Richard Nixon California’s Native Son

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Paul Carter discusses the modern biographies of Richard Nixon that have been consumed with Watergate. All have missed arguably the most important perspective on Nixon as California’s native son.

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Paul Carter discusses the modern biographies of Richard Nixon that have been consumed with Watergate. All have missed arguably the most important perspective on Nixon as California’s native son.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 4, 2024

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This video video is a transcription of a discussion by the author about his unexpected journey in writing a biography of Richard Nixon. Initially, the author had a negative impression of Nixon, as he grew up during Nixon's presidency. However, after meeting him and working at the Nixon Library, his perspective changed. The author was inspired by his experience in the military and interactions with a commanding officer, Rodney Allen Knutson, who had strong ties to Nixon's efforts to bring home POWs during the Vietnam War.

In 2009, while exploring Nixon's life, the author decided to create a map of significant places in Nixon's early life in Southern California. This video video endeavor led him to discover numerous oral histories, amounting to over 10,000 pages, which detailed Nixon's upbringing, career, and experiences. The author utilized these resources to build a comprehensive timeline of Nixon's life, layering in personal letters and testimonies to provide a richer narrative.

Throughout his research, the author formed relationships with Nixon's family and intimates, who provided insights that had not previously been shared. He compares his research process to that of a lawyer, methodically constructing a detailed outline rather than depending on previous historical interpretations.

The author highlights Nixon's all-American childhood and achievements, underscoring significant contributions he made during his presidency, such as environmental legislation and foreign policy advancements. He argues that the prevalent negative perception of Nixon stems from historical narratives shaped after his presidency, which portrayed him as a villain.

The author hopes his biography will offer a balanced perspective, emphasizing Nixon's accomplishments and encouraging readers to look beyond the Watergate scandal to understand Nixon as a complex figure in American history. Ultimately, he believes Nixon's legacy deserves a reevaluation that acknowledges both his successes and failures.

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I will tell you, I never imagined

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that I would write a biography, of anybody,

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and especially, never one of Richard Nixon.

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Uh, I was nine years old when he resigned the presidency.

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And, you know, I'm the product of public education,

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and I never really had a favorable, opinion

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of Richard Nixon growing up.

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And, you know, after high school, I served in the Navy

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and I happened to serve under a man named

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Rodney Allen Knutson.

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He was my commanding officer.

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And, this is, this is somewhat interesting,

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but Rodney Allen Knutson was a POW in Vietnam.

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He was one of the longest held

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and most extensively tortured.

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And Richard Nixon was in the Navy,

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and he served in, the South Pacific and World War ii,

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and he knew what it was like

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to be far away from home at a time of war.

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And when he became president, he re, he, he refused

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to end Vietnam until he could bring all

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of the POWs home with honor.

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And Rodney Allen Knutson was one of those men.

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And Rodney Allen Knutson could have easily been medically

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retired, because of the nature

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and extent of his injuries.

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Uh, he was awarded two silver stars, but he stayed in.

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And, 12 years later, I came along along

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and he was my commanding officer,

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and he really inspired me to go to college

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and pursue my dreams.

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And, you know, I had some great shipmates onboard the

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mobile, which was the ship that he commanded.

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And after my service, I went off to college

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and I was at Cal State Fullerton.

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I was studying political science

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because I always wanted to be an attorney,

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and my mom recommended

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that I start volunteering at the Nixon Library.

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And I agreed.

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And then it never even occurred to me

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that I would meet Richard Nixon.

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And I still basically had the same opinion of him,

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which was not a high opinion.

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I just figured his political science would be interesting.

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And I, I ended up meeting Nixon a couple times,

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and he was such a nice gentleman, type

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of person

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and engaging that all my preconceived notions evaporated.

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And the dichotomy really struck me between his,

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his private person and his public image,

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and how different the, the two really were.

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But then I, I went off to law school

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and, you know, got married, started building a family,

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and, years later in 2009, I reconnected

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with a, a shipmate from the USS Mobile.

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And that led to me going out to the USS Princeton.

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I happened to be with the mayor of Whittier.

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And I had never been to Whittier at this time in my life,

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but I did know that Nixon grew up in Whittier.

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And so I asked the mayor, you know,

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do you have all the places that Nixon lived and worked

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and played in Whittier designated, as, you know,

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kinda like landmarks.

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And he told me, you know, we kinda lost

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track of all of those places.

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And I just thought to myself, I'm gonna make a map

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of Nixon's life in Southern California

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because he was the president of the United States,

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and, you know, we should at least,

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you know, remember the history.

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And I, I, I was looking to make this map, and in

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Doing that, I wanted to find things like,

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where did the kids, you know,

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go on Saturday night in Whittier in 1925?

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And I ended up, you know, I I went

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through all the Nixon biographies looking for locations,

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but I, I then discovered

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that there was 200 oral histories at Cal State full

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and of Nixon's intimates that were recorded between 1969

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and 1973.

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And then I found another 400 oral

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histories at Whittier College.

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And between the two groups of oral histories,

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the 600 oral histories, I had 10,000 pages of, of,

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of materials outlining Nixon's youth and growing up

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and practicing law, and being a young man in Whittier

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and, running for Congress and, and,

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and really the first half of his life.

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And in making the map

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and reading all of these oral histories,

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the story just screamed out to be told

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because it was so different than what is, in, in all

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of the auto, or not autobiographies,

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but all of the biographies I had read up till

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that point on Nixon and I completed the map,

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which is sold at the Nixon Library,

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but it was really the idea of making a map that led to,

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the biography which was screaming to be told from all

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of these stories, from all of these Nixons

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and intimates throughout the years

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to undertake the research for the work.

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Uh, I, I, I, I did it in a way that a lawyer would do it not

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as a, historian or a journalist would.

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Um, although we probably would've done it the same way.

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Uh, what I did was, I, I laid out the timeline

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of Nixon's life and basically put together the

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skeleton of his life.

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And then I took these 10,000 pages of oral histories,

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and I overlaid that onto the, you know, the bones

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of the material and kinda added meat to the, to the story

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from all of these oral histories.

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And, then I, I,

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I obtained other oral histories from other,

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research institutions and authors collections.

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Um, but I went into the National archives

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and I started going through the Nixon Personal files

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and the family files and the correspondence files,

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the parents files, the speech files,

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and, finding especially letters written between Nixon

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and his friends all the way up

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until the time of his presidency.

