Billy Graham Discussion of Jews with President Nixon What did Billy Graham say to Nixon about the Jews? Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with Nixon, What did Graham think that Nixon should do? suggesting that if Nixon was re-elected, they might be able to do something about it. Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? When the tapes were made public, Graham apologized What was the reaction to Graham's words? Graham apologized and said, "Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon What criticisms were made of Graham? "[T]he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham's longtime support of Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews." What consequences did Graham suffer as a result? I don't know. Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? In 2009, more Nixon tapes were released, in which Graham is heard in a 1973 conversation with Nixon referring to Jews and "the synagogue of Satan What was the reaction to the 2009 revelation? A spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an antisemite and that the comparison (in accord with the context of the quotation in the Book of Revelation) Was else was said about Graham's attitude towards Jews? during a 1972 conversation with Nixon, and suggesting that if Nixon was re-elected, they might be able to do something about it.
What did Nixon try to do about the media and the Jews?
What did Nixon try to do about the media and the Jews?
During the Watergate affair, there were suggestions that Graham had agreed with many of President Richard Nixon's antisemitic opinions, but he denied them and stressed his efforts to build bridges to the Jewish community. In 2002, the controversy was renewed when declassified "Richard Nixon tapes" confirmed remarks made by Graham to Nixon three decades earlier. Captured on the tapes, Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with Nixon, and suggesting that if Nixon was re-elected, they might be able to do something about it. When the tapes were made public, Graham apologized and said, "Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon ... some 30 years ago. ... They do not reflect my views and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks." According to Newsweek magazine, "[T]he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham's longtime support of Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews." In 2009, more Nixon tapes were released, in which Graham is heard in a 1973 conversation with Nixon referring to Jews and "the synagogue of Satan". A spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an antisemite and that the comparison (in accord with the context of the quotation in the Book of Revelation) was directed specifically at those claiming to be Jews, but not holding to traditional Jewish values. CANNOTANSWER
Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media,
William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018)  was an American evangelist, a prominent evangelical Christian figure,  and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. One of his biographers has placed him "among the most influential Christian leaders" of the 20th century.

As a preacher, he held large indoor and outdoor rallies with sermons that were broadcast on radio and television; some were still being re-broadcast into the 21st century. In his six decades on television, Graham hosted annual "Crusades", evangelistic campaigns that ran from 1947 until his retirement in 2005. He also hosted the radio show Hour of Decision from 1950 to 1954. He repudiated racial segregation and insisted on racial integration for his revivals and crusades, starting in 1953; he also invited Martin Luther King Jr. to preach jointly at a revival in New York City in 1957. In addition to his religious aims, he helped shape the worldview of a huge number of people who came from different backgrounds, leading them to find a relationship between the Bible and contemporary secular viewpoints. According to his website, Graham preached to live audiences of 210 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including BMS World Mission and Global Mission.

Graham was a spiritual adviser to U.S. presidents, and he provided spiritual counsel for every president from Harry S. Truman (33rd) to Barack Obama (44th). He was particularly close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson (one of Graham's closest friends), and Richard Nixon. He was also lifelong friends with another televangelist, the founding pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, Robert Schuller, whom Graham talked into starting his own television ministry.

Graham operated a variety of media and publishing outlets. According to his staff, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to "accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior". Graham's evangelism was appreciated by mainline Protestant denominations, as he encouraged those mainline Protestants who were converted to his evangelical message to remain within or return to their mainline churches. Despite his early suspicions and apprehension, common among contemporaneous evangelical Protestants, towards Roman Catholicism, Graham eventually developed amicable ties with many American Catholic Church figures and later encouraged unity between Roman Catholics and Protestants. As of 2008, Graham's estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion. Because of his crusades, Graham preached the gospel to more people in person than anyone in the history of Christianity. Graham was on Gallup's list of most admired men and women a record 61 times. Grant Wacker writes that by the mid-1960s, he had become the "Great Legitimator": "By then his presence conferred status on presidents, acceptability on wars, shame on racial prejudice, desirability on decency, dishonor on indecency, and prestige on civic events."

Early life
William Franklin Graham Jr. was born on November 7, 1918, in the downstairs bedroom of a farmhouse near Charlotte, North Carolina. He was of Scots-Irish descent and was the eldest of four children born to Morrow (née Coffey) and William Franklin Graham Sr., a dairy farmer. Graham was raised on a family dairy farm with his two younger sisters, Catherine Morrow and Jean and a younger brother, Melvin Thomas. When he was nine years old, the family moved about  from their white frame house to a newly built red brick home. He was raised by his parents in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Graham attended the Sharon Grammar School. He started to read books from an early age and loved to read novels for boys, especially Tarzan. Like Tarzan, he would hang on the trees and gave the popular Tarzan yell. According to his father, that yelling had led him to become a minister. Graham was 15 when Prohibition ended in December 1933, and his father forced him and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they became sick. This created such an aversion that Graham and his sister avoided alcohol and drugs for the rest of their lives.

Graham had been turned down for membership in a local youth group for being "too worldly". Albert McMakin, who worked on the Graham farm, persuaded him to go and see the evangelist Mordecai Ham. According to his autobiography, Graham was 16 in 1934 when he was converted during a series of revival meetings that Ham led in Charlotte.

After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College. After one semester, he found that the coursework and rules were too legalistic. At this time he was influenced and inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church. He was almost expelled, but Bob Jones Sr. warned him not to throw his life away: "At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks ... You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily."

In 1937, Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute in Temple Terrace, Florida. While still a student, Graham preached his first sermon at Bostwick Baptist Church near Palatka, Florida. In his autobiography, Graham wrote of receiving his "calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf an Country Club", which was adjacent to the institute's campus. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park was later established on the Hillsborough River, directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham often paddled a canoe to a small island in the river, where he would practice preaching to the birds, alligators, and cypress stumps. In 1939, Graham was ordained by a group of Southern Baptist clergy at Peniel Baptist Church in Palatka, Florida. In 1940, he graduated from there with a Bachelor of Theology degree.

Graham then enrolled in Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and during his time at there he decided to accept the Bible as the infallible word of God. Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood in California was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with the issue. He settled it at Forest Home Christian Camp (now called Forest Home Ministries) southeast of the Big Bear Lake area in southern California. While attending Wheaton in 1941, Graham was invited to preach one Sunday at the United Gospel Tabernacle church. After that, the congregation repeatedly asked Graham preach at their church and later asked him to become the pastor of their church. After Graham prayed and sought advice from his friend, Dr. Edman, Graham become the pastor of their church.

In June 1943, Graham graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in anthropology. That same year, Robert Van Kampen, treasurer of the National Gideon Association, invited Graham to preach at Western Springs Baptist Church, and Graham accepted the opportunity on the spot. While there, his friend Torrey Johnson, pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program, Songs in the Night, was about to be canceled due to lack of funding. Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs, Graham decided to take over Johnson's program with financial support from his congregation. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called Songs in the Night, Graham recruited the bass-baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry.

In 1948, in a hotel room in Modesto, California, Graham and his evangelistic team established the Modesto Manifesto, a code of ethics for life and work to protect against accusations of financial, sexual and power abuse. This code includes rules for collecting offerings in churches, working only with churches supportive of cooperative evangelism, using official crowd estimates at outdoor events, and a commitment to never be alone with a woman other than his wife (which become known as the "Billy Graham rule").

Graham was 29 in 1948 when he became president of Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis; he was the youngest president of a college or university in the country and held the position for four years before he resigned in 1952. Graham initially intended to become a chaplain in the Armed Forces, but he contracted mumps shortly after applying for a commission. After a period of recuperation in Florida, he was hired as the first full-time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ (YFC), co-founded by Torrey Johnson and the Canadian evangelist Charles Templeton. Graham traveled throughout both the United States and Europe as a YFCI evangelist. Templeton applied to Princeton Theological Seminary for an advanced theological degree and urged Graham to do so as well, but he declined as he was already serving as the president of Northwestern Bible College.

In 1949 Graham scheduled a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles, for which he erected circus tents in a parking lot. He attracted national media coverage, especially in the conservative Hearst chain of newspapers, although Hearst and Graham never met. The crusade event ran for eight weeks – five weeks longer than planned. Graham became a national figure with heavy coverage from the wire services and national magazines. Pianist Rudy Atwood, who played for the tent meetings, wrote that they "rocketed Billy Graham into national prominence, and resulted in the conversion of a number of show-business personalities".

Crusades

From the time his ministry began in 1947, Graham conducted more than 400 crusades in 185 countries and territories on six continents. The first Billy Graham Crusade, held September 13–21, 1947, in the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was attended by 6,000 people. Graham was 28 years old. He called them crusades, after the medieval Christian forces who conquered Jerusalem. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. As the sessions became larger, he arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir. He would preach the gospel and invite people to come forward (a practice begun by Dwight L. Moody). Such people were called inquirers and were given the chance to speak one-on-one with a counselor, to clarify questions and pray together. The inquirers were often given a copy of the Gospel of John or a Bible study booklet. In Durban, South Africa, in 1973, the crowd of some 100,000 was the first large mixed-race event in apartheid South Africa in which he stated that "apartheid is a sin." In Moscow, in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in Graham's audience went forward at his call. During his crusades, he frequently used the altar call song, "Just As I Am".

Graham was offered a five-year, $1 million contract from NBC to appear on television opposite Arthur Godfrey, but he had prearranged commitments. He turned down the offer in order to continue his touring revivals. Graham had crusades in London, which lasted 12 weeks, and a New York City crusade in Madison Square Garden in 1957, which ran nightly for 16 weeks.

Student ministry
Graham spoke at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Urbana Student Missions Conference at least nine times – in 1948, 1957, 1961, 1964, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1984, and 1987.

At each Urbana conference, he challenged the thousands of attendees to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of their lives. He often quoted a six-word phrase that was reportedly written in the Bible of William Whiting Borden, the son of a wealthy silver magnate: "No reserves, no retreat, no regrets". Borden had died in Egypt on his way to the mission field.

