poor.”

Event Date: 10-21-1977
Event Description: The Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, welcomes Richard Nixon to its pews, with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright personally greeting, “One of God’s greatest servants.” Like in St. Louis, Nixon is informed by the Reverend Wright that Nixonites in Chicago, “Are working with and through the church to make our worst neighborhoods better places to live.” Nixon attends the service that night, but the raucous and jubilant service makes him uncomfortable. “As a Quaker,” Nixon tells the Reverend Wright, “I am use to sitting on a hard bench, reading a psalm, seeming a solemn hymn and practicing sitting down. Your brand of church is far more aerobic than mine!”

Event Date: 11-02-1977
Event Description: In a city full of racial and class tension, Professor Nixon is delighted to see that a small group of Nixonites in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, gave up lucrative law careers to instead become public defenders. These public defenders all were inspired by Nixon’s passionate call for more, “Defenders of the impoverished innocent, those who can not afford a high price defense attorney.”

Event Date: 11-23-1977
Event Description: On Thanksgiving Day, Professor Nixon attends a Thanksgiving Dinner for the homeless of The Bronx, in New York City. The shelter was founded by another Nixonite, who was inspired by Nixon’s long standing support of homeless shelters throughout Los Angeles.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 12-04-1977
Event description: Professor Nixon arrives at his final stop in his cross-country tour: Boston, Massachusetts. More than 20,000 people show up to welcome Nixon in a city which has largely accepted his philosophy. Across the town, Nixonites have started drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, homeless shelters, began community organizations, started Youth Centers and began urban renewal groups, all being inspired by the writings of Richard Nixon. “A city built on volunteers,” Nixon tells his wife as they leave Boston the next night, “I once thought such things only existed in dreams.”

Event Date: 12-25-1977
Event Description: Professor Nixon, who had arrived back home a week ago, celebrates Christmas as he has done for the last twenty-years, volunteering at a homeless shelter in Los Angeles in passing out Christmas dinners. “While my trip across the nation was an experience,” Nixon tells the director of the homeless shelter, “I have never been happier than right now, helping those who truly need it.”

Event Date: 12-29-1977
Event Description: Despite not being in the state for almost half a year, Professor Nixon declares he will seek his old seat in the California State Assembly in 1978. “I came to a realization while I traveled the country,” Professor Nixon states in his announcement address, “It is imperative that those who can help others, do. I feel I can help this state and its great citizens by serving once again in the State Assembly.”

Event Date: 1-20-1978
Event Description: The Republican Party of California holds its annual convention, with Professor Nixon attending. His attempts to speak, however, are rebuffed by the conservative party committee chairs, who dominate the speaking arrangement. Furthermore, Nixon is not endorsed at the convention for the State Assembly. Instead, arch-conservative physician David Croughcraft is given the formal endorsement, and Nixon is forced to run in the Republican Primary without party organization or money. “I welcome this type of challenge,” Nixon tells his supporters, “Because people have got to know whether their leaders are quitters, well, I’ve never been a quitter and I don’t intend on becoming one now.”

Event Date: 2-19-1978
Event Description: The Cambodian Civil War is concluded, with a victory for anti-communist forces. The government, repressive as it is, takes complete control of the capital city of Phnom Penh, and finishes the systematic execution of all supposed “friends” of the defeated Khmer Rouge. “All in all,” Nixon writes in a letter to Ambassador to South Vietnam George H.W. Bush, “The better side won the war, and that isn’t saying much.”

Event Date: 3-09-1978
Event Description: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) holds a fundraiser for Professor Nixon, creating a political firestorm. “The ACLU is supposed to be a non-partisan group,” an editorial in the Los Angeles Times states, “Thus it can not raise money for any partisan cause, even if the candidate was once a star ACLU attorney.” Nixon agrees, and returns the money rose, which was more than $50,000 dollars. “It would be an impeachment of my character to keep the funds,” Nixon writes to the ACLU, “But I thank you none the less for the support.”

