BGuthrie Photos: CA -- Yorba Linda -- Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace -- RN Centennial

CA -- Yorba Linda -- Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace -- RN Centennial:

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Description of Pictures: Centennial Exhibit Officially Opens at the Nixon Library
February 18, 2013 By Joe Lopez

The Nixon Centennial Exhibit, Patriot. President. Peacemaker, officially opened at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library Friday, February 15 before former White House officials, and friends and admirers of President Nixon.

Remarks were given by Nixon Foundation President Sandy Quinn, board director and Nixon White House Assistant Chief-of-Staff Larry Higby, Marine Corps aide to President Nixon Jack Brennan, exhibit co-curators Frank Gannon and Bob Bostock, and Archivist of the United States David Ferriero.

This highly visual story teller presentation features the most important and influential aspects of the 37th President’s life. Guests get to “walk in RN’s shoes” as they’re guided through the five key chapters of President Nixon’s life that define his legacy, How American, In the Arena, Creating a Just Society, Peacemaker of His Time, and Global Elder Statesman.

“This exhibit tells a fascinating American story and it does so in ways that engage and draw in the visitor, said the Archivist of the United States. “It is the kind of exhibition to which you will want to return. And each visit will expand your understanding of and appreciation for the patriot, president, and peacemaker.”

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. NIXONC_130722_009.JPG: The future president's interest in the world began when he was very young. One hundred years ago, Yorba Linda was a very small town in what was still a small state. In 1910, fewer than 2.4 million people called California home. Today, California's population is about 37.7 million -- more than 15 times larger. But young Richard dreamed of seeing the world.
2. NIXONC_130722_020.JPG: "I was born in a house my father built." -- RN, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
3. NIXONC_130722_024.JPG: On January 9, 1913, Frank and Hannah Milhous Nixon welcomed their second son, Richard Milhous, into the world in the first floor bedroom of a house Frank had built from a kit the previous year. On that unusually cold Southern California evening, in a farming community of just 200 people, could these new parents have imagined that one day their son would become the president of the United States and one of the most prominent and influential men of his time?
4. NIXONC_130722_028.JPG: The Nixon brothers in Yorba Linda in 1922. From left: Donald (8) in the tire, Richard (9), Harold (13), Arthur (4).
5. NIXONC_130722_034.JPG: Mary Skidmore's first grade class in Yorba Linda. Richard Nixon on far right first row (ca 1919).
6. NIXONC_130722_037.JPG: The Nixon family was what today might be called "working poor." In addition to tending the lemon grove (which was located where you are now standing), Frank Nixon worked at whatever jobs he could find in Yorba Linda. The Nixons grew vegetables and had a small orchard of fruit trees. But money was scarce, especially in a home that soon had four growing boys to support.
7. NIXONC_130722_041.JPG: (left to right) Harold Nixon, Richard Nixon, unidentified neighbor
8. NIXONC_130722_048.JPG: "The Nixon Market was a 'mom and pop' operation; the whole family worked in the store." -- RN Through hard work and determination, the family's economic status improved in Whittier. Frank Nixon opened the first service station on the main road connecting Whittier and La Habra. It was an immediate success. He soon added a general store and market selling Hannah Nixon's home-baked cakes and pies along with a variety of grocery items. When Richard was in high school, his father put him in charge of buying the fruits and vegetables for the store. He would get up at four o'clock ni the morning to make the drive into Los Angeles, where he would buy the best produce at the best price he could negotiate. Richard would then make the 30-mile drive back to Whittier, where he would wash, sort, and arrange his purchases for sale, leaving for school by eight o'clock.
9. NIXONC_130722_052.JPG: "There is no way I can adequately describe Chief Newman's influence on me." -- RN Richard Nixon was not a naturally gifted athlete, but what he lacked in skill he more than made up for in determination. As a freshman, weighing just 150 pounds, he played every game on the freshman squad of just eleven players. Over the next three years, however, he spent far more time on the bench than he did on the field. Although he didn't get much playing time, he loved "the spirit, the teamwork, the friendship" that came from being on the team. Decades later, Richard would credit his college coach, Wallace "Chief" Newman, with teaching him more than any other man he had ever known, aside from his father. Newman's influence helped teach him that even when you're knocked down or lose, you must be determined to keep trying until you succeed.
10. NIXONC_130722_068.JPG: The Nixons were Quakers and their faith was a very important part of the family's life. Whittier had been founded by Quakers in the late 1800s and attracted families like the Nixons -- people who modeled their lives on the values of their faith -- worship, community involvement, tolerance, education, and personal modesty. The family went to church four times on Sunday and on Wednesday evenings as well.
11. NIXONC_130722_072.JPG: "In 1922 my father sold our house and lemon grove in Yorba Linda and we moved to Whittier." -- RN
12. NIXONC_130722_078.JPG: Richard was an outstanding student throughout his entire educational career. He was an avid reader, and recognized as a fine writer and public speaker, and he loved music, playing the piano, clarinet, and violin. He graduated third in his class in high school and won oratorical contests about the US Constitution in both his junior and senior years.
