D2401

Richard M. Nixon

37th President

Collins Cover Announcement 

RICHARD NIXON

Coming from Ireland in the 1700's, the Scotch/Irish ancestors of Richard Nixon settled in Delaware. In 1907 his parents moved to the small California town of Yorba Linda. He was born on January 9, 1913 to Hannah and Frank Nixon. He grew up working in his dad's grocery store. He graduated from Whittier College and Duke Law School. While trying out for a community theater play, Dick met Pat and they married in 1940 and eventually had two daughters.

In 1943 Nixon saw active duty with the Navy in the Pacific and was stationed there until the war's end in 1945. In 1946 he was elected to the House of Representatives from California. In 1953 he became Vice President during Dwight Eisenhower's two terms. In 1960 Nixon and John F. Kennedy met in four widely viewed televised debates -the first in history. He went on to lose to JFK in a close election, but the debates changed forever the face of American politics.

In 1968 Richard Milhous Nixon beat Hubert Horatio Humphrey by over 800,000 votes to become the nation's 37th President. During his first term he was very popular and, most noteworthy, he opened up relations with China. In 1972 he won re-election in a landslide against George McGovern. Soon the House Judiciary Committee charged Nixon with conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair. On August 9, 1974, faced with impending impeachment, Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency.

As the above brief biography will attest, for three decades Nixon played an important role in national politics and world affairs. Whether you liked him or despised him, his varied roles in our history are many and of high impact. It is fitting that this stamp be issued in those terms for it would leave a void in our philatelic legacy should it have been deemed politically or morally incorrect.

My hand-painted cachet features a large likeness of Nixon in portrait form with the White House in the background. It also shows "Tricky Dick" behind the microphones working a political audience. He stands with arms outstretched flashing the "V" for victory sign that sort of became his trademark. The type is individually hand painted in red, white and blue which gives the cachet a nice over-view.

If there was ever an American President who experienced the peaks and valleys of national politics it was Richard M. Nixon. After his defeat to Edmund Brown in the 1962 California Governor's race he proclaimed to the press, "Now you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more." During Watergate, he told the American people, "I am not a crook." He was a complex human being sparking constant controversy. He was the 37th President. He was Richard Milhous Nixon. Item #D2401. $10.75.