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Um, it was really enlightening in terms of the information

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that, you know, people exchange

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with each other when they're writing each other.

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Personal letters is, it's, it's like you let your hair down

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and it's very revealing.

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And, I took all of that information

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and I just layered it on to this, this outline that I had.

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And, what I also did was I took the map,

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which I had completed already,

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and I sent it out to, many Nixon intimates.

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And, they started granting me interviews

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and I developed relationships with, you know,

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like his sister-in-Law, Claire Jane Nixon.

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And, I became pretty good friends

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with his brother Ed Nixon before he passed,

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and numerous other people from the Nixon administration.

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And they, they gave me access,

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that they hadn't previously given to other people.

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Um, some of the people that granted me interviews really

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haven't been interviewed before.

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And I feel very fortunate

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because nearly all of these people have now passed on.

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And it, it, it was, it was, it was using the map

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and all of the background research that I had done,

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or performed through those oral histories

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and then digging into the archives and, and,

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and that's what led me to these individuals.

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That was, quite beneficial.

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But I will tell you, I started in 2009

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and the book was published, on September 1st, 2023.

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And during that 14 years, you know, if, if you took all

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of the materials that I digested,

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which was about 125,000 pages

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and stacked them up, it'd be five stories tall.

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So it was, it's quite a,

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it was quite a trek down the rabbit hole just from starting

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to build a map based on someone's, you know,

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being a southern Californian.

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Richard Nixon had really an a a an all

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American youth.

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And growing up, you know, his,

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his mom moved out from Indiana in nine, in 1897,

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and his father moved out from Ohio in 1907, and they met

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and married in 1908.

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And then Richard Nixon was born in 1913 in a

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home that his father built.

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And, you know, by the time Richard Nixon was,

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seven years old in 1920, there's only 350 people

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that lived in the town of Gilbert, Linda, where,

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where he was born.

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And now, you know,

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the whole southern California region is this huge thriving

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metropolis, and it's just, you know, almost like a stucco

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wasteland from north LA County all the way

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to South Orange County,

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and e East out to, you know, San Bernardino and Riverside.

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But back then, the towns were Balkanized

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and they were surrounded by thousands

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and thousands of acres of orchards.

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And, and so he really grew up in the country,

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and they were self-sufficient.

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They were self-reliant.

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And he had an interesting, e each of his,

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like early birthplace

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or young, period,

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places he grew up in were interesting

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because in Yor Belinda, they had a, a canal that went

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through the town and out in front

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of the Nixon house was a bridge over the canal.

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Well, they had a ro who patrolled the, the canal

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to keep the kids out of it.

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Well, this bridge out in front

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of the Nixon house was the natural meaning place

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for all the kids because they could hide from,

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from the Xero there.

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And then when they moved to Woodier, when, he was,

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in 1922 when he was nine, they, they didn't move

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to Woodier proper, they moved to East Woodier,

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which was unincorporated at the time,

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and it was an area that was about seven miles long

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between Whittier proper and LaHabra to the east.

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And they picked a spot at the three

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and a half mile mark, which happened

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to be right across the street from the, the Eastwood

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of your friends church, which was the only church in the

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area at the time, and everyone attended.

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And church back in those days was, was an all day affair.

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You know, you had Sunday school in the morning,

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you had a silent service,

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you had Christian Endeavor in the afternoon,

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and then you had a more evangelical service in the evening.

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And the Nixon home that they built, when they moved

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to East Whittier, they originally built a two car garage

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with living quarters above.

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And when Frank can, or Frank Nixon added to the home

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and built a, a basically a separate house next

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to this garage, the way you got

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to the upstairs over the garage was you had to go

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outside the home and up an exterior staircase.

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And so Frank and Hannah, when they made or,

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or built their, home, they moved into the home,

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but the boys all stayed in this house over the garage,

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which kind of became a clubhouse where, you know,

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on Sundays, all the kids hung out at the church

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with all these church activities.

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And then the Nixon home was right across the street.

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And back in those days, you know,

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everyone lived on 10 acres,

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and so the next nearest home might be a mile away.

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And so it was, you know, they'd all play ball

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and do everything on Sundays.

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And, and Nixon really had a

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great group that he was friends with.

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You know, he was eighth grade class president

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when he was in ninth grade.

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He played on the football team

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and they won the championship.

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By the time he was in the 10th grade, he was a,

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a constitutional debate champion.

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You know, he acted in, high school theater.

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He went on to Whittier College,

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and he was freshman class representative,

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or freshman class president

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and sophomore class representative

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and student body vice president in his, junior year

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and student body president in his senior year.

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He, you know, played football all

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four years for Woodier College.

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He was on the freshman basketball team.

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He, he, he, he was voted best man on campus his senior year,

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and his classmates wrote him a letter saying, out

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of every graduating class, there is one person

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that becomes a remarkable person,

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and we all believe you're destined to be that person.

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So he had this tremendously all American upbringing

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in these, you know, country settings.

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Then he goes to Duke Law School,

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and he returns home to Whittier,

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and he immediately gets a job at Winger

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and Buley, which is the premier law firm in town.

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He also becomes the assistant Whittier City attorney.

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He's, he's acting in community theater, which is

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where he met his wife, pat.

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Um, he's president of the local 2030 Service Club.

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He attends other service clubs

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and plays their club songs on the piano

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and leads singalongs.

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He is president of the Duke Alumni Association.

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He teaches a course in Practical Law at Whittier College.

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He's the first president

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of the Orange County Association of Cities.

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He's the president of the Whittier College

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of Alumni Association in 1939 when he was just,

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you know, two years outta law school, he was, nominated

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to the board of trustees of, of Whittier College.

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And, and that was a prestigious group.

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Aubrey Wardman, the wealthiest man in Whittier,

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he was a member of the board, and so was former first lady

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of the United States, Lew Henry Hoover.

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And, you know, Nixon went into business with pioneering

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and frozen orange juice.

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Um, that business failed, but he was bold

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and taking a chance, he was active in his church singing

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bass in the choir, and leading the

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Quaker young people's class.

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He just really had a very vibrant legal

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practice and career and a social life.

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And everything I just described really was in the four years

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between graduating in mid 1937

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and heading off to Washington, DC in January, 1942

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after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7th, 1941.

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So it was really, an incredibly, busy

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and all American, youthful experience that he had.

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California had great influence on Richard Nixon.