13. NIXONC_130722_084.JPG: Beans, Brawn, Brain, and Bowels: The Orthogonians: At Whittier College, Richard studied hard, earned high grades, played sports, and was active in campus life. When he arrived at Whittier, it didn't have any fraternities, but it did have one social club, the Franklin Society. During his freshman year, Richard and his friend Dean Triggs decided to establish another club, which they called the Orthogonian Society -- the "Square Shooters". Composed mostly of athletes and young men who were working their way through school, the Orthogonians reveled in being less refined that their Franklin Society counterparts. Dedicated to what they called the Four Bs: Beans, Brawn, Brain, and Bowels, the Orthogonians posed for their yearbook picture in open-necked shirts, in sharp contrast to the Franklins, who wore tuxedos. As a freshman, Richard was elected the Orthogonians' first president.
14. NIXONC_130722_097.JPG: After one of the most successful years the college has ever witnessed, we stop to reminisce, and come to the realization that much of the success was due to the efforts of this very gentleman. Always progressive, and with a liberal attitude, he had led us through the year with flying colors.
15. NIXONC_130722_113.JPG: "My happiest memories of those college days involve sports." -- RN
16. NIXONC_130722_120.JPG: A New Lawyer's First Desk: After graduating third in his class from Duke Law School -- and being named to the prestigious national legal honor society, the Order of the Coif -- Dick returned home to Whittier to take the California Bar Exam and find a job. He passed the test on his first attempt and was offered a position in Whittier's oldest law firm, Wingert and Bewley. This desk was made by Dick and his father, Frank Nixon, and was used by Dick in his new job as a fledgling lawyer. The desk top, made from a solid panel door, rests on what appear to be two sets of drawers, with bookshelves built into either end of the desk. In fact, the two sets of drawers are false drawer fronts. The only working drawer is in the center of the desk. Within a year, Dick would be made partner and would be provided with a desk more appropriate to his new status. This desk was presented to President-elect Nixon by Thomas Bewley -- the man who gave RN his first job as a lawyer -- on January 2, 1960 at a "Welcome Home" rally held in the Anaheim Convention Center.
17. NIXONC_130722_122.JPG: "I enjoyed being a lawyer, and after a year the firm became Wingert, Bewley, and Nixon." -- RN
18. NIXONC_130722_128.JPG: After arriving home in Whittier, Dick joined Whittier's oldest law firm, Wingert and Bewley. Like many other small-town law firms, it handled a wide variety of cases -- ranging from wills and real estate to divorces. Just a year after joining the firm, Richard was made partner. Like many lawyers seeking to develop new clients, Dick quickly became active in the community, joining several civil and community organizations. He joined the Kiwanis Club of La Habra, was elected president of the Whittier College Alumni Association, and president of the Orange County Association of Cities. He was also the youngest member ever chosen for the Whittier College board of trustees. By 1941, he was well established in the community as a rising star.
19. NIXONC_130722_134.JPG: During his senior year at Whittier College, Nixon successfully applied for a $250 tuition scholarship to Duke University Law School in Durham, North Carolina. His ambition to study on the East Coast was realized. Because his scholarship did not cover room and board, Dick rented a room during his first two years at Duke -- paying just $5-a-month. During his final year, with money even more scarce, he and three friends lived in a one-room shack in Duke Forest. They called their humble home Whippoorwill Manor, after the bird whose call echoed through the forest every morning. With no heat or indoor plumbing at Whippoorwill Manor, Dick would shave each morning in a men's room in the Law Library. After classes, he would play handball and shower in the gym. To save money, his breakfast usually consisted of a Milky Way candy bar.
20. NIXONC_130722_147.JPG: Richard Nixon graduated third in his class from Duke Law School in 1937, where he was also named to the prestigious national legal honor society, the Order of the Coif. he proudly hung his diploma, in this frame, in his first law office. Nixon was the first graduate of Duke Law to be admitted to the California bar.
21. NIXONC_130722_151.JPG: Nixon excelled in his studies at Duke, finishing near the top of his class. He was a member of the Duke law review and was elected president of the Student Bar Association. After graduation, he returned home to Whittier to take the California bar exam and begin his career as a lawyer. Richard's grandmother, Almira Milhous, parents Frank and Hannah Nixon, and youngest brother Ed Nixon at Duke University for Richard's graduation ceremony.
22. NIXONC_130722_169.JPG: After RN was elected president, Chandler P. Worley of Mississippi, a fighter pilot who remembered "Nick's" wrote to Life magazine recalling the experience: "I led several strikes against Rabaul... and [we] refueled at Green Island coming and going... How much we appreciated Lt. Nixon's hamburger stand on Green! As rushed as we were, I would never leave without those refreshments. It meant so much -- just a few minutes' relaxation, good sandwiches, and the coldest pineapple juice in the islands. I didn't know then who our benefactor was. I'd like to thank him now on behalf of the 374th Fighter Group."
23. NIXONC_130722_170.JPG: "Nick's" Known to his Navy buddies as "Nick Nixon," he won many friends among the fighter and bomber pilots by opening "Nick's Hamburger Stand," which served free hamburgers and a refreshing drink to flight crews passing through.
