Chapter One: From Frat Houses to the House
"As the best all-round student at Whittier High, we are pleased to offer a full scholarship including board at the College. Please reply by registered mail, enclosing your acceptance letter no later than April 30th."
- Richard Nixon's Harvard acceptance letter, March 1930
"Go East and make us proud, son" "But what about Harold? The best you can do is be the first one in this family to break the cycle of poverty and make something of yourself"
- Hannah to Richard Nixon
"After a week-long transcontinental rail journey, I arrived in Boston. Harvard Law was not a place for the lazy and I quickly acclimatized myself. Deciding to get involved in campus life, I joined the debating and football teams. It was soon apparent that my talents lay in the former. In my senior year, I would become the debating captain when we upset Yale, but this was a couple of years away."
Memoirs, Richard Nixon, 1979
"Been getting A's, awards and accolades, but no dates as yet. Try to keep you posted"
Richard to Hannah Nixon, July 1931
"In my junior year, a widly popular freshman arrived on campus. Like me, he joined the debate and football teams, and quickly proved equally adept at both. The name? Joe Kennedy Jr."
- Memoirs
"Once we met, we quickly became friends. Of course, once you meet one Kennedy, you meet them all. Those lazy days at Hyannis were some of the most amusing of my youth, and more was still to come. It was obvious that Joe Jr. was the only one with his own ambition. Jack's social life was already legendary, and his limitless self-indulgence nearly ruined his career. The one whose personality closely mirrored my own was Bobby. Brooding, willful, ruthless- ready to fight at the drop of a hat, or should I say ball. That was one of the quietest Christmas dinners I ever attended."
"She's great, supportive and sympathetic. I think this is workable"
Richard to Hannah Nixon, May 1939
After graduating second in his class in May 1937, Nixon began work at Cromwell & Sullivan, headed by future Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. The firm's international work sparked Nixon's lifelong interest in foreign policy. War clouds were forming, but romance was also in the air...
"Dick, will you agree to raise the kids Catholics? Yes, I see no reason why not. Then you have my blessing..."
"If he's good enough for Dulles, he's good enough for me. Dick's clearly going places and seems to have political ambition, just like Joe"
- Joe to Rose Kennedy, Jan. 4, 1940
Boston Globe, May 26, 1940
Society, E8
Married, Richard M. Nixon, 27, Harvard Law '37, to Eunice Kennedy, 21, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy. Mr. Nixon is currently a partner at Cromwell and Sullivan...
At the outbreak of World War II, among the thousand of enlistees were Richard Nixon and Joe and Jack Kennedy. All three enlisted in the Navy. Joe began fighter training at NAS Pensacola, Jack initially at ONI, and Richard Nixon as a JAG officer in the UK. By 1944, Nixon was a Lt. Cmdr, Jack a Lieutenant. Joe went down with the USS Hornet at the Battle of Santa Cruz on Oct. 7, 1942. Jack was posted as a surface warfare officer to this ship, which would later become infamous...
USS Phoenix (CL-46) off Saipan, Oct. 1944
At the end of the war, both Richard Nixon and Jack Kennedy decided to run for Congress. Nixon from New York and Jack from Massachusetts. Joe saw only one problem.
"How can he get elected, there's no heroism? Joe, he's got the Fitzgerald and Kennedy names, and he's a veteran. A shoo-in if I ever saw one."
- Mark Dalton to Joe Kennedy, Dec. 1945
"This man is saleable merchandise" - Republican leaders in New York's 26th Congressional District.
"What Americans need is government free of planist influences. Plans are for wars, not lives"
- Richard Nixon on the stump, May 1946
"Who do you think will be the next Congressman from this district? I think that young Kennedy fellow. He was in the Navy, I was in the Navy, his mother's from here. Are you a relative, Ma'am? I'm Rose Kennedy, Jack Kennedy's mother. Bang went the brakes. And there ended my pretense of dignified obscurity."
Rose Kennedy, Raising Political Progeny, 1986
"Many years later, once I stood atop the mountain, I met Karl Rove at a private dinner. He told me that "you had a great turnout operation, I merely made it scientific and added motivation."
Push-Polling to the Presidency, Robert F. Kennedy, 1990
"The campaign was going quite well. I was leading by 6 over my Democratic opponent, and we held that lead for the rest of the campaign."
-Memoirs, Richard Nixon, 1979
House elections, 1946
New York-26th
(R): Richard M. Nixon: 57.4%
Massachusetts-10th
(D): John F. Kennedy: 55.3%
"Whereupon, the journey began."