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You know, he grew up loving to go

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to the beaches in Santa Monica, long Beach,

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Huntington Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente.

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Um, he, he, he loved being able to go up

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to the local mountains, you know,

12:59.645 --> 13:02.125
Southern California is the, is the only place we could go

13:02.125 --> 13:03.485
to the beach in the morning

13:03.545 --> 13:05.885
and go snow ski in the afternoon, in the winter.

13:06.545 --> 13:10.485
And he really loved that aspect of, of growing up here.

13:10.865 --> 13:14.005
And he took that to the White House with them, you know, in,

13:14.025 --> 13:16.685
in his administration, he did the Clean Water Act.

13:16.685 --> 13:17.725
He did the Clean Air Act.

13:17.745 --> 13:18.845
He felt that clean air

13:18.845 --> 13:21.885
and clean water were birthrights of all American citizens.

13:21.945 --> 13:25.445
And he, he created the Environmental Protection Agency.

13:25.745 --> 13:27.365
And those weren't transactional

13:27.515 --> 13:29.485
political maneuvers on his part.

13:29.495 --> 13:32.325
Those were because of his youth and growing up

13:32.325 --> 13:35.965
and his love of the Pacific Ocean and, and, and,

13:35.985 --> 13:38.245
and wide open spaces from his youth.

13:38.705 --> 13:41.525
You know, he, he grew up in an area that was filled

13:41.525 --> 13:44.045
with thousands of acres of orchards and,

13:44.345 --> 13:46.565
and he grew up with a lot of Hispanic families.

13:47.285 --> 13:50.465
And when he became president, he insisted

13:50.575 --> 13:54.145
that the 1970 census count Hispanics for the first time.

13:54.205 --> 13:55.665
And they told him, well,

13:55.665 --> 13:57.225
the census forms have already been printed.

13:57.285 --> 13:58.745
And he said that then reprint 'em,

13:58.745 --> 14:00.425
but we have to count the Hispanics

14:00.425 --> 14:04.185
because he knew that nobody in our country gets

14:04.185 --> 14:07.185
representation unless you're counted as, and, and,

14:07.205 --> 14:09.225
and you can be identified as, as a group.

14:09.365 --> 14:12.065
And so he knew that for the best interest of the Hispanics,

14:12.065 --> 14:13.185
it was to be counted.

14:13.685 --> 14:15.985
And he knew that from, from his youth.

14:16.525 --> 14:20.185
Um, you know, when he was president, the Apollo 11,

14:20.185 --> 14:21.705
landed on the moon and he

14:21.705 --> 14:22.905
wondered the White House to the people.

14:23.165 --> 14:25.265
And so he had a state dinner

14:25.365 --> 14:28.745
for the Apollo 11 crew at the Century Plaza in,

14:28.805 --> 14:29.905
in, in Los Angeles.

14:30.245 --> 14:32.785
And he had, you know, all of the White House, all

14:32.785 --> 14:34.505
of the Senate, all the house representatives,

14:34.505 --> 14:37.905
all the governors, everybody celebrating the,

14:37.965 --> 14:39.025
the Apollo 11.

14:39.125 --> 14:41.385
And he brought that to California,

14:41.385 --> 14:43.225
because he wanted to bring that home.

14:43.925 --> 14:48.785
He, he, he saw over the course of his life

14:49.405 --> 14:52.885
how California transformed from, you know, thousands

14:52.885 --> 14:56.525
of acres of orchards into, into industry and,

14:56.545 --> 14:58.405
and a thriving golden state.

14:58.865 --> 15:02.365
And when he was president, he brought Leonard Ed Brene

15:02.585 --> 15:06.485
to La Caa Pacifica on the cliffs of, of San San Clemente

15:06.485 --> 15:08.165
to his Western White House,

15:08.355 --> 15:10.725
because he wanted him to fly over Los Angeles

15:10.985 --> 15:12.405
and see the development

15:12.405 --> 15:14.485
and see what capitalism had accomplished.

15:14.985 --> 15:19.045
And, and he wanted to deliver that message to Brezhnev.

15:19.045 --> 15:20.365
And, and, and he did.

15:20.945 --> 15:24.605
And as a result of what Brezhnev saw from Nixon

15:24.865 --> 15:25.925
and their interactions,

15:25.955 --> 15:28.005
they signed the first nuclear arms treaty,

15:28.305 --> 15:30.685
and they started to have their relations, you know,

15:30.835 --> 15:32.725
cool in the Cold War.

15:33.145 --> 15:36.575
Um, but it was, it was this idea

15:37.235 --> 15:40.455
of his California upbringing and all of these influences,

15:40.755 --> 15:42.335
and he brought that back to California.

15:43.035 --> 15:46.615
And even before he was president, you know,

15:46.615 --> 15:49.695
if you look at like 1948 when he was first reelected

15:49.695 --> 15:51.095
to Congress,

15:51.725 --> 15:54.935
Earl Warren is Governor Goody Knight is Lieutenant Governor,

15:55.395 --> 15:57.655
and Bill Nolan is, is a senator.

15:58.235 --> 16:01.855
And by 1952, Richard Nixon's vice President

16:01.855 --> 16:04.975
of the United States, Earl Warren, then is nominated to,

16:04.995 --> 16:07.415
to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

16:07.715 --> 16:09.815
Goodie Knight becomes governor of California,

16:10.515 --> 16:13.375
and, bill Nolan is president of the Senate.

16:13.595 --> 16:16.295
And so you have these Californians in these incredibly

16:16.295 --> 16:17.375
important positions.

16:17.715 --> 16:21.175
And, and in 1948, Ronald Reagan is a Truman Democrat.

16:22.315 --> 16:25.765
Well, by 1958,

16:26.515 --> 16:27.685
bill Nolan decided

16:27.745 --> 16:30.045
to challenge Goodie Knight for the governorship.

16:30.045 --> 16:33.165
And rather than defend his seat, goodie Knight ran

16:33.165 --> 16:36.325
for Bill Nolan's senate seat, and they both split the party

16:36.345 --> 16:39.285
and they lost their, their, their respective campaigns.

16:40.025 --> 16:42.545
And with Earl Warren on the, the Supreme Court

16:43.265 --> 16:47.305
that really left Nixon as the one California politician

16:47.305 --> 16:48.945
still standing, and

16:49.035 --> 16:52.825
after he lost the 1960 presidential race, the party came

16:52.825 --> 16:54.225
to him and said, you're the only one

16:54.225 --> 16:55.785
that can heal this Republican party

16:55.785 --> 16:56.865
in the state of California.