24. NIXONC_130722_179.JPG: Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the Nixons moved to Washington DC to join the thousands of Americans, from all over the country, who were descending on the Nation's Capital to be part of the war effort. After spending eight months working at the Office of Price Administration, Dick applied for and received an officer's commission in the United States Navy. After completing officer training and spending a short time assigned to a naval station in Iowa, Dick applied for sea duty. Lt. Nixon was assigned to the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command on the island of New Caledonia and later moved closer to the action on Bougainville. One of the men with whom Lt. Nixon served, Marine Brigadier General Carl J. Fleps, would recall years later Nixon's desire to get closer to the action. He wrote: As the Solomon Islands campaign progressed, Nixon became more restive in the rear areas. In the later part of '43... he asked me to nominate him to head the SCAT contingent for the next advance, one which all of us felt would be the bloody invasion of Rabaul, Japan's "Gibraltar" in the South Pacific. I was glad to do so and he was picked for the job. As it turned out, the target was Green Island, the landing was unopposed and Nixon's desire to serve in an assault was frustrated. Nixon would spend two years serving in the Pacific Theater, finishing his overseas tour of duty in 1944.
25. NIXONC_130722_182.JPG: "I want to show you this kitchen. It is like those of our houses in California..." The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union defined American foreign policy from 1946 until 1990. In 1959, Vice President and Mrs. Nixon made the first official state visit of a high-ranking American official to the Soviet Union. The Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev had earned a reputation as crude and bellicose -- an international bully who never missed a chance to claim that his country would soon surpass the United States because of the superiority of the Communist system. During their visit, Vice President Nixon and Premier Khrushchev toured an exhibition in Moscow featuring the most recent advances in peaceful American technology. As the two leaders toured the exhibits, Khrushchev repeatedly asserted that his country would soon surpass the United States. Nixon gave as good as he got -- forcefully countering Khrushchev's belligerent boasts. WHen the two leaders stopped at a mock-up of a modern American kitchen, a photographer snapped a photo of Nixon prodding his finger in the Soviet premier's chest. The photo was widely printed in newspapers back in the United States and around the world. Nixon's forceful and effective defense of the United States and of our Nation's commitment to peace and freedom earned him widespread acclaim as the victor of what became known as "The Kitchen Debate". Six Crises From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Six Crises is the first book written by Richard Nixon, who later became the thirty-seventh president of the United States. It was published in 1962, and it recounts his role in six major political situations. Nixon wrote the book in response to John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage which had greatly improved Kennedy's public image. Crises Alger Hiss case: In 1948, Nixon was a member of the United States House of Representatives serving on the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating communism in the United States. He first rose to national prominence when the committee considered accusations that Alger Hiss, a high-ranking United States Department of State official, was a communist spy for the Soviet Union. Fund Crisis: In 1952, as a member of the United States Senate, Nixon was the Vice Presidential running mate of Republican presidential nominee Dwight Eisenhower. After he was accused during the campaign of having an improper political fund, he saved his political career and his spot on Eisenhower's ticket by making a nationally broadcast speech, commonly known as the Checkers speech. In the speech, he denied the charges and famously stated he would not be giving back one gift his family had received: a little dog named Checkers. Eisenhower's heart attack: In 1955, while Nixon was vice president, President Eisenhower suffered a serious heart attack; during the next several weeks, Nixon was effectively an informal "acting president". Attack by a mob in Venezuela: In 1958, Nixon and his wife made a tour of South America; while in Venezuela, their limousine was attacked by a rock-throwing mob. "Kitchen Debate" in Moscow: In 1959, while still vice president, Nixon traveled to Moscow to engage in a debate with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The debate took place in a mock kitchen that was intended to show Soviet citizens how ordinary American families lived. 1960 Presidential campaign: In 1960, while finishing his second term as vice president, Nixon became the Republican nominee for President; in the general election he lost an extremely close race to Senator John F. Kennedy.
26. NIXONC_130722_185.JPG: During his successful campaign for Congress in 1946, Richard Nixon used this lectern at the third of five pivotal debates with incumbent Congressman Jerry Voorhis. Fourteen years later, as a candidate for President of the United States, then-Vice President Nixon used it again at a campaign stop in Pomona. He signed the front of the lectern the 1946 campaign and then signed the top of it in 1960. The signatures were later incised into the wood.
27. NIXONC_130722_190.JPG: The Road to the White House Starts Here "I feel very strongly that Jerry Voorhis can be beaten, and I'd welcome the opportunity to take a crack at him." -- RN to Herman Perry, September 1945
28. NIXONC_130722_199.JPG: "It is not the critic who counts... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena." -- Theodore Roosevelt Since the first Congress met in 1789, more than 12,000 men and women have served in the House of Representatives. During the nearly 225 years that have passed, only a handful of members of the House have risen to national prominence in their very first term in Congress. In 1948, freshman Congressman Richard Nixon of California's 12th district, become [sic] one of the very few representatives in America's history who made the leap from the relative obscurity of the House to a prominent place in the Nation's political arena. It was a status he would hold until his death, almost half a century later.