Event Date: 3-29-1978
Event Description: Governor Robert Finch, a moderate Republican, does not endorse either Professor Nixon or Dr. Croughcraft in the Republican Primary for California’s 48th Assembly Seat. “It is a small race,” Finch explains, “Not every election needs me to get involved.” In reality, Governor Finch does not want to endorse the extremely reactionary Dr. Croughcraft, not does he want to side with Nixon, who conservative Republicans have nicknamed, “Professor Moonbeam.”

Event Date: 4-07-1978
Event Description: In a speech to the Republican Women’s Association of California, Professor Nixon attacks President Reagan’s massive military budget. “The theory is that this plan is going to bankrupt the Soviets and cause their collapse,” Nixon tells the audience, “This is a faulty theory. The only people who are being bankrupted by this arms race is the United States. We are not just bankrupting our treasury, we are bankrupting our morality. This arms race is forcing the U.S. to embrace and support murderous regimes in the Middle East, in Southeast Asia, in Africa and in Central America.” Nixon ends his speech with a question, “If this is the only way our country can ‘win’ the ‘Cold War’, does it not already mean that we have lost?” The speech, while cheered by liberal minded Americans, is not as widely accepted by California Republicans. “Nixon seems to be throwing away any chance at winning the primary,” the Los Angeles Times opines.

Event Date: 6-02-1978
Event Description: Dr. David Croughcraft wins the Republican primary for California’s 48th Assembly seat by a 54-46% margin over Professor Richard Nixon. Nixon’s counter-culture movement, coupled with his continual criticism with the Reagan Administration, led to this outcome. However, Nixon is not disappointed. “I had a feeling this would happen,” Nixon tells his supporters at Whittier College on primary night, “So I took the liberty of collecting signatures to run as an independent for the seat. I feel I can win with a non-partisan label, and only the truth behind me!”

Event Date: 6-11-1978
Event Description: “The Independent Plan” is released, which is Nixon’s platform for the fall election. In his plan he includes expanding student loans, ending the state sales tax, opposing a new state constitutional convention and, “School programs that encourage volunteerism amongst the future of America.” “I feel these are issues which will lead an independent crusade to the state house,” Nixon declares in a stump speech, “Into a referendum on state government.”

Event Date: 7-04-1978
Event Description: On Independence Day, Professor Nixon and five-thousand supporters rally in front of Whittier City Hall, calling of Governor Finch to, “End his silence on this election. Will the governor support the liberal progressive choice for Assembly, or the reactionary or partisan Democratic choices?” Governor Finch still keeps quiet on the race, himself calling Nixon, “A loud embarrassment to the party and the state.”

Event Date: 7-31-1978
Event Description: Consumer activist Ralph Nader campaigns with Professor Nixon in suburban Los Angeles. “Nixon is the independent voice that California and the country needs,” Nader tells a group of voters, “The man should be president.” Nader, a longtime “Nixonite”, comments to the Los Angeles Times, “Nixon may be the most honest man I have ever met, which immediately disqualifies him for high office.”

Event Date: 9-01-1978
Event Description: “Days of Infamy” wins the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, marking the first such award ever won by a book by Richard Nixon. The news gets the independent candidate needed publicity, as the media is widely ignoring his insurgent bid for State Assembly.

Event Date: 10-13-1978
Event Description: A debate for State Assembly is held at the Clive Civic Auditorium in Stanton, California. All three candidates for the office attend the debate: Republican David Croughcraft, Democrat William Farris and Independent Richard Nixon. Professor Nixon, with his debating style polished over his years in politics and his debates with now President Reagan, defeats both the political novices easily in the debate. “For the first time this election,” The Los Angeles Times opines, “It appears that Nixon could pull of a win.”

Event Date: 11-07-1978
Event Description: In an upset, Professor Richard Nixon, a former Republican assemblyman, congressman and state attorney general, wins a seat in the California State Assembly, running as an independent. Nixon wins 48% of the vote to 31% for Democrat William Farris and 21% for Republican David Croughcraft. “This victory is not one for me and my campaign,” Nixon tells his supporters at his victory rally at Whittier College, “This is a victory for independent minded politicians and public servants across the country.” In the race for governor, former Secretary of State Jerry Brown defeats Governor Robert Finch by a 49-46% margin, with former Congressman John Schmitz siphoning off 5% of the vote as the American Independent nominee. This ends Governor Finch’s White House dreams, as well as the GOP hood on the California governor’s mansion.   

