# data[].attributes.body
He is one of the most confusing presidential candidates ever

# data[].attributes.body
Hillary For Prison 2016
She needs to be on trial for email scandal

# data[].attributes.body
Someone who lies does not deserve to be President.

# data[].attributes.body
I believe she is entirely inauthentic, she is famous not only for her father, but for the tape she made. She didn't become famous for any talents she has, her half sisters (the Jenner's) are famous for modeling for huge companies...they deserve recognition, she on the other hand does not. Also a lot of her physical features are FAKE.

# data[].attributes.body
I think this whole family in general is inauthentic, because before Kim got famous from her sex tape and then got the show, they were all just themselves. And after the show they all let the fame and money get to their heads and now they are just a joke.

# data[].attributes.body
she say's she's a nice person but is really rude and steals other people's stuff.

# data[].attributes.headline
saying one thing with one person and saying the opposite with others 

# data[].attributes.subject
saying one thing with one person and saying the opposite with others 

# data[].attributes.body
She is a lier and she knows it even though she denied it

# data[].attributes.body
The Kardashians are not authentic because they make stuff up, they lie, and they don't show their true selves ever. Showing your true self isn't always easy when everyone knows and judges you but still.

# data[].attributes.body
Lies about a lot of things like giving free college. It will just have to make us pay more taxes.

# data[].attributes.body
https://earthlinggb.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/bruce-caitlyn-split.jp

# data[].attributes.body
His fame changed him to being a irresponsible, stupid, and disrespectful person. He thinks that just because he is famous, he can get away with whatever he wants. He has been to jail, got caught peeing in a bush, does drugs and drinking.

# data[].attributes.body
Most celebrities are fake, act how the cameras, fans want them to act. People don't know the true them.

# data[].attributes.body
They are all so fake everything about them there face bodys and how they act.

# data[].attributes.body
She wears so much makeup, and only cares about her looks for fame. Seems fake.

# data[].attributes.body
it was an inside job

# data[].attributes.body
She lied to everyone when she said she didn't

# data[].attributes.body
He does not lie and is a open person

# data[].attributes.body
he gave us light and he advanced our technology for ever

# data[].attributes.body
lies a lot and thinks she will win but won't.

# data[].attributes.body
photoshop lies

# data[].attributes.body
When you find out your girl is inauthentic and chillin with anotha boi

Wait, you're saying Spongebob Squarepants is inauthentic?

# data[].attributes.headline
Donald Dump he is a racist piece of ______

# data[].attributes.subject
Donald Dump he is a racist piece of ______

# data[].attributes.body
make better choices.
-evyan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
NBC is dumping Donald Trump.

In a press release on Monday, NBC said it was severing business ties with the real-estate mogul and GOP presidential candidate Trump because of statements in which he called Mexican immigrants rapists and drug runners.

"Due to recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its relationship with Mr. Trump," NBC said in the statement.

NBC said it was dropping Trump's Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants, and it indicated that Trump would no longer host "The Apprentice."

The decision comes after Trump doubled down on statements from his presidential announcement speech in which he described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug runners.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best; they're not sending you," Trump said in his announcement speech. "They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Trump responded quickly at an appearance in Chicago, and he hinted that he was the one who ended the relationship.

"They didn't want me to run because they wanted me to do 'The Celebrity Apprentice,'" Trump told reporters.

"They were not happy," Trump said.

"I think as far as ending the relationship, I have to do that, because my view on immigration is much different than the people at NBC," Trump said.

Trump also fired back in a statement distributed by his office, in which he called NBC "weak" and questioning their support of anchor Brian Williams.

"If NBC is so weak and so foolish to not understand the serious illegal immigration problem in the United States, coupled with the horrendous and unfair trade deals we are making with Mexico, then their contract violating closure of Miss Universe/Miss USA will be determined in court," Trump said in the statement provided by his office. "Furthermore, they will stand behind lying Brian Williams, but won't stand behind people that tell it like it is, as unpleasant as that may be."

David Becker/Getty Images
NBC isn't the only network to sever ties with Trump.

Last week, Univision called Trump's comments "insulting" and announced that it would no longer carry the Miss USA pageant.

After Univision's announcement last week, Trump slammed the television company. The real-estate mogul banned network executives from his Miami golf course and said he would pursue a breach-of-contract lawsuit. He also publically declared that he rejected an apology from Univision executive Alberto Ciurana.

"Alberto Ciurana issued an apology to me late last night," Trump said. "Apology not accepted. I call for his resignation."

One of Trump's 2016 rivals appeared amused at the news.

When New York Times reporter Jason Horowitz told Jeb Bush about NBC's decision, the former Florida governor reportedly chuckled and took a shot at Trump's dubious self-reported fortune.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NBC fires Donald Trump after he calls Mexicans rapists and drug runners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NBC is dumping Donald Trump. In a press release on Monday, NBC said it was severing business ties with the real-estate mogul and GOP presidential candidate Trump because of statements in which he called Mexican immigrants rapists and drug runners.

# data[].attributes.body
he acts like a good kid but he isnt

# data[].attributes.body
No, she doesn't actually look like that. Try paparazzi pics compared to her instagram.

# data[].attributes.body
She wear so much makeup you can see her real face.

# data[].attributes.body
nicki minaj is fake because she has had so many surgeries and wears tons of makeup

# data[].attributes.body
She only dates guys to get new ideas to write songs with.

So, does that make John Mayer fake, too--because he wrote a song about her?

# data[].attributes.body
he thinks that he has skill on musicly, but all he does is move his lips and does random poses. plus he is not even nice to his fans. he makes justin beiber look like jesus christ compared to him

# data[].attributes.body
A game inspired by fear this game gets many people to stop sleeping but I fall asleep to their songs

# data[].attributes.body
She does not deserve to be president because she is a low geared liar just about everything she says is a lie

# data[].attributes.body
it changes how the shape of your face looks

# data[].attributes.body
Thinks he is the best.

# data[].attributes.body
She is inauthentic because, she is 18 and had plastic surgery. She has her own makeup line and her personal hair and makeup artist, showing that she is accepting of her own self and has changed from her original

# data[].attributes.body
He is not an actual bat how fake!!!!

# data[].attributes.body
inauthentic because shes had to many surgeries to make herself "look good" its all fake and shes not showing her real self.

# data[].attributes.body
80% percent of what he says is a lie

# data[].attributes.body
They are fake because they have surgery and makeup. They act cool too.

# data[].attributes.body
He appears to be ninja in movies but he never actually fought pros so he is inauthentic as a real fighter

# data[].attributes.body
Her pictures are fake because they are photo shopped

# data[].attributes.body
Selena is very inauthentic because she wears lots of makeup and has made herself popular and famous through songs, movies, and TV shows.

# data[].attributes.body
80% percent of what he says is a lie.

# data[].attributes.body
Blac Chyna is inauthentic becuase she's only marrying Rob kardashian for his money

# data[].attributes.headline
Kylie Jenner is inauthentic because she is a much different person on her social media and on tv than around her family.

# data[].attributes.subject
Kylie Jenner is inauthentic because she is a much different person on her social media and on tv than around her family.

# data[].attributes.body
Regrets being in High School Musical and only acts the way that girls like.

# data[].attributes.body
is fake because that is not what they truly look like. Nuf.
In auth ent ic

# data[].attributes.body
Hes fake

# data[].attributes.body
Model thats really into himself

# data[].attributes.body
he is fake because he raps about stuff that he's not really about

# data[].attributes.body
bankrupt or something

# data[].attributes.body
he is the best of the best in the Fast

# data[].attributes.body
basically all political figures are fake because they will make up things and make empty promises just to get voted into office

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds.

A political party is an organized group of people who have the same ideology, or who otherwise have the same political positions, and who field candidates for elections, in an attempt to get them elected and thereby implement the party's agenda. Wikipedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Please click here if you are not redirected within a few seconds. A political party is an organized group of people who have the same ideology, or who otherwise have the same political positions, and who field candidates for elections, in an attempt to get them elected and thereby implement the party's agenda.

# data[].attributes.body
Everyone who does this for there final school report is not going to pass because 10 other people did the exact same thing.

# data[].attributes.body
Easter Eggs are fake eggs basically therefor Inauthentic.

# data[].attributes.body
Ever since Lebron James  joined the cavs he never played like himself, he didnt score like he used to.

# data[].attributes.body
she is fake because she wears make up and she posts things on instagram and stuff that people are taking pictures of her instead of herself and she is wearing so much make up and no one looks that "perfect".

# data[].attributes.body
Hes a 13 year child acting like hes 17. his musiclys make me dizzy and his music hurts the ears.

# data[].attributes.body
Real Life Ken Doll
He is so fake and has had so many surgery's and wears so much make up he is almost not human.

# data[].attributes.body
Coner talks to much smack and claims he can back it up but my boy Nate Diaz kicked him around the ring then like a cat on a mouse.

# data[].attributes.body
she is fake with all surgery's

# data[].attributes.body
She is way to confident, everything is about herself. She told everyone she would never lose a fight and next thing you know she gets knocked out.

# data[].attributes.body
Her beauty is fake. She cake-faces herself with make-up... nobody really looks like that. She tries to be the perfect girl but I think looks gross, and fake.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Who Is Kim Kardashian West?

Kim Kardashian West was born on October 21, 1980, in Beverly Hills, California. She was catapulted into fame when a scandalous video showcasing her sexual exploits with former boyfriend, rapper Ray J., was leaked online. Since then she has been able to capitalize on her fame with her curvaceous style, a hit reality TV show, and a string of workout DVDs. In 2006, she opened the boutique D-A-S-H with her sisters, Kourtney and Khloé. In 2014 she famously married rapper Kanye West.

Growing Up in Beverly Hills

Born on October 21, 1980, in Beverly Hills, California, Kim Noel Kardashian West is a model, reality television star, entrepreneur and socialite. She is the second of four children born to the late Robert Kardashian and his first wife, Kris. She was catapulted into fame when a scandalous video showcasing her sexual exploits with former boyfriend, rapper Ray J., was leaked online. Since then she has been able to capitalize on her fame with her curvaceous style, a hit reality TV show, and a string of workout DVDs. In 2006, she opened the boutique D-A-S-H with her sisters, Kourtney and Khloé.

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Kardashian, it seems, is almost wired for fame. A preschool classmate of Paris Hilton, she grew up under the glare and privilege of Beverly Hills, getting an up-close view of Hollywood's pleasures and pitfalls. Her father, the founder of Movie Tunes, Inc., a music and marketing company, was a prominent attorney. A close friend for many years of O.J. Simpson, Robert was one of the football star's defense lawyers during his murder trial. In fact, it was the attorney's home that Simpson left during the famous Ford Bronco police chase shortly before his arrest. Robert Kardashian died from cancer of the esophagus in October 2003.

Kardashian's mother, Kris, a socialite and former children's boutique shop owner, now manages her daughter's career, and is also involved in business management deals with the rest of her other famous children. She and Robert divorced in 1989.

According to Kardashian, her childhood was hardly the stuff of stardom. Sunday church was regular part of family life. So was the expectation among the Kardashian children that, once they each reached the age of 18, living off the family dime was no longer an option. While attending an exclusive Catholic girls' high school, Kim Kardashian worked for her father's company. When he died, the corporation was left to her and her siblings. They've since sold it. "We grew up with privilege so we knew our standards were high ... [and] if we wanted to keep it, we had to work hard," she once said.

For Kim Kardashian, that has translated into a number of different things, from wardrobe stylist to actress. She's even stepped into the business world herself, forming Kimsaprincess Productions, LLC., which has seen the release of three successful workout videos starring-you guessed it-Kim Kardashian.

In 2006, Kardashian went back into business with her family when she and her two sisters opened the boutique shop D-A-S-H (derived from the family's last name) in Calabasas, California. A showcase of the owners' own personal styles, the store featured some of the sisters' favorite American designers. The boutique later expanded its business with shop openings in Miami, New York City, and a pop up in Southampton in 2014. However, the NYC locale closed in December 2016, and in April 2018 the sisters announced they were shuttering the business altogether.

Infamous Sex Video

Despite her business endeavors, it was her infamous sex video she made with R&B singer Ray J. that catapulted her to superstardom. In early 2007, a video of Kardashian and the rapper in bed made it into the hands of Vivid Entertainment, a large adult film company. Vivid, which paid $1 million for rights to the 30-minute tape, widely promoted the release of the video, which it called Kim Kardashian Superstar. Kardashian quickly countered with legal action, suing for invasion of privacy. But in May 2007, three months after the video's debut, she agreed to a $5 million settlement.

"It definitely puts you in a category that I would wish upon no one," Kim Kardashian later said on The Tyra Banks Show. "Your reputation is all that you have, and if people prejudge you over something that you did, than that kind of sticks with you a long time."

Photo: Michael Loccisano_Getty Images

Reality TV Star: 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians'

Around the time of the video's release, Kardashian started making her way onto the television screen for something completely different, when the E! Network debuted a new reality TV series called Keeping up with the Kardashians.

Produced by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, the show follows the lives of Kim; her sisters, Kourtney and Khloé; brother Robert Jr.; mother Kris Jenner; stepfather Bruce Jenner (now referred to as Caitlyn); and the two young daughters of Kris and Bruce, Kendall and Kylie. In one memorable episode from the first season, Kim discusses with her family an offer from Playboy to appear nude in the magazine. Kardashian eventually agreed to do it and bared it all for the publication in the December 2007 issue.

Her decision to appear in the magazine represents just how far Kardashian has come in terms of confidence about her own body. A big part of her brand is her curves, something she wasn't always so enamored with, she admits. "I used to say my prayers before bed, and pray I would stop developing," she told Playboy. That's apparently changed. "You always see the typical skinny models and I'm not that and I'm proud not to be that," she stated following the shoot.

Since then, Kim Kardashian's celebrity status has only grown. The woman who became the most Googled celebrity in 2008, ending Britney Spears's four-year-run, signed on to become the face of Bongo Jeans in 2008. In March 2009, Kardashian helped launch a shoe shopping service, ShoeDazzle, that taps into the expertise of Hollywood's most revered stylists. In addition she's launched her own perfume line, a Sears fashion collection with Kourtney and Khloe, Kardashian-branded tanning products, and more. With millions of followers on social media, she receives between $10,000 to $20,000 per post when promoting products for various brands.

Relationships

As a reality television star, Kardashian's love life has been the subject of intense media interest. She was only 20 years old when she wed music producer Damon Thomas in 2000. The marriage ended after four years. Following her divorce, Kardashian had a string of high profile boyfriends, including singer Nick Lachey and New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush.

In 2010, Kardashian had a whirlwind courtship with pro basketball player Kris Humphries. The pair married in a lavish, televised ceremony the following August in front of more than 400 guests. But wedded bliss would be short-lived for Kardashian and Humphries. Kardashian filed for divorce after only 72 days of marriage. Humphries sought an annulment instead and claimed that the marriage was a fraud. In April 2013, it was announced that Kardashian and Humphries had settled their divorce, avoiding a long-awaited trial that had been scheduled to take place in May 2013.

Marriage to Kanye West

While her divorce proceedings were dragging on, however, in early 2012, Kardashian became involved with famed rapper Kanye West. In December 2012, the couple revealed that they were expecting their first child together. Kardashian posted on her blog, "It's true!! Kanye and I are expecting a baby. We feel so blessed and lucky." She and West welcomed a daughter on June 15, 2013, in Los Angeles, California. A few days after the child's birth, it was revealed that the couple had decided to name their daughter North and call her "Nori."