29. NIXONC_130722_204.JPG: To Catch a Spy: "The Hiss case brought me national fame. But it also left a residue of hatred and hostility for me." -- RN
30. NIXONC_130722_208.JPG: When Richard Nixon entered Congress, he hoped to serve on the prestigious Judiciary Committee. Instead, he was assigned to the Education and Labor Committee. Most new members of the House only served on one committee. But the Speaker of the House specifically asked Congressman Nixon if he would also serve on the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although he did not seek that committee assignment, his work on that committee would catapult him to national prominence. On August 3, 1948, a senior editor of Time magazine named Whittaker Chambers appeared before the committee to provide information about senior officials in the government who had been, with Chambers, members of a Communist group whose primary aim was to infiltrate the federal government. Among those he named was Alger Hiss, a former senior State Department official who near the end of World War II had accompanied President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Yalta for his meeting with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, and had served as Secretary General of the conference at which the United Nations Charter was developed. By 1948, Hiss had left government service and was heading the influential and respected Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The following day, Hiss demanded the opportunity to clear his name before the committee. On August 5, he testified under oath, apparently denying everything Chambers had said. He even denied knowing Chambers. Most were inclined to believe Hiss -- including senior members of the Truman administration. But Congressman Nixon had his doubts. Working with the committee's chief investigator, Robert Stripling, Nixon dug into both Chambers' and Hiss' stories. Despite enormous pressure from the White House and members of his own committee, and at great risk to his own future, Nixon pursued the truth.
31. NIXONC_130722_211.JPG: In the end, the evidence showed that Hiss had lied to the Committee when he denied knowing Chambers and spying for the Soviets. Hiss was charged and convicted of perjury. People continued to defend Hiss for decades after, charging Nixon with unjustly destroying Hiss' career. After the collapsed of the Soviet Union, however, papers in the Soviet archives proved conclusively that Nixon was right and that Hiss was, in fact, a Soviet spy. Any remaining doubt about Hiss' guilt was removed by the contents of the Verona project.
32. NIXONC_130722_225.JPG: Julie's bunny
33. NIXONC_130722_228.JPG: Julie had a toy bunny she carried everywhere. When we were making a campaign commercial in 1950 and she came to the key line, "Vote for Nixon!" she sang "Vote for bunny!" instead. I won anyway. (With Julie, bunny, Pat, and Tricia) -- RN, In the Arena
34. NIXONC_130722_230.JPG: A Meteoric Rise: In 1946, Richard Nixon was a recently discharged, young Naval officer whose congressional campaign gave away 40,000 thimbles to help voters learn his name. Just six years later, Dwight D. Eisenhower chose Nixon to be his vice presidential running mate. Nixon's swift rise is without parallel in American political history. These artifacts from the early years of Richard Nixon's political career help mark the speed with which he went from being a newly-elected freshman congressman to a heartbeat away from the president... and then, in 1960, the Republican nominee for President.
35. NIXONC_130722_233.JPG: Dear Dick: I was tremendously pleased that Convention selected you for VP. I was always convinced that you would move ahead to the top -- but I never thought it would come this quickly. You were an ideal selection and will bring to the ticket a great deal of strength. Please give my best to your wife and all kinds of good luck to you. Cordially, Jack Kennedy
36. NIXONC_130722_265.JPG: On July 11, 1952, the Republican Party nominated General Dwight D. Eisenhower for president of the United States. Eisenhower's first decision as the nominee was to select Senator Richard Nixon as his running mate. Ike's selection of the young senator energized the party and the campaign. Pat and Dick Nixon campaigned tirelessly across the country. When the results were in, Nixon became the second youngest person ever elected Vice President of the United States. John C. Breckinridge From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was a lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in both houses of Congress and in 1857, became the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President of the United States (1857–1861). Serving in the U.S. Senate at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was expelled after joining the Confederate Army. He remains the only Senator of the United States convicted of treason against the United States of America by the Senate. He was appointed Confederate Secretary of War late in the war. A member of the Breckinridge family, he was the grandson of U.S. Attorney General John Breckinridge, son of Kentucky Secretary of State Cabell Breckinridge, and father of Arkansas Congressman Clifton R. Breckinridge.
37. NIXONC_130722_282.JPG: "The vice presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm spit." -- Vice President John Nance Gardner, FDR's first vice president, 1933-1941 Inventing the Modern Vice Presidency: For most of its history, the vice presidency was considered to be a political backwater -- an office with no power, little influence, and even less responsibility. That all changed in 1953, when Richard Nixon became Dwight Eisenhower's vice president. Eisenhower and Nixon established a new model for the vice presidency, expanding the office into new spheres of influence and responsibility. Nixon became Eisenhower's primary emissary to the world, entrusted the Vice President with a series of important diplomatic missions that took him to some of America's most important allies and its fiercest adversaries around the world. When Eisenhower suffered a heart attack on September 24, 1955, keeping him away from Washington for almost seven weeks while he recuperated, Nixon kept the work of the presidency moving forward -- chairing meetings of the Cabinet and National Security Council -- without giving even the appearance of usurping Ike's presidential prerogatives. He repeated this careful balancing act two years later after Eisenhower suffered a stroke.