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-02-1979
Event Description: Richard Nixon is sworn-in as the only independent member of the California State Assembly, which is dominated by the Democratic Party, by nearly a two-to-one margin. With the economy slowing down and the engagement in Cambodia not reaching a steady conclusion, the Democrats won big in the 1978 Midterm Elections. Nixon will caucus with the Republicans, “But I will not always vote like one.”

Event Date: 2-18-1979
Event Description: Assemblyman Nixon introduces his first bill of the session, and it is the most controversial one of the session. “The Right to Life for Physician Act” protects the rights of physicians to not be forced to perform abortions, a threat that many have feared since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. The bill is both applauded, and detested, sharply dividing the chamber. “This bill is anti-poor,” West Los Angeles Assemblyman Mitchell Doe declares, “Poor people will be unable to drive to areas where such procedures are available, thus forcing them to have a child, a continued economic burden.” “Mr. Doe,” Nixon tells the assemblyman, “That may be the most callous thing I have ever heard, and I served in congress.”

Event Date: 3-03-1979
Event Description: The American Physicians Association endorses Assemblyman Nixon’s abortion law, applauding it as, “The first step to reasonable laws concerning physicians and abortion.”

Event Date: 4-11-1979
Event Description: The State Assembly votes down Nixon’s abortion bill by a wide margin but it attracts more Democratic support than was expected. Conservative Democrats from Northern California, like Assemblyman Lewis Dayton, the leader of the Blue Dog Democrats Caucus, sided with the Independent from Whittier, showing some clear divisions in the dominating Democratic Party of California.

Event Date: 7-06-1979
Event Description: At a rally for Nixonites in San Francisco, California, Assemblyman Nixon is introduced to Jane Fonda, the 42-year old actress and anti-war activist. A long time Nixonite, she is quite honored to meet her hero: Richard Nixon. The two have a very long conversation about the ongoing war in Cambodia, and Fonda leaves even more enameled with Nixon then she was before.

Event Date: 8-30-1979
Event Description: In response to a steep cut in funds for Special Education, Assemblyman Nixon joins thirty-nine other Assemblymen in voting against the California Budget. This move is not very popular, as the budget contained many state programs that are deemed important by the governor.

Event Date: 9-14-1979
Event Description: It is leaked by CIA operative W. Mark Felt that the Reagan Administration has been funding Islamic groups in Afghanistan against a possible Soviet invasion. “This is fighting a defensive war,” Secretary of Defense Lawrence Eagleburger tells the press, “There is nothing illegal about it, and the Congress has supported such measures before.” However, the Congress (dominated by the Democratic Party) does find something illegal about it, as the administration never asked Congress for the funds. The Afghan Affair has begun, with the Republican Primaries only five months away.

Event Date: 10-20-1979
Event Description: President Reagan fires Secretary of Defense Eagleburger, National Security Advisor Casper Weinberger and Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead, all who headed up the Afghan Affair. “I do not want any problem to impede the investigation of Congress,” President Reagan tells the country, “So I had to excuse these men from my administration.” The move is applauded by Assemblyman Nixon as, “A smart and honest move by our president.”

Event Date: 11-01-1979
Event Description: In an address to the ACLU in Los Angeles, California, Assemblyman Nixon vows that the next bill he introduces to the assembly will, “Concern the penal system, especially making our prisons more humane and returning dignity to our inmates, so that they may leave their time in prison and become respected citizens.”

Event Date: 11-04-1979
Event Description: Fundamentalist Islamic students, with the blessing of the Ayatollah Khomeini, storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking fifty-two U.S. diplomats hostage. “Our country will not allow barbarians and terrorists to take our people hostage,” President Reagan tells the world, and he instructs Secretary of Defense William Westmoreland, the new secretary and hero of the Vietnam War, to form an operation to save the hostages. 