16:57.495 --> 16:59.425
Will you run for governor against Pat Brown?

17:00.325 --> 17:01.385
And it was the one office

17:01.505 --> 17:03.345
that Richard Nixon didn't really wanna run for,

17:03.365 --> 17:04.785
but he did it to try

17:04.785 --> 17:07.425
and heal the Republican politics in California.

17:08.085 --> 17:11.025
The problem was that he had to win all

17:11.025 --> 17:13.065
of the Republicans in order to win the,

17:13.085 --> 17:16.145
the governorship plus a million Democrats.

17:16.725 --> 17:19.985
And, the John Birch Society was supporting various

17:20.195 --> 17:21.745
candidates on the right wing,

17:22.125 --> 17:24.625
and Richard Nixon disavowed the John Birch Society

17:24.685 --> 17:27.305
and said he would not support

17:27.365 --> 17:29.265
or do anything to help any candidates

17:29.365 --> 17:31.825
unless they disavowed the John Birch Society.

17:32.125 --> 17:35.025
And so he, he could, you know, he was, he was not able

17:35.025 --> 17:37.025
to unify the Republican Party.

17:37.125 --> 17:41.945
And so he lost that, that race, for the governorship.

17:42.325 --> 17:43.745
But during all those years,

17:44.005 --> 17:47.145
he was also having Ronald Reagan under his tutelage,

17:47.165 --> 17:48.865
and, was a good friend of his.

17:49.265 --> 17:52.965
And by 19 64, 65, Ronald Reagan becomes a Republican.

17:53.465 --> 17:57.245
And in 1966, Ronald Reagan wins the Republican nomination

17:57.425 --> 17:59.285
and defeats Brown for the governorship.

17:59.505 --> 18:01.925
And then he's off to the races, so to speak.

18:02.585 --> 18:05.685
The public perception, you know, of Nixon is the, you know,

18:05.685 --> 18:09.885
he, he's cold impersonable, you know, paranoid,

18:10.285 --> 18:14.925
insecure, devious Machiavellian, you know,

18:14.945 --> 18:18.485
had a poor childhood, was an outsider, wasn't one

18:18.485 --> 18:21.885
of the cool kids, you know, had a chip on his shoulder.

18:22.385 --> 18:24.085
You know, these are all, you know, themes

18:24.085 --> 18:27.085
that are constantly coming up in, in, in,

18:27.225 --> 18:29.285
in the Nixon lore, so to speak.

18:29.905 --> 18:33.925
And, that whole narrative was really developed in his

18:34.035 --> 18:35.805
initial post presidency years.

18:36.355 --> 18:40.965
When you had historians like, fawn Brody, you know,

18:40.965 --> 18:44.125
who despise Richard Nixon, they, they, they kind of,

18:44.915 --> 18:47.445
they began writing their biographies of Nixon,

18:47.785 --> 18:51.125
but the, the conclusion was predetermined, which was

18:51.125 --> 18:52.565
that he was a villain, and then they had

18:52.565 --> 18:54.165
to backfill in the story about

18:54.305 --> 18:55.605
how he got to be this villain.

18:56.025 --> 18:57.925
And so you have to come up with this cold

18:57.985 --> 19:00.485
and personable, background,

19:01.095 --> 19:03.645
which really couldn't be further from the truth.

19:04.185 --> 19:08.765
Um, he had long time, friendships,

19:09.035 --> 19:11.165
with, you know, in particularly women.

19:11.305 --> 19:15.045
If you look at the women in Nixon's life, you know,

19:15.785 --> 19:17.365
ladies like Loey Gotton,

19:17.365 --> 19:20.245
Marge Acker joined his senate staff in 1950

19:20.585 --> 19:22.365
and remained loyal to him

19:22.465 --> 19:25.805
and dedicated to him the rest of his life and their lives.

19:26.345 --> 19:29.125
His first legal secretary was Evelyn Dorn,

19:29.425 --> 19:32.525
and she was dedicated to Richard Nixon the rest of her life.

19:33.145 --> 19:36.205
And, you see, when you look at, you know,

19:36.205 --> 19:39.525
his correspondence in everything, you,

19:39.625 --> 19:43.765
you see this person who's exchanging ideas in humor.

19:44.465 --> 19:45.765
Now he's reserved.

19:45.765 --> 19:49.525
There's no question about that, which probably allows for,

19:49.945 --> 19:51.965
you know, him to be, appear to be cold,

19:51.965 --> 19:54.565
because from his Quaker background and,

19:54.625 --> 19:56.165
and his reserve nature,

19:57.665 --> 20:00.605
he was an introvert in an extrovert's profession,

20:01.065 --> 20:03.685
and he was not the type of guy that's gonna walk in a room

20:03.945 --> 20:05.845
and tell you how great he is

20:05.985 --> 20:07.685
and what all of his accomplishments are.

20:08.185 --> 20:10.045
He would be much more modest

20:10.145 --> 20:13.365
and humble about those types of things and, and, and,

20:13.385 --> 20:14.565
and quiet about them.

20:15.185 --> 20:19.085
Um, but it doesn't mean that he wasn't, warm

20:19.105 --> 20:21.605
and friendly and had wonderful relationships,

20:21.655 --> 20:23.285
which he in fact did.

20:23.665 --> 20:26.485
And, and it's, it's really interesting to see

20:26.545 --> 20:27.925
how his classmates would talk

20:27.925 --> 20:30.605
to talk about him in the college years,

20:30.605 --> 20:33.005
because he would reach out to them when they needed things.

20:33.385 --> 20:35.685
And, he would, he would, you know,

20:35.835 --> 20:37.765
keep tabs on him even, you know,

20:37.765 --> 20:39.845
like he had a debate partner named Kenny Ball.

20:40.905 --> 20:42.005
And,

20:42.655 --> 20:44.565
after Nixon resigned the presidency,

20:44.565 --> 20:45.885
Kenny Ball had open heart surgery,

20:45.945 --> 20:48.685
and his wife Dolores was stunned when the phone rang.

20:49.105 --> 20:50.965
And here's Richard Nixon calling

20:50.985 --> 20:53.285
to check in on his old debate partner,

20:53.285 --> 20:55.245
that he kept tabs on throughout his life.

