57 lines
5 KiB
Markdown
57 lines
5 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Political Figure"
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tags:
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- KeyFigure
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- Person
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- CIA
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- NSA
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- Politician
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- Soviet
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summary: "Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974."
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born: 1913-01-09
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died: 1994-04-22
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location: "Yorba Linda, California"
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relations:
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Alger Hiss]]"
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role: "questioned Hiss and Chambers, House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1948"
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fn: 2
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---
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Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the [[United States]], serving from 1969 to 1974. His presidency was marked by significant foreign policy initiatives, including opening relations with [[China]] and pursuing détente with the [[Soviet Union]].[^1]
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### House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1948
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As a member of the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]], Nixon questioned both [[Alger Hiss]] and [[Whittaker Chambers]] during the 1948 hearings. During an exchange over Chambers's dental history, Nixon interrupted: "Since some repartee goes on between these two people, I think Mr. Chambers should be sworn." He then asked Hiss whether he would have to have the dentist explain the work on his teeth "before you could tell anything about this man." Hiss answered: "I would like a few more questions asked."[^2]
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### Pre-Presidential Activities
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Prior to his presidency, Nixon cultivated relationships with influential figures. He was often seen at [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]]'s Hotel Del Charro in La Jolla, California, during the 1950s, alongside [[J. Edgar Hoover]] and Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]].[^3] In 1961, after losing the presidential election to [[John F. Kennedy|JFK]], Clint Murchison, Sr. sold Nixon a lot in Beverly Hills for $35,000, a transaction financed through a [[Jimmy Hoffa|Hoffa]] loan. Nixon subsequently sold this lot two years later for $86,000.[^3]
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As Vice President in 1960, Nixon served as the [[White House]]'s liaison to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s Cuban operations, a period during which the CIA initiated a series of assassination attempts against [[Fidel Castro]].[^3] [[Bebe Rebozo]] was also identified as a close associate of Nixon.[^3]
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### Nuclear Policy and Israel
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During his presidency, [[Israel]] received warmer treatment and support compared to the later [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration.[^4] Nixon and [[Henry A. Kissinger]] approached inauguration day on January 20, 1969, convinced that Israel's nuclear ambitions were justified and understandable. Once in office, they endorsed Israel's nuclear ambitions. They also shared a contempt for the 1968 [[Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty|Nonproliferation Treaty]]. Nixon, midway in his campaign against [[Hubert H. Humphrey]], urged the Senate to delay ratification of the NPT until after the election, expressing concern about its failure to permit the transfer of "defensive nuclear weapons" to non-nuclear powers.[^4]
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In the secrecy of their offices, Nixon and Kissinger simultaneously issued a presidential order (National Security Decision Memorandum No. 6) undercutting their public statements. This document stated that there should be no efforts by the United States government to pressure other nations, particularly [[West Germany]], to ratify the NPT. The government's public posture was to reflect optimism that other countries would sign or ratify, while privately disassociating itself from any plan to bring pressure on these countries.[^4]
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This new policy led to the end of the [[Floyd L. Culler, Jr.|Floyd Culler]] inspections of [[Dimona]] in 1969. The Nixon administration made a judgment that would become American policy for the next two decades: Israel had gone nuclear, and there was nothing the United States could - or wanted to - do about it.[^4]
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### Unusual Intelligence Incidents
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Nixon's administration also saw the continuation of covert intelligence programs. In the early 1970s, he made a strange complaint to the CIA, as testified by [[Sidney Gottlieb]], claiming that he and his staff experienced "inappropriate tears and crying" during a visit to a "potentially hostile country." [^1]
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### Later Connections
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Later, [[Alan Michael May]], who had served as a former Northern California field director in Nixon's presidential campaign and as an attorney for Nixon's brothers, was found dead in San Francisco on June 19, 1991. This occurred four days after a newspaper story outlined May's alleged role in a plot by Republican Party officials to bribe Iranian officials to delay the release of U.S. hostages until after [[Ronald Reagan]]'s inauguration.[^3]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. _Remote Viewers_. Dell, 1997.
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[^2]: *Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government* (1948), House Committee on Un-American Activities, pp. 978-979. https://archive.org/details/hearingsregardin1948unit
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[^3]: Seymour, Cheri. _The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal_. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
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[^4]: Hersh, Seymour M. _The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy_. Random House, 1991. Chapter 16.
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