Event Date: 12-26-1979
Event Description: The Soviet Union begins an invasion of Afghanistan, despite the hoopla over the Afghan Affair. Soviet generals, seeing President Reagan (who had been a scourge for them) as weakened by the scandal, need such an invasion to try to find a war to keep their collapsing defense budget better hidden from the public. Slowly but surely, European pressure and the arms race are crippling the Russian bear.

Event Date: 1-12-1980
Event Description: The Prison Education Act is introduced to the California State Assembly by Assemblyman Richard Nixon. The bill requires all state prisons (medium and maximum security) to include a jobs training program, a literacy teacher and a room which can be used by local community colleges. “This plan,” Nixon tells his fellow lawmakers “Will allow our state’s inmates to get an education so that they may become working members of our society, and not permanent residents of our prisons.” Nixon explains to conservative Republicans that the price tags for the bill, “Pails in comparison to the money spent on routine prisoners, who return to the prison system five or six times in their lives.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-15-1980
Event Description: To the surprise of many, the California League of Law Enforcement Officers endorses the Prison Education Act. “This bill,” the formal endorsement reads, “Will help law enforcement in more ways than one. Not only will it stop repeat offenders, it will also give law enforcement time to focus on the real criminals, not the petty thieves who keep repeating the same crimes. Most of all, it will help stop the spiraling crime rates in California, as well as the rise of repeat prison stays.”

Event Date: 3-21-1980
Event Description: With only scant support from conservative Republicans, the Prison Education Act passes the California State Assembly by a wide margin. The State Senate, which has more Republicans in it, is expected to give the bill much more of a fight, but it will also pass. Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill, throwing his name into the national stage overnight. “I am amazed and honored,” Assemblyman Nixon tells a dinner in his honor held by the ACLU, “That many of my dreams have become realities, and I have to thank you and yours for all the support you have given me.”

Event Date: 4-01-1980
Event Description: The Democratic Party of California endorses Assemblyman Nixon for reelection, something that will both hurt and help him in his Republican district.

Event Date: 4-12-1980
Event Description: “Operation Enduring Freedom”, a daring rescue attempt in Tehran, is initiated. Two-hundred marines, flying the latest in helicopter technology, make it through a blinding sandstorm and storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The daring move succeeds, but not without its casualties. Six hostages and twelve marines are killed in the operation, leading protests in streets throughout the United States. “That cowboy in the White House,” Professor Nixon tells a rally in Los Angeles, “Once again ignores diplomacy, and pulls out the quick draw.”

Event Date: 4-27-1980
Event Description: Assemblyman Rich Honda, a Democrat, and Assemblyman Nixon begin an investigation into waste in the California Highway System. “If there is one thing that should not be corrupt,” Nixon tells the press, “It is the roads we drive on.”

Event Date: 6-06-1980
Event Description: The Senate Committee on the Afghan Affair rules that President Reagan is not personally guilty of any of the crimes. However, he is reprimanded for not keeping better oversight in his administration. With the Soviet Army in Afghanistan, and suffering heavy casualties from a well armed resistance, the Democrats knew they could not say any more about Reagan. In addition, the “success” of Operation Enduring Freedom has led the Congress to be less critical of the president.

Event Date: 7-21-1980
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention in New York City nominates Governor Hugh Carey of New York for President and Senator Ernest “Fritz” Hollings of South Carolina for Vice-President. Assemblyman Nixon, a Democratic nominee for office, was invited to the convention, but did not attend.

Event Date: 7-30-1980
Event Description: The Nixon-Honda Committee on Public Highways releases its first report, which shows that the concrete and tar contracts are fixed. “In Bakersfield, city officials have given sole contract to the Burchfield Concrete Company,” Assemblyman Nixon reports, “In return; the local lawmakers in that city have been given upwards of $2,000 or more by management at the Burchfield Concrete Company.” From Bakersfield to Redding to San Clara, such corruption in contracts can be found in nearly every large city in the state. The report is acted on by the governor and the attorney general, helping reduce waste and save taxpayer’s dollars.