20:55.785 --> 20:59.365
And, none of that is reflected really in these other,

20:59.905 --> 21:02.765
biographies that, that have been written about Nixon.

21:03.305 --> 21:04.885
And it's, it, it,

21:05.745 --> 21:10.085
it really creates this false narrative, so to speak,

21:10.255 --> 21:12.125
about what he was really like.

21:12.545 --> 21:13.645
And, and that's

21:13.645 --> 21:16.005
what really piqued my interest in him from the get go

21:16.005 --> 21:18.445
as a college student, was that dichotomy between

21:18.555 --> 21:20.845
what I believed to be true about him and,

21:20.845 --> 21:22.085
and what the reality was.

21:22.085 --> 21:25.765
Because it's almost like the perception becomes the reality,

21:26.395 --> 21:29.725
even if the perception is, is, is inaccurate.

21:30.115 --> 21:32.565
What I hope that readers take from the book

21:32.825 --> 21:36.685
and what I, I think I stumbled into,

21:36.945 --> 21:39.805
I'm not gonna claim to be, smart enough

21:39.805 --> 21:42.805
to figure this out, from the beginning,

21:44.115 --> 21:47.335
but by making my biography about Richard Nixon

21:47.925 --> 21:51.975
through the lens of his being a Californian, it allowed me

21:51.975 --> 21:53.855
to really set aside the politics.

21:54.475 --> 21:59.415
And Richard Nixon is not one dimensional Watergate.

21:59.635 --> 22:02.335
And that's what I hope people take from my biography,

22:02.335 --> 22:06.375
that there was much more to the person than Watergate.

22:06.835 --> 22:10.815
And, you know, to really understand Richard Nixon,

22:11.955 --> 22:13.815
you have to really understand his history

22:13.815 --> 22:15.895
because he had a meteoric rise in politics.

22:15.895 --> 22:18.895
You know, he was elected a congressman reelected in 1948,

22:19.365 --> 22:20.935
elected to the United States Senate

22:20.935 --> 22:23.535
and the largest landslide of any Senate candidate that year.

22:23.555 --> 22:25.895
And then he is vice president two years later, the,

22:26.035 --> 22:28.015
the second youngest vice president ever.

22:28.205 --> 22:32.495
He's the only American to be on, you know, elected twice

22:32.495 --> 22:34.215
as vice president and twice as president.

22:34.635 --> 22:38.295
Uh, he and, Franklin Elder are the only politicians

22:38.295 --> 22:39.975
to be on five national ballots.

22:40.195 --> 22:42.135
You know, more people voted for Richard Nixon than any

22:42.135 --> 22:43.455
other American politician.

22:44.115 --> 22:47.495
And, and you really, we really need

22:47.495 --> 22:50.335
to have a better understanding of what he was all about.

22:50.805 --> 22:53.175
Because really the question becomes,

22:53.275 --> 22:55.615
was Richard Nixon a villain who got his justice desserts,

22:55.795 --> 22:59.575
or was he an all American man that made a tremendous mistake

22:59.955 --> 23:01.495
for which his legacy has sustained?

23:01.875 --> 23:05.215
And if you, if you look at his history, you know,

23:05.215 --> 23:07.455
he ended Vietnam, he ended the draft,

23:07.595 --> 23:09.415
he created the all volunteer military

23:09.415 --> 23:10.735
that still stands to this day.

23:11.075 --> 23:13.895
He signed the first nuclear arms Treater treaty.

23:14.395 --> 23:16.975
He, was the first president to go to Moscow.

23:17.275 --> 23:18.295
He opened up China.

23:18.915 --> 23:21.375
Uh, you know, he saved Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

23:22.035 --> 23:25.335
He, created the, the EPA and the Clean Water

23:25.335 --> 23:26.455
and Clean Air Act.

23:26.875 --> 23:28.775
He restructured the government through the Office

23:28.795 --> 23:29.815
of Management and Budget.

23:30.755 --> 23:33.055
Um, you know, he quadrupled women in government.

23:33.435 --> 23:36.135
He, he had initiatives to bring women into government.

23:36.135 --> 23:38.695
And for the first time, women became secret service agents

23:38.695 --> 23:40.175
and tugboat captains and,

23:40.635 --> 23:41.815
and, you know,

23:41.815 --> 23:44.175
various other professions within the government.

23:44.555 --> 23:46.045
And he appointed them to commissions.

23:46.075 --> 23:48.965
Then they became, chairpersons of the commissions.

23:49.385 --> 23:50.965
Um, he tried to nominate a woman

23:50.965 --> 23:53.765
to the United States Supreme Court in Mildred Lily,

23:53.765 --> 23:56.525
the longest serving, justice on the California Court

23:56.525 --> 23:59.085
of Appeal, which the American Bar Association voted 11

23:59.085 --> 24:00.765
to one, saying that she was unqualified

24:00.825 --> 24:02.325
and she was imminently qualified.

24:02.985 --> 24:06.885
Um, you know, he, he, he did Title ix,

24:07.105 --> 24:09.845
to fundamentally change women's collegiate sports.

24:10.505 --> 24:12.485
All five of the man missions

24:12.485 --> 24:14.685
to the moon were in the Nixon administration.

24:15.265 --> 24:18.805
Um, he lowered the vo voting age to 18 under the theory

24:18.805 --> 24:19.885
that if you could go to war

24:19.885 --> 24:21.285
for a country, you should be able to vote.

24:22.265 --> 24:25.365
And if any other president had accomplished all these,

24:26.155 --> 24:28.325
we'd probably be celebrating that person.

24:28.865 --> 24:31.605
Yet with Nixon, we're villainizing him.

24:32.065 --> 24:35.845
And it's, it's interesting to me, and,

24:35.905 --> 24:38.085
and it becomes a serious question of, you know,

24:38.305 --> 24:41.405
should we be villainizing this person with all

24:41.405 --> 24:42.525
of those accomplishments?

24:43.185 --> 24:46.005
And, are we, are we,

24:47.305 --> 24:49.885
are we truly being American by villainizing

24:50.635 --> 24:53.405
such an accomplished American who led an all American life?

24:53.985 --> 24:57.445
And, and that's, that's the question that I seek to,

24:57.715 --> 24:59.045
have people explore.