Graham also held evangelistic meetings on a number of college campuses: at the University of Minnesota during InterVarsity's "Year of Evangelism" in 1950–51, a 4-day mission at Yale University in 1957, and a week-long series of meetings at the University of North Carolina's Carmichael Auditorium in September 1982.

In 1955, he was invited by Cambridge University students to lead the mission at the university; the mission was arranged by the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, with London pastor-theologian John Stott serving as Graham's chief assistant. This invitation was greeted with much disapproval in the correspondence columns of The Times.

Evangelistic association
In 1950, Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) with its headquarters in Minneapolis. The association relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1999, and maintains a number of international offices, such as in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires. BGEA ministries have included:

 Hour of Decision, a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for 66 years (1950-2016)
 Mission television specials broadcast in almost every market in the US and Canada
 A syndicated newspaper column, My Answer, carried by newspapers across the United States and distributed by Tribune Content Agency
 Decision magazine, the official publication of the association
 Christianity Today was started in 1956 with Carl F. H. Henry as its first editor
 Passageway.org, the website for a youth discipleship program created by BGEA
 World Wide Pictures, which has produced and distributed more than 130 films

In April 2013, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association started "My Hope With Billy Graham", the largest outreach in its history, encouraging church members to spread the gospel in small group meetings after showing a video message by Graham. "The idea is for Christians to follow the example of the disciple Matthew in the New Testament and spread the gospel in their own homes." The video, called "The Cross", is the main program in the My Hope America series and was also broadcast the week of Graham's 95th birthday.

Civil rights movement
Graham's early crusades were segregated, but he began adjusting his approach in the 1950s. During a 1953 rally in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Graham tore down the ropes that organizers had erected in order to segregate the audience into racial sections. In his memoirs, he recounted that he told two ushers to leave the barriers down "or you can go on and have the revival without me." He warned a white audience, "we have been proud and thought we were better than any other race, any other people. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to stumble into hell because of our pride."

In 1957, Graham's stance towards integration became more publicly shown when he allowed black ministers Thomas Kilgore and Gardner C. Taylor to serve as members of his New York Crusade's executive committee and invited Martin Luther King Jr., whom he first met during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City, where 2.3 million gathered at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and Times Square to hear them. Graham recalled in his autobiography that during this time, he and King developed a close friendship and that he was eventually one of the few people who referred to King as "Mike", a nickname which King asked only his closest friends to call him. Following King's assassination in 1968, Graham mourned that the US had lost "a social leader and a prophet". In private, Graham advised King and other members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Despite their friendship, tensions between Graham and King emerged in 1958 when the sponsoring committee of a crusade which took place in San Antonio, Texas on July 25 arranged for Graham to be introduced by that state's segregationist governor, Price Daniel. On July 23, King sent a letter to Graham and informed him that allowing Daniel to speak at a crusade which occurred the night before the state's Democratic Primary "can well be interpreted as your endorsement of racial segregation and discrimination." Graham's advisor, Grady Wilson, replied to King that "even though we do not see eye to eye with him on every issue, we still love him in Christ." Though Graham's appearance with Daniel dashed King's hopes of holding joint crusades with Graham in the Deep South, the two still remained friends and King told a Canadian television audience the following year that Graham had taken a "very strong stance against segregation." Graham and King would also come to differ on the Vietnam War. After King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech denouncing US intervention in Vietnam, Graham castigated him and others for their criticism of US foreign policy.

By the middle of 1960, King and Graham traveled together to the Tenth Baptist World Congress of the Baptist World Alliance. In 1963, Graham posted bail for King to be released from jail during the Birmingham campaign, according to Long (2008), and the King Center acknowledged that Graham had bailed King out of jail during the Albany Movement, although historian Steven Miller told CNN he could not find any proof of the incident. Graham held integrated crusades in Birmingham, Alabama, on Easter 1964 in the aftermath of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and toured Alabama again in the wake of the violence that accompanied the first Selma to Montgomery march in 1965.

Following Graham's death, former SCLC official and future Atlanta politician Andrew Young, who spoke alongside Coretta Scott King at Graham's 1994 crusade in Atlanta, acknowledged his friendship with Graham and stated that Graham did in fact travel with King to the 1965 European Baptist Convention. Young also claimed that Graham had often invited King to his crusades in the Northern states. Former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader and future United States Congressman John Lewis also credited Graham as a major inspiration for his activism. Lewis described Graham as a "Saint" and someone who "taught us how to live and who taught us how to die."

Graham's faith prompted his maturing view of race and segregation; he told a member of the Ku Klux Klan that integration was necessary primarily for religious reasons: "There is no scriptural basis for segregation", Graham argued. "The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross."

Lausanne Movement
The friendship between Graham and John Stott led to a further partnership in the Lausanne Movement, of which Graham was a founder. It built on Graham's 1966 World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin. In collaboration with Christianity Today, Graham convened what Time magazine described as "a formidable forum, possibly the widest–ranging meeting of Christians ever held" with 2,700 participants from 150 nations gathering for the International Congress on World Evangelization. Women were represented by Millie Dienert, who chaired the prayer committee. This took place in Lausanne, Switzerland (July 16–25, 1974), and the movement which ensued took its name from the host city. Its purpose was to strengthen the global church for world evangelization, and to engage ideological and sociological trends which bore on this. Graham invited Stott to be chief architect of the Lausanne Covenant, which issued from the Congress and which, according to Graham, "helped challenge and unite evangelical Christians in the great task of world evangelization." The movement remains a significant fruit of Graham's legacy, with a presence in nearly every nation.

Multiple roles

Graham played multiple roles that reinforced each other. Grant Wacker identified eight major roles that he played: preacher, icon, Southerner, entrepreneur, architect (bridge builder), pilgrim, pastor and finally his widely recognized status as America's Protestant patriarch, which was on a par with Martin Luther King and Pope John Paul II.

Graham deliberately reached into the secular world as a bridge builder. For example, as an entrepreneur he built his own pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair. He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special, where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters.
During the Cold War, Graham-the-bridge-builder became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain, addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, calling for peace. During the apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed integrated seating for audiences. During his first crusade there in 1973, he openly denounced apartheid. Graham also corresponded with imprisoned South African leader Nelson Mandela during the latter's 27-year imprisonment.

In 1984, he led a series of summer meetings—Mission England—in the United Kingdom,  and he used outdoor football (soccer) fields for his venues.

Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. In 1983, 1986 and 2000 he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists; this was the largest representation of nations ever held until that time. Over 157 nations were gathered in 2000 at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. At one revival in Seoul, South Korea, Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service. He appeared in China in 1988 – for Ruth, this was a homecoming, since she had been born in China to missionary parents. He appeared in North Korea in 1992.

On October 15, 1989, Graham received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was the only person functioning as a minister who received a star in that capacity.

On September 22, 1991, Graham held his largest event in North America on the Great Lawn of Manhattan's Central Park. City officials estimated that more than 250,000 were in attendance. In 1998, Graham spoke to a crowd of scientists and philosophers at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference.

On September 14, 2001 (only three days after the World Trade Center attacks), Graham was invited to lead a service at Washington National Cathedral; the service was attended by President George W. Bush and past and present leaders. He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. On June 24–26, 2005, Graham began what he said would be his last North American crusade, three days at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens, New York City. On the weekend of March 11–12, 2006, Graham held the "Festival of Hope" with his son, Franklin Graham. The festival was held in New Orleans, which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Graham prepared one last sermon, "My Hope America", which was released on DVD and played around America and possibly worldwide between November 7–10, 2013. November 7 was Graham's 95th birthday, and he hoped to cause a revival.

Later life
Graham said that his planned retirement was a result of his failing health; he had suffered from hydrocephalus from 1992 on. In August 2005, Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then 86, he used a walker during the ceremony. On July 9, 2006, he spoke at the Metro Maryland Franklin Graham Festival, held in Baltimore, Maryland, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

In April 2010, Graham was 91 and experiencing substantial vision, hearing and balance loss when he made a rare public appearance at the re-dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library.

There had been controversy over Graham's proposed burial place; he announced in June 2007 that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte. Graham's younger son Ned had argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate. Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried not in Charlotte but in the mountains at the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove near Asheville, North Carolina, where she had lived for many years; Ned supported his mother's choice. Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a family friend, also opposed burial at the library, calling it a tourist attraction. Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site. At the time of Ruth Graham's death, it was announced that they would be buried at the library site.

Politics
After his close relationships with Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, Graham tried to avoid explicit partisanship. Bailey says: "He declined to sign or endorse political statements, and he distanced himself from the Christian right ... His early years of fierce opposition to communism gave way to pleas for military disarmament and attention to AIDS, poverty and environmental threats."

Graham was a lifelong registered member of the Democratic Party. In 1960, he was opposed to the candidacy of John F. Kennedy, fearing that Kennedy, as a Catholic, would be bound to follow the Pope. Graham worked "behind the scenes" to encourage influential Protestant ministers to speak out against Kennedy. During the 1960 campaign, Graham met with a conference of Protestant ministers in Montreux, Switzerland, to discuss their mobilization of congregations to defeat Kennedy. According to the PBS Frontline program, God in America (2010), Episode 5, in September 1960, Graham organized a meeting of hundreds of Protestant ministers in Washington, D.C. for this purpose; the meeting was led by Norman Vincent Peale. This was shortly before Kennedy's speech in Houston, Texas on the separation of church and state; the speech was considered to be successful in meeting the concerns of many voters. After his election, however, Kennedy invited Graham to play golf in Palm Beach, Florida, after which Graham acknowledged Kennedy's election as an opportunity for Catholics and Protestants to come closer together. After they had discussed Jesus Christ at that meeting, the two remained in touch, meeting for the last time at a National Day of Prayer meeting in February 1963. In his autobiography, Graham claimed to have felt an "inner foreboding" in the week before Kennedy's assassination, and to have tried to contact him to say, "Don't go to Texas!"

Graham opposed the large majority of abortions, but supported it as a legal option in a very narrow range of circumstances: rape, incest, and the life of the mother. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association states that "Life is sacred, and we must seek to protect all human life: the unborn, the child, the adult, and the aged."

