Exhibit | Nixon Foundation | Centennial Exhibit

Introduction

The future president’s interest in the world began when he was very young. One hundred years ago, Yorba Linda was a very small town in what was still a small state. In 1910, fewer than 2.4 million people called California home. But young Richard dreamed of seeing the world.
- - Sometimes at night I was awakened by the whistle of a train, and then I dreamed of the far-off places I wanted to visit someday
How American

On January 9, 1913, Frank and Hannah Milhous Nixon welcomed their second son, Richard Milhous, into the world in the first floor bedroom of a house Frank had built from a kit the previous year. On that unusually cold Southern California evening, in a farming community of just 200 people, could these new parents have imagined that one day their son would become the president of the United States and one of the most prominent and influential men of his time?
- - I was born in a house my father built.
  - Nixon Family Home, Built 1912
  - Our life in Yorba Linda was hard but happy
  - (L-R) Harold Nixon, Richard Nixon, and unidentified neighboor
  - The Nixon brothers in Yorba Linda in 1922. From left: Donald (7) in the tire; Richard (9); Harold (13); Arthur (4)
  - Mary Skidmore’s first grade class in Yorba Linda, Richard Nixon on far right first row (ca. 1919)
- - In 1922 my father sold our house and lemon grove in Yorba Linda and we moved to Whittier.
  - Richard Nixon with his brother Donald
  - East Whittier Friends Church, circa 1920s
  - Richard Nixon pictured with his Violin.
    
    Richard with Elementary School Classmates
  - The Nixon Market was a ‘mom and pop’ operation; the whole family worked in the store.
  - The Nixon Family Store
  - Richard Nixon and the Constitutional Orators
  - Whittier High School Constitutional Orators
    
    Constitutional Orators Program
  - Richard Nixon Senior Photo
- - My happiest memories of those college days involve sports.
  - Part of the Team
  - “There is no way I can adequtely describe Chief Newman’s influence on me.” — RN
  - Coach Wallace 'Chief' Newman
  - I had dreamed of going to college in the East.
  - Beans, Brawn, Brains, and Bowels: The Orthogonians
  - Freshman Class Officers
  - Whittier College Evaluation
  - Profile of College President Nixon
- - Duke Scholarship Letter
  - You don’t have to worry. You have what it takes to learn the law – an iron butt. -Bill Adelson, a law school classmate of RN
  - Law School Class at Duke
  - Law School Portrait
  - Visit from his Family
  - Nixon entering the offices of Wingert, Bewley and Nixon
  - Office Building of Wingert, Bewley, and Nixon
In the Arena

Since the first Congress met in 1789, more than 12,000 men and women have served in the House of Representatives. During the nearly 225 years that have passed, only a handful of members of the House have risen to national prominence in their very first term in Congress.
- - “It is not the critic who counts…. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” —Theodore Roosevelt
  - Riding with Pat, and Tricia in the Basket
  - Nomination Letter
  - I feel very strongly that Jerry Voorhis can be beaten, and I’d welcome the opportunity to take a crack at him
- - Whittaker Chambers giving testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee
  - Alger Hiss testifying before House Un-American Activities Committee
  - Investigating the Hiss Testimony
  - Notes on Hiss's Testimony
  - The Hiss case brought me national fame. But it also left a residue of hatred and hostility for me
- - I come before you tonight as a candidate for the vice presidency and as a man whose honesty and integrity have been questioned.
  - Video broadcast of the Checkers Speech
  - Nixons with family dog Checkers
  - “I’m glad you are going to be on the team, Dick. I think that we can win, and I know we can do the right things for this country.” –General Dwight d Eisenhower to Senator Richard Nixon July 1952
- - “I want to show you this kitchen. It is like those of our houses in California...”
- - First Televised Presidential Debate
  - “Of the five presidential campaigns in which I was a direct participant, none affected me more personally than the campaign of 1960.” —RN
A Nation in Conflict

America was in turmoil in 1968. Half-a-million troops were fighting in Vietnam. Once peaceful college campuses and scores of American cities were rocked by violent demonstrations and riots. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy fell to assassins’ bullets. The nation was coming apart at the seams. Learn how, when Richard Nixon raised his right hand and took the oath of office on January 20, 1969, he inherited a nation seemingly on the brink of civil war – and discover what he did to “Bring Us Together Again.”
- - Dr. Martin Luther King, Assassinated April 4, 1968
  - Robert Kennedy, Assassinated June 6, 1968
  - As we look at America we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad.
  - “Nixon came to the presidency at the third most difficult time in our history to do so,the others being March 1861 and March 1933.” —Michael Barone
Bring Us Together

"I saw many signs in this campaign, some of them were not friendly, some were very friendly. But the one that touched me the most was the one that I saw in Deshler, Ohio, at the end of a long day of whistle-stopping. A little town. I suppose five times the population was there in the dusk. It was almost impossible to see, but a teenager held up a sign, "Bring Us Together." And that will be the great objective of this administration at the outset, to bring the American people together."
- - The Great Objective
  - Nixon is Back!
  - Republican nominee Richard Nixon with Governor Reagan
  - "Winning's A Lot More Fun"
  - Having lost a close one eight years ago and having won a close one this year, I can say this: "winning's a lot more fun."
  - 1968 Presidential Election Results
  - President Nixon's First Inaugural
Creating a Just Society

