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Richard Nixon in 1946, Part Three

12/23/2018

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                    Source: John A. Farrell. Richard Nixon - The Life (2017)​
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    In August 1946, Voorhis left DC for California, but while driving through Utah with his family, he had a nasty attack of hemorrhoids, and after emergency surgery, he had a bad reaction to the anesthesia. For weeks afterwards, Voorhis battled headaches, nausea, and other various unpleasant effects that kept him from campaigning.  When Voorhis was finally in well enough to campaign, he was hit hard by Nixon’s charges that he had sided with Communists against his constituents.
     In 1946, the Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, told the American Legion Convention in San Francisco that 100,000 Communist subversives were active in America. HUAC had been very active and public in their efforts to expose subversives, and soon enough Hollywood was dragged into to fracas as well, with among others Ronald Reagan eventually testifying in front of HUAC (as President of the Screen Actors Guild). NIxon and other Republican candidates simply framed their campaigns as “Communism vs. Republicanism”; the fear factor was growing, and just the accusation of being soft on Communism was a political killer. Nixon’s campaign never flat-out called Voorhis a Communist, but politically-speaking, in the eyes of many voters, Voorhis was guilty by indirect accusation.

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    Nixon bent over backwards to link Voorhis to an obscure endorsement he received from a minor left wing group of radicals in Los Angeles, which was loosely affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). Voorhis ordered his campaign to steer clear of any group related to the CIO, which meant that Voorhis had to woo some labor group and shun others, which split a major voting bloc that was in his favor.
    Nixon wanted credit for exposing Voorhis, and the only way that could occur is if he won the election. Nixon ignored the reality that the link between Voorhis and the minor radical group was practically non-existent, and Nixon portrayed Voorhis as a stooge for the Communists. Soon, Nixon claimed that Voorhis towed the Communist Party Line, and many voters believed Nixon. It wasn’t until 11 September 1946 that Voorhis took out full page ads to refute Nixon’s claims, demanding that evidence be presented.

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   Two days later, the “proper proof” was produced at a debate in Pasadena during the first debate. Neither candidate really wanted to have a debate, but neither wanted to look worthless-and-weak by refusing to debate. Nixon engaged in shenanigans right away during the first debate, appearing on stage late to disrupt Voorhis as he was speaking. As the debate progressed, Voorhis demanded proof, and NIxon, acting the part to perfection, strode across the stage to Voorhis and gave him a document. That document was supposedly a list of preferred candidates by the radical group, and Voorhis’ name was on the list. A very surprised Voorhis fumbled his response, and Nixon enjoyed the loud applause from his supporters in the gallery; Nixon felt the same rush a lawyer did when he nailed a closing argument in front of a jury.
    It soon became apparent to Voorhis after the debate that Nixon had crushed him, and the Voorhis campaign never recovered. The debate started voters in the district to seriously discuss the candidates and the campaign, which was exactly what Nixon needed. Also, the Republican Party in California finally realized that Nixon was for real and could win, and 70% of Nixon’s campaign money in the last phase of the campaign came from the CA Republicans. Another factor in Nixon’s corner was that the Los Angeles Times, due initially to Kyle Palmer’s insistence, fully endorsed Nixon.

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   It wasn’t just the CA Republican Party’s cash infusion that helped the Nixon campaign down the final stretch, but significant commercial interests added their support in the last weeks of the campaign. Businesses that had been reluctant to back a losing Republican candidate now jumped at the chance to back a winner. The only opening for Voorhis against Nixon was to ask for the sources of his his campaign contributions. Nixon officially reported spending $17,774, but in reality, the figure was around $40k ($500k in 2017 dollars). No one in the campaign had an exact handle on the total of contributions since so much money had been given to the campaign in such a short period of time. Nixon knew that as long as he was vague in thanking his large donors (he promised them thanks and attention later), he could minimize total on the official campaign financial report.
    There were four more debates, and Voorhis was slaughtered in every one; the crowds grew larger in order to see the political bloodletting. Nixon enjoyed mentioning as often as he could that Voorhis was a former member of the Socialist Party, and it sure didn’t help Voorhis when Nixon stated that Radio Moscow had endorsed the CIO’s list of candidates. Another obstacle for Voorhis was that Nixon’s campaign was very well organized and focused, where Voorhis’ campaign was a wreck, which in part meant that Nixon was able to speak to groups of voters that had never heard the name of Voorhis. A cheesy campaign strategy by Nixon’s staff right before the election worked this way: when the phone rang, and the person that answered said “Vote Nixon for Congress”, and the caller was from the Nixon campaign, that person’s name was put in the running to win a toaster.  Voorhis yearned for a genteel political discussion in public, but Nixon conducted an aggressive and rugged campaign, and in essence Voorhis brought a banana to a knife fight.