Graham leaned toward the Republicans during the presidency of Richard Nixon, whom he had met and befriended as vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower. He did not completely ally himself with the later religious right, saying that Jesus did not have a political party. He gave his support to various political candidates over the years.

In 2007, Graham explained his refusal to join Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in 1979, saying: "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."

According to a 2006 Newsweek interview, "For Graham, politics is a secondary to the Gospel ... When Newsweek asked Graham whether ministers – whether they think of themselves as evangelists, pastors or a bit of both – should spend time engaged with politics, he replied: 'You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord. A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some – like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out.'"

In 2012, Graham endorsed the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Shortly after, apparently in order to accommodate Romney, who is a Mormon, references to Mormonism as a religious cult ("A cult is any group which teaches doctrines or beliefs that deviate from the biblical message of the Christian faith.") were removed from Graham's website. Observers have questioned whether the support of Republican and religious right politics on issues such as same-sex marriage coming from Graham – who stopped speaking in public or to reporters – in fact reflects the views of his son, Franklin, head of the BGEA. Franklin denied this, and said that he would continue to act as his father's spokesperson rather than allowing press conferences. In 2016, according to his son Franklin, Graham voted for Donald Trump.

Pastor to presidents

Graham had a personal audience with many sitting US presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama – 12 consecutive presidents. After meeting with Truman in 1950, Graham told the press he had urged the president to counter communism in North Korea. Truman disliked him and did not speak with him for years after that meeting. Later he always treated his conversations with presidents as confidential.

Truman was not fond of Graham. He wrote about Graham in his 1974 autobiography Plain Speaking, "But now we've got just this one evangelist, this Billy Graham, and he's gone off the beam. He's ... well, I hadn't ought to say this, but he's one of those counterfeits I was telling you about. He claims he's a friend of all the presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was President. I just don't go for people like that. All he's interested in is getting his name in the paper."

Graham became a regular visitor during the tenure of Dwight D. Eisenhower. He purportedly urged him to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine to gain admission of black students to public schools. House Speaker Sam Rayburn convinced Congress to allow Graham to conduct the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building in 1952. Eisenhower asked for Graham while on his deathbed.

Graham met and would become a close friend of Vice President Richard Nixon, and supported Nixon, a Quaker, for the 1960 presidential election. He convened an August strategy session of evangelical leaders in Montreaux, Switzerland, to plan how best to oppose Nixon's Roman Catholic opponent, Senator John F. Kennedy. Though a registered Democrat, Graham also maintained firm support of aggression against the foreign threat of Communism and strongly sympathized with Nixon's views regarding American foreign policy. Thus, he was more sympathetic to Republican administrations.

On December 16, 1963, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was impressed by the way Graham had praised the work of his great-grandfather, George Washington Baines, invited Graham to the White House to give him spiritual counseling. After this visit, Johnson would frequently call on Graham for more spiritual counseling as well as companionship. As Graham recalled to his biographer Frady, "I almost used the White House as a hotel when Johnson was President. He was always trying to keep me there. He just never wanted me to leave."

In contrast with his more limited access with Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy, Graham would not only visit the White House private quarters but would also at times kneel at Johnson's bedside and then pray with him whenever the President requested him to do so. Graham once recalled "I have never had many people do that." In addition to his White House visits, Graham would visit Johnson at Camp David and occasionally met with the President when he retreated to his private ranch in Stonewall, Texas. Johnson was also the first sitting president to attend one of Graham's crusades, which took place in Houston, Texas, in 1965.

During the 1964 United States presidential election, supporters of Republican nominee Barry Goldwater sent an estimated 2 million telegrams to Graham's hometown of Montreat, North Carolina, and sought the preacher's endorsement. Supportive of Johnson's domestic policies, and hoping to preserve his friendship with the President, Graham resisted pressure to endorse Goldwater and stayed neutral in the election. Following Johnson's election victory, Graham's role as the main White House pastor was solidified. At one point, Johnson even considered making Graham a member of his cabinet and grooming him to be his successor, though Graham insisted he had no political ambitions and wished to remain a preacher. Graham's biographer David Aikman acknowledged that the preacher was closer to Johnson than any other President he had ever known.

He spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's. After Nixon's victorious 1968 presidential campaign, Graham became an adviser, regularly visiting the White House and leading the president's private worship services. In a meeting they had with Golda Meir, Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel, but he refused.

In 1970, Nixon appeared at a Graham revival in East Tennessee, which they thought safe politically. It drew one of the largest crowds in Tennessee of protesters against the Vietnam War. Nixon was the first president to give a speech from an evangelist's platform. Their friendship became strained in 1973 when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post-Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes. They eventually reconciled after Nixon's resignation.

Graham officiated at one presidential burial and one presidential funeral. He presided over the graveside services of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973 and took part in eulogizing the former president. Graham officiated at the funeral services of former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993, and the death and state funeral of Richard Nixon in 1994. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Graham asserted that he believed President Bill Clinton to be "a spiritual person". He was unable to attend the state funeral of Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, as he was recovering from hip replacement surgery. This was mentioned by George W. Bush in his eulogy.

On April 25, 2010, President Barack Obama visited Graham at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, where they "had a private prayer".

Relationship with Queen Elizabeth II
Graham had a friendly relationship with Queen Elizabeth II and was frequently invited by the Royal Family to special events. They first met in 1955 and Graham preached at Windsor Chapel at the Queen's invitation during the following year. Their friendly relationship may have been because they shared a traditional approach to the practical aspects of the Christian faith.

Foreign policy views
Graham was outspoken against communism and supported the American Cold War policy, including the Vietnam War. In a secret letter from April 15, 1969, made public twenty years later, Graham encouraged Nixon to bomb the dikes in North Vietnam if the peace talks in Paris should fail. This action would "destroy the economy of North Vietnam" and, by Nixon's estimate, would have killed a million people.

In 1982, Graham preached in the Soviet Union and attended a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the war dead of World War II, when the Soviets were American allies in the fight against Nazism. He voiced fear of a second holocaust, not against Jews, but "a nuclear holocaust" and advised that "our greatest contribution to world peace is to live with Christ every day."

In a 1999 speech, Graham discussed his relationship with the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, praising him as a "different kind of communist" and "one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the Japanese." Graham went on to note that although he had never met Kim's son and former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, he had "exchanged gifts with him."

Controversial views

Discussion of Jews with President Nixon
During the Watergate affair, there were suggestions that Graham had agreed with many of President Richard Nixon's antisemitic opinions, but he denied them and stressed his efforts to build bridges to the Jewish community. In 2002, the controversy was renewed when declassified "Richard Nixon tapes" confirmed remarks made by Graham to Nixon three decades earlier. Captured on the tapes, Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with Nixon, and suggesting that if Nixon was re-elected that they might be able to do something about it.

When the tapes were made public, Graham apologized and said, "Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon ... some 30 years ago. ... They do not reflect my views and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks." According to Newsweek magazine, "[T]he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham's longtime support of Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews."

In 2009, more Nixon tapes were released, in which Graham is heard in a 1973 conversation with Nixon referring to a group of Jewish journalists and "the synagogue of Satan". A spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an antisemite and that the comparison (in accord with the context of the quotation in the Book of Revelation) was directed specifically at those claiming to be Jews, but not holding to traditional Jewish values.

Ecumenism
After a 1957 crusade in New York, some more fundamentalist Protestant Christians criticized Graham for his ecumenism, even calling him "Antichrist".

Graham expressed inclusivist views, suggesting that people without explicit faith in Jesus can be saved. In a 1997 interview with Robert Schuller, Graham said

Iain Murray, writing from a conservative Protestant standpoint, argues that "Graham's concessions are sad words from one who once spoke on the basis of biblical certainties."

Views on women
In 1970, Graham stated that feminism was "an echo of our overall philosophy of permissiveness" and that women did not want to be "competitive juggernauts pitted against male chauvinists". He further stated that the role of wife, mother, and homemaker was the destiny of "real womanhood" according to the Judeo-Christian ethic. Graham's assertions, published in the Ladies' Home Journal, elicited letters of protest, and were offered as rebuttal to the establishment of "The New Feminism" section of the publication added following a sit-in protest at the Journal offices demanding female representation on the staff of the publication.

Graham's daughter Bunny recounted her father denying her and her sisters higher education. As reported in The Washington Post:

Bunny remembers being groomed for the life of wife, homemaker, and mother. "There was never an idea of a career for us", she said. "I wanted to go to nursing school – Wheaton had a five-year program – but Daddy said no. No reason, no explanation, just 'No.' It wasn't confrontational and he wasn't angry, but when he decided, that was the end of it." She added, "He has forgotten that. Mother has not."

Nevertheless, Graham's daughter Anne has long been an active Christian minister who leads a Christian ministry organization known as AnGeL Ministries. Anne's website even claims that her father called her "the best preacher in the family".

Graham talked his future wife, Ruth, into abandoning her ambition to evangelize in Tibet in favor of staying in the United States to marry him – and that to do otherwise would be "to thwart God's obvious will". After Ruth agreed to marry him, Graham cited the Bible for claiming authority over her, saying, "then I'll do the leading and you do the following". Despite Graham's public views on womanhood, it has been acknowledged that Ruth still remained active in Christian ministry after they married, often teaching Sunday School. In addition to his two sons, all three of Graham's daughters would become Christian ministers as well.

Views on homosexuality
Graham regarded homosexuality as a sin, and in 1974 described it as "a sinister form of perversion". In 1993 he said that he thought AIDS might be a "judgment" from God, but two weeks later he retracted the remark, saying, "I don't believe that, and I don't know why I said it." Graham opposed same-sex marriage, and in 2012 he took out full-page ads in favor of North Carolina Amendment 1 which banned it in North Carolina. Graham's stated position was that he did not want to talk about homosexuality as a political issue. Corky Siemaszko, writing for NBC News, noted that after the 1993 incident, Graham "largely steered clear of the subject". However, Graham appeared to take a more tolerant approach to the issue of homosexuality when he appeared on the May 2, 1997, episode of 20/20, stating "I think that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin, but the Bible also teaches that pride is a sin, jealously is a sin, and hate is a sin, evil thoughts are a sin, and so I don't think that homosexuality should be chosen as the overwhelming sin that we are doing today." After his death, commentators, such as Douglas Robertson writing for The Independent, called Graham "homophobic".