At home, President Nixon's goal was to create a just society for all Americans. He wanted to reduce the role of Washington and return power to the people in the states and counties and towns where they lived.
- - Meeting on Southern Desegregation
  - Title IX: “Female Athletes, Thank Nixon”
  - “The dramatic success of our Southern school desegregation program is eloquently told by the statistics. By 1974 only 8 percent of black children in the South were attending all-black schools, down from 68 percent in the fall of 1968.”
  - Visiting an Oil Spill in Santa Barbara
  - Every American male had to register with the Selective Service System when he reached his 18th birthday.
    
    The draft card had to be carried at all times, and destroying it was against the law. I-A indicated the holder was available for immediate induction; 2-S was a student deferment; 4-F meant not accepted for medical reasons.
  - Extending 18 Year Olds the Right to Vote
  - “For more than 20 years, I have advocated the 18-year-old vote. I heartily congratulate our young citizens on having gained this right.” —President Nixon’s Statement about Ratification of the 26th Amendment
  - President Nixon with the President of the American Cancer Society, Dr. Alva Letton, after signing the National Cancer Act. Dr. Letton called it “...the greatest thing ever done by the United States.”
  - Un Amigo en la Casa Blanca
  - The President meets with Barbara Hackman Franklin, who was hired to identify and recruit outstanding women for top level positions in the White House and throughout the Executive Branch.
    
    President Nixon and Professor Marina Whitman in the Oval Office in January 1972, after announcing her appointment as the first woman member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
  - “...the person in Washington who has done the most for the women’s movement may be Richard Nixon.” —Newsweek, August 1972
  - President Nixon at the Blue Lake Signing Ceremony
  - “The Nixon policy...will always be the gold standard of federal Indian policy...” —Sam Deloria, Director American Indian Graduate Center
  - George Shultz was Director of Nixon’s newly- created OMB from 1970 until Nixon appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1972.
    
    Only the President and his top aides have offices in the West Wing. Most of the White House staff have their offices in the Old Executive Office Building (the “EOB”), right next to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
  - In the Oval Office
    
    The Oval Office
- - Baseball Opening Day
  - President Nixon Enjoying a Game
  - Sitting Three Seats Away from a Future President
  - Shaking Hands with Redskins Players
    
    On Thanksgiving Day 1971, President Nixon visited the Washington Redskins at their training camp in Ashburn, Virginia.
  - Washington Redskins Practice
  - “…in football, spirit, morale, is half the game...” —President Nixon at the Redskins’ training camp
  - Addressing the Redskins Training Camp
Peacemaker of his Time

Abroad, President Nixon's first priority was to end the war in Vietnam and bring all the POWs home. He was dedicated to building what he called “a generation of peace” for America and the world.
Life After the White House

"As our plane circled the El Toro Marine Air Base on the afternoon of August 9, I could see hundred of cars lined up trying to get into the already overflowing parking area. I had not thought I could find the energy to make another speech that day, but I managed to thank them for welcoming us home and I vowed to continue to fight at home and abroad for the great causes of peace, freedom, and opportunity that had been my motivating principles from the time I first ran for Congress in 1946."
- - “You are here to say goodbye to us, and we don’t have a good word for it in English — the best is au revoir. We’ll see you again.” —RN August 9, 1974
  - The Pardon
- - Colonnade of Casa Pacifica
  - The Interior of Casa Pacifica
  - "Its is good to be back in a house of peace." —RN
  - Living Room of Casa Pacifica
  - View of the Pacific
  - Nixon's Frost Interview Prep Team
  - President Nixon walking with David Frost
Global Elder Statesman

Richard Nixon’s beginnings as a global statesman can be traced back to the very earliest days of his public life. Only six months after he was sworn into office as a freshman congressman in 1947, Congressman Nixon was named to a select congressional delegation to travel to Europe and report back to the Congress on the post-war situation there. Forty-seven years later, former President Nixon completed the last of his foreign journeys.
- - Presidents Club: Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon
  - Left to right: President Carter, President Nixon, Chinese translator, Chinese Deputy Premier Deng Xiaoping in the Yellow Oval Room at the White House, January 29, 1979.
  - “By traveling as a private citizen, he could be the most special envoy: unofficial, above politics, even above diplomacy.” —William Safire, New York Times columnist November 6, 1989
  - Meetings Abroad with Foreign Leaders
    
    Presenting a Toast
  - “Just today I had a problem and I said to the person working with me, ‘I wish I could pick up the phone and call Richard Nixon and ask him what he thinks we ought to do about this.’” —President Clinton, The President’s Club by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy
  - President Nixon waits for the cheers to subside before beginning his remarks at the dedication and opening of his presidential library, July 19, 1990.
  - Meeting with Yeltsin
  - “I believe the second half of the 20th century will be known as the age of Nixon.” —Senator Bob Dole