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Richard Nixon
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in full RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON (b. Jan. 9, 1913, Yorba Linda, Calif.,
U.S.--d. April 22, 1994, New York, N.Y.).
The son of a grocer, Nixon graduated from Whittier (Calif.) College
in 1934 and from Duke University Law School, Durham, N.C., in 1937. Soon
after the outbreak of World War II, in August 1942 he joined the navy and
served as an aviation ground officer in the Pacific. Following his return
to civilian life in California, he was twice elected to the U.S. House
of Representatives (1947, 1949). During this period, Nixon served on the
House Un-American Activities Committee, lead by Senator Joe McCarthy.
In 1950 Nixon was elected to the U.S. Senate after a campaign in which
he claimed his opponent had communist sympathies. Nixon's reputation as
an anticommunist made him a desirable running mate for Eisenhower in the
1952 campaign, which emphasized that issue. Nixon served two terms as vice
president under Eisenhower. He was narrowly defeated by the Democrat John
F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, and after losing the California
gubernatorial election in 1962, Nixon
announced his retirement from politics and moved to New York City to practice
law.
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