Awards and honors
Graham was frequently honored by surveys, including "Greatest Living American" and consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world. He appeared most frequently on Gallup's list of most admired people. On the day of his death, Graham had been on Gallup's Top 10 "Most Admired Man" list 61 times, and held the highest rank of any person since the list began in 1948.

In 1967, he was the first Protestant to receive an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic school.

In 1983, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Ronald Reagan.

Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children. He was cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations. He received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to "Duty, Honor, Country". The "Billy Graham Children's Health Center" in Asheville is named after and funded by Graham.

In 1999, the Gospel Music Association inducted Graham into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame to recognize his contributions to Christian music artists such as Michael W. Smith, dc Talk, Amy Grant, Jars of Clay and others who performed at the Billy Graham Crusades. Graham was the first non-musician inducted, and had also helped to revitalize interest in hymns and create new favorite songs. Singer Michael W. Smith was active in Billy Graham Crusades as well as Samaritan's Purse. Smith sang "Just As I Am" in a tribute to Graham at the 44th GMA Dove Awards. He also sang it at the memorial service honoring Graham at the United States Capitol rotunda on February 28, 2018.

In 2000, former First Lady Nancy Reagan presented the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to Graham. Graham was a friend of the Reagans for years.

In 2001, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an honorary knighthood. The honor was presented to him by Sir Christopher Meyer, British Ambassador to the US at the British Embassy in Washington DC on December 6, 2001.

A professorial chair is named after him at the Alabama Baptist-affiliated Samford University, the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth. His alma mater, Wheaton College, has an archive of his papers at the Billy Graham Center. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry. Graham received 20 honorary degrees and refused at least that many more. In San Francisco, California, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium is sometimes erroneously called the "Billy Graham Civic Auditorium" and incorrectly considered to be named in his honor, but it is actually named after the rock and roll promoter Bill Graham.

On May 31, 2007, the $27 million Billy Graham Library was officially dedicated in Charlotte. Former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham. A highway in Charlotte bears Graham's name, as does I-240 near Graham's home in Asheville.

As Graham's final crusade approached in 2005, his friend Pat Boone chose to create a song in honor of Graham, which he co-wrote and produced with David Pack and Billy Dean, who digitally combined studio recordings of various artists into what has been called a "'We Are the World'-type" production. Named "Thank You Billy Graham", the song's video was introduced by Bono, and included Faith Hill, MxPx, John Ford Coley, John Elefante, Mike Herrera, Michael McDonald, Jeffrey Osborne, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Rogers, Connie Smith, Michael Tait and other singers, with brief narration by Larry King, and was directed by Brian Lockwood as a tribute album. In 2013, the album My Hope: Songs Inspired by the Message and Mission of Billy Graham was recorded by Amy Grant, Kari Jobe, Newsboys, Matthew West, tobyMac and other music artists with new songs to honor Graham during his My Hope America with Billy Graham outreach and the publication of his book The Reason for My Hope: Salvation. Other songs written to honor Graham include "Hero of the Faith" written by Eddie Carswell of NewSong, which became a hit, "Billy, You're My Hero" by Greg Hitchcock, "Billy Graham" by The Swirling Eddies,  "Billy Graham's Bible" by Joe Nichols, "Billy Frank" by Randy Stonehill, and an original song titled "Just as I Am" by Fernando Ortega.

The movie Billy: The Early Years officially premiered in theaters on October 10, 2008, less than one month before Graham's 90th birthday. Graham did not comment on the film, but his son Franklin released a critical statement on August 18, 2008, noting that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie". Graham's eldest daughter, Gigi, praised the film and was hired as a consultant to help promote it.

Other honors

 The Salvation Army's Distinguished Service Medal
 Who's Who in America listing annually since 1954
 Freedoms Foundation Distinguished Persons Award (several years)
 Gold Medal Award, National Institute of Social Science, New York, 1957
 Annual Gutenberg Award of the Chicago Bible Society, 1962
 Gold Award of the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute, 1964, for contribution to race relations, presented by Senator Javits (NY)
 Speaker of the Year Award, awarded by Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha, 1965
 The American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award, 1965
 Horatio Alger Award, 1965
 National Citizenship Award by the Military Chaplains Association of the United States of America, 1965
 Wisdom Award of Honor, 1965
 The Torch of Liberty Plaque by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1969
 George Washington Honor Medal from Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, for his sermon "The Violent Society", 1969 (also in 1974)
 Honored by Morality in Media for "fostering the principles of truth, taste, inspiration and love in media", 1969
 International Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1971
 Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Broadcasters, 1972
 Franciscan International Award, 1972
 Sylvanus Thayer Award from United States Military Academy Association of Graduates at West Point (The most prestigious award the United States Military Academy gives to a US citizen), 1972
 Direct Selling Association's Salesman of the Decade award, 1975
 Philip Award from the Association of United Methodist Evangelists, 1976
 American Jewish Committee's First National Interreligious Award, 1977
 Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission's Distinguished Communications Medal, 1977
 Jabotinsky Centennial Medal presented by The Jabotinsky Foundation, 1980
 Religious Broadcasting Hall of Fame award, 1981
 Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion award, 1982
 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, 1983
 National Religious Broadcasters Award of Merit, 1986
 North Carolina Award in Public Service, 1986
 Good Housekeeping Most Admired Men Poll, 1997, No. 1 for five years in a row and 16th time in top 10
 Congressional Gold Medal (along with wife Ruth), highest honor Congress can bestow on a private citizen, 1996
 Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Freedom Award, for monumental and lasting contributions to the cause of freedom, 2000
 Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for his international contribution to civic and religious life over 60 years, 2001
 Many honorary degrees including University of Northwestern – St. Paul, Minnesota, where Graham was once president, named its newest campus building the Billy Graham Community Life Commons. He also received honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees.

Media portrayals
 Unbroken: Path to Redemption (2018): Played by his grandson Will Graham.
 The Crown (2016 – present): Netflix series, Season 2 Episode 6. Played by actor Paul Sparks.
 Billy: The Early Years (2008): Played by actor Armie Hammer.
 Man in the 5th Dimension (1964): short biographical film featuring Graham.

Works
Graham's My Answer advice column appeared in newspapers for more than 60 years as of 2017.

Books
Graham authored the following books; many of which have become bestsellers. In the 1970s, for instance, The Jesus Generation sold 200,000 copies in the first two weeks after its publication; Angels: God's Secret Agents had sales of a million copies within 90 days after release; How to Be Born Again was said to have made publishing history with its first printing of 800,000 copies."

 Calling Youth to Christ (1947)
 America's Hour of Decision (1951)
 I Saw Your Sons at War (1953)
 Peace with God (1953, 1984)
 Freedom from the Seven Deadly Sins (1955)
 The Secret of Happiness (1955, 1985)
 Billy Graham Talks to Teenagers (1958)
 My Answer (1960)
 Billy Graham Answers Your Questions (1960)
 World Aflame (1965)
 The Challenge (1969)
 The Jesus Generation (1971)
 Angels: God's Secret Agents (1975, 1985)
 How to Be Born Again (1977)
 The Holy Spirit (1978)
 Evangelist to the World (1979)
 Till Armageddon (1981)
 Approaching Hoofbeats (1983)
 A Biblical Standard for Evangelists (1984)
 Unto the Hills (1986)
 Facing Death and the Life After (1987)
 Answers to Life's Problems (1988)
 Hope for the Troubled Heart (1991)
 Storm Warning (1992)
 Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (1997, 2007)
 Hope for Each Day (2002)
 The Key to Personal Peace (2003)
 Living in God's Love: The New York Crusade (2005)
 The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World (2006)
 Wisdom for Each Day (2008)
 Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well (2011)
 The Heaven Answer Book (2012)
 The Reason for My Hope: Salvation (2013)
 Where I Am: Heaven, Eternity, and Our Life Beyond the Now (2015)

Personal life
On August 13, 1943, Graham married Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell, whose parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China. Her father, L. Nelson Bell, was a general surgeon. Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87. The couple were married for almost 64 years.

Graham and his wife had five children together. Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham (b. 1945), an inspirational speaker and author; Anne Graham Lotz (b. 1948), runs AnGeL ministries; Ruth Graham (b. 1950), founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends, leads conferences throughout the US and Canada; Franklin Graham (b. 1952), serves as president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and as president and CEO of international relief organization, Samaritan's Purse; and Nelson Edman Graham (b. 1958), a pastor who runs East Gates Ministries International, which distributes Christian literature in China.

At the time of his death at age 99 in 2018, Graham was survived by 5 children, 19 grandchildren (including Will Graham and Tullian Tchividjian), 41 great-grandchildren and 6 great-great-grandchildren.

Death

Graham died of natural causes on February 21, 2018, at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, at the age of 99.

On February 28 and March 1, 2018, Graham became the fourth private citizen in United States history to lie in honor at the United States Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C. He is the first religious leader to be so honored. At the ceremony, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called Graham "America's pastor". President Donald Trump said Graham was "an ambassador for Christ". In addition, Televangelist Jim Bakker paid respect to Graham, stating he was the greatest preacher since Jesus. He also said that Graham visited him in prison.

A private funeral service was held on March 2, 2018. Graham was buried beside his wife at the foot of the cross-shaped brick walkway in the Prayer Garden on the northeast side of the Billy Graham Library. Graham's pine plywood casket, handcrafted in 2006 by convicted murderers at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is topped with a wooden cross nailed to it by the prisoners.

He is honored with a commemoration on the liturgical calendar of the Anglican Church in North America on February 21.

