Richard childhood was not an easy one by any means. He was born 1 year after his father had purchased his lemon grove, which did not turn out to be a great investment. Consequently Richard spent his childhood in poverty. His parents were very frugal with their money, they had to be raising 5 children. All total, there were five children: Harold was born on June 1st, 1909, and died on March 7th, 1933, when Richard was twenty years old. Richard was the second Nixon brother, born on January 9th, 1913. His brother Donald was born on November 23rd, 1914, and died on June 27th, 1987. Arthur Nixon was born on May 26th, 1918, and died on August 19th, 1925, when Richard was a mere twelve years old

The biggest issue though during Nixon’s presidency was the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War at the time was splitting the country, as well as splitting American families- physically, mentally, and emotionally. On October 15th, 1969, a quarter of a million demonstrators marched in Washington to protest the war. On November 3rd, 1969, President Nixon gave a televised speech about the Vietnamization from the Oval Office in which he announced that United States would not leave South Vietnam until its people were able to defend themselves. He said that “this first defeat in our nation’s history would result in a collapse of confidence in American leadership.” On the domestic front President Nixon dealt with the highest unemployment rate since the Eisenhower years (5.6 percent) and rising inflation. He attempted to fix it using an economic process reporters called “Nixonomics,” which someone described as “recession in the midst of inflation.” To attempt to solve the problem Nixon hired Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Kennedy era democrat, to draft a Family Assistance Plan, but that didn’t work. It was also said that Nixon violated every economic principle that he had claimed to uphold in trying to fix recession and inflation. In 1970 he imposed wage and price controls in an effort to cut inflation. Nixon became increasing distrustful of those people around him, and felt as if his enemies- the Democrats, the antiwar protester, and the media- were closing in.

Some topics in this essay:
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