On October 21, 2013, Kardashian and West got engaged on her 33rd birthday. West proposed to her at the AT&T baseball stadium in San Francisco, which he rented out for the occasion. The couple tied the knot the following May. They held their rehearsal dinner at a famed French landmark Versailles. The ceremony itself was held on May 24, 2014, in Forte di Belvedere, a historic fortress, in Florence, Italy. Her stepfather, Bruce Jenner, walked her down the aisle as famed vocalist Andrea Bocelli sang "Con te Partiro." In addition to her family, Kardashian and West were joined by such celebrities as director Steven McQueen and actor Jaden Smith on their special day.

In the 10th season of her reality series, Kardashian documented her desire to get pregnant again and her struggles with fertility issues. In May 2015, she revealed in a teaser for her show that she was pregnant with her and West's second child. The couple welcomed their son, Saint West, on December 5, 2015.

Victim of Armed Robbery

The following year Kardashian experienced various personal setbacks that would cause her to step out of the spotlight. While in France attending Paris Fashion Week, the reality star was the victim of an armed robbery. On October 3, 2016 at 2:19 a.m., a group of robbers broke into the Hotel de Pourtales, a luxury apartment building where Kardashian was staying, and forced the night receptionist to open the door to her penthouse, according to an article in Vanity Fair. Kardashian's wrists and ankles were bound and her mouth was taped shut while the thieves stole a 20-carat diamond ring and a jewelry box worth an estimated $5.6 million.

Kardashian was not physically harmed, but was reportedly traumatized by the crime, which was being investigated by Paris' crime unit La Brigade de Répression du Banditisme. Following the crime, the very public star stopped posting on social media and avoided public appearances, opting to take time off to recover.

A month later, Kardashian's husband Kanye West cancelled his concert tour and was hospitalized on November 21, 2016 and treated for exhaustion at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Kardashian was expected to make her first public appearance since the Paris robbery at an event in New York City, however, she cancelled to be with West at the hospital. He was released from the hospital on November 30, just days before their son's first birthday.

New Home and Growing Family

In 2017, it was announced that the power couple had sold their Bel-Air mansion for a whopping $17.8 million, nearly $8 million more than the price they had paid in 2013. The sale came after years of renovations on a new estate in Hidden Hills, California.

Around that same time, Kardashian celebrated the pending arrival of child No. 3 with her hubby by throwing a lavish cherry-blossom themed baby shower. She also revealed to the public that the newcomer was a girl, as well as the emotional difficulties of having to turn to a surrogate due to health issues. "You know, it is really different," she told Entertainment Tonight. "Anyone that says or thinks it is just the easy way out is just completely wrong. I think it is so much harder to go through it this way, because you are not really in control. ... Knowing that I was able to carry my first two babies and not my baby now, it's hard for me."

The doting mom suffered a scare in late December 2017, when Saint West was hospitalized for pneumonia. Fortunately, the 2-year-old was only required to stay for a few days, returning home in time to celebrate the new year with his family.

A few days later, shortly after midnight on January 15, 2018, Kim and Kanye's second daughter and third child overall was born to their surrogate. On a post to her website-titled "She's Here!"-Kardashian wrote: "We are incredibly grateful to our surrogate who made our dreams come true with the greatest gift one could give and to our wonderful doctors and nurses for their special care." Soon afterward, it was revealed that they had named the girl Chicago.

The couple welcomed their fourth child, son Psalm, via surrogate in May 2019.

Prison Reform and Law Apprenticeship

In May 2018, Kardashian showed a newfound interest in social justice when she lobbied President Donald Trump to consider clemency for a Tennessee woman named Alice Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on charges related to cocaine possession and money laundering. The reality star had learned about Johnson's case from a video posted to Twitter.

Expecting to meet with White House officials, Kardashian also earned the company of POTUS himself to discuss Johnson and the issue of prison reform. Trump later tweeted a photo of the two of them in the Oval Office after their "great meeting." The lobbying efforts ultimately paid off, with Kardashian being the one to share the good news with Johnson after the president granted her release on June 6.

Inspired by the result, Kardashian embarked on a four-year apprenticeship with a San Francisco law firm, with the goal of taking the California bar exam in 2022. Meanwhile, she continued working behind the scenes to help people facing life behind bars; in May 2019, it was reported that she had helped commute the sentences of 17 first-time nonviolent drug offenders by funding a legal program devoted to the issue.

Related Videos

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kim Kardashian West was born on October 21, 1980, in Beverly Hills, California. She was catapulted into fame when a scandalous video showcasing her sexual exploits with former boyfriend, rapper Ray J., was leaked online. Since then she has been able to capitalize on her fame with her curvaceous style, a hit reality TV show, and a string of workout DVDs.

# data[].attributes.body
He doesn't stick to his word. On multiple accounts he went against what he said even though there is video proof. most of the time he is disrespectful to people.

# data[].attributes.headline
Are people who wear makeup fake/inauthentic?

# data[].attributes.subject
Are people who wear makeup fake/inauthentic?

# data[].attributes.body
why? Is there such thing as wearing makeup for confidence and still be authentic?

# data[].attributes.body
what does he actually sound like? i have never heard his real voice. ALLWAYS using autotune

# data[].attributes.body
She is inauthentic because she is almost 100% fake.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Does the name Valeria Lukyanova seem to ring a bell? If you've been hanging around enough, you might remember our previous posts about the Ukraine-based Russian model who is known as the " real-life Barbie ". We haven't heard news of her for about a year or so, but she's back in the spotlight again and this time, it's not about her already well-known doll-like looks.

Word is, she's now attempting to survive on only air and light. Holy cow, could she really be turning into a real Barbie doll?!

The 28-year-old Valeria Lukyanova is famous for her uncanny resemblance to the popular Mattel doll with her cosmetically enhanced chiseled features and unbelievable body proportions.

It was previously reported that she follows a strict liquid diet and works out at the gym regularly to maintain her enviable waistline, but her 50-centimeter waist seems to have shrunken further with practice of Breatharianism, a new age practice that advocates a lifestyle that is sustained sans the consumption of food or water. According to a recent report on the International Business Times, Valeria said, "In recent weeks I have not been hungry at all; I'm hoping it's the final stage before I can subsist on air and light alone".

While Valeria appears to be positive about her new "diet", many netizens have regarded it as a form of anorexia and comments asking her to "eat something" or "get a sandwich" surface on her Facebook pages from time to time.

Valeria has also previously mentioned that she thinks that she came from another planet, has the ability to travel through time, and can speak with aliens through light. Perhaps her unique "origin" contributes to her ability to survive on air and light, but the last time we checked, humans need to eat and drink to stay alive.

Although the whole Breatharianism thing may sound like a feasible way to cut down a few inches around the waist and save money at the same time, you might want to keep in mind that some people have actually died from starvation while attempting to attain the ways of the extreme practice. We don't usually try to influence our readers' choices in life, but for once, kids, make sure you consult a trustworthy adult before attempting something like that!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Real-life Barbie now survives on light and air, might be turning into a real doll【Photos】

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Does the name Valeria Lukyanova seem to ring a bell? If you've been hanging around enough, you might remember our previous posts about the Ukraine-based Russian model who is known as the "real-life Barbie". We haven't heard news of her for about a year or so, but she's back in the spotlight again and this time, it' ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Does the name Valeria Lukyanova seem to ring a bell? If you've been hanging around enough, you might remember our previous posts about the Ukraine-based Russian model who is known as the " real-life Barbie ". We haven't heard news of her for about a year or so, but she's back in the spotlight again and this time, it's not about her already well-known doll-like looks.

Word is, she's now attempting to survive on only air and light. Holy cow, could she really be turning into a real Barbie doll?!

The 28-year-old Valeria Lukyanova is famous for her uncanny resemblance to the popular Mattel doll with her cosmetically enhanced chiseled features and unbelievable body proportions.

It was previously reported that she follows a strict liquid diet and works out at the gym regularly to maintain her enviable waistline, but her 50-centimeter waist seems to have shrunken further with practice of Breatharianism, a new age practice that advocates a lifestyle that is sustained sans the consumption of food or water. According to a recent report on the International Business Times, Valeria said, "In recent weeks I have not been hungry at all; I'm hoping it's the final stage before I can subsist on air and light alone".

While Valeria appears to be positive about her new "diet", many netizens have regarded it as a form of anorexia and comments asking her to "eat something" or "get a sandwich" surface on her Facebook pages from time to time.

Valeria has also previously mentioned that she thinks that she came from another planet, has the ability to travel through time, and can speak with aliens through light. Perhaps her unique "origin" contributes to her ability to survive on air and light, but the last time we checked, humans need to eat and drink to stay alive.

Although the whole Breatharianism thing may sound like a feasible way to cut down a few inches around the waist and save money at the same time, you might want to keep in mind that some people have actually died from starvation while attempting to attain the ways of the extreme practice. We don't usually try to influence our readers' choices in life, but for once, kids, make sure you consult a trustworthy adult before attempting something like that!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Real-life Barbie now survives on light and air, might be turning into a real doll【Photos】

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Does the name Valeria Lukyanova seem to ring a bell? If you've been hanging around enough, you might remember our previous posts about the Ukraine-based Russian model who is known as the "real-life Barbie". We haven't heard news of her for about a year or so, but she's back in the spotlight again and this time, it' ...

# data[].attributes.body
Desiigner is the worst rapper EVER.  He has NO TALENT what so ever.  His hit song is literally a three minute time frame of repetition.  I really feel bad for our fury, cute and black and white friends that have to deal with untalented wanna be's such as Desiigner, cause really why bring pandas into your mess.  So in my opinion Desiigner is very INAUTHENTIC.  PANDA

# data[].attributes.body
Bill Cosby had everyone fooled, he was a self made man who starred in the Bill Cosby Show. He prided himself on being a Christian family man, yet multiple women have come forward about rape allegations. Cosby is currently on
trial for rape and sexual assault.

# data[].attributes.body
he's super cute, but he said he regrets being in Highschool musical, so that makes him inauthentic.

# data[].attributes.body
Definition of the stereotypical dumb blonde. Acts stupid to be "cute" and acts like she gets jokes and does a fake annoying laugh.

# data[].attributes.body
Hey the guy is a good player. There is no doubt about that, but its probably not the best to say that you are the best and then to only lose the Superbowl and then act like a cry baby instead of sucking it up.

# data[].attributes.body
Sexually abused his coworker, Ke$ha and tried to force her to fulfill her contract of making six more albums with him regardless of the fact he's accused of drugging and raping of the singer.

# data[].attributes.body
Since he started his career, he has been authentic. If you look from the beginning of his career and look at pictures from then and now, through the years he has become a worse and worse role model and all around person. He even made a movie about how nice he is, and their have been countless instances proving otherwise. If you want proof here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSCKiT5-n9U

# data[].attributes.body
is making a fool of himself making people think he is someone he is not. He acts like a thug and talks about dropping people, but later admits to being "not actually about that life", in an interview and even saying that he "just likes drill type music", and just wants to "make good music that he likes". He tried to justify his videos and music by claiming that where he came from was influenced by gangsters. Like bro grow up what is this the third grade? This isn't cops and robbers

# data[].attributes.body
Just look at nothing about her is real

# data[].attributes.body
18 years old. Plastic surgery. Part of the Kardashian family. Enough said.

# data[].attributes.body
Make america great again!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO7GAbBoIF0

# data[].attributes.body
...is a poser and a liar

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
Economic Opportunity & the Dynamics of Income Distribution

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, "By Our Own Bootstraps: Economic Opportunity & the Dynamics of Income Distribution," Annual Report, 1995, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, p. 8. {316} "Movin' On Up," Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2007, p. A24. Niels Veldhuis, et al., "The 'Poor' Are Getting Richer," Fraser Forum, January/ February 2013, pp.

# data[].attributes.body
Although Richard Nixon was not the first president to become involved with a controversial scandal, he got caught. This effected his presidency and ultimately lead to his resignation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 - April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Nixon was born into a poor family of Quakers in a small town in Southern California. He graduated from Duke Law School in 1937, practiced law in California, and then moved with his wife Pat to Washington, DC, in 1942 to work for the federal government. After active duty in the Naval Reserve during World War II, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. His work on the Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, which elevated him to national prominence, and in 1950, he was elected to the Senate. Nixon was the running mate of Eisenhower, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 1952 election, and served for eight years as vice president. He narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to the Democratic Party nominee John F. Kennedy; after his loss in the 1962 race for governor of California, he announced his retirement from political life. However, in 1968, he made another run for the presidency and narrowly defeated the Democratic incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey.

Nixon ended American involvement in Vietnam combat in 1973 and the military draft in the same year. His visit to China in 1972 eventually led to diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he also then concluded the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. Domestically, Nixon pushed for the Controlled Substances Act and began the war on drugs. Nixon's first term took place at the height of the American environmental movement and enacted many progressive environmental policy shifts; his administration created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed legislation such as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Acts. He implemented the ratified Twenty-sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, and enforced the desegregation of Southern schools. Under Nixon, relations with Native Americans improved, seeing an increase in self-determination for Native Americans and his administration rescinded the termination policy. Nixon imposed wage and price controls for 90 days, began the war on cancer, and presided over the Apollo 11 Moon landing, which signaled the end of the Space Race. He was re-elected in 1972, when he defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern in one of the largest landslide victories in American history.

In his second term, Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses in the Yom Kippur War, a conflict which led to the oil crisis at home. From 1973, ongoing revelations from the Nixon administration's involvement in Watergate eroded his support in Congress and the country. The scandal began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee office, ordered by administration officials, and escalated despite cover-up efforts by the Nixon administration. On August 9, 1974, facing almost certain impeachment and removal from office, Nixon resigned. Afterward, he was issued a controversial pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. During nearly 20 years of retirement, Nixon wrote ten books and undertook many foreign trips, rehabilitating his image into that of an elder statesman and leading expert on foreign affairs. He suffered a debilitating stroke on April 18, 1994, and died four days later. Evaluations of his presidency have proven complex, with its successes contrasted against the circumstances of his departure.

Early life and education

Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, in what was then the township precinct of Yorba Linda, California, in a house built by his father, located on his family's lemon ranch. His parents were Hannah (Milhous) Nixon and Francis A. Nixon. His mother was a Quaker, and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith. Through his mother, Nixon was a descendant of the early English settler Thomas Cornell, who was also an ancestor of Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University, as well as of Jimmy Carter and Bill Gates.

Nixon's upbringing was influenced by Quaker observances of the time such as abstinence from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. He had four brothers: Harold (1909-1933), Donald (1914-1987), Arthur (1918-1925), and Edward (1930-2019). Four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in medieval or historic Great Britain; Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart.

Nixon's early life was marked by hardship, and he later quoted a saying of Dwight Eisenhower in describing his boyhood: "We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it". The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the family moved to Whittier, California. In an area with many Quakers, Frank Nixon opened a grocery store and gas station. Richard's younger brother Arthur died in 1925 at the age of seven after a short illness. Richard was twelve years old when a spot was found on his lung; with a family history of tuberculosis, he was forbidden to play sports. The spot turned out to be scar tissue from an early bout of pneumonia.

Primary and secondary education

Nixon attended East Whittier Elementary School, where he was president of his eighth-grade class. His older brother Harold had attended Whittier High School, which his parents thought resulted in Harold's dissolute lifestyle, before he contracted tuberculosis (that killed him in 1933). They decided to send Nixon to the larger Fullerton Union High School. Though he had to ride a school bus an hour each way during his freshman year, he received excellent grades. Later, he lived with an aunt in Fullerton during the week. He played junior varsity football, and seldom missed a practice, though he rarely was used in games. He had greater success as a debater, winning a number of championships and taking his only formal tutelage in public speaking from Fullerton's Head of English, H. Lynn Sheller. Nixon later mused on Sheller's words, "Remember, speaking is conversation...don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them." Nixon said he tried to use a conversational tone as much as possible.

At the start of his junior year in September 1928, Nixon's parents permitted him to transfer to Whittier High School. At Whittier, Nixon lost a bid for student body president, representing his first electoral defeat. At this period of his life, he often rose at 4 a.m. to drive the family truck to Los Angeles to purchase vegetables at the market and then drove to the store to wash and display them before going to school. Harold was diagnosed with tuberculosis the previous year; when their mother took him to Arizona hoping to improve his health, the demands on Nixon increased, causing him to give up football. Nevertheless, Nixon graduated from Whittier High third in his class of 207.

College and law school

Nixon was offered a tuition grant to attend Harvard University, but with Harold's continued illness requiring his mother's care, Richard was needed at the store. He remained in his hometown, and enrolled at Whittier College in September 1930. His expenses at Whittier College were met by his maternal grandfather. Nixon played for the basketball team; he also tried out for football, and though he lacked the size to play, he remained on the team as a substitute and was noted for his enthusiasm. Instead of fraternities and sororities, Whittier had literary societies. Nixon was snubbed by the only one for men, the Franklins, many of whom were from prominent families, unlike Nixon. He responded by helping to found a new society, the Orthogonian Society. In addition to the society, his studies, and work at the store, Nixon engaged in several extracurricular activities; he was a champion debater and hard worker. In 1933, he engaged to Ola Florence Welch, daughter of the Whittier police chief, but they broke up in 1935.

After graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Whittier in 1934, Nixon was accepted at the new Duke University School of Law, which offered scholarships to top students, including Nixon. It paid high salaries to its professors, many of whom had national or international reputations. The number of scholarships was greatly reduced for second- and third-year students, creating intense competition. Nixon kept his scholarship, was elected president of the Duke Bar Association, inducted into the Order of the Coif, and graduated third in his class in June 1937.

Early career and marriage

Nixon's family: Julie and David Eisenhower, President Nixon, First Lady Pat Nixon, Tricia, and Edward Cox on December 24, 1971

After graduating from Duke, Nixon initially hoped to join the FBI. He received no response to his letter of application, and learned years later that he had been hired, but his appointment had been canceled at the last minute due to budget cuts. He was admitted to the California bar in 1937, and began practicing in Whittier with the law firm Wingert and Bewley. His work concentrated on commercial litigation for local petroleum companies and other corporate matters, as well as on wills. Nixon was reluctant to work on divorce cases, disliking frank sexual talk from women. In 1938, he opened up his own branch of Wingert and Bewley in La Habra, California, and became a full partner in the firm the following year. In later years, Nixon proudly said he was the only modern president to have previously worked as a practicing attorney.

In January 1938, Nixon was cast in the Whittier Community Players production of The Dark Tower in which he played opposite his future wife, a high school teacher named Thelma "Pat" Ryan. In his memoirs, Nixon described it as "a case of love at first sight", but apparently for Nixon only, since Pat Ryan turned down the young lawyer several times before agreeing to date him. Once they began their courtship, Ryan was reluctant to marry Nixon; they dated for two years before she assented to his proposal. They wed in a small ceremony on June 21, 1940. After a honeymoon in Mexico, the Nixons began their married life in Whittier. They had two daughters: Tricia, who was born in 1946, and Julie, who was born in 1948.

Military service

Nixon as a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, c. 1945

In January 1942, the couple moved to Washington, D.C., where Nixon took a job at the Office of Price Administration. In his political campaigns, Nixon suggested that this was his response to Pearl Harbor, but he had sought the position throughout the latter part of 1941. Both Nixon and his wife believed he was limiting his prospects by remaining in Whittier. He was assigned to the tire rationing division, where he was tasked with replying to correspondence. He did not enjoy the role, and four months later applied to join the United States Navy. Though he could have claimed an exemption from the draft as a birthright Quaker, or a deferral due to his government service, Nixon nevertheless sought a commission in the Navy. His application was approved, and he was appointed a lieutenant junior grade in the United States Naval Reserve on June 15, 1942.

In October 1942, after securing a home in Alexandria, Virginia, he was given his first assignment as aide to the commander of the Naval Air Station Ottumwa in Wapello County, Iowa until May 1943. Seeking more excitement, he requested sea duty; on July 2, 1943, he was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 25 and the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command (SCAT), where he supported the logistics of operations in the South Pacific theater during World War II.

On October 1, 1943, Nixon was promoted to lieutenant. Nixon commanded the SCAT forward detachments at Vella Lavella, Bougainville, and finally at Nissan Island. His unit prepared manifests and flight plans for R4D/C-47 operations and supervised the loading and unloading of the transport aircraft. For this service, he received a Navy Letter of Commendation, awarded a Navy Commendation Ribbon, which was later updated to the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, from his commanding officer for "meritorious and efficient performance of duty as Officer in Charge of the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command". Upon his return to the U.S., Nixon was appointed the administrative officer of the Alameda Naval Air Station in Alameda, California.

In January 1945, he was transferred to the Bureau of Aeronautics office in Philadelphia, where he helped negotiate the termination of World War II contracts, and received his second letter of commendation, from the Secretary of the Navy for "meritorious service, tireless effort, and devotion to duty". Later, Nixon was transferred to other offices to work on contracts and finally to Baltimore. On October 3, 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant commander. On March 10, 1946, he was relieved of active duty. On June 1, 1953, he was promoted to commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and he retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve on June 6, 1966.

While in the Navy, Nixon became a very good five-card stud poker player, helping finance his first congressional campaign with the winnings. In a 1983 interview, he described turning down an invitation to dine with Charles Lindbergh because he was hosting a game.

U.S. House of Representatives (1947-1950)

Republicans in California's 12th congressional district were frustrated by their inability to defeat Democratic representative Jerry Voorhis, and they sought a consensus candidate who would run a strong campaign against him. In 1945, they formed a "Committee of 100" to decide on a candidate, hoping to avoid internal dissensions which had led to previous Voorhis victories. After the committee failed to attract higher-profile candidates, Herman Perry, manager of Whittier's Bank of America branch, suggested Nixon, a family friend with whom he had served on Whittier College's board of trustees before the war. Perry wrote to Nixon in Baltimore, and after a night of excited conversation with his wife, Nixon gave Perry an enthused response. Nixon flew to California and was selected by the committee. When he left the Navy at the start of 1946, Nixon and his wife returned to Whittier, where he began a year of intensive campaigning. He contended that Voorhis had been ineffective as a representative and suggested that Voorhis's endorsement by a group linked to Communists meant that Voorhis must have radical views. Nixon won the election, receiving 65,586 votes to Voorhis's 49,994.

In June 1947, Nixon supported the Taft-Hartley Act, a federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions, and he served on the Education and Labor Committee. In August 1947, he became one of 19 House members to serve on the Herter Committee, which went to Europe to report on the need for U.S. foreign aid. Nixon was the youngest member of the committee and the only Westerner. Advocacy by Herter Committee members, including Nixon, led to congressional passage of the Marshall Plan.

In his memoirs, Nixon wrote that he joined the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) "at the end of 1947". However, he was already a HUAC member in early February 1947, when he heard "Enemy Number One" Gerhard Eisler and his sister Ruth Fischer testify. On February 18, 1947, Nixon referred to Eisler's belligerence toward HUAC in his maiden speech to the House. Also by early February 1947, fellow U.S. Representative Charles J. Kersten had introduced him to Father John Francis Cronin in Baltimore. Cronin shared with Nixon his 1945 privately circulated paper "The Problem of American Communism in 1945", with much information from the FBI's William C. Sullivan who by 1961 headed domestic intelligence under J. Edgar Hoover. By May 1948, Nixon had co-sponsored the Mundt-Nixon Bill to implement "a new approach to the complicated problem of internal communist subversion... It provided for registration of all Communist Party members and required a statement of the source of all printed and broadcast material issued by organizations that were found to be Communist fronts." He served as floor manager for the Republican Party. On May 19, 1948, the bill passed the House by 319 to 58, but later it failed to pass the Senate. The Nixon Library cites this bill's passage as Nixon's first significant victory in Congress.

Nixon in Yorba Linda, California, c. April 1950

Nixon first gained national attention in August 1948, when his persistence as a House Un-American Activities Committee member helped break the Alger Hiss spy case. While many doubted Whittaker Chambers's allegations that Hiss, a former State Department official, had been a Soviet spy, Nixon believed them to be true and pressed for the committee to continue its investigation. After Hiss filed suit, alleging defamation, Chambers produced documents corroborating his allegations, including paper and microfilm copies that Chambers turned over to House investigators after hiding them overnight in a field; they became known as the " Pumpkin Papers". Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1950 for denying under oath he had passed documents to Chambers. In 1948, Nixon successfully cross-filed as a candidate in his district, winning both major party primaries, and was comfortably reelected.

U.S. Senate (1950-1953)

In 1949, Nixon began to consider running for the United States Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Sheridan Downey, and entered the race in November. Downey, faced with a bitter primary battle with Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas, announced his retirement in March 1950. Nixon and Douglas won the primary elections and engaged in a contentious campaign in which the ongoing Korean War was a major issue. Nixon tried to focus attention on Douglas's liberal voting record. As part of that effort, a " Pink Sheet" was distributed by the Nixon campaign suggesting that Douglas's voting record was similar to that of New York Congressman Vito Marcantonio, reputed to be a communist, and their political views must be nearly identical. Nixon won the election by almost twenty percentage points. During the campaign, Nixon was first called "Tricky Dick" by his opponents for his campaign tactics.

In the Senate, Nixon took a prominent position in opposing global communism, traveling frequently and speaking out against it. He maintained friendly relations with his fellow anti-communist, controversial Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, but was careful to keep some distance between himself and McCarthy's allegations. Nixon also criticized President Harry S. Truman's handling of the Korean War. He supported statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, voted in favor of civil rights for minorities, and supported federal disaster relief for India and Yugoslavia. He voted against price controls and other monetary restrictions, benefits for illegal immigrants, and public power.

Vice presidency (1953-1961)

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was nominated for president by the Republicans in 1952. He had no strong preference for a vice-presidential candidate, and Republican officeholders and party officials met in a " smoke-filled room" and recommended Nixon to the general, who agreed to the senator's selection. Nixon's youth (he was then 39), stance against communism, and political base in California-one of the largest states-were all seen as vote-winners by the leaders. Among the candidates considered along with Nixon were Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft, New Jersey Governor Alfred Driscoll, and Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen. On the campaign trail, Eisenhower spoke of his plans for the country, and left the negative campaigning to his running mate.

In mid-September, the Republican ticket faced a major crisis when the media reported that Nixon had a political fund, maintained by his backers, which reimbursed him for political expenses. Such a fund was not illegal, but it exposed Nixon to allegations of a potential conflict of interest. With pressure building for Eisenhower to demand Nixon's resignation from the ticket, Nixon went on television to address the nation on September 23, 1952. The address, later named the Checkers speech, was heard by about 60 million Americans, which represented the largest audience ever for a television broadcast at that point. In the speech, Nixon emotionally defended himself, stating that the fund was not secret and that his donors had not received special favors. He painted himself as a patriot and man of modest means, mentioning that his wife had no mink coat; instead, he said, she wore a "respectable Republican cloth coat". The speech was remembered for the gift which Nixon had received, but which he would not give back, which he described as "a little cocker spaniel dog...sent all the way from Texas. And our little girl-Tricia, the 6-year-old-named it Checkers." The speech prompted a huge public outpouring of support for Nixon. Eisenhower decided to retain him on the ticket, and the ticket was victorious in the November election.

Eisenhower granted Nixon more responsibilities during his term than any previous vice president. Nixon attended Cabinet and National Security Council meetings and chaired them in Eisenhower's absence. A 1953 tour of the Far East succeeded in increasing local goodwill toward the United States, and gave Nixon an appreciation of the region as a potential industrial center. He visited Saigon and Hanoi in French Indochina. On his return to the United States at the end of 1953, Nixon increased the time he devoted to foreign relations.

Biographer Irwin Gellman, who chronicled Nixon's congressional years, said of his vice presidency:

Despite intense campaigning by Nixon, who reprised his strong attacks on the Democrats, the Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress in the 1954 elections. These losses caused Nixon to contemplate leaving politics once he had served out his term. On September 24, 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack and his condition was initially believed to be life-threatening. Eisenhower was unable to perform his duties for six weeks. The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution had not yet been proposed, and the vice president had no formal power to act. Nonetheless, Nixon acted in Eisenhower's stead during this period, presiding over Cabinet meetings and ensuring that aides and Cabinet officers did not seek power. According to Nixon biographer Stephen Ambrose, Nixon had "earned the high praise he received for his conduct during the crisis ... he made no attempt to seize power".

Nikita Khrushchev and Nixon speak as the press looks on at the Kitchen Debate on July 24, 1959; What's My Line? host John Charles Daly is on the far left.

On April 27, 1958, Richard and Pat Nixon reluctantly embarked on a goodwill tour of South America. In Montevideo, Uruguay, Nixon made an impromptu visit to a college campus, where he fielded questions from students on U.S. foreign policy. The trip was uneventful until the Nixon party reached Lima, Peru, where he was met with student demonstrations. Nixon went to the historical campus of National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, got out of his car to confront the students, and stayed until forced back into the car by a volley of thrown objects. At his hotel, Nixon faced another mob, and one demonstrator spat on him. In Caracas, Venezuela, Nixon and his wife were spat on by anti-American demonstrators and their limousine was attacked by a pipe-wielding mob. According to Ambrose, Nixon's courageous conduct "caused even some of his bitterest enemies to give him some grudging respect". Reporting to the cabinet after the trip, Nixon claimed there was "absolute proof that [the protestors] were directed and controlled by a central Communist conspiracy." Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother, Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, both concurred with Nixon.

In July 1959, President Eisenhower sent Nixon to the Soviet Union for the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. On July 24, Nixon was touring the exhibits with Soviet First Secretary and Premier Nikita Khrushchev when the two stopped at a model of an American kitchen and engaged in an impromptu exchange about the merits of capitalism versus communism that became known as the " Kitchen Debate".

1960 presidential campaign

In 1960, Nixon launched his first campaign for President of the United States, officially announcing on January 9, 1960. He faced little opposition in the Republican primaries and chose former Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. as his running mate. His Democratic opponent was John F. Kennedy and the race remained close for the duration. Nixon campaigned on his experience, but Kennedy called for new blood and claimed the Eisenhower-Nixon administration had allowed the Soviet Union to overtake the U.S. in quantity and quality of ballistic missiles. While Kennedy faced issues about his Catholicism, Nixon remained a divisive figure to some.

Televised presidential debates made their debut as a political medium during the campaign. In the first of four such debates, Nixon appeared pale, with a five o'clock shadow, in contrast to the photogenic Kennedy. Nixon's performance in the debate was perceived to be mediocre in the visual medium of television, though many people listening on the radio thought Nixon had won. Nixon narrowly lost the election, with Kennedy winning the popular vote by only 112,827 votes (0.2 percent).

There were charges of voter fraud in Texas and Illinois, both states won by Kennedy. Nixon refused to consider contesting the election, feeling a lengthy controversy would diminish the United States in the eyes of the world and that the uncertainty would hurt U.S. interests. At the end of his term of office as vice president in January 1961, Nixon and his family returned to California, where he practiced law and wrote a bestselling book, , which included coverage of the Hiss case, Eisenhower's heart attack, and the Fund Crisis, which had been resolved by the Checkers speech.

1962 California gubernatorial campaign

Local and national Republican leaders encouraged Nixon to challenge incumbent Pat Brown for governor of California in the 1962 gubernatorial election. Despite initial reluctance, Nixon entered the race. The campaign was clouded by public suspicion that Nixon viewed the office as a stepping stone for another presidential run, some opposition from the far-right of the party, and his own lack of interest in being California's governor. Nixon hoped a successful run would confirm his status as the nation's leading active Republican politician, and ensure he remained a major player in national politics. Instead, he lost to Brown by more than five percentage points, and the defeat was widely believed to be the end of his political career.

In an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon blamed the media for favoring his opponent, saying, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." The California defeat was highlighted in the November 11, 1962, episode of Howard K. Smith's ABC News show, Howard K. Smith: News and Comment, titled "The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon". Alger Hiss appeared on the program, and many members of the public complained that it was unseemly to give a convicted felon air time to attack a former vice president. The furor drove Smith and his program from the air, and public sympathy for Nixon grew.

Wilderness years

In 1963 the Nixon family traveled to Europe, where Nixon gave press conferences and met with leaders of the countries he visited. The family moved to New York City, where Nixon became a senior partner in the leading law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. When announcing his California campaign, Nixon had pledged not to run for president in 1964; even if he had not, he believed it would be difficult to defeat Kennedy, or after his assassination, Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson.

In 1964, Nixon won write-in votes in the primaries, and was considered a serious contender by both Gallup polls and members of the press. He was even placed on a primary ballot as an active candidate by Oregon's secretary of state. As late as two months before the 1964 Republican National Convention, however, Nixon fulfilled his promise to remain out of the presidential nomination process and instead endorsed Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, the eventual Republican nominee. When Goldwater won the nomination, Nixon was selected to introduce him at the convention. Nixon felt that Goldwater was unlikely to win, but campaigned for him loyally. In the 1964 general election, Goldwater lost in a landslide to Johnson and Republicans experienced heavy losses in Congress and among state governors.

Nixon was one of the few leading Republicans not blamed for the disastrous results, and he sought to build on that in the 1966 Congressional elections in which he campaigned for many Republicans and sought to regain seats lost in the Johnson landslide. Nixon was credited with helping Republicans win major electoral gains that year.

1968 presidential campaign

At the end of 1967, Nixon told his family he planned to run for president a second time. Pat Nixon did not always enjoy public life, being embarrassed, for example, by the need to reveal how little the family owned in the Checkers speech. She still managed to be supportive of her husband's ambitions. Nixon believed that with the Democrats torn over the issue of the Vietnam War, a Republican had a good chance of winning, although he expected the election to be as close as in 1960.

An exceptionally tumultuous primary election season began as the Tet Offensive was launched in January 1968. President Johnson withdrew as a candidate in March, after an unexpectedly poor showing in the New Hampshire primary. In June, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a Democratic candidate, was assassinated just moments after his victory in the California primary. On the Republican side, Nixon's main opposition was Michigan Governor George Romney, though New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and California Governor Ronald Reagan each hoped to be nominated in a brokered convention. Nixon secured the nomination on the first ballot. He was able to secure the nomination to the support of many Southern delegates, after he and his subordinates made concessions to Strom Thurmond and Harry Dent. He selected Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate, a choice which Nixon believed would unite the party, appealing both to Northern moderates and to Southerners disaffected with the Democrats.

Nixon's Democratic opponent in the general election was Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was nominated at a convention marked by violent protests. Throughout the campaign, Nixon portrayed himself as a figure of stability during this period of national unrest and upheaval. He appealed to what he later called the " silent majority" of socially conservative Americans who disliked the hippie counterculture and the anti-war demonstrators. Agnew became an increasingly vocal critic of these groups, solidifying Nixon's position with the right.

Nixon waged a prominent television advertising campaign, meeting with supporters in front of cameras. He stressed that the crime rate was too high, and attacked what he perceived as a surrender of the United States' nuclear superiority by the Democrats. Nixon promised " peace with honor" in the Vietnam War and proclaimed that "new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific". He did not give specifics of how he hoped to end the war, resulting in media intimations that he must have a "secret plan". His slogan of "Nixon's the One" proved to be effective.

Johnson's negotiators hoped to reach a truce in Vietnam, or at least a cessation of bombings. On October 22, 1968, candidate Nixon received information that Johnson was preparing a so-called " October surprise", abandoning three non-negotiable conditions for a bombing halt, to help elect Humphrey in the last days of the campaign. Whether the Nixon campaign interfered with negotiations between the Johnson administration and the South Vietnamese by engaging Anna Chennault, a fundraiser for the Republican party, remains a controversy. It is not clear whether the government of South Vietnam needed encouragement to opt out of a peace process they considered disadvantageous.

In a three-way race between Nixon, Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace, Nixon defeated Humphrey by only 500,000 votes, a margin almost as close as in 1960, with both elections seeing a gap of less than one percentage point of the popular vote. However, Nixon earned 301 electoral votes to 191 for Humphrey and 46 for Wallace, a majority. He became the first non-incumbent vice president to be elected president. In his victory speech, Nixon pledged that his administration would try to bring the divided nation together. Nixon said: "I have received a very gracious message from the Vice President, congratulating me for winning the election. I congratulated him for his gallant and courageous fight against great odds. I also told him that I know exactly how he felt. I know how it feels to lose a close one."

Presidency (1969-1974)

Nixon was inaugurated as president on January 20, 1969, sworn in by his onetime political rival, Chief Justice Earl Warren. Pat Nixon held the family Bibles open at Isaiah 2:4, which reads, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." In his inaugural address, which received almost uniformly positive reviews, Nixon remarked that "the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker"-a phrase that found a place on his gravestone. He spoke about turning partisan politics into a new age of unity:

Foreign policy

Nixon laid the groundwork for his overture to China before he became president, writing in Foreign Affairs a year before his election: "There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation." Assisting him in this venture was Henry Kissinger, Nixon's National Security Advisor and future Secretary of State. They collaborated closely, bypassing Cabinet officials. With relations between the Soviet Union and China at a nadir- border clashes between the two took place during Nixon's first year in office-Nixon sent private word to the Chinese that he desired closer relations. A breakthrough came in early 1971, when Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman Mao Zedong invited a team of American table tennis players to visit China and play against top Chinese players. Nixon followed up by sending Kissinger to China for clandestine meetings with Chinese officials. On July 15, 1971, with announcements from Washington and Beijing, it was learned that the President would visit China the following February. The secrecy had allowed both sets of leaders time to prepare the political climate in their countries for the visit.

In February 1972, Nixon and his wife traveled to China after Kissinger briefed Nixon for over 40 hours in preparation. Upon touching down, the President and First Lady emerged from Air Force One and were greeted by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Nixon made a point of shaking Zhou's hand, something which then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had refused to do in 1954 when the two met in Geneva. More than a hundred television journalists accompanied the president. On Nixon's orders, television was strongly favored over printed publications, as Nixon felt that the medium would capture the visit much better than print. It also gave him the opportunity to snub the print journalists he despised.

Nixon and Kissinger immediately met for an hour with CCP Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou at Mao's official private residence, where they discussed a range of issues. Mao later told his doctor that he had been impressed by Nixon's forthrightness, unlike the leftists and the Soviets. He said he was suspicious of Kissinger, though the National Security Advisor referred to their meeting as his "encounter with history". A formal banquet welcoming the presidential party was given that evening in the Great Hall of the People. The following day, Nixon met with Zhou; the joint communique following this meeting recognized Taiwan as a part of China and looked forward to a peaceful solution to the problem of reunification. When not in meetings, Nixon toured architectural wonders, including the Forbidden City, the Ming tombs, and the Great Wall. Americans took their first glance into everyday Chinese life through the cameras that accompanied Pat Nixon, who toured the city of Beijing and visited communes, schools, factories, and hospitals.

The visit ushered in a new era of US-China relations. Fearing the possibility of a US-China alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to pressure for détente with the United States. This was one component of triangular diplomacy.

Vietnam War

When Nixon took office, about 300 American soldiers were dying each week in Vietnam, and the war was widely unpopular in the United States, the subject of ongoing violent protests. The Johnson administration had offered to suspend bombing unconditionally in exchange for negotiations, but to no avail. According to Walter Isaacson, Nixon concluded soon after taking office that the Vietnam War could not be won, and he was determined to end it quickly. He sought an arrangement that would permit American forces to withdraw while leaving South Vietnam secure against attack.

Nixon approved a secret B-52 carpet bombing campaign of North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge positions in Cambodia beginning in March 1969 and code-named Operation Menu, without the consent of Cambodian leader Norodom Sihanouk. In mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with the North Vietnamese, sending a personal letter to their leaders, and peace talks began in Paris. Initial talks did not result in an agreement, and in May 1969 he publicly proposed to withdraw all American troops from South Vietnam provided North Vietnam did so, and suggesting South Vietnam hold internationally supervised elections with Viet Cong participation.

In July 1969, Nixon visited South Vietnam, where he met with his U.S. military commanders and President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Amid protests at home demanding an immediate pullout, he implemented a strategy of replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops, known as " Vietnamization". He soon instituted phased U.S. troop withdrawals, but also authorized incursions into Laos, in part to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail passing through Laos and Cambodia and used to supply North Vietnamese forces. In March 1970, at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by Pol Pot's then-second-in-command, Nuon Chea, North Vietnamese troops launched an offensive and overran much of Cambodia. Nixon announced the ground invasion of Cambodia on April 30, 1970, against North Vietnamese bases in the east of the country, and further protests erupted against perceived expansion of the conflict, which resulted in Ohio National Guardsmen killing four unarmed students at Kent State University. Nixon's responses to protesters included an impromptu, early morning meeting with them at the Lincoln Memorial on May 9, 1970. Nixon's campaign promise to curb the war, contrasted with the escalated bombing, led to claims that Nixon had a " credibility gap" on the issue. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 150,000 people were killed during the bombing of Cambodia between 1970 and 1973.

In 1971, excerpts from the " Pentagon Papers", which had been leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, were published by The New York Times and The Washington Post. When news of the leak first appeared, Nixon was inclined to do nothing; the Papers, a history of United States' involvement in Vietnam, mostly concerned the lies of prior administrations and contained few real revelations. He was persuaded by Kissinger that the Papers were more harmful than they appeared, and the President tried to prevent publication, but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the newspapers.

As U.S. troop withdrawals continued, conscription was phased out by 1973, and the armed forces became all-volunteer. After years of fighting, the Paris Peace Accords were signed at the beginning of 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops without requiring withdrawal of the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South. Once American combat support ended, there was a brief truce, before fighting resumed, and North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975.

Latin American policy

Nixon had been a firm supporter of Kennedy during the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion and 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. On taking office in 1969, he stepped up covert operations against Cuba and its president, Fidel Castro. He maintained close relations with the Cuban-American exile community through his friend, Bebe Rebozo, who often suggested ways of irritating Castro. The Soviets and Cubans became concerned, fearing Nixon might attack Cuba and break the understanding between Kennedy and Khrushchev that ended the missile crisis. In August 1970, the Soviets asked Nixon to reaffirm the understanding, which he did, despite his hard line against Castro. The process was not completed before the Soviets began expanding their base at the Cuban port of Cienfuegos in October 1970. A minor confrontation ensued, the Soviets stipulated they would not use Cienfuegos for submarines bearing ballistic missiles, and the final round of diplomatic notes were exchanged in November.

The election of Marxist candidate Salvador Allende as President of Chile in September 1970 spurred a vigorous campaign of covert opposition to him by Nixon and Kissinger. This began by trying to convince the Chilean congress to confirm Jorge Alessandri as the winner of the election, and then messages to military officers in support of a coup. Other support included strikes organized against Allende and funding for Allende opponents. It was even alleged that "Nixon personally authorized" $700,000 in covert funds to print anti-Allende messages in a prominent Chilean newspaper. Following an extended period of social, political, and economic unrest, General Augusto Pinochet assumed power in a violent coup d'état on September 11, 1973; among the dead was Allende.

Soviet Union

Nixon used the improving international environment to address the topic of nuclear peace. Following the announcement of his visit to China, the Nixon administration concluded negotiations for him to visit the Soviet Union. The President and First Lady arrived in Moscow on May 22, 1972, and met with Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party; Alexei Kosygin, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers; and Nikolai Podgorny, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, among other leading Soviet officials.

Nixon engaged in intense negotiations with Brezhnev. Out of the summit came agreements for increased trade and two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I, the first comprehensive limitation pact signed by the two superpowers, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles. Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of "peaceful coexistence". A banquet was held that evening at the Kremlin.

Nixon and Kissinger planned to link arms control to détente and to the resolution of other urgent problems through what Nixon called " linkage." David Tal argues:

The linkage between strategic arms limitations and outstanding issues such as the Middle East, Berlin and, foremost, Vietnam thus became central to Nixon's and Kissinger's policy of détente. Through the employment of linkage, they hoped to change the nature and course of U.S. foreign policy, including U.S. nuclear disarmament and arms control policy, and to separate them from those practiced by Nixon's predecessors. They also intended, through linkage, to make U.S. arms control policy part of détente... His policy of linkage had in fact failed. It failed mainly because it was based on flawed assumptions and false premises, the foremost of which was that the Soviet Union wanted strategic arms limitation agreement much more than the United States did.

Seeking to foster better relations with the United States, China and the Soviet Union both cut back on their diplomatic support for North Vietnam and advised Hanoi to come to terms militarily. Nixon later described his strategy:

In 1973, Nixon encouraged the Export-Import Bank to finance in part a trade deal with the Soviet Union in which Armand Hammer's Occidental Petroleum would export phosphate from Florida to the Soviet Union, and import Soviet ammonia. The deal, valued at $20 billion over 20 years, involved the construction of two major Soviet port facilities at Odessa and Ventspils, and a pipeline connecting four ammonia plants in the greater Volga region to the port at Odessa. In 1973, Nixon announced his administration was committed to seeking most favored nation trade status with the USSR, which was challenged by Congress in the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

During the previous two years, Nixon had made considerable progress in U.S.-Soviet relations, and he embarked on a second trip to the Soviet Union in 1974. He arrived in Moscow on June 27 to a welcome ceremony, cheering crowds, and a state dinner at the Grand Kremlin Palace that evening. Nixon and Brezhnev met in Yalta, where they discussed a proposed mutual defense pact, détente, and MIRVs. Nixon considered proposing a comprehensive test-ban treaty, but he felt he would not have time to complete it during his presidency. There were no significant breakthroughs in these negotiations.

Middle Eastern policy

On October 6, 1973, an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, supported with arms and materiel by the Soviet Union, attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Israel suffered heavy losses and Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses, cutting through inter-departmental squabbles and bureaucracy and taking personal responsibility for any response by Arab nations. More than a week later, by the time the U.S. and Soviet Union began negotiating a truce, Israel had penetrated deep into enemy territory. The truce negotiations rapidly escalated into a superpower crisis; when Israel gained the upper hand, Egyptian President Sadat requested a joint U.S.-USSR peacekeeping mission, which the U.S. refused. When Soviet Premier Brezhnev threatened to unilaterally enforce any peacekeeping mission militarily, Nixon ordered the U.S. military to DEFCON 3, placing all U.S. military personnel and bases on alert for nuclear war. This was the closest the world had come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Brezhnev backed down as a result of Nixon's actions.

Because Israel's victory was largely due to U.S. support, the Arab OPEC nations retaliated by refusing to sell crude oil to the U.S., resulting in the 1973 oil crisis. The embargo caused gasoline shortages and rationing in the United States in late 1973, and was eventually ended by the oil-producing nations as peace in the Middle East took hold.

After the war, and under Nixon's presidency, the U.S. reestablished relations with Egypt for the first time since 1967. Nixon used the Middle East crisis to restart the stalled Middle East Peace Negotiations; he wrote in a confidential memo to Kissinger on October 20:

Nixon made one of his final international visits as president to the Middle East in June 1974, and became the first President to visit Israel.

Domestic policy

Nixon at the Washington Senators' 1969 Opening Day with team owner Bob Short (arms folded) and Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn (hand on mouth). Nixon's aide, Major Jack Brennan, sits behind them in uniform.

At the time Nixon took office in 1969, inflation was at 4.7 percent-its highest rate since the Korean War. The Great Society had been enacted under Johnson, which, together with the Vietnam War costs, was causing large budget deficits. Unemployment was low, but interest rates were at their highest in a century. Nixon's major economic goal was to reduce inflation; the most obvious means of doing so was to end the war. This could not be accomplished overnight, and the U.S. economy continued to struggle through 1970, contributing to a lackluster Republican performance in the midterm congressional elections (Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress throughout Nixon's presidency). According to political economist Nigel Bowles in his 2011 study of Nixon's economic record, the new president did little to alter Johnson's policies through the first year of his presidency.

Nixon was far more interested in foreign affairs than domestic policies, but he believed that voters tend to focus on their own financial condition and that economic conditions were a threat to his reelection. As part of his " New Federalism" views, he proposed grants to the states, but these proposals were for the most part lost in the congressional budget process. However, Nixon gained political credit for advocating them. In 1970, Congress had granted the president the power to impose wage and price freezes, though the Democratic majorities, knowing Nixon had opposed such controls throughout his career, did not expect Nixon to actually use the authority. With inflation unresolved by August 1971, and an election year looming, Nixon convened a summit of his economic advisers at Camp David. Nixon's options were to limit fiscal and monetary expansionist policies that reduced unemployment or end the dollar's fixed exchange rate; Nixon's dilemma has been cited as an example of the Impossible trinity in international economics. He then announced temporary wage and price controls, allowed the dollar to float against other currencies, and ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Bowles points out,

Nixon's policies dampened inflation through 1972, although their aftereffects contributed to inflation during his second term and into the Ford administration. Nixon's decision to end the gold standard in the United States led to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. According to Thomas Oatley, "the Bretton Woods system collapsed so that Nixon might win the 1972 presidential election."

After Nixon won re-election, inflation was returning. He reimposed price controls in June 1973. The price controls became unpopular with the public and businesspeople, who saw powerful labor unions as preferable to the price board bureaucracy. The controls produced food shortages, as meat disappeared from grocery stores and farmers drowned chickens rather than sell them at a loss. Despite the failure to control inflation, controls were slowly ended, and on April 30, 1974, their statutory authorization lapsed.

Governmental initiatives and organization

Official Nixon portrait by James Anthony Wills, c. 1984

Nixon advocated a " New Federalism", which would devolve power to state and local elected officials, though Congress was hostile to these ideas and enacted few of them. He eliminated the Cabinet-level United States Post Office Department, which in 1971 became the government-run United States Postal Service.

Nixon was a late supporter of the conservation movement. Environmental policy had not been a significant issue in the 1968 election, and the candidates were rarely asked for their views on the subject. Nixon broke new ground by discussing environmental policy in his State of the Union speech in 1970. He saw that the first Earth Day in April 1970 presaged a wave of voter interest on the subject, and sought to use that to his benefit; in June he announced the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He relied on his domestic advisor John Ehrlichman, who favored protection of natural resources, to keep him "out of trouble on environmental issues." Other initiatives supported by Nixon included the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the National Environmental Policy Act required environmental impact statements for many Federal projects. Nixon vetoed the Clean Water Act of 1972-objecting not to the policy goals of the legislation but to the amount of money to be spent on them, which he deemed excessive. After Congress overrode his veto, Nixon impounded the funds he deemed unjustifiable.

In 1971, Nixon proposed health insurance reform-a private health insurance employer mandate, federalization of Medicaid for poor families with dependent minor children, and support for health maintenance organizations (HMOs). A limited HMO bill was enacted in 1973. In 1974, Nixon proposed more comprehensive health insurance reform-a private health insurance employer mandate and replacement of Medicaid by state-run health insurance plans available to all, with income-based premiums and cost sharing.

Nixon was concerned about the prevalence of domestic drug use in addition to drug use among American soldiers in Vietnam. He called for a war on drugs and pledged to cut off sources of supply abroad. He also increased funds for education and for rehabilitation facilities.

As one policy initiative, Nixon called for more money for sickle-cell research, treatment, and education in February 1971 and signed the National Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act on May 16, 1972. While Nixon called for increased spending on such high-profile items as sickle-cell disease and for a war on cancer, at the same time he sought to reduce overall spending at the National Institutes of Health.

Civil rights

The Nixon presidency witnessed the first large-scale integration of public schools in the South. Nixon sought a middle way between the segregationist Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern whites. Hopeful of doing well in the South in 1972, he sought to dispose of desegregation as a political issue before then. Soon after his inauguration, he appointed Vice President Agnew to lead a task force, which worked with local leaders-both white and black-to determine how to integrate local schools. Agnew had little interest in the work, and most of it was done by Labor Secretary George Shultz. Federal aid was available, and a meeting with President Nixon was a possible reward for compliant committees. By September 1970, less than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools. By 1971, however, tensions over desegregation surfaced in Northern cities, with angry protests over the busing of children to schools outside their neighborhood to achieve racial balance. Nixon opposed busing personally but enforced court orders requiring its use.

Some scholars, such as James Morton Turner and John Isenberg, believe that Nixon, who had advocated for civil rights in his 1960 campaign, slowed down desegregation as president, appealing to the racial conservatism of Southern whites, who were angered by the civil rights movement. This, he hoped, would boost his election chances in 1972.

In addition to desegregating public schools, Nixon implemented the Philadelphia Plan in 1970-the first significant federal affirmative action program. He also endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment after it passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and went to the states for ratification. He also pushed for African American civil rights and economic equity through a concept known as black capitalism. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968, though feminists criticized him for doing little to help the ERA or their cause after his election. Nevertheless, he appointed more women to administration positions than Lyndon Johnson had.

Space policy

Nixon visiting the Apollo 11 astronauts in quarantine aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet

After a nearly decade-long national effort, the United States won the race to land astronauts on the Moon on July 20, 1969, with the flight of Apollo 11. Nixon spoke with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their moonwalk. He called the conversation "the most historic phone call ever made from the White House".

Nixon was unwilling to keep funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the high level seen during the 1960s as NASA prepared to send men to the Moon. NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine drew up ambitious plans for the establishment of a permanent base on the Moon by the end of the 1970s and the launch of a crewed expedition to Mars as early as 1981. Nixon rejected both proposals due to the expense. Nixon also canceled the Air Force Manned Orbital Laboratory program in 1969, because uncrewed spy satellites were a more cost-effective way to achieve the same reconnaissance objective. NASA cancelled the last three planned Apollo lunar missions to place Skylab in orbit more efficiently and free money up for the design and construction of the Space Shuttle.

On May 24, 1972, Nixon approved a five-year cooperative program between NASA and the Soviet space program, culminating in the 1975 joint mission of an American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft linking in space.

Reelection, Watergate scandal, and resignation

1972 presidential campaign

Nixon believed his rise to power had peaked at a moment of political realignment. The Democratic " Solid South" had long been a source of frustration to Republican ambitions. Goldwater had won several Southern states by opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but had alienated more moderate Southerners. Nixon's efforts to gain Southern support in 1968 were diluted by Wallace's candidacy. Through his first term, he pursued a Southern Strategy with policies, such as his desegregation plans, that would be broadly acceptable among Southern whites, encouraging them to realign with the Republicans in the aftermath of the civil rights movement. He nominated two Southern conservatives, Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell, to the Supreme Court, but neither was confirmed by the Senate.

Nixon entered his name on the New Hampshire primary ballot on January 5, 1972, effectively announcing his candidacy for reelection. Virtually assured the Republican nomination, the President had initially expected his Democratic opponent to be Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy (brother of the late President), who was largely removed from contention after the July 1969 Chappaquiddick incident. Instead, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie became the front runner, with South Dakota Senator George McGovern in a close second place.

On June 10, McGovern won the California primary and secured the Democratic nomination. The following month, Nixon was renominated at the 1972 Republican National Convention. He dismissed the Democratic platform as cowardly and divisive. McGovern intended to sharply reduce defense spending and supported amnesty for draft evaders as well as abortion rights. With some of his supporters believed to be in favor of drug legalization, McGovern was perceived as standing for "amnesty, abortion and acid". McGovern was also damaged by his vacillating support for his original running mate, Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton, dumped from the ticket following revelations that he had received electroshock treatment for depression. Nixon was ahead in most polls for the entire election cycle, and was reelected on November 7, 1972, in one of the largest landslide election victories in American history. He defeated McGovern with over 60 percent of the popular vote, losing only in Massachusetts and D.C.

The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included "dirty tricks," such as bugging the offices of political opponents, and the harassment of activist groups and political figures. The activities were brought to light after five men were caught breaking into the Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972. The Washington Post picked up on the story; reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward relied on an informant known as " Deep Throat"-later revealed to be Mark Felt, associate director at the FBI-to link the men to the Nixon administration. Nixon downplayed the scandal as mere politics, calling news articles biased and misleading. A series of revelations made it clear that the Committee to Re-elect President Nixon, and later the White House, were involved in attempts to sabotage the Democrats. Senior aides such as White House Counsel John Dean faced prosecution; in total 48 officials were convicted of wrongdoing.

On November 17, 1973, President Nixon held a press conference at Disney's Contemporary Resort and famously said "I'm not a crook"

In July 1973, White House aide Alexander Butterfield testified under oath to Congress that Nixon had a secret taping system and recorded his conversations and phone calls in the Oval Office. These tapes were subpoenaed by Watergate Special Counsel Archibald Cox; Nixon provided transcripts of the conversations but not the actual tapes, citing executive privilege. With the White House and Cox at loggerheads, Nixon had Cox fired in October in the " Saturday Night Massacre"; he was replaced by Leon Jaworski. In November, Nixon's lawyers revealed that a tape of conversations held in the White House on June 20, 1972, had an minute gap. Rose Mary Woods, the President's personal secretary, claimed responsibility for the gap, saying that she had accidentally wiped the section while transcribing the tape, but her story was widely mocked. The gap, while not conclusive proof of wrongdoing by the President, cast doubt on Nixon's statement that he had been unaware of the cover-up.

Though Nixon lost much popular support, even from his own party, he rejected accusations of wrongdoing and vowed to stay in office. He admitted he had made mistakes but insisted he had no prior knowledge of the burglary, did not break any laws, and did not learn of the cover-up until early 1973. On October 10, 1973, Vice President Agnew resigned for reasons unrelated to Watergate: he was convicted on charges of bribery, tax evasion and money laundering during his tenure as governor of Maryland. Believing his first choice, John Connally, would not be confirmed by Congress, Nixon chose Gerald Ford, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, to replace Agnew. One researcher suggests Nixon effectively disengaged from his own administration after Ford was sworn in as vice president on December 6, 1973.

On November 17, 1973, during a televised question-and-answer session with 400 Associated Press managing editors, Nixon said, "People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got."

The legal battle over the tapes continued through early 1974, and in April Nixon announced the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations between himself and his aides. The House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment hearings against the President on May 9, 1974, which were televised on the major TV networks. These hearings culminated in votes for impeachment. On July 24, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the full tapes, not just selected transcripts, must be released.

The scandal grew to involve a slew of additional allegations against the President, ranging from the improper use of government agencies to accepting gifts in office and his personal finances and taxes; Nixon repeatedly stated his willingness to pay any outstanding taxes due, and later paid $465,000 (equivalent to $2.8 million in 2022) in back taxes in 1974.

Nixon Oval Office meeting with H. R. Haldeman: the "Smoking Gun" Conversation, June 23, 1972 (Full Transcript)

Even with support diminished by the continuing series of revelations, Nixon hoped to fight the charges. But one of the new tapes, recorded soon after the break-in, demonstrated that Nixon had been told of the White House connection to the Watergate burglaries soon after they took place, and had approved plans to thwart the investigation. In a statement accompanying the release of what became known as the "Smoking Gun Tape" on August 5, 1974, Nixon accepted blame for misleading the country about when he had been told of White House involvement, stating that he had had a lapse of memory. Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott, Senator Barry Goldwater, and House Minority Leader John Jacob Rhodes met with Nixon soon after. Rhodes told Nixon he faced certain impeachment in the House. Scott and Goldwater told the president that he had, at most, only 15 votes in his favor in the Senate, far fewer than the 34 needed to avoid removal from office.

Resignation

In light of his loss of political support and the near-certainty that he would be impeached and removed from office, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening. The resignation speech was delivered from the Oval Office and was carried live on radio and television. Nixon said he was resigning for the good of the country and asked the nation to support the new president, Gerald Ford. Nixon went on to review the accomplishments of his presidency, especially in foreign policy. He defended his record as president, quoting from Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 speech Citizenship in a Republic:

President Nixon's resignation speech

Nixon's speech received generally favorable initial responses from network commentators, with only Roger Mudd of CBS stating that Nixon had not admitted wrongdoing. It was termed "a masterpiece" by Conrad Black, one of his biographers. Black opined that "What was intended to be an unprecedented humiliation for any American president, Nixon converted into a virtual parliamentary acknowledgement of almost blameless insufficiency of legislative support to continue. He left while devoting half his address to a recitation of his accomplishments in office."

Post-presidency (1974-1994)

Pardon and illness

Following his resignation, the Nixons flew to their home La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California. According to his biographer, Jonathan Aitken, "Nixon was a soul in torment" after his resignation. Congress had funded Nixon's transition costs, including some salary expenses, though reducing the appropriation from $850,000 to $200,000. With some of his staff still with him, Nixon was at his desk by 7:00 a.m. with little to do. His former press secretary, Ron Ziegler, sat with him alone for hours each day.

Nixon's resignation had not put an end to the desire among many to see him punished. The Ford White House considered a pardon of Nixon, even though it would be unpopular in the country. Nixon, contacted by Ford emissaries, was initially reluctant to accept the pardon, but then agreed to do so. Ford insisted on a statement of contrition, but Nixon felt he had not committed any crimes and should not have to issue such a document. Ford eventually agreed, and on September 8, 1974, he granted Nixon a "full, free, and absolute pardon", which ended any possibility of an indictment. Nixon then released a statement:

I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate, particularly when it reached the stage of judicial proceedings and grew from a political scandal into a national tragedy. No words can describe the depth of my regret and pain at the anguish my mistakes over Watergate have caused the nation and the presidency, a nation I so deeply love, and an institution I so greatly respect.

In October 1974, Nixon fell ill with phlebitis. Told by his doctors that he could either be operated on or die, a reluctant Nixon chose surgery, and President Ford visited him in the hospital. Nixon was under subpoena for the trial of three of his former aides-Dean, Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman-and The Washington Post, disbelieving his illness, printed a cartoon showing Nixon with a cast on the "wrong foot". Judge John Sirica excused Nixon's presence despite the defendants' objections. Congress instructed Ford to retain Nixon's presidential papers-beginning a three-decade legal battle over the documents that was eventually won by the former president and his estate. Nixon was in the hospital when the 1974 midterm elections were held, and Watergate and the pardon were contributing factors to the Republican loss of 49 seats in the House and four in the Senate.

Return to public life

President Jimmy Carter and ex-Presidents Gerald Ford and Nixon meet at the White House before former Vice President Hubert Humphrey's funeral, 1978

In December 1974, Nixon began planning his comeback despite the considerable ill will against him in the country. He wrote in his diary, referring to himself and Pat,

By early 1975, Nixon's health was improving. He maintained an office in a Coast Guard station 300 yards (270 m) from his home, at first taking a golf cart and later walking the route each day; he mainly worked on his memoirs. He had hoped to wait before writing his memoirs; the fact that his assets were being eaten away by expenses and lawyer fees compelled him to begin work quickly. He was handicapped in this work by the end of his transition allowance in February, which compelled him to part with many of his staff, including Ziegler. In August of that year, he met with British talk-show host and producer David Frost, who paid him $600,000 (equivalent to $3.3 million in 2022) for a series of sit-down interviews, filmed and aired in 1977. They began on the topic of foreign policy, recounting the leaders he had known, but the most remembered section of the interviews was that on Watergate. Nixon admitted he had "let down the country" and that "I brought myself down. I gave them a sword and they stuck it in. And they twisted it with relish. And, I guess, if I'd been in their position, I'd have done the same thing." The interviews garnered 45-50 million viewers-becoming the most-watched program of its kind in television history.

The interviews helped improve Nixon's financial position-at one point in early 1975 he had only $500 in the bank-as did the sale of his Key Biscayne property to a trust set up by wealthy friends of Nixon, such as Bebe Rebozo. In February 1976, Nixon visited China at the personal invitation of Mao. Nixon had wanted to return to China but chose to wait until after Ford's own visit in 1975. Nixon remained neutral in the close 1976 primary battle between Ford and Reagan. Ford won, but was defeated by Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in the general election. The Carter administration had little use for Nixon and blocked his planned trip to Australia, causing the government of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to withhold its official invitation.

In 1976, Nixon was disbarred by the New York State Bar Association for obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair. He chose not to present any defense. In early 1978, he visited the United Kingdom; there, he was shunned by American diplomats, most ministers of the James Callaghan government, and two former prime ministers, Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath. He was welcomed, however, by the Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher, as well as by former prime ministers Lord Home and Sir Harold Wilson. Nixon addressed the Oxford Union regarding Watergate:

[Some people] felt that on this matter that I had not handled it properly, and they were right. I screwed it up and I paid the price.

Author and elder statesman

President Ronald Reagan meets with his three immediate predecessors, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Nixon, at the White House, October 1981; the three former presidents would represent the United States at the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

In 1978, Nixon published his memoirs, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, the first of ten books he was to author in his retirement. John A. Farrell deemed it one of the better presidential memoirs, candid and capturing its author's voice; he deemed its rise up the bestseller lists justified. Nixon visited the White House in 1979, invited by Carter for the state dinner for Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping. Carter had not wanted to invite Nixon, but Deng had said he would visit Nixon in California if the former president was not invited. Nixon had a private meeting with Deng and visited Beijing again in mid-1979.

On August 10, 1979, the Nixons purchased a 12‐room condominium occupying the seventh floor of 817 Fifth Avenue New York City after being rejected by two Manhattan co-ops. When the deposed Shah of Iran died in Egypt in July 1980, Nixon defied the State Department, which intended to send no U.S. representative, by attending the funeral. Though Nixon had no official credentials, as a former president he was seen as the American presence at its former ally's funeral. Nixon supported Ronald Reagan for president in 1980, making television appearances portraying himself as, in biographer Stephen Ambrose's words, "the senior statesman above the fray". He wrote guest articles for many publications both during the campaign and after Reagan's victory. After eighteen months in the New York City townhouse, Nixon and his wife moved in 1981 to Saddle River, New Jersey.

Throughout the 1980s, Nixon maintained an ambitious schedule of speaking engagements and writing, traveled, and met with many foreign leaders, especially those of Third World countries. He joined former Presidents Ford and Carter as representatives of the United States at the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. On a trip to the Middle East, Nixon made his views known regarding Saudi Arabia and Libya, which attracted significant U.S. media attention; The Washington Post ran stories on Nixon's "rehabilitation". Nixon visited the Soviet Union in 1986 and on his return sent President Reagan a lengthy memorandum containing foreign policy suggestions and his personal impressions of Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. Following this trip, Nixon was ranked in a Gallup poll as one of the ten most admired men in the world.

In 1986, Nixon addressed a convention of newspaper publishers, impressing his audience with his tour d'horizon of the world. At the time, political pundit Elizabeth Drew wrote, "Even when he was wrong, Nixon still showed that he knew a great deal and had a capacious memory, as well as the capacity to speak with apparent authority, enough to impress people who had little regard for him in earlier times." Newsweek ran a story on "Nixon's comeback" with the headline "He's back".

On July 19, 1990, the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California opened as a private institution with the Nixons in attendance. They were joined by a large crowd of people, including Presidents Ford, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, as well as their wives, Betty, Nancy, and Barbara. In January 1994, the former president founded the Nixon Center (today the Center for the National Interest), a Washington policy think tank and conference center.

Pat Nixon died on June 22, 1993, of emphysema and lung cancer. Her funeral services were held on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace. Former President Nixon was distraught throughout the interment and delivered a tribute to her inside the library building.

Death and funeral

Five U.S. presidents (then-incumbent President Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford) and their wives attending Nixon's funeral, April 27, 1994

Nixon suffered a severe stroke on April 18, 1994, while preparing to eat dinner in his home at Park Ridge, New Jersey. A blood clot resulting from the atrial fibrillation he had suffered for many years had formed in his upper heart, broken off, and traveled to his brain. He was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, initially alert but unable to speak or to move his right arm or leg. Damage to the brain caused swelling ( cerebral edema), and Nixon slipped into a deep coma. He died at 9:08 p.m. on April 22, 1994, with his daughters at his bedside. He was 81 years old.

Nixon's funeral took place on April 27, 1994, in Yorba Linda, California. Eulogists at the Nixon Library ceremony included President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, California Governor Pete Wilson, and the Reverend Billy Graham. Also in attendance were former Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and their wives.

Richard Nixon was buried beside his wife Pat on the grounds of the Nixon Library. He was survived by his two daughters, Tricia and Julie, and four grandchildren. In keeping with his wishes, his funeral was not a full state funeral, though his body did lie in repose in the Nixon Library lobby from April 26 to the morning of the funeral service. Mourners waited in line for up to eight hours in chilly, wet weather to pay their respects. At its peak, the line to pass by Nixon's casket was three miles long with an estimated 42,000 people waiting.

John F. Stacks of Time magazine said of Nixon shortly after his death,

Tom Wicker of The New York Times noted that Nixon had been equalled only by Franklin Roosevelt in being five times nominated on a major party ticket and, quoting Nixon's 1962 farewell speech, wrote,

Ambrose said of the reaction to Nixon's death, "To everyone's amazement, except his, he's our beloved elder statesman."

Upon Nixon's death, the news coverage mentioned Watergate and the resignation but much of the coverage was favorable to the former president. The Dallas Morning News stated, "History ultimately should show that despite his flaws, he was one of our most farsighted chief executives." This offended some; columnist Russell Baker complained of "a group conspiracy to grant him absolution". Cartoonist Jeff Koterba of the Omaha World-Herald depicted History before a blank canvas, his subject Nixon, as America looks on eagerly. The artist urges his audience to sit down; the work will take some time to complete, as "this portrait is a little more complicated than most". Hunter S. Thompson wrote a scathing piece denouncing Nixon for Rolling Stone, entitled "He Was a Crook" (which also appeared a month later in The Atlantic). In his article, Thompson described Nixon as "a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy".

Historian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns asked of Nixon, "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?" According to Ambrose, "Nixon wanted to be judged by what he accomplished. What he will be remembered for is the nightmare he put the country through in his second term and for his resignation." Irwin Gellman, who chronicled Nixon's Congressional career, suggests, "He was remarkable among his congressional peers, a success story in a troubled era, one who steered a sensible anti-Communist course against the excess of McCarthy." Aitken feels that "Nixon, both as a man and as a statesman, has been excessively maligned for his faults and inadequately recognised for his virtues. Yet even in a spirit of historical revisionism, no simple verdict is possible."

Nixon saw his policies on Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union as central to his place in history. Nixon's onetime opponent George McGovern commented in 1983, "President Nixon probably had a more practical approach to the two superpowers, China and the Soviet Union, than any other president since World WarII ... With the exception of his inexcusable continuation of the war in Vietnam, Nixon really will get high marks in history." Political scientist Jussi Hanhimäki disagrees, saying that Nixon's diplomacy was merely a continuation of the Cold War policy of containment by diplomatic, rather than military, means. Kissinger noted similarities between Nixon's opening of China in 1972 and President Donald Trump's Middle East diplomacy. Historian Christopher Andrew concludes that "Nixon was a great statesman on the world stage as well as a shabby practitioner of electoral politics in the domestic arena. While the criminal farce of Watergate was in the making, Nixon's inspirational statesmanship was establishing new working relationships both with Communist China and with the Soviet Union."

Nixon's stance on domestic affairs has been credited with the passage and enforcement of environmental and regulatory legislation. In a 2011 paper on Nixon and the environment, historian Paul Charles Milazzo points to Nixon's creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and to his enforcement of legislation such as the 1973 Endangered Species Act, stating that "though unsought and unacknowledged, Richard Nixon's environmental legacy is secure". Nixon himself did not consider the environmental advances he made in office an important part of his legacy; some historians contend that his choices were driven more by political expediency than any strong environmentalism. Some historians say Nixon's Southern Strategy turned the Southern United States into a Republican stronghold, while others deem economic factors more important in the change. Throughout his career, Nixon moved his party away from the control of isolationists, and as a Congressman he was a persuasive advocate of containing Soviet communism.

Historian Keith W. Olson has written that Nixon left a legacy of fundamental mistrust of government, rooted in Vietnam and Watergate. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998, both sides tried to use Nixon and Watergate to their advantage: Republicans suggested that Clinton's misconduct was comparable to Nixon's, while Democrats contended that Nixon's actions had been far more serious than Clinton's. For a time, there was a decrease in the power of the presidency as Congress passed restrictive legislation in the wake of Watergate. Olson suggests that legislation in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks restored the president's power.

According to his biographer Herbert Parmet, "Nixon's role was to steer the Republican party along a middle course, somewhere between the competitive impulses of the Rockefellers, the Goldwaters, and the Reagans."

Personality and public image

Nixon's career was frequently dogged by his persona and the public's perception of it. Editorial cartoonists and comedians often exaggerated his appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human and the caricature became increasingly blurred. He was often portrayed with unshaven jowls, slumped shoulders, and a furrowed, sweaty brow.

Nixon had a complex personality, both very secretive and awkward, yet strikingly reflective about himself. He was inclined to distance himself from people and was formal in all aspects, wearing a coat and tie even when home alone. Nixon biographer Conrad Black described him as being "driven" though also "uneasy with himself in some ways". According to Black, Nixon

thought that he was doomed to be traduced, double-crossed, unjustly harassed, misunderstood, underappreciated, and subjected to the trials of Job, but that by the application of his mighty will, tenacity, and diligence, he would ultimately prevail.

Nixon sometimes drank alcohol to excess, especially during 1970. He also was prescribed sleeping pills. According to Ray Price, Nixon sometimes took them in together. Nixon also took dilantin, recommended by Jack Dreyfus. That medicine is usually prescribed to treat and prevent seizures, but in Nixon's case it was for depression. His periodic overindulgences, especially during stressful times such as during Apollo 13, concerned Price and others, including then-advisor Ehrlichman and long-time valet Manolo Sanchez. Author and former British politician David Owen deemed Nixon an alcoholic.

In October 1999, a volume of 1971 White House audio tapes was released which contained multiple statements by Nixon deemed derogatory toward Jews. In one conversation with H. R. Haldeman, Nixon said that Washington was "full of Jews" and that "most Jews are disloyal", making exceptions for some of his top aides. He then added, "But, Bob, generally speaking, you can't trust the bastards. They turn on you. Am I wrong or right?" Elsewhere on the 1971 recordings, Nixon denies being antisemitic, saying, "If anybody who's been in this chair ever had reason to be antisemitic, I did ... And I'm not, you know what I mean?"

Nixon believed that putting distance between himself and other people was necessary for him as he advanced in his political career and became president. Even Bebe Rebozo, by some accounts his closest friend, did not call him by his first name. Nixon said of this,

When Nixon was told that most Americans felt they did not know him even at the end of his career, he replied, "Yeah, it's true. And it's not necessary for them to know."

References

1. ^ Reitwiesner, William Addams. "The Ancestors of Senator John Forbes Kerry (b. 1943)". Archived from the original on April 27, 2019.

2. ^ "Final Report on Foreign Aid of the House Select Committee on Foreign Aid" (PDF). Marshall Foundation. May 1, 1948. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 21, 2015.

3. ^ Cronin, John Francis (October 29, 1945). "The Problem of American Communism in 1945: Facts and Recommendations" (PDF). A Confidential Study for Private Circulation. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 14, 2013.

4. ^ Ambrose, Stephen E. (March 18, 2014). Nixon Volume I: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962. Simon and Schuster. pp. 144-147. ISBN 978-1-4767-4588-6.

5. John W. Malsberger, "Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and the Fund Crisis of 1952," ^ Historian, 73 (Fall 2011), pp 526-47.

6. John W. Malsberger, ^ The General and the Politician: Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and American Politics (2014)

7. ^ Rabe, Stephen G. (1988). Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anticommunism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-8078-4204-1.

8. ^ Perlstein, Rick (2008). Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. New York: Scribner. pp. 295-303. ISBN 978-0-7432-4302-5.

9. ^ Nixon Tried to Spoil Johnson's Vietnam Peace Talks in '68, Notes Show Archived March 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, Politics Section, Peter Baker, January 2, 2017. See also H.R. Haldeman's Notes from Oct. 22, 1968 Archived February 5, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, December 31, 2016, which reprints four pages of Haldeman's notes.

10. ^ Azari, Julia (August 20, 2020). "Biden Had To Fight For The Presidential Nomination. But Most VPs Have To". FiveThirtyEight.

11. ^ "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume I Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972". 2001-2009.state.gov.

12. Owen, Taylor; Kiernan, Ben (October 2006). "Bombs Over Cambodia" (PDF). The Walrus. pp. 32-36. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 20, 2016. Kiernan and Owen later revised their estimate of 2.7 million tons of U.S. bombs dropped on Cambodia down to the previously accepted figure of roughly 500,000 tons: See Kiernan, Ben; Owen, Taylor (April 26, 2015). "Making More Enemies than We Kill? Calculating U.S. Bomb Tonnages Dropped on Laos and Cambodia, and Weighing Their Implications". The Asia-Pacific Journal. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 12, 2015.

13. ^ Clymer, Kenton (2013). The United States and Cambodia, 1969-2000: A Troubled Relationship. Routledge. pp. 14-16. ISBN 978-1-134-34156-6.

14. ^ Address to the Nation on Vietnam Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine May 14, 1969

15. ^ Mosyakov, Dmitry (2004). "The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists: A History of Their Relations as Told in the Soviet Archives". In Cook, Susan E. (ed.). Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda. Yale Genocide Studies Program Monograph Series. p. 54ff. Archived from the original on March 9, 2013. In April-May 1970, many North Vietnamese forces entered Cambodia in response to the call for help addressed to Vietnam not by Pol Pot, but by his deputy Nuon Chea. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: 'Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days.'

16. David Tal, " 'Absolutes' and 'Stages' in the Making and Application of Nixon's SALT Policy." ^ Diplomatic History 37.5 (2013): 1090-1116, quoting pp 1091, 1092. Nixon himself later wrote, "[W]e decided to link progress in such areas of Soviet concern as strategic arms limitation and increased trade with progress in areas that were important to us-Vietnam, the Mideast, and Berlin. This concept became known as linkage."

17. ^ The Republican Reversal-James Morton Turner, Andrew C. Isenberg | Harvard University Press. Harvard University Press. November 12, 2018. p. 36. ISBN 9780674979970. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019 - via www.hup.harvard.edu.

18. ^ "MIT lecture notes in "Aircraft Systems Engineering," fall 2005, on early Space Shuttle policy" (PDF). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Fall 2005. p. 7. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 26, 2014.

19. "Nixon disbarred in New York in 1st ruling of Watergate guilt", ^ Toledo Blade, July 9, 1976, p.1

20. Thompson, Hunter S. (July 1994). "He Was a Crook". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on June 7, 2017.

21. ^ Shawn, Eric (March 3, 2021). "Kissinger says Trump, Nixon foreign policies similar, warns Biden on Iran". Fox News.

22. ^ "New tapes reveal depth of Nixon's anti-Semitism". The Washington Post, October 6, 1999. Retrieved on April 4, 2011.

Print sources

Nixon Library

Other sources

Further reading

External links

Official websites

Media coverage

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 - April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and as the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D.

# data[].attributes.body
From Hannah Montana to pot extraordinaire, Miley Cyrus has become yet another celebrity that has shown just how desperate people can be to keep the attention of the media instead of banking on actual talent. Either her tongue or her nipple is out- there is no in between.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Some wear their hearts on their sleeves - Miley Cyrus prefers hers elsewhere.

The VMA host is known to push the envelope with her wardrobe choices, and she did not disappoint Wednesday night when she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! wearing pink, heart-shaped pasties on her breasts.

"You are almost naked," Kimmel declared.

Cyrus, 22, admitted that she was a bit cold, even though she wore a rainbow maxi skirt with a matching cape along with the clothing accessory.

"I would've worn a shirt," she said, noting the chill in the studio. "Actually I wouldn't have."

Naturally, Kimmel blushed and announced that Cyrus' outfit left him "flustered" before the two launched into a discussion about Cyrus' VMA host status and her "uncomfortable" encounter with Paul McCartney.

But, of course, the conversation continued to circle back to the star's wardrobe.

Kimmel noted that he has a 23-year-old daughter of his own and inquired what Billy Ray Cyrus thinks of his daughter's attention-grabbing attire.

"My dad's cool because, you know, I'm sure he'd maybe rather me not have my tits out all the time," the "We Can't Stop" singer said. "But he'd rather me have my tits out and be a good person than have a shirt on and be a bitch."

The former Disney Channel actress showed off the outfit in an Instagram photo Wednesday night.

Unable to curb his fascination with Cyrus' "tit pasties," Kimmel asked how the 22-year-old keeps the clothing accessory secured.

Her answer: "I travel with a lot of tape."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Miley Cyrus Wears Pink, Heart-Shaped Breast Pasties on Jimmy Kimmel Live!: 'I Would've Worn a Shirt, Actually I Wouldn't Have'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Some wear their hearts on their sleeves - Miley Cyrus prefers hers elsewhere. The VMA host is known to push the envelope with her wardrobe choices, and she did not disappoint Wednesday night when she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! wearing pink, heart-shaped pasties on her breasts. "You are almost naked," Kimmel declared.

# data[].attributes.body
has been caught lying  too many times to count and is still running for president

# data[].attributes.body
...is a poser and a bully and therefore INAUTHENTIC in my book. He rode into fame and riches on the talented coat-tails of truly authentic people like Tupac and Biggie, and in the end - I feel - was responsible for their demise in order to make himself into "something" instead of the mediocre thug that he is.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On March 20th, inside the high-security wing of Los Angeles' Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, the man once called "the most feared man in hip-hop" is looking more like the 50-year-old with chronic health issues that he is. Suge Knight sits in shackles, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and chunky glasses, his beard flecked with gray, listening impassively. It's the end of the day's proceedings, and Judge Ronald S. Coen is announcing the bail for Knight, who is facing charges of murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run: "In this court's opinion, $25 million is reasonable, and it is so set." A gasp erupts from Knight's row of supporters - some of whom sport red clothing or accessories, a color associated with the Bloods and Piru street gangs. The most shocked are Knight's family, who have attended nearly all of his court dates: his parents, along with his fiancee, Toilin Kelly, and sister Karen Anderson. "He's never had a bail like that before!" Anderson exclaims.

As attendees exit and Knight is escorted out by the bailiffs, Knight's attorney Matthew Fletcher pleads with Coen to reconsider. Fletcher points out that Knight has been held in solitary confinement for nearly three months, with next to no contact with family or friends. ("They wouldn't allow this at Guantánamo Bay," Fletcher says.) The lawyer goes on to complain about Knight's treatment in jail for his numerous medical ailments, which include diabetes, blood clots and impaired vision.

The judge is unswayed, especially by Fletcher's pleas about Knight's poor health. "He was offered food and refused it," says Coen. At that moment, as if on cue, Knight re-enters the courtroom, and suddenly collapses, his 300-pound-plus frame tumbling forward onto the padded chair he was just sitting in minutes earlier. Outside, Knight's supporters have started a protest. "This is a public lynching!" shouts a woman in a red dress and blond Afro. "Black lives matter!" The painful irony is that Knight is being prosecuted for murdering a black man - a man he once called his friend - and seriously injuring another.

This could finally be the end of the road for the record-label head who, a generation ago, helped bring the West Coast gangsta rap of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur to the mainstream, pushing aside the pop rap of artists such as MC Hammer and Tone-Loc and putting low-riders and gang signs into heavy rotation on MTV. In the process, Knight established himself as a legendary music-biz tough guy. His exploits - some mythic, some real - during the heyday of Death Row Records have become part of hip-hop lore: In the early Nineties, he allegedly shook down Vanilla Ice into handing over publishing profits, walking the rapper out to a hotel-room balcony to show him how far his fall would be. ("I needed to wear a diaper that day," Ice said later.) In his memoir, former N.W.A manager Jerry Heller alleged that Knight and his cohorts, bearing baseball bats, intimidated Eazy-E into releasing Dre from his Ruthless Records contract. (The claims have never been substantiated.) Knight was sitting next to Tupac when he was gunned down in 1996 in Las Vegas; his participation in a fight on the night of the shooting would land him in prison for five years on a probation violation.

As Knight's fortunes have crumbled, he's gotten closer to the streets, according to prosecutors. In a motion arguing for the high bail (which would later be reduced to $10 million), the L.A. District Attorney's office alleged a recent scheme by Knight to "tax" out-of-town rappers for as much as $30,000 just to work in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Last year, Knight called out Rick Ross in a video interview: "You know you owe that bread, titty man," Knight said. "I'm gonna beat the dog shit out of you." His targets aren't limited to big fish - in 2014 he was caught on surveillance punching a worker at an L.A. medical-marijuana dispensary after being refused service for lacking documentation.

Knight hasn't been charged for any of the above episodes; his current lawyer Thomas Mesereau says, "He never threatened Vanilla Ice," and that all the claims of extortion are based on "a lot of gossip and innuendo." But former associates struggle to understand why such an undeniably talented businessman can't escape this kind of small-time drama and thuggery. "I watched Suge decline the last 10 years," says Cash Jones, a.k.a. Wack 100, a former Death Row "foot soldier" who now manages Ray J and the Game. Knight already has two prior violent felonies on his record: If any of his current charges stick, under California's Three Strikes law, he could be going to jail for the rest of his life.

"Suge lost focus of the business, and who he is," says Jones. "He could've been a lot of things, but he chose not to."

Michael O'Neil/Corbis Outline

Knight's most recent troubles apparently began like many Suge Knight stories: with him thinking that somebody owed him money. The upcoming N.W.A biopic, Straight Outta Compton - co-produced by Dre and Ice Cube, and due out in August - was getting attention after a teaser leaked in December. "People working on the set were calling and telling Suge, 'Hey, man, this movie is really [becoming] a Death Row movie,' with a Suge look-alike in the movie beating up people in the studio and all that," says Reggie Wright, a childhood friend of Knight's who worked at Death Row from 1994 to 2002. "Suge felt like they were using his likeness in this movie without consulting him."

On the afternoon of January 29th, Knight drove up to the production's base camp in his red Ford Raptor pickup, breezing past the film's security. Dre's bodyguards would not move him while Knight was on the premises, leaving producers in a panic. Cle "Bone" Sloan - a "nonactive" gang member who was working as a technical adviser to the movie - stepped in, confronting Knight. Sloan said later that he had heard there was a "problem" between "[Knight] and Dre or somebody." The confrontation turned into a shouting match. Sloan said he told Knight, "Why don't you leave so we can move forward? You got the white folks scared!" Eventually, Knight left the set.

Shortly after clearing out, Knight received a call from a respected South Central entrepreneur named Terry Carter who was at the shoot that day and was perhaps hoping to mediate the dispute. Carter, 55, was a self-made man who, after losing his mother and brother in the space of a year when he was 18, had built businesses in music, cars and real estate - most notably co-founding Heavyweight Records with Ice Cube in 1998. "Ice Cube and Dre would come by the house like it was nothing," says Carter's daughter Nekaya about her childhood. Carter was a family man, with three children; he had also taken in his sister-in-law's five kids when she couldn't care for them. People who knew Carter call him a "peacemaker."

There are different accounts of Knight's relationship with Carter. His daughters say that he and Knight had done little more than "cross paths," but Knight's friend and bail bonds agent Jane Un says that Carter and Knight were "friends" and had even "explored going into business together." Carter was now requesting Knight's presence at a Compton burger joint, Tam's, a few miles from the movie's base camp.

Minutes later, Knight pulled up outside the Tam's parking lot, where Carter and at least one other man had already gathered. According to Sloan's interview with police, Knight started bad-mouthing Sloan - just as, unbeknownst to Knight, he pulled up. "He was talking shit," Sloan recounted, "and I just popped out like a jack-in-the-box." Sloan came at Knight saying, "Let's do it!" and began throwing punches at Knight through the Raptor's window.

Knight's vehicle lurched into reverse, knocking down Sloan. Then he put it into drive, running over Sloan and crushing his ankles. Knight's pickup kept surging forward, plowing into a fleeing Carter, killing him. (The entire gruesome, abrupt series of events was captured on a grainy, soundless surveillance video, which was obtained by TMZ.com.)

"Every day, I try to forget it," Sloan said later. "I screwed up, and Terry's dead." Knight turned himself in to police about 12 hours later, around three in the morning. Knight's initial counsel in the case, James Blatt, told the Los Angeles Times that Knight was "heartbroken" over Carter's death. A subsequent lawyer, Fletcher, has suggested that Carter helped lure Knight into a deathtrap. Carter's friends and family are still deep in mourning. "It was a tragedy," says Lydia Harris, an early Death Row partner. Nearly 2,000 people attended Carter's funeral.

Knight's strategy will almost certainly be self-defense. But even if he wins, he is facing another case, which has received less media attention, but may prove harder to beat. Last September, Knight and comedian Katt Williams were leaving a Beverly Hills studio when they encountered celebrity photographer Leslie Redden. Believing Redden had photographed Knight's son without permission, Knight is alleged to have told her he had a "bitch" who was going to beat her "motherfucking ass," and to have shown Redden his waistband. Redden fled, but was stopped by Williams and an unknown woman, who allegedly knocked the photographer to the ground and took her camera. In addition to criminal charges against Knight and Williams (who have both pleaded not guilty), Redden has also filed a civil suit against Knight, alleging severe injuries to her back, head and neck.

"It don't matter if it's $100 or $100,000," says Cash Jones, "when you take somebody's property and harm them in the process, it's robbery" - a felony charge that could also put Knight away for years. "Suge was already out on bail for that case, and now he has this hit-and-run situation - and there's video of it that's not in his favor. He's over with."

He was always the same guy," says Wright, "boisterous, a bully." Marion Hugh Knight Jr. grew up on the east side of Compton, in what was, by all accounts, a strong, loving family. "The irony is that you would think this guy comes from a broken home," says former Death Row publicist Jonathan Wolfson, "but his parents have been married to this day, and they are the nicest."

"Suge's daddy was lovely!" says Knight's ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Michel'le, talking about Marion Knight Sr. and mother Maxine. "Oh, he's just a dream. His mother is nice too, but she has a mouth on her like Suge: She'd curse you out one minute and then go, 'Well, you know, baby, it's OK' the next. Suge is a mama's boy, definitely." Many who have dealt with Knight cite his keen natural intelligence. "Suge had huge potential," says Wolfson. "He could've done anything - he was a force."

A charismatic, gifted athlete, Knight wanted more than his parents' two-bedroom home. "As soon as I was old enough," he told The Guardian in 2001, "I told myself that I'd never live or end up dying in a place like that. I made up my mind that I wanted everything, and nothing would stop me." Knight started playing on the Lynwood High football team; he was fast as well as strong. "I remember our coach chastising me because Suge beat me in a race, and I was a running back, and he was a lineman," says Wright. Knight said that he would shake down wealthy white kids outside their Hollywood high schools, but he was more of an alpha-male football player than a hoodlum as a teenager. "He had twin cousins, Ronald and Donald," says Wright, "and they pretty much ran Lynwood High School." His neighborhood was a Piru Bloods zone - Knight has said he sometimes saw bodies in the alleys on the way to school - but "gangbangers didn't mess with the athletes," says Wright.

Knight had two impressive seasons at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and a short-lived NFL career, going undrafted but making it onto the Los Angeles Rams as a replacement player for two games during the strike season of 1987. That same year, he shot a man in Las Vegas while allegedly trying to steal his car, and was arrested for attempted murder. Knight pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and was put on probation, but his pro football career was over.

Interestingly, Wright attributes some of Knight's unpredictability and rage to diabetes, which has shadowed him throughout his life. "A lot of people don't know Suge has diabetes real bad," Wright says. "He doesn't have the correct medication to treat it, or go to the doctor to get it controlled correctly. So a lot of the times when he gets angry, it's because his sugar is up."

With the door to the NFL closed, Knight used his size to get into the music business, working as a bodyguard for Bobby Brown. Knight began moving in the same circles as rapper the D.O.C., as well as Dre, Eazy-E, Cube - and a young MC named Mario Johnson, who complained that he'd written much of Vanilla Ice's To the Extreme. Knight saw his opportunity, which supposedly led to the notorious hotel-room confrontation with the white Florida rapper. Ice settled with Knight for an unspecified amount. It was his first big payday.

The next breakthrough came when D.O.C., Dre and Knight hatched a plan to get the rappers out of their contracts with Heller's Ruthless Records. Death Row was founded in 1991, and the next few years were gilded with hits: Dre's 1992 classic The Chronic went triple-platinum, followed by Snoop Dogg's quadruple-platinum Doggystyle. In the space of a few years, Knight had inserted himself into the heart of West Coast hip-hop and taken over.

Michel'le, who was signed to Ruthless and then Death Row, says that things began to sour between Knight and Dre when Tupac came into the picture in 1995. Knight felt that Dre didn't have Tupac's gung-ho work ethic; Shakur would become both Death Row's commercial focal point and Knight's close friend in a way Dre never was. At the same time, Knight began to feel disrespected by the superstar producer. "Dre did not want to listen to Suge, and that bothered him," Michel'le says. "Suge was like, 'You were getting two cents a record [with Eazy-E and Heller], but I helped you make real money.' "

But Wright says the break came when Knight began a relationship with Michel'le - Dre's former fiancee and mother to his son Marcel - in the mid-Nineties. "Dre was over Michel'le - he had another woman, but that's still his baby mama," Wright says. "I think at first, Michel'le was Suge's spy, telling him what was going on between Jimmy [Iovine] and Dre, but he grew to love her." Knight and Michel'le would have a daughter, Bailei, in 2002.

In 1996, Dre split with Knight, forming his own label, Aftermath - like Death Row, under the umbrella of Iovine's Interscope Records. Knight was relentless in trying to get back master recordings that he believed belonged to Death Row. According to Randall Sullivan's Labyrinth, Knight talked his way onto Dre's property claiming to be Iovine: "When he opened the door, Dre said, 'In comes Suge with eight or nine niggas,' " demanding the tapes.

Jones points to that time as a crossroads for both Dre and Knight. "You know what Dre did? He kept chasing success," says Jones. "The fact remains that right now, today, Suge sits in prison facing murder charges, and Dre is a billionaire."

This fact is not lost on Knight, who still feels entitled to hundreds of millions of dollars from Dre. According to a New York Times article, "Knight told investigators he expected a 10 percent share of the proceeds from last year's $3 billion sale by [Dre] of Beats to Apple."

Both friends and foes agree that Knight never quite recovered from his five-year prison bid, which started in 1996. He tried to keep his hands on the reins of Death Row - which was still a commercial force - from Mule Creek, a medium-security prison in a small Northern California town, where he'd been placed in the general population.Wright, who was now managing Death Row's day-to-day operations, would visit Mule Creek from Thursday to Sunday each week to keep Knight abreast of label activities, while Death Row's new publicist, Wolfson - a New Yorker who had recently started his own PR company - found himself adapting to the unique work conditions. "I was this Jewish kid from Rockland County - I'd never even been to a jail before," recalls Wolfson, who would work with Knight for six years. "I was instructed to bring $30 in single dollar bills to use in vending machines. I'd put this mountain of food on the table for him to eat. They had this prisoner walking around with a Polaroid camera. For $2 he would take a picture with you and your imprisoned loved one in front of this backdrop with clouds and a skyline. That's actually where we did a few of our press shots."

"When I went up to the penitentiary to see Suge for the first time, it was a real trippy experience," notes Kxng Crooked, a rapper who was signed to Death Row under the name Crooked I from 1999 to 2004. "I went there to talk about my record deal, and we were negotiating on napkins! He'd ask me what I wanted, and I'd write it on the napkin and slide it over: 'Ah, that's doable. . . .' It was crazy. Suge was like, 'I can get you Grammys, I can put your name up on billboards. . . . I can do all this.' "

When Knight got out of prison in 2001, "He was different," Wright says. "And he was more notorious than ever." Knight quickly returned to the high-roller lifestyle he'd enjoyed in the Nineties. "There was a lot of partying - in New York, Houston, Chicago, Malibu, staying at the Four Seasons in Hawaii," says Crooked. "We took Suge's yacht out a couple of times and got DJs and caterers on there, called up some well-known strippers. We spent a lot of time just enjoying life."

There were signs that the party was going to end. Death Row had split with distributor Interscope in 1998, which meant less of a financial safety net. But in Knight's absence, the label had some success with posthumous Tupac releases and a greatest-hits compilation, and soon assembled a promising new roster featuring rappers such as Crooked and Kurupt of Tha Dogg Pound - and briefly, before her death in a 2002 car crash, TLC's Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes. "I loved Left-Eye - she brought so much peace to the label, bro," says Crooked. "She would make sure the guys were eating well, and make you herbal tea to clear up your cold. She was just a warm spirit, bringing balance inside that crazy world."

According to multiple sources, Left-Eye was also getting warm with Knight. The two started an affair, which created its own drama. When she discovered a love nest in the Death Row offices where he'd seduce other women, Wright says, Lopes threw bleach all over the furniture - causing thousands of dollars worth of damage. (Knight has sired at least seven children with various women. Michel'le recalls discovering 17 lingerie-stuffed Victoria's Secret bags during a work trip to the Bahamas with Knight before they were an item - each bag apparently intended for a different woman Knight was involved with.)

Knight's dreams of restoring Death Row to its former glory soon fizzled. Not long after he got out, "He said, 'Let's go to New York - we've got to let the world know that we're back!' " says Crooked. "So we hit the media trail very hard - went to all the main stations, all the magazines, everything. It just felt like, 'OK, it's about to pop off.' "

It never did. "Crooked was one of the hardest rappers on the West Coast back then - lyrically, he could stand with anybody," says Jones. "But he had no distribution - and, ultimately, no album on Death Row." Nearly all of the label's projects from that era suffered similar fates.

"A lot of people didn't want to see Suge succeed," Crooked says. "People were intimidated by him. The ball would start moving, and then it would just stop dead."

"No one wanted to do business with him," says Jones. "He had no artists, radio showed him no favors, his office building was in foreclosure, and there were all kinds of tax liens and lawsuits. He had to revert back to what he knew - which was the block."

"We were getting into brawls, and our CEO was throwing punches too," Crooked says. Comic relief at the Death Row headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard was provided by a pet parrot squawking curse words. Upon entering the office foyer, guests were greeted by a painting depicting Dre being sodomized by a muscular blond man, as Diddy, sporting a ballet tutu, and a piglike Notorious B.I.G. look on. Gangbangers roamed the halls, sometimes walking pit bulls on chains. "People on the street looked at Death Row as a gang more than a record label," adds Crooked. "I bought myself a vest, and an arsenal - a .357 Magnum and a P89 Ruger. That's how real it was. I don't think it will ever be like that again, and I don't want it to be."

At the 2004 Vibe Awards ceremony in Santa Monica, Knight allegedly paid an associate to punch Dre as he prepared to accept a lifetime achievement award - after which Dre's attacker was stabbed, apparently in retaliation, by G-Unit rapper Young Buck. (Buck was sentenced to three years' probation; his victim suffered a collapsed lung; Knight was investigated but never charged.) "We were at the Vibe Awards for one reason and one reason only: for a problem," admits Jones, who attended the event alongside Knight.

The authorities, meanwhile, were keeping an eye on Knight and Death Row. "There was pressure from the police," Crooked remembers. "If you were on Death Row, your car and house were definitely marked. A cop would just knock on your door and say, 'We're just checking on you. We know you Death Row rappers, we know how you all like to live.' " One day in 2002, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department stormed the label's office in a morning raid involving a gang-related homicide. "They made everyone get on the ground," Crooked says. "Then they cut up the ceiling and took all the computers." Crooked had enough: "I'm an artist. I got tired of living this lifestyle and not putting out music." (Crooked is currently signed to Eminem's Shady Records as a member of rap supergroup Slaughterhouse, and also performs as a solo artist.)

The final blow for Death Row came in 2005, when Lydia Harris was awarded a staggering $107 million damages judgment. Death Row had been started with money from Harris' then-husband, imprisoned drug dealer Michael "Harry O" Harris. But her reasons for suing Knight were personal as well as financial. "Years had gone by, and then Suge got on national TV, saying that I slept with so many guys," says Harris, who was also awarded damages for defamation of character as part of the larger lawsuit.

The following year, Death Row declared bankruptcy, and the label's assets were eventually liquidated and sold. "They auctioned off everything," Crooked claims. "They even sold Suge's boxer briefs that they found in the penthouse suite on top of the Death Row building! Here was one of the only African-American men to own a major building on Wilshire Boulevard, and they sold the man's fucking drawers. That either inspires you to get up and create something even bigger - or you crumble up inside and become bitter."

Knight's finances have never fully recuperated. He was recently in negotiations to sell his life rights for film, TV and technology projects to a company called Everlert. Its president, Mark Blankenship - a Yale-educated former attorney and one-time Republican congressional candidate who sports a long braid down his back - says that, thanks to Knight's latest ordeal, those life rights are becoming "more and more valuable every day." But in the meantime, Blankenship says that Everlert had to help pay the school tuition for Knight's young son Legend.

According to Wright, the bankruptcy "broke the man down." Knight was busted for marijuana possession in 2005 (the charge was later dropped), and in 2008 he was arrested for beating his then-girlfriend Melissa Isaac while in possession of Ecstasy and hydrocodone. (Knight pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery, was charged a $340 fine and ordered to undergo counseling.) "Suge didn't do drugs back in the old days - he didn't smoke marijuana, or anything," Michel'le claims. "All he'd do was have a glass of champagne to toast with at celebrations. That was it."

In 2005, at a party thrown by Kanye West at Miami Beach's Shore Club before the MTV Video Music Awards, Knight was shot in the leg. The shooter - according to federal documents obtained by the Smoking Gun - was allegedly paid $10,000 to do so by Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond, a now-imprisoned cocaine trafficker and former manager of rapper the Game. "I talked to Suge from the hospital, and he told me he accidentally shot himself, which never made sense to me," says Lloyd "TaTa" Lake, a former friend and business associate. "I discovered that was a lie when a friend of mine told me about a phone conversation he'd hooked up between Suge and Jimmy Henchman. He quoted Jimmy as telling Suge, 'Keep my motherfucking name out your mouth, or next time I'm gonna pay my shooter [another] 10 grand to raise the barrel.' " (Audaciously, Knight sued West for having inadequate security and the loss of a $135,000 diamond earring; they settled out of court.) And just last year, Knight was shot six times by an unknown assailant at a party thrown by Chris Brown at West Hollywood hot spot 1 Oak the night before the Video Music Awards; Knight recovered but has reportedly suffered from blood clots since the shooting.

The once-untouchable Knight seemed diminished and vulnerable. "You couldn't have paid nobody back in the day to even look at the dude wrong," says Jones. With Death Row gone, "he lost his entourage," says Wright.

Knight's ongoing embrace of the thug life may have destroyed any remaining credibility he had as a businessman. "When it comes to the Piru shit, he should've stepped away a long time ago," says Jones. "Instead, he got neck-deep into it." With proceeds from Dre's chart-topping hits a distant memory, and no new breakthrough artists to profit from, Knight has apparently had to find alternative sources of income. "Suge had to go back and adapt to what he knew: going around and getting money from people that he felt owed him," Wright says. In 2007, when a reporter for The Washington Post asked Knight how he still had money, he preferred to evade the answer rather than lie. "I don't lie," said Knight. "The only people I lie to are the police."

(One former Knight associate, however, believes the Death Row boss had unusually close ties with law enforcement. "I always [thought Knight was] an informant," says Lake. "The FBI knows the hip-hop industry, entertainment and drugs on the streets are all intertwined, so you can't find a better informant for the government than Suge Knight - he can infiltrate almost any camp." Knight's lawyer Mesereau calls Lake's assertion "absolute nonsense," and Jones also disputes the idea: "There's a code in the streets. If you don't have real proof, don't call nobody a rat.")

Knight does have a giving side that friends say is genuine, even if it sometimes resembles a scene from a Hollywood gangster movie. Crooked recalls Knight spontaneously spending $30,000 at a Toys R Us and distributing the spoils at a local children's hospital; on Father's Day, he'd hire a bus to bring children to visit their incarcerated dads. Passing out turkeys in the hood on Thanksgiving became an annual Death Row tradition, as did Knight's "Single Mother's Day" event - where he'd rent out ballrooms in a fancy Beverly Hills hotel for a five-star celebration for single mothers, who would come in from all over greater Los Angeles. And despite conflicts over child support, Michel'le claims Knight is a loving dad to their 12-year-old daughter. "He's a great father to all his kids," she says.

He also still inspires loyalty in some former associates. "Quite frankly, with all the headaches that I had with Suge through the years, the good outweighed the bad," says Wolfson, who now manages Hall and Oates. "I truly owe him a debt of gratitude for actually allowing me to make decisions at the highest level."

"There were not a lot of people in the music industry hiring guys who'd had brushes with the law back in the day," says Wright. "He did that. He gave them jobs, he gave them a chance when no one else would. And that's why he has so much anger - because he feels he's helped a lot of people. Now all these people have turned their backs on him."

Meanwhile, Knight's former circle is debating the outcome of his current situation. "The lowest I can see him getting, realistically, is 20 to 30 years," says Jones. "Worst-case scenario, he'll get life. Either way, he's out of business."

After hiring and firing a number of lawyers in rapid succession - including Fletcher and, for a brief reunion, Death Row's infamous legal consigliere in the Nineties, David Kenner - Knight has recently retained the powerful Mesereau, who successfully defended Michael Jackson in his 2005 child-molestation case and has represented controversial figures ranging from Mike Tyson to actor Robert Blake. "I am convinced of Knight's innocence, and I am convinced these cases should not have been filed. I look forward to defending him," Mesereau told Rolling Stone. "All I am going to say at this point is that he was defending himself at all times, and should not be facing any charge of murder, attempted murder or hit-and-run. If I had been driving the truck, I would not even have been charged with a misdemeanor. And as far as his robbery case goes, it's utterly ridiculous."

As many of his associates have noted, Knight has gotten out of seemingly impossible situations before. "I still consider Suge a friend, but I can't deal with that nigga - he's crazy," says Wright. "He's been knocked out three or four times, and he's still walking and talking like he's the baddest brother around. He's got some wiggle room, though. Don't count him out yet."

"The Suge Knight story has twists and turns, don't it?" Crooked says. "We don't have any clue how it will end. He seems to think that he'll be back on the streets."

Crooked goes on to relate a story about the day that Knight turned himself in to police.

"He was smoking a cigar, and he put it up in a tree," says Crooked. "Then he said, 'I'll get back to that.' "

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On March 20th, inside the high-security wing of Los Angeles' Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, the man once called "the most feared man in hip-hop" is looking more like the 50-year-old with chronic health issues that he is. Suge Knight sits in shackles, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and chunky glasses, his beard flecked with gray, listening impassively.

# data[].attributes.body
...is super inauthentic because she wears a ridiculous amount of make up (that makes her look nothing like she actually looks), she works hard to create her celebrity "persona," and is totally motivated by what the media or society wants her to be.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's a slab showdown!

In this clip from Sunday's brand-new episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian is seriously irritated with Kris Jenner for taking the marble slabs she was planning to use in her new house. What's worse, she'll have to wait to order more because they're currently out of stock everywhere!

"She took my marble," Kim explains. "She has never mentioned it, has never paid for it and now I have to figure out a new plan." Poor Kim!

Kim informs her mom that she plans to charge her for it, which Kris thinks is "ridiculous." She ends up betting Kim $1 million that she can do the impossible and find the specific gold slabs needed to complete 's marbled bathroom!

Watch the entire clip above!
Don't miss Keeping Up With the Kardashians Sunday at 9 p.m., only on E!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner Bet $1 Million Over a ''Ridiculous'' Situation With Marble Slabs: Watch the KUWTK Clip

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's a slab showdown! In this clip from Sunday's brand-new episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian is seriously irritated with Kris Jenner for taking the marble slabs she was planning to use in her new house. What's worse, she'll have to wait to order more because they're currently out of stock everywhere!