Event Date: 8-12-1980
Event Description: The Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan, is a divided affair. Moderate Republicans rallied around Vice-President Ford in the primary, while most conservative Republicans backed Senator John Tower (Republican of Texas). Assemblyman Nixon, though an independent, attends the convention, and is cheered by the California delegation when he makes a speech seconding the nomination of Gerald Ford for President. “I want a man in the White House with a legal mind and a level head,” Nixon tells the convention, “Vice-President is the man I believe in, and he is the man who has those most needed qualities.” The speech will be forgotten, but Nixon will get his way, as will all liberal and moderate Republicans. The next day, Vice-President Ford is nominated for President and Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee is nominated for Vice-President. “That is the finest ticket the GOP has produced since 1948,” Nixon tells his wife that night at the convention, and he will campaign hard for them in California.

Event Date: 8-13-1980
Event Description: The nomination of Vice-President Ford leads to an insurgent campaign by Senator Jesse Helms (Republican of California) and New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson (Republican of New Hampshire) to seek the presidency under the American Party banner. “Mr. Ford is far too liberal to lead this party,” Senator Helms tells the nation in a televised address, “He is also too dull to lead any nation, especially at this crucial time in world history.” The campaign will only get onto the ballot in a few Southern and Western states, but they will cost Ford in such swing states as Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. 

Event Date: 8-20-1980
Event Description: Blowback from Operation Enduring Freedom is felt throughout the Middle East, as the American embassy in Syria and Egypt is attacked by mortar fire. More than ten American diplomats are killed in the attacks, with more than one-hundred injured. “This is the result of blatant and bald faced arrogance,” Assemblyman Nixon tells the Los Angeles Times, “President Reagan is a good man, but I sometimes feel he is incapable of a decent, or even good, foreign policy.” 

Event Date: 9-01-1980
Event Description: Controversy hits the Ford for President Campaign when Assemblyman Richard Nixon, an independent and vocal critic of the Reagan Administration, is invited to speak at a rally which Vice-President Ford will attend in Los Angeles, California. “Nixon is not a Republican and he is no friend of the party,” Congressman Robert “B1-Bob” Dornan tells the press, “If he speaks at a party rally, then that means Ford has abandoned the Reagan Revolution and conservative principles.” Ford defends the professor; “Mr. Nixon has served as a Republican in Congress, as a State Attorney General, was a Republican delegate to the 1956, 1960 and 1964 conventions and served this administration as an ambassador. If that isn’t ‘Republican enough’ for Congressman Dornan, perhaps he should find a new party.”

Event Date: 9-05-1980
Event Description: Assemblyman Nixon addresses a Ford for President Rally in Los Angeles, which was the cause of several days of infighting in the Republican Party. Nixon’s speech, however, is not at all controversial. He talks about how sensible Vice-President Ford is and, “How he has been a beacon of sanity in a world that really needs one.” All in all, the speech was very uncontroversial and very simply, something Nixon has strived to be, but can never really achieve.

Event Date: 9-30-1980
Event Description: With their advances into Afghanistan all but halted, the Soviet Army begins a slow withdrawal of forces from the area. “This shows,” conservative commentator David Safire writes, “That President Reagan’s arms buildup and support of CIA operations really has broken the bear’s back.” “That is true,” Nixon responds in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, “And our banks.”

Event Date: 10-03-1980
Event Description: Vice-President Ford and Governor Carey meet for the first televised presidential debate, with Senator Helms being excluded from the meeting. Ford makes no visible or verbal gaffes, which was expected by the media, but he also fails to outperform the polished and charismatic Governor Carey.

Event Date: 10-11-1980
Event Description: As Assemblyman Nixon knocks on doors throughout Oakland, California, he is fired at twice by an assailant. The shooter turns out to be a former Manson Family member and far-left political activist turned CIA informant, Sarah Jane Moore. Her trial will begin in November 1981, and will turn into a bizarre circus that will haunt Nixon as well as the country.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 11-04-1980
Event Description: Governor Hugh Carey defeats Vice-President Gerald Ford by a small margin, but enough for him to keep the Democrats in control of Congress by a 63-36 margin the Senate and more than 60-seats in the House of Representatives. The campaign of Jesse Helms hurt Ford in enough swing states to deny the former college football star and congressman the White House.