References

Literature
  short biography
  2010 edition
  scholarly essays

Further reading

 
 
 Finstuen, Andrew, et al., eds. Billy Graham: American Pilgrim (Oxford UP, 2017) 326 pp. essays by scholars
 Himes, A. (2011). Sword of the Lord: the roots of fundamentalism in an American family Seattle: Chiara Press.

 
  scholarly biography, updated from 1991 edition published by William Morrow.
  Middle-school version.

External links

 
 Billy Graham Papers, Billy Graham Center Archives, Wheaton College.
 1957 event in Times Square , streaming video clip
 Monroe Billington, Oral History Interview with Billy Graham, October 12, 1983, transcript, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
 
 
 The New York Times obituary
 Reuters obituary

 
1918 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century Christians
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century Christians
21st-century American male writers
Activists for African-American civil rights
American autobiographers
American Christian Zionists
American Christian writers
American evangelicals
American humanitarians
American male non-fiction writers
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Scottish descent
American television evangelists
Heads of universities and colleges in the United States
Articles containing video clips
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
Baptists from North Carolina
Baptist ministers from the United States
Baptist writers
Christian revivalists
Congressional Gold Medal recipients
Editors of Christian publications
Graham family
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Male critics of feminism
North Carolina Democrats
People from Buncombe County, North Carolina
People with hydrocephalus
People with Parkinson's disease
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Southern Baptist ministers
Templeton Prize laureates
Television evangelists
Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni
Writers from Charlotte, North Carolina
Anglican saints
The Checkers speech or Fund speech was an address made on September 23, 1952, by California Senator Richard Nixon, six weeks before the 1952 United States presidential election, in which he was 
the Republican candidate for Vice President. Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. His place was in doubt on the Republican ticket, so he flew to Los Angeles and delivered a half-hour television address in which he defended himself, attacked his opponents, and urged the audience to contact the Republican National Committee (RNC) to tell it whether he should remain on the ticket. During the speech, he stated that he intended to keep one gift, regardless of the outcome: a black-and-white Cocker Spaniel  that his children had named Checkers, thus giving the address its popular name.

Nixon came from a family of modest means, as he related in the address, and he had spent his time after law school in the military, campaigning for office, and serving in Congress. After his successful 1950 Senate campaign, his backers continued to raise money to finance his political activities. These contributions went to reimburse him for travel costs, postage for political mailings which he did not have franked, and similar expenses. Such a fund was not illegal at the time, but Nixon had made a point of attacking government corruption which exposed him to charges that he might be giving special favors to the contributors.

The press became aware of the fund in September 1952, two months after Nixon's selection as General Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate, and the story quickly grew until it threatened his place on the ticket. In an attempt to turn the tide of public opinion, Nixon broke off a whistle-stop tour of the West Coast to fly to Los Angeles and make a television and radio broadcast to the nation; the RNC raised the $75,000 to buy the television time. The idea for the Checkers reference came from Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fala speech, given eight years to the day before Nixon's address, in which Roosevelt mocked Republican claims that he had sent a destroyer to fetch his dog Fala, when the dog was supposedly left behind in the Aleutian Islands.

Nixon's speech was seen and heard by about 60 million Americans, including the largest television audience to that time, and it led to an outpouring of public support. The RNC and other political offices received millions of telegrams and phone calls supporting Nixon. He was retained on the ticket, which swept to victory weeks later in November 1952. The Checkers speech was an early example of a politician using television to appeal directly to the electorate, but it has sometimes been mocked or denigrated. The term Checkers speech has come more generally to mean any emotional speech by a politician.

Background 
In 1950, California Congressman Richard Nixon was elected to the Senate, defeating Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas. With the six-year term secured, Nixon campaign officials discussed how to further his career. Campaign manager Murray Chotiner and campaign chairman Bernie Brennan proposed a year-round campaign for the next six years, leading up to a re-election bid in 1956. Nixon's Southern California campaign treasurer Dana Smith suggested what became known as "the Fund," to be administered by himself, which would pay for Nixon's political expenses.

As Smith wrote to one potential contributor, money donated to the Fund was to be used for:

As a senator, Nixon received an annual salary of $12,500 (). While he received an expense allowance of over $75,000, more than most senators received (because California was one of the most populous states), that money went to pay his staff of twelve and to cover the cost of stationery, telephone service, telegrams, and other office expenses. It also paid for the one set of round-trip airline tickets between Washington, D.C., and California that Nixon was allowed to buy for himself and his family at taxpayer expense each Congressional session.

Nixon later characterized the attitude of his backers and aides as, "We want you to start campaigning right now for 1956, and we think the way to do it is to have available the funds to make speeches, make trips to California, and so forth." Contributors were drawn only from his early supporters, and contributions were limited to $1,000 (). Nixon was not to be informed of the names of contributors; however, the fundraising letter stated that Nixon "will of course be very appreciative of your continuing interest." By October 30, 1951, some $16,000 () had been raised, of which Nixon had spent approximately $12,000 (), principally from contributors in the Los Angeles area. The senator's Christmas card expense for 1950 and 1951 totaled $4,237.54 (). Despite the initial fundraising success, only $2,200 could be raised from November 1951 to July 1952, and an engraving bill was unpaid pending a hoped-for contribution of $500.

Fund crisis 

In 1952, the Republicans chose Dwight D. Eisenhower as their presidential candidate, who then selected Nixon as his running mate, while the Democrats nominated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson for president and Alabama Senator John Sparkman for vice president. The California delegation to the 1952 Republican National Convention, including Nixon, had been pledged to the state's "favorite son" candidate, Governor Earl Warren, who hoped to gain the presidential nomination in a brokered convention. Warren failed in his attempt to gain the nomination, and his supporters alleged that Nixon had worked behind the scenes to nominate Eisenhower despite his pledge to support Warren, and accused him of political opportunism for accepting the vice-presidential nomination. A disgruntled Warren supporter from Pasadena leaked the Fund story to several reporters.

Nixon had campaigned for public integrity in his time in the Senate, even calling for the resignation of his own party chairman, Guy Gabrielson, when the latter was implicated in a loan scandal. By using such "indignant rhetoric," Nixon had "weakened his own position" when the Fund crisis erupted.

Development of the story 
On September 14, Nixon was asked about the Fund by reporter Peter Edson of the Newspaper Enterprise Association after the senator completed an appearance on Meet the Press. Nixon told Edson that the Fund was set up by his supporters to pay political expenses, explained that he had made no effort to find out the names of the donors, and referred Edson to Smith for further information. Edson, and other reporters, did contact Smith, who answered questions about the Fund. Three days later, Nixon's campaign train, the "Dick Nixon Special," left Pomona, California, on a whistle-stop campaign tour of the West Coast and Rocky Mountain states.

Edson's column on the 18th, which included lengthy quotes by Smith on the supposed safeguards in the Fund, was later called by Nixon, "fair and objective." However, Leo Katcher of the New York Post interviewed Smith and wrote a story under the headline "Secret Rich Men's Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary" and referred to the Fund donors as a "millionaires' club." Nixon later praised Katcher's younger brother Edward, also a reporter, for his objectivity, but told him, "your brother Leo is a son of a bitch."

When the Dick Nixon Special arrived in Bakersfield, California, that day, Nixon, still oblivious to the developing furor, made a speech promoting the Republican ticket, and backing local congressman Thomas H. Werdel. After the speech, Republican activist Keith McCormac showed Nixon the Post story, which had been picked up by United Press under the headline "Nixon Scandal Fund." According to McCormac, the senator collapsed into his seat in shock, and needed the help of Murray Chotiner, who was again Nixon's campaign manager, and Congressman Patrick J. Hillings (a Nixon confidant who had succeeded him in the House of Representatives) to return to his compartment.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Stephen A. Mitchell called for Nixon's resignation from the ticket, saying that "Senator Nixon knows that [the Fund] is morally wrong. General Eisenhower knows that it is morally wrong. The American people know that it is morally wrong." On the other hand, Republican Senator Karl Mundt called the story "a filthy maneuver by left-wingers, fellow travelers, and former communists." Nixon issued a written statement explaining that the fund was to pay political expenses, in lieu of charging them to the taxpayer. Newspapers printed increasingly lurid accounts of the Fund and its beneficiary. The Sacramento Bee termed Nixon, "the pet protégé of a special interest group of rich southern Californians ... their front man, if not, indeed, their lobbyist." The Pasadena Star-News, meanwhile, reported that one contributor had been appealed to on the grounds that the Nixon family needed a larger home and could not afford a maid.

The train reached Marysville, California, on the morning of September 19, and Nixon gave a speech from the rear platform. As the train pulled out, while he remained on the rear platform, someone in the crowd yelled, "What about the $16,000?" (the amount then thought to have been contributed to the Fund). Nixon had the train stopped, and responded that he had been told that if he continued on his political course, "crooks and communists" would smear him. He told the crowd that the Fund had saved the taxpayer money, since it paid for matters that could have been paid for through his Senate expense allowance. He promised to throw the "crooks and communists" out of Washington.

Eisenhower was on his own train, the Look Ahead, Neighbor, stumping through Missouri, and on the morning of the 19th, his campaign staff made him aware of the gathering storm. Eisenhower publicly called upon Nixon to release all documents relating to the Fund, somewhat to the dismay of Chotiner, who wondered, "What more does the general require than the senator's word?" Eisenhower aides contacted the senior Republican senator from California, William Knowland, and persuaded him to fly from Hawaii to join the Eisenhower train and be available as a potential replacement running mate.

By this time, Nixon campaign headquarters was receiving a flood of messages, calling on Nixon to resign from the ticket. When Eisenhower's train stopped for the candidate to make speeches, he faced protesters with signs reading "Donate Here to Help Poor Richard Nixon." The influential The Washington Post and New York Herald-Tribune both called for Nixon to leave the ticket, facts which Chotiner did not tell his candidate;  Nixon learned them from a questioning reporter. Over 100 newspapers would editorialize about the Fund on the morning of September 20, opinion running two to one against Nixon. As his train stopped in Eugene, Oregon, Nixon was met with protestors' signs referencing his wife: "Pat, What Are You Going to Do With the Bribe Money?" and "No Mink Coats for Nixon—Just Cold Cash." He angrily responded with a phrase which would be echoed in the Checkers speech. After stating that there were no mink coats for the Nixons, he said that he was "proud of the fact that Pat Nixon wears a good Republican cloth coat, and she's going to continue to."