24:59.705 --> 25:03.235
And I, I present my,

25:03.855 --> 25:07.195
my biography, Richard Nixon, California's native son,

25:08.055 --> 25:10.715
by laying out all of the evidence, everything

25:10.715 --> 25:13.755
that I rely on, I cite to, you know, the, the, the, the,

25:13.755 --> 25:15.195
the book's almost 500 pages long

25:15.195 --> 25:16.555
and half of it is citations.

25:17.015 --> 25:18.955
Um, and, and I do that

25:18.955 --> 25:20.595
because I, I understand

25:20.595 --> 25:22.315
that this is a different view of him.

25:22.775 --> 25:25.675
Um, but as I said in the beginning, I didn't set out to, in,

25:25.695 --> 25:27.795
in my life to write a biography of Richard Nixon.

25:28.275 --> 25:31.315
I, I kind of fell into this, and,

25:31.415 --> 25:34.195
and it's been an extremely interesting

25:34.195 --> 25:36.715
and gratifying, experience for me.

25:36.975 --> 25:39.315
And, and so I hope that people read it,

25:39.315 --> 25:40.315
and I hope that they enjoy it.

Quick Answers

Reflecting on Nixon: A Personal Journey

00:00:00 - I will tell you, I never imagined that I would write a biography, of anybody, and especially, never one of Richard Nixon. I was nine years old when he resigned the presidency. And, you know, I'm the product of public education, and I never really had a favorable, opinion of Richard Nixon growing up. And, you know, after high school, I served in the Navy and I happened to serve under a man named Rodney Allen Knutson. He was my commanding officer.
00:00:35 - but Rodney Allen Knutson was a POW in Vietnam. He was one of the longest held and most extensively tortured. And Richard Nixon was in the Navy, and he served in, the South Pacific and World War ii, and he knew what it was like to be far away from home at a time of war. And when he became president, he re, he, he refused to end Vietnam until he could bring all of the POWs home with honor. And Rodney Allen Knutson was one of those men. And Rodney Allen Knutson could have easily been medically
00:01:05 - and extent of his injuries. he was awarded two silver stars, but he stayed in. And, 12 years later, I came along along and he was my commanding officer, and he really inspired me to go to college and pursue my dreams. And, you know, I had some great shipmates onboard the mobile, which was the ship that he commanded. And after my service, I went off to college and I was at Cal State Fullerton. I was studying political science because I always wanted to be an attorney, and my mom recommended
00:01:36 - And I agreed. And then it never even occurred to me that I would meet Richard Nixon. And I still basically had the same opinion of him, which was not a high opinion. I just figured his political science would be interesting. And I, I ended up meeting Nixon a couple times, and he was such a nice gentleman, type of person and engaging that all my preconceived notions evaporated. And the dichotomy really struck me between his, his private person and his public image,
00:02:07 - But then I, I went off to law school and, you know, got married, started building a family, and, years later in 2009, I reconnected with a, a shipmate from the USS Mobile. And that led to me going out to the USS Princeton. I happened to be with the mayor of Whittier. And I had never been to Whittier at this time in my life, but I did know that Nixon grew up in Whittier. And so I asked the mayor, you know, do you have all the places that Nixon lived and worked
00:02:39 - kinda like landmarks. And he told me, you know, we kinda lost track of all of those places. And I just thought to myself, I'm gonna make a map of Nixon's life in Southern California because he was the president of the United States, and, you know, we should at least, you know, remember the history. And I, I, I was looking to make this map, and in Doing that, I wanted to find things like, where did the kids, you know, go on Saturday night in Whittier in 1925?

Unveiling Nixon: Oral Histories and Insights

00:03:10 - through all the Nixon biographies looking for locations, but I, I then discovered that there was 200 oral histories at Cal State full and of Nixon's intimates that were recorded between 1969 and 1973. And then I found another 400 oral histories at Whittier College. And between the two groups of oral histories, the 600 oral histories, I had 10,000 pages of, of, of materials outlining Nixon's youth and growing up
00:03:41 - and, running for Congress and, and, and really the first half of his life. And in making the map and reading all of these oral histories, the story just screamed out to be told because it was so different than what is, in, in all of the auto, or not autobiographies, but all of the biographies I had read up till that point on Nixon and I completed the map, which is sold at the Nixon Library, but it was really the idea of making a map that led to,
00:04:12 - of these stories, from all of these Nixons and intimates throughout the years to undertake the research for the work. I, I, I, I did it in a way that a lawyer would do it not as a, historian or a journalist would. although we probably would've done it the same way. what I did was, I, I laid out the timeline of Nixon's life and basically put together the skeleton of his life. And then I took these 10,000 pages of oral histories,
00:04:45 - of the material and kinda added meat to the, to the story from all of these oral histories. And, then I, I, I obtained other oral histories from other, research institutions and authors collections. but I went into the National archives and I started going through the Nixon Personal files and the family files and the correspondence files, the parents files, the speech files, and, finding especially letters written between Nixon
00:05:15 - until the time of his presidency. it was really enlightening in terms of the information that, you know, people exchange with each other when they're writing each other. Personal letters is, it's, it's like you let your hair down and it's very revealing. And, I took all of that information and I just layered it on to this, this outline that I had. And, what I also did was I took the map, which I had completed already, and I sent it out to, many Nixon intimates. And, they started granting me interviews
00:05:47 - like his sister-in-Law, Claire Jane Nixon. And, I became pretty good friends with his brother Ed Nixon before he passed, and numerous other people from the Nixon administration. And they, they gave me access, that they hadn't previously given to other people. some of the people that granted me interviews really haven't been interviewed before. And I feel very fortunate because nearly all of these people have now passed on. And it, it, it was, it was, it was using the map

