Title Card: A Nixon Republican

Fifth NEWSCASTER: Chicago is a city divided, as thousands of delegates and observers stream into the city for the 25th Republican Convention. Partisanship runs high and the trappings of the Grand Old Party dominate the scene before the serious business gets under way.

NARRATOR: After only a year and a half in the Senate, Nixon was a leading candidate for the vice presidential nomination.

Fifth NEWSCASTER: And here comes "Mr. Republican" himself, Senator Robert Taft.

NARRATOR: Taft partisans, mostly conservative and isolationist, applauded Nixon's fervent anti-Communism, while General Eisenhower's more liberal, internationalist backers were attracted to Nixon's support of the Marshall Plan, his commitment to rebuilding post-war Europe. The California delegation was pledged to its favorite son, Governor Earl Warren, but behind the scenes, Nixon lobbied hard for the nomination of Eisenhower.

Mr. de TOLEDANO: He was a man with no set ideology, no set ... real deep-down principles. He wasn't a Taft Republican, he wasn't an Eisenhower Republican, he was a Nixon Republican.

Sixth NEWSCASTER: With New York's big block of votes, the issue is no longer in doubt and a wildly-cheering convention hails its nominee, Dwight D. Eisenhower, soldier and statesman.

NARRATOR: Away from the convention floor, Eisenhower huddled with Nixon. The young senator represented the growing power of the West Coast and he was a rough-and-tumble campaigner. The general offered him the vice presidency.

Senator NIXON: [1952 Republican Convention] And as we contribute to the Republican cause, what we will do is to forge a great victory for the Republican Party next November, but a victory which will be a victory not only for the Republican Party, but what is more important, it will be a victory for America and for the cause of free peoples throughout the world.

NARRATOR: Eisenhower intended to keep to the high road, he told his new running mate. It was up to Nixon to flail the Democrats and their presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson.

Senator NIXON: [campaigning] There is no question in my mind as to the loyalty of Mr. Stevenson, but the question is one as to his judgment.

Many good Americans are concerned by the way that President Truman and Governor Stevenson have both attempted to ridicule and pooh-pooh the Communist threat within the United States.

You read about another bribe, you read about another tax-fix, you read about another gangster getting favors from the government. The people are sick and tired of it. They're outraged and they want something done about it and they're tired of an administration, which, instead of cleaning up, is covering up the scandals in Washington at the present time.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, Nixon faced a scandal of his own. The New York Post reported that wealthy supporters had set up a secret fund for Nixon's personal use.

Senator NIXON: And if that were true, let me say, first of all, that I should never have accepted the nomination to the vice presidency of the United States and if it were true, I would get off the ticket right away, but it is not true.

NARRATOR: In fact, the fund was not secret and was earmarked exclusively for political expenses, but the damage had been done. Aides urged Eisenhower to drop Nixon from the ticket. Even Republican newspapers demanded he resign.

HANNAH NIXON, Mother: When those headlines first came in the paper, I just wanted to hide that paper. I didn't want anyone to see it. I couldn't eat and I knew that it wasn't true, but what could I do?

PATRICK HILLINGS, Campaign Staff: Well, when the world seemed the blackest and the whole Nixon campaign had halted in Portland, Oregon, I got a telegram from his mother. I took it into him and gave it to him and he was sitting in a large chair with his arms on the side, almost like the Lincoln statue that you see in Washington, the Lincoln Memorial. And I handed him the telegram and he read it and he dropped it on his... in the chair and his head fell forward and the tears came down his eyes. And it was obvious that he'd been terribly moved by what all this meant, that it was so important to him to prove to his mother that he'd never done anything wrong.

NARRATOR: Was Nixon on or off the ticket? General Eisenhower had been frustratingly silent. Finally, after three days of waiting, a weary, anxious Nixon received Eisenhower's phone call.

TED ROGERS, Nixon Television Adviser: And he said, "General," he said, "I'm just Richard Nixon." And he said, "I'm just a very young guy that doesn't know you very well. But," he said, "I must tell you, General, that there comes a time, even in your life, when you have to shit or get off the pot."

Mr. HILLINGS: And there was this dead silence and we didn't know whether the ballgame was over right then or not, but Eisenhower seemed to take it as it was meant to be given and came to the conclusion, as he told Nixon on the phone -- he reported to us after the conversation -- that Nixon should go to California and make a nationwide speech explaining all the details of this so-called "secret fund" and that he would authorize the National Committee to pay for the cost.

NARRATOR: Nixon secluded himself in Los Angeles and prepared to use the young medium of television as it had never been used before. He would bypass the press, bypass even Eisenhower and plead his case directly to the American people. This primetime broadcast would come to be known as the "Checkers" speech and widen the gap between Nixon's admirers and his detractors. To some, he seemed humble, honest, sincere; to others, self-righteous and shamelessly manipulative.

Senator NIXON: ["Checkers" speech] My fellow Americans, I come before you tonight as a candidate for the vice presidency and as a man whose honesty and integrity has been questioned. And so now, what I am going to do and incidentally, this is unprecedented in the history of American politics, I am going at this time to give to this television and radio audience a complete financial history, everything I've earned, everything I've spent, everything I owe.

KENNETH BALL, Whittier Neighbor: I don't remember talking to his mother, but his father, he thought that he really did all right. He said, "I hated to hear him say some of the things he said, but he told the truth and that's what the people wanted to hear and that did the job for him."

Senator NIXON: ["Checkers" speech] First of all, we've got a house in Washington which cost $41,000 and on which we owe $20,000. We have a house in Whittier, California, which cost $13,000 and on which we owe $3,000. My folks are living there at the present time.

NARRATOR: His wife asked him, "Why do you have to tell people how little we have and how much we owe?" "People in political life have to live in a goldfish bowl," he answered, "but I knew it was a weak explanation for the humiliation I was asking her to endure."

Senator NIXON: ["Checkers" speech] I should say this, that Pat doesn't have a mink coat, but she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat. And I always tell her that she'd look good in anything.

NARRATOR: The "cloth coat" remark was aimed at the Truman administration, then plagued by mink-coat bribery charges. Next, Nixon borrowed a technique from Franklin Roosevelt. He talked about his dog.

"Using the same ploy as FDR," he wrote in his memoirs, "would irritate my opponents and delight my friends."

Senator NIXON: ["Checkers" speech] We did get something, a gift after the election. It was a little cocker spaniel dog, black and white spotted. And our little girl Tricia, the six-year-old, named it "Checkers."

And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're going to keep him.

[Republican Rally, Cleveland, Ohio] I would do nothing that would harm the possibility of Dwight Eisenhower to become president of the United States and for that reason, I am committed to the Republican National Committee, tonight through this television broadcast, the decision which is theirs to make. Wire and write the Republican National Committee whether you think I should stay on or whether I should get off and whatever their decision is, I will abide by it.

General DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER: [defending Nixon] I have been a warrior and I like courage. And tonight, I saw an example of courage.

GOP CHAIRMAN: [Cleveland Rally] All those in favor of Nixon continuing as a candidate will say aye!

AUDIENCE: Aye!

Mr. BROWNFIELD: I had called some Republican friends of mine and had asked them to send telegrams to Nixon, saying, "Don't drop off the ticket," and they had refused. And I was with some of them when I watched the "Checkers" speech and afterwards, every one of them sent a telegram to Nixon, saying, "Great job, stay on the ticket."

NARRATOR: Nixon stayed on the ticket that was swept into office in November, the first Republican administration in two decades.