Politicians from both parties opined on the propriety of the Fund and on what Nixon should do, most in accord with their political affiliation. Democratic presidential candidate Stevenson, though, publicly reserved judgment, leading Chotiner to suspect "that Stevenson is afraid of something here. I bet he has something to hide."

Idea for a speech 
On September 20, Republican National Committee official Bob Humphreys first suggested that Nixon give a televised speech to the nation to explain his position. RNC chairman and future Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield thought well of the idea, but was concerned about the expense. That evening, Nixon conferred with his aides, who unanimously urged him not to resign from the ticket. Humphreys called Chotiner at Nixon's hotel in Portland, Oregon that evening, and the campaign manager realized that the broadcast was the best opportunity for Nixon to make his case. Humphreys suggested Nixon appear on Meet the Press, but Chotiner rejected the suggestion, insisting that his candidate must have complete control of the broadcast "without interruption by possibly unfriendly press questions." Humphreys mentioned that Summerfield was concerned about the cost of a television broadcast, but Chotiner noted that the cost of reprinting all campaign materials to reflect a change on the ticket would be far more than that of a telecast.

The avalanche of editorial opinion continued the following day, Sunday, September 21, but Eisenhower continued to withhold judgment. Eisenhower considered asking retired Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts to evaluate the legality of the Fund, but time constraints ruled him out. Eisenhower decided to ask the Los Angeles law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for a legal opinion, while asking the accounting firm Price Waterhouse to audit the Fund's records. Nixon, meanwhile, was encouraged by a supportive telegram from his mother and discouraged by one from former Minnesota governor Harold Stassen urging him to resign from the ticket. New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, a Nixon supporter, called to tell Nixon that most Eisenhower aides favored his removal, and that if Nixon made the telecast, he should call for people to write to express their opinions. Dewey added that if the response was not strongly pro-Nixon, then he should leave the ticket.

Nixon finally got a call from Eisenhower at 10:00 pm, Pacific Time, Sunday night. Eisenhower expressed a reluctance to see him leave the ticket, and felt that he should have a chance to make his case to the American people. Nixon enquired if Eisenhower would be able to make a decision on whether to keep him as the running mate immediately after the broadcast, and when Eisenhower equivocated, he angrily burst out: "General, there comes a time in matters like this when you've either got to shit or get off the pot." Eisenhower replied that it might take three or four days to gauge public reaction.

Preparation and setting 

Through the night to the morning of September 22, Eisenhower and Nixon aides arranged the speech. The RNC worked to raise the $75,000 () needed to buy the half-hour of television time, while the Eisenhower staff secured sixty NBC stations to telecast the speech, with radio coverage from CBS and Mutual. The Nixon staff initially advocated a half-hour that evening, Monday, September 22, to follow the immensely popular I Love Lucy show, but when Nixon indicated he could not be ready that soon, settled for 6:30 pm Tuesday night, 9:30 pm in the East, following the almost equally popular Texaco Star Theater, starring Milton Berle. The campaign arranged to use the El Capitan Theatre, in Hollywood, where several NBC variety shows were then broadcast, since its lighting was superior to that of NBC Radio City West. Nixon told the press that he would be addressing the nation on television, but refused to take any questions about what he might say.

On Monday morning, Nixon flew to Los Angeles, making notes for his speech aboard the plane. He jotted down the line he had said in Eugene regarding his wife's coat. He made notes concerning the family finances, upsetting Pat Nixon, who asked why people had to know their financial details. Nixon responded that people in politics live in a fishbowl. He recalled the Fala speech, in which Franklin Roosevelt had sarcastically responded to Republican claims he had sent a destroyer to fetch his dog, Fala, and remembered the dog his children had recently received: A Texas traveling salesman named Lou Carrol had read a report that Pat Nixon said her children Tricia and Julie "longed" for a dog, and his own dog, an American Cocker Spaniel, had just had a litter. After a telegram exchange, he crated the puppy and shipped it by rail to the Nixons, and six-year-old Tricia Nixon named the dog "Checkers". Nixon decided that including the anecdote evoking FDR would needle his enemies and delight his friends.

When the plane reached Los Angeles, Nixon secluded himself in a suite in The Ambassador Hotel, letting no one except his wife, Chotiner, and attorney and adviser William P. Rogers have any hint what he was planning. He called two professors he knew at his alma mater, Whittier College, seeking appropriate Abraham Lincoln quotes. They called back with two suggestions, one of which he used. Unwilling to have his message filtered, Nixon adamantly refused to provide the media with any advance text of his speech, convinced that it would reduce the size of his audience. Without any hard information on what would be said during the speech, rumors flew through the media. UPI reported that Nixon would resign from the ticket well before the scheduled time for the speech. On the evening of the 22nd, the media broke the story that Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson had a similar fund, as Chotiner had predicted. The Stevenson information had been leaked by Bob Humphreys at the RNC, but as he later ruefully noted, "Nobody paid much attention to it."

The morning of the 23rd, the day of the speech, brought the reports from the lawyers, who opined that it was legal for a senator to accept expense reimbursements, and from the accountants, who stated that there was no evidence of misappropriation of money. The Fund was to be dissolved, and gifts accepted since Nixon's nomination were to be accounted for as campaign contributions. Despite the reports, Eisenhower had second thoughts about relying on the success of the speech. He told an aide to call Governor Dewey, who was to call Nixon and instruct him to close his speech with his resignation from the ticket. Believing they had resolved the situation at last, Eisenhower and his staff had a relaxed dinner and began to prepare for his own speech that evening, before 15,000 Republican supporters in Cleveland.

At 4:30 pm, Nixon, Chotiner, and Rogers were discussing where the public should be told to send their responses to the speech, when a Dewey aide telephoned for Nixon. Reluctantly, suspecting the reason for the call, Chotiner brought Nixon to the phone to speak with the New York governor. Dewey told Nixon that Eisenhower's aides were unanimous that Nixon must resign, though Dewey did not agree, and that Nixon was to so state at the end of his telecast. Nixon asked what Eisenhower wanted him to do. Dewey hedged, stating that he had not spoken with the presidential candidate himself, but that the word had come from such close aides to Eisenhower that the demand had to represent the general's view. Nixon replied that it was very late for him to change his remarks; Dewey assured him he need not do so, but simply add at the end his resignation from the ticket and his insistence that Eisenhower accept it. Dewey suggested he even announce his resignation from the Senate and his intent to run in the special election which would follow—he was sure Nixon would be returned with a huge majority, thus vindicating him. Nixon remained silent for some time, and when Dewey asked him what he would do, the senator told him that he did not know, and if Eisenhower's aides wanted to find out, they could watch just like everyone else. Before slamming down the receiver, Nixon added, "And tell them I know something about politics, too!"

Nixon, somewhat dazed by the conversation with Dewey, dressed for the speech and reviewed his notes. Chotiner came into Nixon's room, and told him that if he was forced off the ticket, Chotiner would call a huge press conference and reveal all the maneuvering that had led to Nixon's departure; Chotiner added that the resulting furor would mean nothing to either of the two men, since they would be through with politics anyway. Nixon later stated that Chotiner's promise broke the tension and gave him a needed lift. The Nixons and the campaign staff journeyed to the El Capitan, where they were met by a cheering group of Young Republicans on the sidewalk outside, including future White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman. In Cleveland, General and Mamie Eisenhower, with the general's aides, prepared to watch the speech on television in the manager's office above the Cleveland Public Auditorium, where the presidential candidate was to speak.

Delivering the address 

The El Capitan Theatre, at Nixon's insistence, was entirely deserted. Press members were confined to a nearby room, where they could watch on television; stenographers were standing by at the Ambassador to ensure an accurate transcript of Nixon's remarks for the press, who would be facing deadlines in the East. Chotiner and Rogers would watch from behind a screen in the theatre; Pat Nixon, wearing a dress knitted by supporters, would sit on stage a few feet from her husband. The chosen set was a "GI bedroom den" with a desk, two chairs, and bookshelves. Nixon usually preferred to work from a memorized text, but would work from notes for this speech to make the talk sound more spontaneous. Nixon spent some time practicing movements for the cameramen and finally went into the dressing room with his wife for a few minutes of solitude. He told her that he did not think he could go through with it, but she reassured him.

Introduction and office expenses 
The speech opened with Nixon sitting at the desk. He began, "My fellow Americans, I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice Presidency, and as a man whose honesty and integrity has been questioned." Nixon indicated that he would not follow the example of the Truman Administration and ignore charges, and that the best response to a smear "is to tell the truth".

Nixon mentioned the $18,000 Fund, and that he was accused of taking money from a group of his supporters. After stating that the Fund was wrong if he had profited from it, if it had been conducted in secret, or if the contributors received special favors, he continued,

Nixon stated that no contributor to the fund got any service that an ordinary constituent would not have received, and then anticipated the skeptical questions, "Well, what did you use the fund for, Senator? Why did you have to have it?" In response to his rhetorical question, he explained salary and office allowances for senators. He went through different ways that political expenses could be met. One way was to be rich, but he stated that he was not rich. Another way was to put one's spouse on the Congressional office payroll, as, he stated, his Democratic rival, Senator John Sparkman, had done. Nixon did not feel comfortable doing that himself with so many deserving stenographers in Washington needing work, though Pat Nixon was a "wonderful stenographer" and sometimes helped out in the office as a volunteer. At this point, the camera turned from Nixon for the first time to reveal Pat Nixon sitting alongside the desk. Nixon indicated he could not continue his law practice, as some Congressmen did, due to the distance to California, and in any event he felt that practicing law while a lawmaker was a conflict of interest. Thus, he indicated, he had found that the best way to pay for political expenses not within his means was to allow contributors to do so. Nixon proffered the legal and accounting opinions as proof of his statements.