Hugh Carey/Ernest Hollings (D): 287 EV; 46.9% of the PV
Gerald Ford/Howard Baker (R): 223 EV; 44.1% of the PV
Jesse Helms/Meldrim Thomson (A): 28 EV; 7.9% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, Consumer, etc): 0 EV; 1.1% of the PV

Alderman Nixon is reelected by a 61-39% margin over Dr. David Croughcraft, making his second bid for the assembly. “It is nice to know I am personally popular,” Nixon tells his victory party, but tonight I am in no mood to celebrate. As an independent, I know I have far more work I need to do, and I will do it, so help me God.”

Event Date: 1-20-1981
Event Description: President Hugh Carey is sworn into office, facing an insurgent Middle East and a collapsing Soviet Union. President Reagan leaves office as a popular president, and Assemblyman Nixon gets to work trying to take down the largest government program in California: the highway patrol. For years, Nixon has seen the California Highway Patrol as a racist organization which, “Uses Gestapo tactics on our highways while enforcing the unconstitutional War on Drugs and trying to force themselves into people’s cars.” The Nixon-Honda Commission will investigate the highway patrol, claiming that it is corrupt, and thus is included in their investigation. 

Event Date: 2-12-1981
Event Description: Captain Ken Roseberg, the head of the California Highway Patrol, attacks Assemblyman Nixon at the Los Angeles Police Department Ball.  “Mr. Nixon,” Captain Roseberg states, “Is a man who hates law and wants illegal immigrants to kill more kids on our highways.” He also accuses Nixon of being a, “Acid head, or at least an enabler of acid heads across the country.” When told of the speech, Nixon responds, “Well, I guess they were serving more alcohol than I thought at those police balls.”

Event Date: 4-09-1981
Event Description: The Nixon-Honda Commission makes its second report, attacking the California Highway System for failing to clean up heaps of garbage along the roadways, which was something they were expected to do by federal mandate. The commission proposes that convicts in state prisons be utilized to clean the highways. This recommendation will be approved of by the State House.

Event Date: 7-17-1981
Event Description: The Nixon-Honda Commission releases its preliminary findings on the California Highway Patrol. There are many unconstitutional power abuses that are found, amongst them illegally searching cars without search warrants (as mandated by the Supreme Court), pulling over Hispanic-Americans for questioning without just cause, usage of pepper spray and night sticks on suspects in interrogation and illegally brandishing and using firearms against federal code. “This is a police state,” Nixon tells the assembly, “And it has to be stopped.”

Event Date: 7-20-1981
Event Description: The findings of the Nixon-Honda Commission send shockwaves through not just California, but the country as a whole. Across the country, newspapers will print their own exposes on local and state police forces. U.S. Attorney General Robert Abrams, a liberal legal scholar, tells the Washington Post, “We should welcome such examinations by the press. Our police need to follow the Constitution; they are not exempt from laws just because they enforce them.”

Event Date: 8-01-1981
Event Description: The National League of Law Enforcement Officers issues a memorandum smearing the Nixon-Honda Commission as, “A partisan, pro-amnesty and anti-law cabal against all law abiding citizens.” This reprimand, stinging as it is, is laughed at by the media and most Californians as over the top and unfair.

Event Date: 8-29-1981
Event Description: In a meeting with consumer advocate Ralph Nader and former Senator Eugene McCarthy, both Democrats turned left-winged independents, Nixon tells them that he has no interest in running as an independent for governor or U.S. Senator in 1982. “I have too much I have to do in the assembly,” Nixon tells them. This is a major disappointment, as both were hoping that Nixon could be a potential candidate for president in 1984, and perhaps become the only independent ever elected to the White House.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 11-01-1981
Event Description: The Trial of Sarah Jane Moore begins in Arlington, Virginia. At home in Whittier, Richard Nixon does not listen to the opening statement by Moore’s pro bono attorney, famed defense attorney Ramsey Clark who is determined to prove to the world, “Ms. Moore was the puppet of the CIA when she tried to kill Mr. Nixon.”