38. NIXONC_130722_286.JPG: A Heartbreaking Defeat "Of the five presidential campaigns in which I was a direct participant, none affected me more personally than the campaign of 1960." -- RN
39. NIXONC_130722_291.JPG: As the 1960 election approached, Vice President Nixon had little trouble securing the Republican nomination for president. The Democratic nomination was fiercely contested, with Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy eventually becoming the party's standardbearer. Nixon and Kennedy had known each other well since both came to Congress as freshmen in 1947. They served together on the House Education and Labor Committee, and their relationship grew during Nixon's service as vice president, which coincided with Kennedy's election to the Senate. In his acceptance speech, Nixon pledged to take his campaign to every one of America's fifty states. For the first time in American history, a presidential candidate expanded the size of the political arena to every state in the union -- including the recently-added Alaska and Hawaii.
40. NIXONC_130722_294.JPG: The 1960 campaign also included the first-ever televised presidential debates, which were watched by tens of millions of Americans. The first debate drew the biggest audience. A poll taken right after the debate showed that those listening on radio gave the edge to Nixon, although television viewers thought Kennedy won. It quickly became conventional wisdom that appearance, not just substance, mattered in presidential debates in the television age. Election Day delivered one of the closest election results in American history. Kennedy carried the popular vote by just one-tenth of one-percent. His Electoral College margin was not much greater. Despite numerous reports of extensive voter fraud in such key states as Illinois, Texas, and Missouri, Nixon decided not to contest the results of the election. Although many urged him to do so -- including President Eisenhower -- he believed that throwing the integrity of America's election into doubt would shake the confidence of America's allies and embolden America's enemies. Many observers thought that Nixon's defeat in 1960 meant that his time in the arena had come to a close. They were wrong.
41. NIXONC_130722_302.JPG: "As we look at America we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. We see Americans hating each other, fighting each other, killing each other at home. And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish: did we come all this way for this?" -- Richard Nixon, August 8, 1968
42. NIXONC_130722_332.JPG: "The Great Objective" At a whistle-stop rally in Deschler, Ohio, 13-year-old Vicki Cole held up a sign that read "Bring Us Together Again." Nixon mentioned that sign -- and the great power of those four simple words -- in his victory speech on November 6th.
43. NIXONC_130722_336.JPG: "Having lost a close one eight years ago and having won a close one this year, I can say this: 'winning's a lot more fun.' "
44. NIXONC_130722_340.JPG: The 1968 Republican Convention was held in Miami Beach at the beginning of August. For many Americans, who had not followed Nixon over the several years since his defeat in 1960, his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination was a powerful and stirring re-introduction. The Democratic Convention was held a few weeks later in Chicago. The rifts within the Party were reflected outside the hall, where anti-war and pro-civil rights protesters turned the streets into combat zones. The police, seriously provoked, seriously overreacted. And the nation, aghast, watched it all on TV.
45. NIXONC_130722_344.JPG: Dressed Up: Buttoned Down: In Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, particular attention was paid to creating an immediately identifiable and graphically sophisticated signature theme and slogan for all the advertising and paraphernalia. The them was "Nixon's the One." The style -- involving variations of bold red and blue fonts on white backgrounds -- was applied to everything from hats and buttons and bumper strips to paper dresses. A catalog was printed to inform workers and supporters of the full range of available official campaign materials.
46. NIXONC_130722_355.JPG: "Time for New Leadership" "When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in Vietnam with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented racial violence, when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home, then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America." -- Richard Nixon, Miami Beach, 1968
47. NIXONC_130722_357.JPG: The Winner
48. NIXONC_130722_360.JPG: Our 37th President: Election Day was November 5th. After the polls closed, the lead switched back and forth all night. But by early on the morning of the 6th, it was clear that Richard Nixon had been elected America's thirty-seventh President. At noon the new President-Elect and his family went to the ballroom of New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel to greet supporters -- and a nationwide and worldwide TV audience. Speaking of his plans for his Administration, Nixon said: "This will be an open Administration, open to new ideas, open to men and women of both parties, open to the critics as well as those who support us. We want to bridge the generation gap. We want to bridge the gap between the races. We want to bring America together."