Family finances, coat and dog 
Nixon, continuing to ask skeptical rhetorical questions, indicated that some might feel that even with the opinions, he might have found some way to personally benefit. In response to his own question, he detailed his background and financial situation, beginning with his birth in Yorba Linda, and the family grocery store in which the Nixon boys helped out. He alluded to his work in college and law school, his service record, and stated that at the end of the war, he and Pat Nixon had $10,000 in savings, all of it patriotically in government bonds. He gave the dollar amounts of small inheritances that the Nixons had received from relatives, before turning to their life in Washington:

As Nixon discussed their finances, the telecast again showed Pat Nixon, fixedly watching her husband. Pat Nixon later stated that her rapt gaze was because she did not know exactly what he would say, and wanted to hear. Nixon detailed their assets and liabilities: the mortgaged home in Washington; the similarly mortgaged home in California, then occupied by his parents. The loans from his parents and from Riggs Bank. The borrowed-against life insurance policy on the senator; no insurance on his wife or children. The two-year-old Oldsmobile and the family furniture, and that he and his wife owned no stocks or bonds.

While Nixon made these points, Murray Chotiner "let out shouts of glee" in his screened booth. As Chotiner exulted, Nixon moved ahead with the lines "that would give the speech its name, make it famous, and notorious":

Nixon expressed pleasure that Stevenson, whom he termed a man who inherited wealth from his father, could run for president. But people "of modest means" must also get a chance, and he recited the quotation attributed to Lincoln: "Remember Abraham Lincoln, you remember what he said: 'God must have loved the common people—He made so many of them.'"

Attack on Democrats; request for public to write 
Nixon then called for Stevenson to give a full accounting of his own fund, and a full list of the donors. He also called for Senator Sparkman, who, as Nixon repeated, had put his wife on the payroll, to state fully any outside income he might have had. "Because, folks, remember, a man that's to be President of the United States, a man that's to be Vice President of the United States must have the confidence of all the people. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing, and that's why I suggest that Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Sparkman since they are under attack should do what I am doing." As Nixon made this point, Eisenhower, sitting in the Cleveland office, slammed his pencil down, realizing that he would not be allowed to be the only major party candidate whose finances would evade scrutiny. Eisenhower had benefited from a favorable Act of Congress, allowing the income from his bestselling memoirs to be considered capital gains.

Nixon warned that other smears would be made against him, and many of the same commentators who were attacking him now had also attacked him for his role in the Alger Hiss case, for which he made no apologies. He then rose to his feet, came out from behind the desk, and continued:

Nixon alleged that Stevenson had downplayed the threat of communism, and was thus unfit to be president. He affirmed that Eisenhower was the only man fit to lead the country in ridding the government of corruption and communism. Reading parts of a letter from the wife of a serviceman fighting in the Korean War, who, despite her financial woes, had scraped together $10 to donate to the campaign, Nixon promised that he would never cash that check.

With less than three minutes left in the allotted time, Nixon finally addressed the question: Would he stay or would he go? He indicated that he did not think he should go. "Let me say this: I don't believe that I ought to quit because I'm not a quitter. And, incidentally, Pat's not a quitter. After all, her name was Patricia Ryan and she was born on St. Patrick's Day, and you know the Irish never quit."

Seizing on the fact that the Republican National Convention had routinely given the RNC the power to fill vacancies on the ticket, Nixon evaded Eisenhower's power as the general again slammed his pencil down, this time breaking it:

Advancing towards the camera, he completed the speech by praising Eisenhower, "He's a great man. And a vote for Eisenhower is a vote for what's good for America."

Aftermath

Candidates and public 
Nixon was initially convinced that the speech was a failure. Despite the congratulations of Rogers and Chotiner, and the fact that one of the cameramen had tears running down his face, he reproved himself for not mentioning the address of the Republican National Committee. Though the Young Republicans continued their applause as the Nixon party left the theatre, he fixed on an Irish Setter running alongside his car as it pulled away from the curb. "Well, we made a hit in the dog world anyway." Despite the senator's despair, his wife was convinced that her husband had vindicated himself. Over sixty million Americans had watched or listened to the speech, including the largest television audience up to that point.

Nixon had left the Ambassador with the lobby quiet; he returned to a mob scene, and he was soon surrounded by well-wishers congratulating him. The party was able to get through to his suite, and after a few minutes of tense quiet, calls and telegrams began to pour in "from everywhere" praising the speech and urging him to remain on the ticket—but no word came from Eisenhower in Cleveland.

In Cleveland, as the speech concluded, General Eisenhower turned to RNC Chairman Summerfield, "Well, Arthur, you sure got your money's worth." Mamie Eisenhower was in tears, and the general told her that Nixon was a completely honest man. The 15,000 supporters waiting for Eisenhower to speak had heard the Checkers speech over the hall's public address system, and when Congressman George H. Bender took the microphone and asked the crowd, "Are you in favor of Nixon?", pandemonium ensued. As the crowd below chanted, "We want Nixon!", Eisenhower quickly revised his speech.

Both Eisenhower's speech to the excited crowd and telegram to his running mate were noncommittal. The general applauded his running mate for his speech, but stated that the two had to meet face to face before a final decision could be made. While Eisenhower affirmed that the RNC had the power to elect a replacement candidate, Eisenhower indicated that the committee would, most likely, be guided by his wishes. Eisenhower asked Nixon to meet with him in person in Wheeling, West Virginia, where their campaign was next scheduled to go. Eisenhower's telegram was delayed in transmission and lost among the flood being sent to Nixon's suite, and the latter learned of his running mate's position from a wire service report.

When he heard of Eisenhower's posture, Nixon's happiness at what he had finally been convinced was a tour de force turned to fury, and he stated that if the speech did not satisfy Eisenhower, nothing he could do would. He called in his secretary, Rose Mary Woods, and dictated a telegram to the RNC resigning from the ticket. As Woods left the room with her notes, Chotiner stopped her, took the sheet, and ripped it up. While Chotiner understood Nixon's rage, he felt that the resignation was premature. The campaign manager urged Nixon simply to allow the public wave of support to pressure Eisenhower. He suggested that instead of going to Wheeling as Eisenhower had requested, that they resume the train tour in Missoula, Montana. Nixon sent Eisenhower a curt acknowledgment of his telegram, and a suggestion that they meet the following week in Washington, D.C. Chotiner then called Summerfield, telling him that Nixon felt he had been abused enough, and would not meet with Eisenhower until Summerfield was able to promise, on his word of honor, that Nixon would be confirmed as nominee at that meeting. "Dick is not going to be placed in the position of a little boy going somewhere to beg for forgiveness."

Just before the Nixon party left for the airport, Nixon friend and journalist Bert Andrews managed to reach him by phone. Andrews told Nixon that he should go to Wheeling; that public reaction had already foreordained the outcome. He advised Nixon that he should accede to Eisenhower's desire to make the inevitable decision in his own way, advice Nixon acknowledged "had the ring of truth." Nonetheless, the Nixon party flew to Missoula.

By this time, the first wave of what would eventually be more than four million letters, telegrams, postcards, and phone calls had flooded into RNC headquarters and other political offices. While a later study found that only about 7 percent of these communications addressed any substantive issue, they still ran 75 to one in favor of Nixon. Nixon skeptics joined in; both Stassen and Dewey sent congratulatory telegrams. Many letters included contributions to help pay for the cost of the broadcast; the RNC eventually recouped four-fifths of the $75,000 cost. Newspaper switchboards were jammed with calls from people seeking the RNC's address, while Western Union was caught off guard by Nixon's request that listeners wire the RNC, and had no extra help on hand. Checkers herself received enough dog food to last a year, and hundreds of collars, leashes, and toys.

Politicians generally reacted along party lines, with Republican Senator Mundt of South Dakota stating, "Nixon's speech is complete vindication against one of the most vicious smears in American history." Democratic Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico stated, "I wish he had talked about the 18,000 bucks—not the puppy dog ... Suppose someone sets up a fund to buy my meals. I could say I didn't get one red cent of the money."

On the morning of September 24, Summerfield and Humphreys called Nixon at his Missoula hotel. After securing his agreement to fly to Wheeling if Eisenhower agreed to Chotiner's terms, the two reached Eisenhower and campaign leader New Hampshire Governor Sherman Adams in Portsmouth, Ohio, en route to Wheeling, and briefed them on the conversation with Nixon and on the flood of communications from the public. Eisenhower and Adams agreed that Nixon could come to Wheeling with the assurance he would remain on the ticket. After making speeches in Missoula and at a stop in Denver, and after Eisenhower made his own speech announcing that his running mate had been the victim of an "attempted smear," Nixon arrived in Wheeling late in the day on the 24th. Eisenhower came to the airport to meet the plane, and hurried up the steps to greet the Nixons when the door was opened.

The candidates waved at the crowd of 3,000 which had come to meet the plane, and rode together, with Nixon in place of honor, to a rally at City Island Stadium as Eisenhower chatted to Nixon as if the crisis had never occurred. At the stadium, Eisenhower introduced Nixon as a "colleague" who had been subject to "a vicious and unprincipled attack" but who had "vindicated himself" and who "stood higher than ever before." Eisenhower finished by reading two telegrams, one from Nixon's mother assuring Eisenhower of her son's integrity, and the second from Summerfield stating that the RNC had voted unanimously to retain Nixon on the ticket. Nixon then spoke, telling the crowd that this was one of two moments when he was most proud to be an American; the other had been at the victory parade in New York in 1945, when he had seen General Eisenhower go by. He called the Wheeling rally "the greatest moment of my life."

Media reaction 
Editorial reaction to the address was divided. The New York Times, which had criticized Nixon, and had even run stories with claims that he was under criminal investigation for the Fund, praised Nixon's "composure and assurance." The New York Journal American gushed, "He was in our opinion, simply magnificent. We know of no other way to say it." The Pittsburgh Press called the address "an extraordinary speech."  The Mobile Register stated that the Fund crisis "confronted [Nixon] with an unsought opportunity which he made the most of."