- Memoirs
"As the best all-round student at Whittier High, we are pleased to offer a full scholarship including board at the College. Please reply by registered mail, enclosing your acceptance letter no later than April 30th."
- Richard Nixon's Harvard acceptance letter, March 1930
"Go East and make us proud, son" "But what about Harold? The best you can do is be the first one in this family to break the cycle of poverty and make something of yourself"
- Hannah to Richard Nixon
"After a week-long transcontinental rail journey, I arrived in Boston. Harvard Law was not a place for the lazy and I quickly acclimatized myself. Deciding to get involved in campus life, I joined the debating and football teams. It was soon apparent that my talents lay in the former. In my senior year, I would become the debating captain when we upset Yale, but this was a couple of years away."
Memoirs, Richard Nixon, 1979
"Been getting A's, awards and accolades, but no dates as yet. Try to keep you posted"
Richard to Hannah Nixon, July 1931
"In my junior year, a widly popular freshman arrived on campus. Like me, he joined the debate and football teams, and quickly proved equally adept at both. The name? Joe Kennedy Jr."
- Memoirs
"Once we met, we quickly became friends. Of course, once you meet one Kennedy, you meet them all. Those lazy days at Hyannis were some of the most amusing of my youth, and more was still to come. It was obvious that Joe Jr. was the only one with his own ambition. Jack's social life was already legendary, and his limitless self-indulgence nearly ruined his career. The one whose personality closely mirrored my own was Bobby. Brooding, willful, ruthless- ready to fight at the drop of a hat, or should I say ball. That was one of the quietest Christmas dinners I ever attended."
"She's great, supportive and sympathetic. I think this is workable"
Richard to Hannah Nixon, May 1939
After graduating second in his class in May 1937, Nixon began work at Cromwell & Sullivan, headed by future Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. The firm's international work sparked Nixon's lifelong interest in foreign policy. War clouds were forming, but romance was also in the air...
"Dick, will you agree to raise the kids Catholics? Yes, I see no reason why not. Then you have my blessing..."
"If he's good enough for Dulles, he's good enough for me. Dick's clearly going places and seems to have political ambition, just like Joe"
- Joe to Rose Kennedy, Jan. 4, 1940
Boston Globe, May 26, 1940
Society, E8
Married, Richard M. Nixon, 27, Harvard Law '37, to Eunice Kennedy, 21, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy. Mr. Nixon is currently a partner at Cromwell and Sullivan...
At the outbreak of World War II, among the thousand of enlistees were Richard Nixon and Joe and Jack Kennedy. All three enlisted in the Navy. Joe began fighter training at NAS Pensacola, Jack initially at ONI, and Richard Nixon as a JAG officer in the UK. By 1944, Nixon was a Lt. Cmdr, Jack a Lieutenant. Joe went down with the USS Hornet at the Battle of Santa Cruz on Oct. 7, 1942. Jack was posted as a surface warfare officer to this ship, which would later become infamous...
USS Phoenix (CL-46) off Saipan, Oct. 1944
At the end of the war, both Richard Nixon and Jack Kennedy decided to run for Congress. Nixon from New York and Jack from Massachusetts. Joe saw only one problem.
"How can he get elected, there's no heroism? Joe, he's got the Fitzgerald and Kennedy names, and he's a veteran. A shoo-in if I ever saw one."
- Mark Dalton to Joe Kennedy, Dec. 1945
"This man is saleable merchandise" - Republican leaders in New York's 26th Congressional District.
"What Americans need is government free of planist influences. Plans are for wars, not lives"
- Richard Nixon on the stump, May 1946
"Who do you think will be the next Congressman from this district? I think that young Kennedy fellow. He was in the Navy, I was in the Navy, his mother's from here. Are you a relative, Ma'am? I'm Rose Kennedy, Jack Kennedy's mother. Bang went the brakes. And there ended my pretense of dignified obscurity."
Rose Kennedy, Raising Political Progeny, 1986
"Many years later, once I stood atop the mountain, I met Karl Rove at a private dinner. He told me that "you had a great turnout operation, I merely made it scientific and added motivation."
Push-Polling to the Presidency, Robert F. Kennedy, 1990
"The campaign was going quite well. I was leading by 6 over my Democratic opponent, and we held that lead for the rest of the campaign."
-Memoirs, Richard Nixon, 1979
House elections, 1946
New York-26th
(R): Richard M. Nixon: 57.4%
Massachusetts-10th
(D): John F. Kennedy: 55.3%
"Whereupon, the journey began."
- Memoirs
Last edited: