One hundred years ago, as of January 9, in a small home in Yorba Linda, a suburb of Los Angeles, Richard Nixon was born in a house his father built.
Without family connections, without family money, with a natural shyness, he became a U.S. Representative when he was in his early 30s, and a U.S. Senator very shortly afterwards, and then Vice President to Dwight Eisenhower from 1953-61.
He lost a squeaker of an election that many observers believe was stolen by the Chicago Democratic machine in 1960 to John F. Kennedy. He then traveled the world, practiced law, wrote and came roaring back to win the White House in 1968, against a genuinely great man, Hubert Humphrey, and then win re-election by the widest margin in history against George McGovern in 1972.
He was always a controversial figure, falsely painted as a smear artist and a witch hunting McCarthyite by a media and academic class that loathed him with an abiding hatred.
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