However, some newspapers disagreed. The Baltimore Sun noted that Nixon "did not deal in any way with the underlying question of propriety," while the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called the address "a carefully contrived soap opera." Columnist Walter Lippmann called the wave of support for Nixon "disturbing ... with all the magnification of modern electronics, simply mob law;" discussing the speech with a dinner guest, he said, "That must be the most demeaning experience my country has ever had to bear." Columnist Thomas Stokes criticized Eisenhower for equivocating on the question of his running mate until "the young man himself—the accused—had to step in and take over. And how he took over!" Through his presidency, Eisenhower would continue to be accused of being indecisive.

Nixon refused to answer further questions about the Fund, and attention turned to Stevenson's fund, especially as its details became clear. Governor Stevenson's fund, which proved to total $146,000, had been used for such expenditures as Christmas gifts to reporters, dues for private clubs, and to hire an orchestra for a dance his son was hosting. Taking a leaf from Nixon's book, the Democrats refused to answer questions about Stevenson's fund. Both parties were eager to bury the matter, and the story died.

Legacy 

With The New York Times finding that Nixon's performance had given the Republican ticket "a shot in the arm", Eisenhower and Nixon swept to victory in November, with the Republicans narrowly taking both Houses of Congress. According to Nixon biographer Conrad Black, the speech earned Nixon supporters throughout Middle America which he would keep through the rest of his life, and who would continue to defend him after his death. Critics, however, would later see the address as the "ultimate expression" of the controversial politician's "phoniness." Nixon biographer Stephen Ambrose stated that part of the audience considered the address "one of the most sickening, disgusting, maudlin performances ever experienced." In their analysis of the speech published just before Nixon's election as president in 1968, Robert S. Cathcart and Edward A. Schwarz suggested that while Nixon "met the accusation head-on
and accomplished his immediate goals successfully, he ultimately created an image which led to a decline in his political career."

The address was an unprecedented demonstration of the power of television to galvanize large segments of the American people to act in a political campaign. However, the onslaught of negative media attention leading up to the address "left its scars" on Nixon, and the future president never returned to the easy relationship with the press that he had enjoyed during his congressional career. His oft-stated view that the media was the enemy came to play a part in his downfall.

Nixon celebrated the anniversary of the speech each year. The future president disliked the fact that the address soon became popularly known as the "Checkers speech." In his 1962 book, Six Crises (the Fund crisis being one of the six), he would object to the term, "as though the mention of my dog was the only thing that saved my political career." Nixon preferred to call the address "the Fund speech," and made it required reading for his speechwriters. As time passed, the Checkers speech became denigrated, and Nixon biographer Earl Mazo suggested that much of the attitude of "I don't like Nixon, but I don't know why," which contributed to the failure of his 1960 presidential run, can be traced to the Checkers speech. Other commentators suggested that had he not made the Checkers speech, Nixon might have won in 1960. Nixon retorted that without the Checkers speech, he would not have been around to run in 1960.

Checkers died in 1964 and was buried in Wantagh, New York, at Long Island's Bide-A-Wee Pet Cemetery. William Safire described the adoption of "Checkers speech" as an idiom, used to refer to any emotionally charged speech by a politician. In 1999, 137 scholars of American public address were asked to recommend speeches for inclusion on a list of "the 100 best American political speeches of the 20th century," based on "social and political impact, and rhetorical artistry." This speech placed 6th on the list.

Despite the many criticisms of the speech in later years, Hal Bochin (who wrote a book about Nixon's rhetoric) suggests that Nixon succeeded at the time because of his use of narrative, spinning a story which resonated with the public:

See also
 1952 United States presidential election

References

Explanatory notes

Citations

Bibliography

Other sources

 
 
  
  
  
  (Consumer bundle)

Further reading
 

 

 Text and audio mp3 of the speech from AmericanRhetoric.com
 Video and entire transcript from Watergate.info
 "Checkers Speech" Part 1 At YouTube, which may properly host it as the Checkers speech was aired without a copyright notice and is not copyrighted.
 "Checkers Speech" Part 2 At YouTube
 

1952 in Los Angeles
1952 in American politics
1952 United States presidential election
1952 speeches
September 1952 events
Animals in politics
Political scandals in the United States
Speeches by Richard Nixon In the early hours of May 9, 1970, President Richard Nixon made an unplanned visit to the Lincoln Memorial where he spoke with anti-war protesters and students for almost two hours. The protesters were conducting a vigil in protest of Nixon's recent decision to expand the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the recent deaths of students in the Kent State shootings.

Visit

Nixon had finished a press conference at 10 p.m. on May 8, in which he had been questioned about his decision to expand American operations in Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War. Nixon then made 20 telephone calls to various people including Billy Graham and Thomas E. Dewey and the NBC reporter Nancy Dickerson. He then slept from 2:15 a.m. until around 4 a.m.

Nixon awoke after 4 a.m. and put on a recording of Eugene Ormandy conducting Rachmaninoff at a loud volume in the Lincoln Sitting Room. This awoke his valet Manolo Sanchez. Looking at the gathering of people on the National Mall, Nixon asked Sanchez if he had ever visited the memorial at night and then told him to get dressed after Sanchez answered that he had not.

Nixon, Sanchez, the senior White House doctor Walter Robert Tkach and Secret Service agents then drove to the memorial in a presidential limousine, with Nixon later recalling that he had "never seen the Secret Service quite so petrified with apprehension". Upon arrival Nixon and Sanchez walked up the steps to the statue of the seated Lincoln with Nixon pointing out the carved inscriptions of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and his Gettysburg Address. White House Deputy for Domestic Affairs Egil Krogh was also present.

Some students had recognised Nixon by now and, although surprised by his advent, walked up to him and shook his hand. Nixon said that the students "were not unfriendly" to him, but "seemed somewhat overawed". Nixon learnt that several of them attended Syracuse University, and spoke of the university's football team. Commenting later to journalists, the Syracuse University students felt that "most of what he was saying was absurd ... Here we had come from a university that's completely uptight, on strike, and when we told him where we were from, he talked about the football team."

On the Vietnam War, Nixon told the students:
I hope that [your] hatred of the war, which I could well understand, would not turn into a bitter hatred of our whole system, our country and everything that it stood for. I said that I know probably most of you think I'm an SOB. But I want you to know that I understand just how you feel.

He encouraged them to travel while they were young and praised the architecture of Prague and Warsaw. But a student told Nixon "We're not interested in what Prague looks like ... We're interested in what kind of life we build in the United States."

Nixon then told the students that "the spiritual hunger which all of us have" which "has been the great mystery of life from the beginning of time" would not be solved by improving air quality and ending the war. A student later recalled that Nixon was barely audible and his sentences had no structure. Towards the end of the visit the crowd of students had grown to 30 and a student told Nixon, "I hope you realize that we're willing to die for what we believe in", to which he responded that "Many of us when we were your age were also willing to die for what we believe in and are willing to do so today. The point is, we are trying to build a world in which you will not have to die for what you believe in."

The Secret Service agents accompanying Nixon grew concerned for his safety with the increasing crowd and tone of the exchanges with the students and pretended that a call was waiting for him in his car hoping that he would leave, but Nixon kept telling them "Let it wait". With the advent of dawn, Nixon returned to the presidential limousine, but as he walked back, "a bearded fellow from Detroit" in Nixon's words, rushed towards him and requested a photograph with him, that was duly taken by the White House doctor. In a documentary, Bob Moustakas, the "bearded fellow from Detroit" claimed that, during the encounter, he was on LSD. 

Nixon said that the man from Detroit had "the broadest smile that I saw on the entire visit". Nixon then left in the presidential limousine.

On the return trip to the White House, Nixon insisted on stopping at the United States Capitol, where he took his former seat in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives and instructed Sanchez to make a speech. Sanchez spoke of his pride in being a citizen of the United States and Nixon and some female cleaners who were present applauded. One of the women present, Carrie Moore, asked Nixon to sign her bible, which he did, and holding her hand told her that his mother "was a saint" and "you be a saint too". Nixon and his group, which now included White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler and Nixon's Appointments Secretary Dwight Chapin, as well as Tkach, White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and Sanchez, then ate breakfast of corned beef hash and eggs at the Rib Room of the Mayflower Hotel. Nixon was determined to walk back the last half mile to the White House from the hotel, and aides tried to forcibly grab his arm. Eventually Nixon got into the car.

Aftermath

In 2011 the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum released a series of presidential dictabelt recordings, of which five featured Nixon dictating his recollections of his visit to the Lincoln Memorial in a memo to Haldeman. On the memo Nixon instructs his recollections to be shared "on a very limited basis" to close aides. Writer Tom McNichol described the memo as an attempt at damage control as early press reports of the visit had described an "exhausted and overwrought president engaging students in nonsensical banter". Nixon said that "Even when I'm tired, I do not talk about nonsensical things" and defended the dialogue as his attempt "to lift them a bit out of the miserable intellectual wasteland in which they now wander".

Writing in The Atlantic in 2011, Tom McNichol wrote:
"None of the students at the Lincoln Memorial remember Nixon's behavior the way Nixon does. More tellingly, none of his loyal aides remember it Nixon's way either." [...] "Listening to Nixon describe his bizarre sojourn to the Lincoln Memorial is to hear a man who's already sold himself on an alternate version of reality. Having convinced himself of his version of the facts, all that remains is for him to win over the rest of the world."

Following the visit, Haldeman would write in his diary that he was "concerned about his condition" and concluded that the event had been "the weirdest day so far". Haldeman wrote that "he has had very little sleep for a long time and his judgment, temper, and mood suffer badly as a result....there's a long way to go, and he's in no condition to weather it."

Krogh felt that the impromptu visit was a "very significant and major effort to reach out". Nixon later expressed the view that those in the anti-war movement were the pawns of foreign communists. After the student protests, Nixon asked Haldeman to consider the Huston Plan, which would have used illegal procedures to gather information on the leaders of the anti-war movement. Only the resistance of J. Edgar Hoover stopped the plan.

In popular culture
Nixon's meeting with protesters was depicted in Oliver Stone's 1995 biopic, Nixon, in which Nixon is portrayed by Anthony Hopkins.

References

1970 in Washington, D.C.
Presidency of Richard Nixon