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    The Congressional Elections of 1946 showed that the New Deal Coalition was crumbling, in that the Republicans took control of both houses for the first time since 1930. Early during Election Day, Voorhis knew he was defeated. Nixon garnered 56% of the vote, sweeping to victory in every part of the 12th District, even Voorhis’ area. A destroyed Voorhis fled politics, which infuriated the California Democratic Party who thought he should focus on a rematch with Nixon in 1948. But Voorhis in defeat understood that the 12th District was now a Republican stronghold. By his own admission, Voorhis stated that his gentleman’s style of campaigning simply didn’t match up with Nixon’s brawling strategies/tactics. Even so, Voorhis privately remained furious at Nixon for sinking so low in order to win.
    In winning the seat to Congress from California’s 12th District, Nixon showed qualities that would be seen again and again: audacity, resourcefulness, resilience, hard work, and knowing what voters wanted to hear. But the dark side of Nixon showed itself as well: awkwardness, deep resentment, expediency-over-purpose, chronic insecurity, and the use of smears against an opponent. In just four years, Nixon would be elected to the US Senate from California, and two years after that, Eisenhower tabbed Nixon to be his Vice-President. In just six years, Nixon had gone from obscurity to the second-highest elected office in the nation in what was perhaps the fastest rise to political prominence in US History.

Addendum: Richard Nixon's years before he received the letter from Herman Perry 

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Richard Nixon in 1946, Part Two

12/16/2018

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                    Source: John A. Farrell. Richard Nixon - The Life (2017)
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     In terms of running for a seat in Congress, according to Pat Nixon her and her husband’s friends were sympathetic but dubious, and the upper-class San Marino Set (the 12th District’s equivalent to the Georgetown Set in DC) simply sneered and mocked. After finding a decent suit and ties and some peace, quiet, and solitude, Nixon had to deal with his uneasiness with women at political fundraisers (e.g. tea parties). Nixon simply had a problem looking at women in the eye, and that was a problem in that Republican ladies groups were prime political avenues for district votes. Many women in the district were “Rosies” (as in “Rosie the Riveter”) during World War II, and they were very active in politics with an expanded sense of independence despite most being relegated back to the domestic sphere after the war.
    Nixon had to be coached to look women in the eye so as not to offend/insult them. Nixon drew heavily on his high school and college acting experience/skills, and Nixon, after a while, was able to make interacting with women part of his political strategy. In Southern California in 1946, television wasn’t common in households, which meant Nixon had no choice but to speak directly to audiences which were mostly made up of men who were “Joiners” (e.g. Elks, Masons, Kiwanis). By the end of March 1946, Nixon had made 36 speaking engagements in front of over 3700 people.


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     Soon, Nixon campaigned on President Truman’s decision to maintain wartime economic conditions to try and keep inflation under control, but that policy led to massive shortages during the changeover to peacetime, most notably in housing and cars. But as the Spring of 1946 progressed, Nixon started to focus on the evils of Communism, especially after 5 March 1946 “Iron Curtain Speech” from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Missouri with Truman in attendance. Nixon was enlightened in his speeches, in that he called for containing the USSR, not war, using America’s economic, political, and military might to do so (this was before George Kennan formally came out with his suggestion of containing Communism).
    Nixon hit his stride making speeches, attracting attention and voters, and he knew to focus on returning veterans, in part because so many veterans were moving to the district. Nixon’s promise of economic liberty resonated and was contagious, and many in the district felt that Washington, D.C. wasn’t listening to what they needed or wanted. As the Republican primary in the district approached, it became clear that Nixon would have to raise money for his campaign on his own since the Amateurs had mostly stopped their financial contributions. While a serious obstacle, Nixon had no way of knowing that the Voorhis campaign was confident (perhaps even overconfident) and complacent.


