The Political Career Of Richard Nixon :: biography Bio History Politics Nixon Essays

A few weeks after the unify body politics entered World War II a young mannamed Richard Nixon went to Washington, D.C. In January 1942 he took a job withthe Office of Price Administration. Two months subsequently he applied for a Navycommission, and in September 1942 he was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade.During much of the war he served as an operations officer with the South PacificCombat Air fascinate Command, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander.After the war Nixon returned to the United States, where he was assignedto work on Navy contracts while awaiting discharge. He was workings in Baltimore,Maryland, when he received a telephone call that changed his life. A Republicancitizens committee in Whittier was considering Nixon as a candidate for sexual intercourse in the 12th Congressional District. In December 1945 Nixon accepted thecandidacy with the promise that he would wage a fighting, rocking, sockingcampaign. Jerry Voorhis, a Democrat who had correspond t he 12th Districtsince 1936, was running for reelection. Earlier in his career Voorhis had beenan participating Socialist. He had become more conservative over the years and was forthwithan outspoken anti-Communist. Despite Voorhis anti-Communist stand the LosAngeles chapter of the left-wing Political Action delegation (PAC) endorsed him,apparently without his knowledge or approval. The theme of Nixons campaignwas a voter turnout for Nixon is a vote against the Communist-dominated PAC. Theapproach was successful. On November, 5 1946, Richard Nixon won his offshootpolitical election. The Nixons daughter Patricia (called Tricia) was bornduring the campaign, on February 21, 1946. Their second daughter, Julie, wasborn July 5, 1948.As a freshman congressman, Nixon was assigned to the Un-AmericanActivities Committee. It was in this capacity that in August 1948 he heard the deposition of Whittaker Chambers, a self-confessed author Communist espionageagent. Chambers named Alger Hiss, a foreign policy advisor during the Rooseveltyears, as an accomplice while in government service. Hiss, a former StateDepartment aide, asked for and obtained a hearing before the committee. He madea favorable impression, and the case would then have been dropped had not Nixonurged investigation into Hisss testimony on his relationship with Chambers.The committee let Nixon pursue the case bottom of the inning closed doors. He brought Chambersand Hiss face to face. Chambers produced turn up proving that Hiss had passedState Department secrets to him. Among the exhibits were rolls of microfilmwhich Chambers had hidden in a pumpkin on his farm near Westminster, Md., as aprecaution against theft. On December 15, 1948, a New York federal supercilious juryindict ed Hiss for perjury.