49. NIXONC_130722_367.JPG: "We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another -- until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices." -- Richard Nixon in his First Inaugural Address "Nixon came to the presidency at the third most difficult time in our history to do so, the others being March 1861 and March 1933." -- Michael Barone The Nixon Administration: 1969-1974 At noon on 20 January 1969, Richard Nixon was sworn in as the thirty-seventh President of the United States. He was fifty-six years old. At home, his goal was to create a just society for all Americans. He wanted to reduce the role of Washington and return power to the people in the states and counties and towns where they lived. Abroad, his first priority was to end the war in Vietnam and bring all the POWs home. He was dedicated to building what he called "a generation of peace" for America and the world. The next gallery presents the domestic and foreign policies of President Nixon's Administration.
50. NIXONC_130722_380.JPG: President Nixon's Domestic Policy Creating a Just Society The Nixon Administration's domestic policies were among the most comprehensive, innovative, and productive of any modern presidency. In 2012 a poll of twelve leading environmental groups -- including Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the National Resources Defense Council, and Public Citizen -- named President Nixon the second "Greenest" Chief Executive in US History. The first place went to Theodore Roosevelt.
51. NIXONC_130722_410.JPG: The Nixon-Frost Interviews: "After I completed my memoirs, the only time I addressed Watergate at any length was in the televised interviews conducted by David Frost ... The weeks of preparing for and the twenty-six hours of taping the broadcasts proved to be the major ordeal of my stay in San Clemente." -- RN In 1975, former President Nixon agreed to be interviewed by British broadcaster David Frost for a series of four 90-minute television programs that would air in May 1977. Over the course of eleven separate televised videotaped interviews, Frost asked Nixon about a wide variety of subjects, focusing most intently on Watergate. The first interview was aired on May 4, 1977, drawing 45 million viewers. It was -- and still remains -- the largest-ever TV audience for a political interview. Nixon spent weeks preparing for the interviews. RN would later remember the entire process -- preparation and the interviews themselves -- as the "major ordeal" of his post-presidential years in San Clemente.
52. NIXONC_130722_413.JPG: On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency rather than continue the political battle over the Watergate scandal, which was leading to a vote on impeachment in the House of Representatives. President and Mrs. Nixon left the White House and returned to their home in San Clemente.
53. NIXONC_130722_438.JPG: Nixon Writes Best-selling Presidential Memoir Ever: "I was born in a house my father built." -- RN, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon Every since President James Buchanan published the first presidential memoir in 1866, former presidents have sought to tell the stories of their lives and their presidencies through this literary form. In 1978 former President Nixon joined the long line of presidential memoirists with the publication of, "RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon," a 1,100 page account of his life, from the day he was born until his last day as president. The book received an enormous amount of advance publicity, helping it debut on the New York Times bestseller list at number four. It remained on that list for ten weeks. Excerpts of the book were printed in hundreds of newspapers around the country and the world. [According to http://www.nytbestsellerlist.com/book/bestselling , "Profiles in Courage" lasted 139 weeks on the list.] By the end of the year, Memoirs was the sixth best-selling non-fiction book of 1978, according to Publisher's Weekly. At the time it was published, "RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon" was the best-selling presidential memoir ever, a distinction it would hold for 25 years.
54. NIXONC_130722_456.JPG: The President's Club: After President Nixon left the White House, many predicted that his useful service to his country had come to an end. Through his writings and travels over the last 20 years of his life, Nixon, as the Washington Post wrote the day after his death, "went on to win admiration and respect from many for the determination with which he subsequently worked to win back a place in public life." Many think, however that his greatest area of influence during his post-presidency was in the private, off-the-record discussions he had with each of his successors, all of whom recognized his depth of knowledge and sharp analytical ability about many of the issues confronting each president. When Chinese deputy premier Deng Xiaping came to the White House for the first state visit by a Chinese leader to the United States, then-President Jimmy Carter, recognizing the importance of President Nixon's opening to China seven years earlier, invited the former president to the State Dinner. This was the first time Nixon had been back to the White House since his resignation. In the years that followed, Nixon returned numerous times to Washington to meet privately with Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton at the White House. But those visits represent just a fraction of the times the former President was called upon by his successors. Through many memos, letters, and telephone calls, Nixon shared his views and offered his advice to the occupants of the Oval Office.
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Wikipedia Description: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and final resting place of Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States. Located in Yorba Linda, California, the library is one of twelve administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. From its original dedication in 1990 until becoming a federal facility on July 11, 2007, the library and museum was operated by a private foundation and was known as the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace. The nine acre (36,000 m�) campus is located at 18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard in Yorba Linda, California and incorporates the National Historic Landmarked Richard Nixon Birthplace where Nixon was born in 1913 and spent his childhood. The facility is now jointly operated between NARA and the Richard Nixon Foundation.

