The Political Career Of Richard Nixon :: biography Bio History Politics Nixon Essays

A few weeks after the United States entered World War II a young mannamed Richard Nixon went to Washington, D.C. In January 1942 he took a job withthe Office of Price Administration. Two months later he applied for a Navycommission, and in September 1942 he was fit a lieutenant, junior grade.During much of the war he served as an operations officer with the South PacificCombat Air Transport Command, rising to the straddle of lieutenant commander.After the war Nixon returned to the United States, where he was assignedto work on Navy contracts date awaiting discharge. He was working in Baltimore,Maryland, when he received a telephone call that changed his life. A Republicancitizens committee in Whittier was considering Nixon as a candidate forCongress in the 12th Congressional District. In December 1945 Nixon accepted thecandidacy with the promise that he would wage a fighting, rocking, sockingcampaign. Jerry Voorhis, a Democrat who had represented the 12th Districtsince 1936, was running for reelection. Earlier in his career Voorhis had beenan active Socialist. He had become more conservative over the years and was nowan outspoken anti-Communist. Despite Voorhis anti-Communist stand the LosAngeles chapter of the left-wing Political exercise Committee (PAC) endorsed him,apparently without his knowledge or approval. The theme of Nixons campaignwas a vote for Nixon is a vote against the Communist-dominated PAC. Theapproach was successful. On November, 5 1946, Richard Nixon won his first-yearpolitical election. The Nixons daughter Patricia (called Tricia) was bornduring the campaign, on February 21, 1946. Their second daughter, Julie, wasborn July 5, 1948.As a freshman congressman, Nixon was assigned to the Un-AmericanActivities Committee. It was in this capacity that in dread 1948 he heard thetestimony of Whittaker Chambers, a self-confessed former Communist espionageagent. Chambers named Alger shuttle, a foreign policy advisor during the Rooseveltyears, as an accomplice while in government service. Hiss, a former StateDepartment aide, asked for and obtained a hearing before the committee. He madea favorable impression, and the case would accordingly have been dropped had not Nixonurged investigation into Hisss testimony on his relationship with Chambers.The committee let Nixon pursue the case behind closed doors. He brought Chambersand Hiss face to face. Chambers produced evidence proving that Hiss had passedState Department secrets to him. Among the exhibits were rolls of microfilmwhich Chambers had hidden in a pumpkin on his farm approximately Westminster, Md., as aprecaution against theft. On December 15, 1948, a New York federal grand juryindict ed Hiss for perjury.