Event Date: 11-09-1981
Event Description: Former CIA Director Richard Helms testifies at the Moore Trial, to try to debunk the claims by Ramsey Clark that the CIA tried to kill Mr. Nixon. “Ms. Moore worked for the CIA, that is true,” Helms tells the court, “But she was an informant for us, telling us about far left-wing groups like the Symbanese Liberation Army and the Black Panthers. She was never hired to kill anyone, let alone a college professor.” Helms, a man of iron will, does not fold under Clark’s butchering cross examination, but does make one interesting comment. “Nixon was never popular with the U.S. government,” Helms answers Clark, “We viewed his ‘Nixonites’ in the same way we saw ‘The Weather Underground’ or ‘The Black Panthers’, but we never tried to kill their leaders.” “That’s true,” Clark responds, “But other people did, people who would have seemed to have had no problem with those groups.”

Event Date: 11-12-1981
Event Description: Agent Charles “Chuckie” Whittaker is cross-examined by Ramsey Clark. Whittaker was the agent who Moore would report to headquarters the finding of CIA mole Sarah Jane Moore. “Was Ms. Moore a ‘Nixonite’?” Clark asks Whittaker. “No,” the agent responds. “So she would have had no attachment to the professor, correct?” Clark then asks. “That is true,” Whittaker responds. “And that was special amongst your left-winged agents, correct?” Clark prods. “That is also true,” Whittaker responds, “Nixon has a way of attracting socialists and the like to his fold.” “But not Ms. Moore, right?” Clark ads, to which Whittaker agrees. “That’s interesting,” Clark concludes, “So she could shoot Nixon without any personal attachments?” This leads to an objection, which is sustained, but the damage has been done to the CIA and the federal case.

Event Date: 11-22-1981
Event Description: Sarah Jane Moore takes the stand at her own trial, and produces a story of government intrigue not heard anywhere except in the pages of spy fiction. “I was hired by the CIA to kill Mr. Nixon,” Moore tells Clark, causing an upheaval in the courtroom that is not silenced for half and hour. “The government men felt I would be seen as a ‘lone nut’ and could never be tied to them,” Moore testifies, “I never liked Nixon, I see him as a fake leftist who tries to tie Republican fascist values in with some gospel of good deeds based on the New Testament. If Nixon was gone, I wouldn’t cry.” Despite numerous objections from the federal prosecutors, Moore’s testimony is allowed into the record by a judge who seems more interested in the story than in the law. “Why would the CIA want to kill Mr. Nixon?” Clark asks Moore. “The FBI, the CIA and the NSA have been spying on Nixon and his followers since the 1960s,” Moore explains, “This is stuff that is told to every operative the CIA hires. Nixon is seen as a threat because he has an army, his ‘Nixonites.’ These do-gooders are viewed as dangerous as the Symbonese Liberation Army, the KKK or Charlie, except Nixon’s guys never kidnapped Patty Hearst.” “Would you have ever tried to kill Nixon had you not been influenced by the government?” Clark asks, in which Moore quickly responds, “Of course not, he’s just a well meaning old man.” This is stricken from the record, but the jurors will remember it none the less. Clark, who has received much evidence from a shady CIA agent known to him only as “Deep Throat”, produces conversations between CIA and FBI higher-ups concerning the wiretapping of Mr. Nixon’s home and office, as well as attempts to have him arrested by manipulating California and federal law. “Today, justice died a little in the United States,” Walter Cronkite states when signing off from the CBS Evening News, “It looks like even the highest echelons of America’s keepers of justice can be easily influenced by fear, and that’s the way it is.”