Background prior to dedication:

Traditionally, materials and records of a U.S. president were considered to be his personal property upon leaving office. The Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon's subsequent resignation from office complicated the issue, however.

In September 1974, Richard Nixon made an agreement with the head of the General Services Administration, Arthur F. Sampson, to turn over most materials from his presidency, including tape recordings of conversations he had made in the White House; however, the recordings were to be destroyed after September 1, 1979 if directed by Nixon or by September 1, 1984 or his death otherwise. Alarmed that Nixon's tapes may be lost, Congress abrogated the Nixon-Sampson Agreement by passing S.4016, signed into law by President Gerald Ford on in December 1974 as the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act. It applied specifically to materials from the Nixon presidency, directing NARA to take ownership of the materials and process them as quickly as possible. Private materials were to be returned to Nixon.

As a result of the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, President Nixon's White House papers and tapes were held by the National Archives, thus they could not be transferred to a facility in Yorba Linda. Funding to build the Nixon Library came from private sources. The estimated cost to build the institution was $25 million. Ground was broken by Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of President and Mrs. Nixon, in December 1988.

Dedication:

The original Library & Birthplace was officially dedicated on July 19, 1990. Former President Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon were present, as were President George H. W. Bush, then the President of the United States, former President Gerald Ford, former President Ronald Reagan, and first ladies Barbara Bush, Betty Ford, and Nancy Reagan. A crowd of 50,000 gathered for the ceremony. At the dedication, Nixon said, "Nothing we have ever seen matches this moment - to be welcomed home again."