Exploring Richard Nixon's Early Life Journey

00:06:21 - or performed through those oral histories and then digging into the archives and, and, and that's what led me to these individuals. That was, quite beneficial. But I will tell you, I started in 2009 and the book was published, on September 1st, 2023. And during that 14 years, you know, if, if you took all of the materials that I digested, which was about 125,000 pages and stacked them up, it'd be five stories tall.
00:06:51 - it was quite a trek down the rabbit hole just from starting to build a map based on someone's, you know, being a southern Californian. Richard Nixon had really an a a an all American youth. And growing up, you know, his, his mom moved out from Indiana in nine, in 1897, and his father moved out from Ohio in 1907, and they met and married in 1908. And then Richard Nixon was born in 1913 in a home that his father built. And, you know, by the time Richard Nixon was,
00:07:25 - that lived in the town of Gilbert, Linda, where, where he was born. And now, you know, the whole southern California region is this huge thriving metropolis, and it's just, you know, almost like a stucco wasteland from north LA County all the way to South Orange County, and e East out to, you know, San Bernardino and Riverside. But back then, the towns were Balkanized and they were surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of orchards.
00:07:56 - and they were self-sufficient. They were self-reliant. And he had an interesting, e each of his, like early birthplace or young, period, places he grew up in were interesting because in Yor Belinda, they had a, a canal that went through the town and out in front of the Nixon house was a bridge over the canal. Well, they had a ro who patrolled the, the canal to keep the kids out of it. Well, this bridge out in front
00:08:26 - for all the kids because they could hide from, from the Xero there. And then when they moved to Woodier, when, he was, in 1922 when he was nine, they, they didn't move to Woodier proper, they moved to East Woodier, which was unincorporated at the time, and it was an area that was about seven miles long between Whittier proper and LaHabra to the east. And they picked a spot at the three and a half mile mark, which happened to be right across the street from the, the Eastwood
00:08:58 - area at the time, and everyone attended. And church back in those days was, was an all day affair. You know, you had Sunday school in the morning, you had a silent service, you had Christian Endeavor in the afternoon, and then you had a more evangelical service in the evening. And the Nixon home that they built, when they moved to East Whittier, they originally built a two car garage with living quarters above. And when Frank can, or Frank Nixon added to the home and built a, a basically a separate house next

Nixon's Remarkable All-American Upbringing

00:09:30 - to the upstairs over the garage was you had to go outside the home and up an exterior staircase. And so Frank and Hannah, when they made or, or built their, home, they moved into the home, but the boys all stayed in this house over the garage, which kind of became a clubhouse where, you know, on Sundays, all the kids hung out at the church with all these church activities. And then the Nixon home was right across the street. And back in those days, you know, everyone lived on 10 acres,
00:10:00 - And so it was, you know, they'd all play ball and do everything on Sundays. And, and Nixon really had a great group that he was friends with. You know, he was eighth grade class president when he was in ninth grade. He played on the football team and they won the championship. By the time he was in the 10th grade, he was a, a constitutional debate champion. You know, he acted in, high school theater. He went on to Whittier College, and he was freshman class representative, or freshman class president and sophomore class representative
00:10:32 - and student body president in his senior year. He, you know, played football all four years for Woodier College. He was on the freshman basketball team. He, he, he, he was voted best man on campus his senior year, and his classmates wrote him a letter saying, out of every graduating class, there is one person that becomes a remarkable person, and we all believe you're destined to be that person. So he had this tremendously all American upbringing
00:11:02 - Then he goes to Duke Law School, and he returns home to Whittier, and he immediately gets a job at Winger and Buley, which is the premier law firm in town. He also becomes the assistant Whittier City attorney. He's, he's acting in community theater, which is where he met his wife, pat. he's president of the local 2030 Service Club. He attends other service clubs and plays their club songs on the piano and leads singalongs. He is president of the Duke Alumni Association.
00:11:33 - He's the first president of the Orange County Association of Cities. He's the president of the Whittier College of Alumni Association in 1939 when he was just, you know, two years outta law school, he was, nominated to the board of trustees of, of Whittier College. And, and that was a prestigious group. Aubrey Wardman, the wealthiest man in Whittier, he was a member of the board, and so was former first lady of the United States, Lew Henry Hoover. And, you know, Nixon went into business with pioneering
00:12:04 - that business failed, but he was bold and taking a chance, he was active in his church singing bass in the choir, and leading the Quaker young people's class. He just really had a very vibrant legal practice and career and a social life. And everything I just described really was in the four years between graduating in mid 1937 and heading off to Washington, DC in January, 1942 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7th, 1941.

Richard Nixon: California's Influence on Leadership

00:12:39 - and all American, youthful experience that he had. California had great influence on Richard Nixon. You know, he grew up loving to go to the beaches in Santa Monica, long Beach, Huntington Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente. he, he, he loved being able to go up to the local mountains, you know, Southern California is the, is the only place we could go to the beach in the morning and go snow ski in the afternoon, in the winter.
00:13:10 - And he took that to the White House with them, you know, in, in his administration, he did the Clean Water Act. He did the Clean Air Act. He felt that clean air and clean water were birthrights of all American citizens. And he, he created the Environmental Protection Agency. And those weren't transactional political maneuvers on his part. Those were because of his youth and growing up and his love of the Pacific Ocean and, and, and, and wide open spaces from his youth.
00:13:41 - with thousands of acres of orchards and, and he grew up with a lot of Hispanic families. And when he became president, he insisted that the 1970 census count Hispanics for the first time. And they told him, well, the census forms have already been printed. And he said that then reprint 'em, but we have to count the Hispanics because he knew that nobody in our country gets representation unless you're counted as, and, and, and you can be identified as, as a group.
00:14:12 - it was to be counted. And he knew that from, from his youth. you know, when he was president, the Apollo 11, landed on the moon and he wondered the White House to the people. And so he had a state dinner for the Apollo 11 crew at the Century Plaza in, in, in Los Angeles. And he had, you know, all of the White House, all of the Senate, all the house representatives, all the governors, everybody celebrating the, the Apollo 11. And he brought that to California,
00:14:43 - He, he, he saw over the course of his life how California transformed from, you know, thousands of acres of orchards into, into industry and, and a thriving golden state. And when he was president, he brought Leonard Ed Brene to La Caa Pacifica on the cliffs of, of San San Clemente to his Western White House, because he wanted him to fly over Los Angeles and see the development
00:15:14 - And, and he wanted to deliver that message to Brezhnev. And, and, and he did. And as a result of what Brezhnev saw from Nixon and their interactions, they signed the first nuclear arms treaty, and they started to have their relations, you know, cool in the Cold War. but it was, it was this idea of his California upbringing and all of these influences, and he brought that back to California.