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   Nixon didn’t face any real Republican opposition in the district primary on 4 June 1946. However, California had a cross-filing policy which meant that Democrats and Republicans could run in each other’s primary. So, while Nixon was the leading Republican in the primary, he was hammered by Voorhis to the tune of several thousand votes. Nixon focused on another number, and was encouraged: in 1944, Voorhis had garnered .600 of the primary vote, but in 1946, it was down to .535.
    After the primary, Nixon knew he needed an infusion of campaign funds, which meant the go-to guy was Perry, and he would have to go to the oil men. California oil was the US leader in 1946 in terms of production and profits, but they had also been exposed for war profiteering by Voorhis and other members in Congress . . . the CA oil industry had never forgotten or forgiven their Democratic representative.  
   What didn’t help matters was that on 28 September 1945, Truman in essence nationalized the California tidelands (underwater oil/minerals) which meant that the US government, not the oil companies, owned California Pacific Ocean water. Voorhis was one of three California members in Congress that voted in favor of the measure, and the next day Perry contacted Nixon to see if he would be interested in challenging Voorhis.

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    Nixon outlined his money problems to Perry, and even gave him an itemized list of predicted campaign expenses. Nixon’s plan was to spend most of the money on mailings to voters, not on radio or billboards; to Nixon’s surprise, $7300 was raised, which was enough for billboard ads. The campaign funds were channeled through Perry so there in essence was no transparency for campaign spending.
    Nixon also knew that he needed a message with a “punch”. Murray Chotiner had sent a letter to Nixon saying that laudatory statements alone would not get him elected to Congress. Chotiner was a 36 year old California lawyer and a good friend of Kyle Palmer of the Los Angeles Times (the newspaper would remain very supportive of Nixon well into the 1950s), who was also a fan of Nixon. In short order, Chotiner became  the first of Nixon’s political hatchet men (the more influential he became, the less influential Pat became to her husband).
    Nixon had known from his time in DC that Voorhis and his ilk were beloved by the “Pinko Set” (very liberal New Deal Democrats), but he needed to sculpt and define his attack on Voorhis. On the surface, Voorhis looked to be safe from being accused of being sympathetic to Communists, in that he was the sponsor of the Voorhis Act of 1940, which required that Communists and other subversives register with the US government. But Nixon and his campaign were very selective with what they used and ignored from Voorhis’ voting record, and Voorhis was made to look like what he was not, a Communist dupe.


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   Voorhis was part of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC, who ironically was created in the 1930s to conduct hearings on the New Deal), and Nixon simply ignored that part of Voorhis’ Congressional record, and instead focused on his last two terms. For example, Nixon focused on Voorhis’ vote against making HUAC a permanent committee; Nixon’s intent was to portray Voorhis as at least clueless of the Communist threat, or worse, a protector of subversives.
  Nixon also featured “lunchbucket” issues in his campaign, attacking the Truman administration’s handling of the post-WW II economy, speaking up for Civil Rights, and denouncing Southern right wing racists, saying they were just as dangerous as Communists. Nixon also joined a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was a fairly brave thing to do since the Ku Klux Klan was active in Los Angeles County.
    Sometime during the Spring of 1946, Voorhis came to see Nixon as a serious threat to his seat in Congress, since it was then that he recognized that the political winds were changing direction. Voorhis’ colleagues in the House saw him as a political lightweight, and Voorhis himself actually didn’t like the job of being a Congressman very much. Still, Voorhis was determined to run a “dignified” campaign, and he remained in DC for the first eight months of 1946 to deal with House matters.

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Richard Nixon in 1946, Part One

12/1/2018

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                     Source: John A. Farrell. Richard Nixon - The Life (2017)
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    After his euphoria of being accepted to Duke Law School (he was able to get out of his home town, Whittier CA), Nixon worked incredibly hard and graduated third in his class. Nixon applied to Wall Street firms, but he struck out, as well as with the FBI, so he had to slink back to Whittier. Nixon was again Mr. Nobody from Nowhere, and it absolutely galled him. After landing a position in a local law firm, Nixon basically messed up a case, and as a result the firm was liable for thousands of dollars. Then Nixon failed in a citrus venture, and creditors hounded him as a result.
    In those days before World War II, about the only thing that went Nixon’s way was that he married Pat Ryan; she saw Nixon as a Man of Destiny. During 1941, Nixon went to Washington, D.C. and worked in the Office of Price Administration (OPA), and soon he felt very out of place with the Eastern Elites. After Pearl Harbor, Nixon recognized his duty and enlisted, wanting to experience excitement. It was the U.S. Navy in which Nixon joined, and he was assigned a desk job in Ottumwa, Iowa; Nixon didn’t waste time lobbying for a combat assignment.
    Nixon was granted his wish and he was sent to the South Pacific where he supervised a combat air transport team that moved supplies to the front and the wounded-in-action to the rear. Nixon wrote to Pat saying that he was safe in a nicely equipped/fortified bunker when the Japanese bombed or shelled his position, and he also wrote that he had plenty of down time to fill.