Event Date: 11-25-1981
Event Description: Closing arguments are heard on the Sarah Jane Moore Case, with the federal prosecutors making strong arguments against the case of Ramsey Clark. “There is no evidence that Ms. Moore was hired to kill Mr. Nixon,” U.S. Attorney Richard Darst argues in his closing statement, “Even if the CIA did spy on Mr. Nixon, and violates his civil liberties, they did not try to kill him. Even if there was discussions on the matter, which there were none, that still would not be sufficient evidence of a conspiracy to kill Mr. Nixon.” “All I need to say,” Clark says in his closing address, “Is that our government manipulated the mind of a young woman, spied on a peaceful professor and tried to discredit a movement that only wants to give back to society. Is it so hard to believe that such a government would not hire that same woman to kill that same professor to stop that same movement? Think about it in your deliberations, my fellow peers.”

Event Date: 11-26-1981
Event Description: A juror in the Moore Case must be replaced, because her mother joined the Nixonites during the trial. An alternate is rushed to the courthouse, where the deliberations begin again. By three in the afternoon, the verdict is clear: Moore is guilty of attempted murder, as was expected. However, instead of being given a life in prison, she is given just five-years in a minimum security prison. Clark’s battle to make it seem as if Moore was manipulated by the government worked like a charm. “It’s glad to see that Ms. Moore will be given a second chance in life,” Assemblyman Nixon comments to the Washington Post, but that is all he says.

Event Date: 11-29-1981
Event Description: A Gallup/NBC News Poll shows that most Americans believe the CIA tried to assassinate cultural leader Richard Nixon, and used Sarah Jane Moore as their brainwashed instrument. 65% of Americans believe Moore was manipulated by the CIA and 51% believe her attempted assassination of Nixon was the choice of the government, and not her. “This is paranoia caused by a media circus trial,” President Carey comments at a press conference, “That man Clark is a heck of an attorney. Maybe I should make him the new attorney general.” This comment gets laughs, but it is true that Ramsey Clark has shot several big holes in the CIA, the FBI and the NSA, all holes that will not be filled easily or quickly.

Event Date: 12-03-1981
Event Description: “I do not feel that I am in danger of my life,” Nixon tells an interviewer from the New York Times in his first interview after the Moore Trial. However, he goes on to state, “I have never trusted high level law enforcement, as shown by my many cases against searches and seizures, the death penalty and prison abuse.” Nixon makes some controversy when he is told that the government may have been behind the assassination, and he responds, “I wouldn’t put it past them.”

Event Date: 1-17-1982
Event Description: All Soviet troops pull out of Afghanistan, leaving the once powerful Soviet military a shadow of its former self. “This is now a new challenge,” Nixon tells the Los Angeles Times, “For if the USSR collapses overnight, then the power vacuum will allow the Russian Mafia and the uber-nationalist militias to take control of a nuclear power. That is a real nightmare scenario.”

Event Date: 2-10-1982
Event Description:  The Nixon-Honda Commission makes its final report on corruption and abuse in the California Highway Patrol. The final report admonishes the top officers of the patrol for, “Using public funds to finance a lavish lifestyle.” Their investigation found that funds supposed to be used for new uniforms and updated computer software was instead being spent on vacations, cars and, in one ridiculous way, a guest house for Captain Russell Wash, the former head of the highway patrol. This news leads Governor Brown, who had wanted to do this months before, to fire every leader of the highway patrol, and order their immediate prosecution by federal attorneys. With the most corrupt highway system in the country cleaned up, Nixon and Honda asks for their committee to be ended. “We’ve done enough damage to the establishment,” Nixon jokes with Governor Brown.   

Event Date: 3-19-1982
Event Description: Assemblyman Nixon meets with President Hugh Carey at the White House, where Carey extends to him a very unique offer. With wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all ended; there are tens of thousands of landmines littering civilian areas throughout those nations. “With your care for humankind in mind, and knowing your skills in management,” President Carey tells Nixon, “I am appointing you to head up a U.S. drive to take clean up every landmine in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.” The president assures Nixon he will have the Peace Corps, the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) and the local populations to aide him in his job. “Mr. President,” Nixon tells the president, “To save the lives of the innocent, I would take the job if the only people I had helping me was my wife, my daughters and myself.”