Facilities:

The museum, housed in a 52,000-square-foot (4,800 m2) building, offers a narrative of Nixon's life and career. Behind the museum is the birthplace, which was constructed by Nixon's father using a homebuilding kit, and restored to appear as it was in 1910. President and Mrs. Nixon are buried on the grounds, just a few feet from the birthplace. Since California prohibits burial of remains on private property, the intended burial plot at the Library had to be deeded to a local church who classified the plot as a cemetery.

The Nixon Library compound also contains the Loker Center and Annenberg Court, a 38,000-square-foot (3,500 m2) wing with a Special Exhibit room and an exact replica of the East Room of the White House that is used as an event space; the East Room can be rented for events such as weddings and business meetings. This wing is under the control of the Nixon Foundation.

Permanent museum collection:

There is an extensive collection of memorabilia, formal clothing, and photographs of Nixon, his wife Pat, and their children. This collection includes an assortment of bronze figures of world leaders who had important relations with Nixon as President or as Vice President under President Eisenhower (1953-1961). The leaders' bodies have been accurately recreated in lightweight bronze over a papier-m�ch� frame, and they are dressed in their actual clothing. The U.S. government limousine used by President Nixon throughout his presidency, a customized 1969 Lincoln Continental, is on display in the Domestic affairs gallery.

Lieutenant Colonel Gene Boyer, President Nixon's Chief Helicopter Pilot, secured the President's VH-3A "Sea King" helicopter, tail number 150617, to be on permanent display on the library grounds. The helicopter was in the presidential fleet from 1961 to 1976, transporting Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, and many foreign heads of state and government. Boyer flew President Nixon on his final flight from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base on August 9, 1974 in this aircraft.

Transition to National Archives:

In January 2004, the United States Congress passed legislation that provided for the establishment of a federally operated Nixon Presidential Library. Specifically, the legislation amended the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974, which mandated that Nixon's Presidential Materials were to remain in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Under this new legislation, the materials are being moved from NARA's Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland to the federally operated facility in Yorba Linda.

In March 2005, then-the Archivist of the United States, Allen Weinstein, and the Reverend John H. Taylor, then-Executive Director of the privately run Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation (now Richard Nixon Foundation), exchanged letters on the requirements that allowed the Nixon Library & Birthplace to become the twelfth federally funded presidential library, operated and staffed by NARA in conjunction with the Nixon Foundation. In April, 2006, Weinstein appointed Timothy Naftali director of the Library. On July 11, 2007 the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum was officially welcomed into the federal presidential library system.

In the winter of 2006, NARA began transferring 30,000 presidential gifts from the Nixon Presidential Materials Staff in College Park, Maryland to Yorba Linda. Later that year, the institution began the transition from a private library to a federal presidential library, which including adding retrofits to the facility to house Nixon's presidential and pre-presidential materials according to NARA standards. NARA assisted the Library & Birthplace staff and the Nixon Foundation in planning for appropriate space to house these materials.

Library collections:

The Archives, which opened in March 1994, house approximately 6.2 million pages of records as well as extensive photographs, film reels, and recordings. Approximately 46 million pages of official White House records from the Nixon Administration are stored at NARA's Archives II facility in College Park, Maryland in accordance with the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974, and will be transferred to the newly-federal Yorba Linda facility from 2007-2009. The Nixon Presidential Materials Staff (nicknamed the "Nixon Project") had no previous affiliation with the Nixon Library, but lent materials to the Library & Birthplace in the past. Upon completion of the transfer of Nixon papers, gifts of state and memorabilia, the Nixon Materials Project will be discontinued. Once the transfer from the Nixon Presidential Materials project is complete, it will hold all of Nixon's presidential as well as his pre- and post-presidential papers.
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