Nixon's Political Journey and Public Perception

00:15:46 - if you look at like 1948 when he was first reelected to Congress, Earl Warren is Governor Goody Knight is Lieutenant Governor, and Bill Nolan is, is a senator. And by 1952, Richard Nixon's vice President of the United States, Earl Warren, then is nominated to, to be Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Goodie Knight becomes governor of California, and, bill Nolan is president of the Senate.
00:16:16 - important positions. And, and in 1948, Ronald Reagan is a Truman Democrat. Well, by 1958, bill Nolan decided to challenge Goodie Knight for the governorship. And rather than defend his seat, goodie Knight ran for Bill Nolan's senate seat, and they both split the party and they lost their, their, their respective campaigns. And with Earl Warren on the, the Supreme Court that really left Nixon as the one California politician
00:16:49 - after he lost the 1960 presidential race, the party came to him and said, you're the only one that can heal this Republican party in the state of California. Will you run for governor against Pat Brown? And it was the one office that Richard Nixon didn't really wanna run for, but he did it to try and heal the Republican politics in California. The problem was that he had to win all of the Republicans in order to win the, the governorship plus a million Democrats. And, the John Birch Society was supporting various
00:17:22 - and Richard Nixon disavowed the John Birch Society and said he would not support or do anything to help any candidates unless they disavowed the John Birch Society. And so he, he could, you know, he was, he was not able to unify the Republican Party. And so he lost that, that race, for the governorship. But during all those years, he was also having Ronald Reagan under his tutelage, and, was a good friend of his. And by 19 64, 65, Ronald Reagan becomes a Republican.
00:17:57 - and defeats Brown for the governorship. And then he's off to the races, so to speak. The public perception, you know, of Nixon is the, you know, he, he's cold impersonable, you know, paranoid, insecure, devious Machiavellian, you know, had a poor childhood, was an outsider, wasn't one of the cool kids, you know, had a chip on his shoulder. You know, these are all, you know, themes
00:18:27 - in the Nixon lore, so to speak. And, that whole narrative was really developed in his initial post presidency years. When you had historians like, fawn Brody, you know, who despise Richard Nixon, they, they, they kind of, they began writing their biographies of Nixon, but the, the conclusion was predetermined, which was that he was a villain, and then they had to backfill in the story about

Reevaluating Nixon's Character and Relationships

00:18:56 - And so you have to come up with this cold and personable, background, which really couldn't be further from the truth. he had long time, friendships, with, you know, in particularly women. If you look at the women in Nixon's life, you know, ladies like Loey Gotton, Marge Acker joined his senate staff in 1950 and remained loyal to him and dedicated to him the rest of his life and their lives.
00:19:29 - and she was dedicated to Richard Nixon the rest of her life. And, you see, when you look at, you know, his correspondence in everything, you, you see this person who's exchanging ideas in humor. Now he's reserved. There's no question about that, which probably allows for, you know, him to be, appear to be cold, because from his Quaker background and, and his reserve nature,
00:20:01 - and he was not the type of guy that's gonna walk in a room and tell you how great he is and what all of his accomplishments are. He would be much more modest and humble about those types of things and, and, and, and quiet about them. but it doesn't mean that he wasn't, warm and friendly and had wonderful relationships, which he in fact did. And, and it's, it's really interesting to see how his classmates would talk
00:20:30 - because he would reach out to them when they needed things. And, he would, he would, you know, keep tabs on him even, you know, like he had a debate partner named Kenny Ball. And, after Nixon resigned the presidency, Kenny Ball had open heart surgery, and his wife Dolores was stunned when the phone rang. And here's Richard Nixon calling to check in on his old debate partner, that he kept tabs on throughout his life. And, none of that is reflected really in these other,
00:21:03 - And it's, it, it, it really creates this false narrative, so to speak, about what he was really like. And, and that's what really piqued my interest in him from the get go as a college student, was that dichotomy between what I believed to be true about him and, and what the reality was. Because it's almost like the perception becomes the reality, even if the perception is, is, is inaccurate.
00:21:32 - and what I, I think I stumbled into, I'm not gonna claim to be, smart enough to figure this out, from the beginning, but by making my biography about Richard Nixon through the lens of his being a Californian, it allowed me to really set aside the politics. And Richard Nixon is not one dimensional Watergate. And that's what I hope people take from my biography,

Understanding Richard Nixon's Complex Legacy

00:22:06 - And, you know, to really understand Richard Nixon, you have to really understand his history because he had a meteoric rise in politics. You know, he was elected a congressman reelected in 1948, elected to the United States Senate and the largest landslide of any Senate candidate that year. And then he is vice president two years later, the, the second youngest vice president ever. He's the only American to be on, you know, elected twice
00:22:34 - he and, Franklin Elder are the only politicians to be on five national ballots. You know, more people voted for Richard Nixon than any other American politician. And, and you really, we really need to have a better understanding of what he was all about. Because really the question becomes, was Richard Nixon a villain who got his justice desserts, or was he an all American man that made a tremendous mistake for which his legacy has sustained? And if you, if you look at his history, you know,
00:23:07 - he created the all volunteer military that still stands to this day. He signed the first nuclear arms Treater treaty. He, was the first president to go to Moscow. He opened up China. you know, he saved Israel in the Yom Kippur War. He, created the, the EPA and the Clean Water and Clean Air Act. He restructured the government through the Office of Management and Budget. you know, he quadrupled women in government. He, he had initiatives to bring women into government.
00:23:38 - and tugboat captains and, and, you know, various other professions within the government. And he appointed them to commissions. Then they became, chairpersons of the commissions. he tried to nominate a woman to the United States Supreme Court in Mildred Lily, the longest serving, justice on the California Court of Appeal, which the American Bar Association voted 11 to one, saying that she was unqualified and she was imminently qualified. you know, he, he, he did Title ix,
00:24:10 - All five of the man missions to the moon were in the Nixon administration. he lowered the vo voting age to 18 under the theory that if you could go to war for a country, you should be able to vote. And if any other president had accomplished all these, we'd probably be celebrating that person. Yet with Nixon, we're villainizing him. And it's, it's interesting to me, and, and it becomes a serious question of, you know,
00:24:41 - of those accomplishments? And, are we, are we, are we truly being American by villainizing such an accomplished American who led an all American life? And, and that's, that's the question that I seek to, have people explore. And I, I present my, my biography, Richard Nixon, California's native son, by laying out all of the evidence, everything

Rediscovering Nixon: A Unique Perspective

00:25:39 - the book's almost 500 pages long and half of it is citations. and, and I do that because I, I understand that this is a different view of him. but as I said in the beginning, I didn't set out to, in, in my life to write a biography of Richard Nixon. I, I kind of fell into this, and, and it's been an extremely interesting and gratifying, experience for me. And, and so I hope that people read it, and I hope that they enjoy it.

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