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    Nixon came to hate the wastefulness and disorder of war, as well as the hypocrisy of people. Nixon learned to cuss and play cards, and after the war, his winnings plus what he and Pat had saved amounted to around $10,000 (approximately $138k in 2017). Nixon’s time in the South Pacific was over in 14 months, and he was with Pat in New York City on 14 August 1945 when he heard of Japan’s surrender, and they joined over two million revelers in Times Square. Nixon didn’t realize it at the time, but WW II had given him a sense of mission and purpose, and entering politics was on his mind.
    However, nobody outside of Whittier knew who in the world Nixon was, and by his own admission, he was “somebody who was nothing”.  Another obstacle for entering politics was the Nixon didn’t have the ability to charm people, and charming others became an absolute act of will. A large reason why Nixon lacked charm was that he had a hard life growing up under his father and losing two family members, and a fuse of resentment (and insecurity) was lit that would never be extinguished for the rest of Nixon’s life.
    Nixon didn’t have any connections or money to run for a Congress representing the 12th District in CA, but he had Herman Perry. Perry was the vice-president and branch manager of the Bank of America in Whittier, and it was Perry who wanted Nixon to challenge the popular Democratic incumbent Jerry Voorhis. Perry’s political ambitions never materialized, so he viewed Nixon as his “political son” that would achieve his ambitions through Nixon.  ​

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​     Perry had been asked by a friend in the petroleum industry if he would join a group whose mission was to defeat Voorhis. In CA, the booming petroleum industry was seen as nefarious, so the idea was that Perry would be the respected front man. Perry was soon convinced that if the group found the right candidate, Voorhis could be defeated.  To that group, Voorhis was a Socialist, a FDR New Dealer who had done much to restrict the oil industry. Voorhis had also irked the district’s conservatives over his terms in Congress, favoring labor unions and government regulation. During the Great Depression and World War II, the 12th District’s conservatives kept silent, but they were ready to be heard by 1946.
    Perry had known Nixon’s father since the early-1900s, and he was convinced that his son Richard had what it took to defeat Voorhis. Perry made it clear to the group that far more money would need to be spent in 1946 than in 1944, and he received a grudging affirmative response. While in the Navy in the South Pacific, Nixon crossed paths with the “Boy Governor” of Minnesota, Harold Stassen, who had resigned his governorship to serve. Stassen told Nixon that there would be a seachange in the “political weather” in America after WW II . . . so for Nixon to run for Congress in 1946, it would be a risk, not folly.

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​     But in early-1946, Nixon didn’t have a job, or a home, and Pat was expecting, but the did have $10k saved. Nixon figured that if he tried but lost, his name would at least be known in Southern California, and he would use that name-recognition as leverage to gain a legal position of prestige in California. Once Nixon accepted Perry’s offer, he had to meet with Perry’s group (by then they had called themselves “The Amateurs”), and then survive a primary. Nixon promised the group that he would “tear Voorhis to pieces”.
    The Republican Elders of the 12th District just didn’t believe a former Navy lieutenant could prevail against Rep. Jerry Voorhis. So, if Voorhis were to lose, the effort would have to be made outside the normal California Republican Party apparatus. The 12th District was the largest and most rural district in Los Angeles County, but in the western section closest to LA, suburbs were rapidly growing (e.g. Alhambra and South Pasadena). Overall, the 12th District, and most of Southern California, was growing more-and-more conservative after the war.

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   The Amateurs considered and interviewed others, but when the dust settled, the only man left standing was Perry’s man, Richard Nixon. When Nixon finally spoke to all the Amateurs, he nailed his audition, and most in the group believed they had a winner on their hands, a potential political thoroughbred that could go far. After the “money situation” (campaign finances) was settled, Nixon told the Amateurs “I am in your hands”.
   Nixon was now ready to run in the primary, and now he had money and connections that he hadn’t had before. Nixon told his supporters that in DC, the “Left Wingers” (pro-New Deal Democrats) were “wild” about Voorhis, and even though Voorhis was nothing close to a Communist or a Communist dupe, Nixon planned on portraying him that way. This was Nixon’s chance to be someone, to excise the hurt, to stake his claim, to be somebody of consequence.  Nixon’s plan revealed his hunger to win, and also his default setting for shenanigans, in that he planned on getting spies into the Voorhis campaign.

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