627802
Richard M. Nixon
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Richard Milhous Nixon, 1913-1994. 37th President of the United States. Typed Letter Signed, Dick Nixon, one page, quarto, on stationery of the Office of the Vice President, Washington [D.C.], August 6, 1956.
Nixon, looking toward reelection as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Vice President in 1956, writes to a supporter, Dr. Dillon D. Geiger (1907-1990), a long-time physician in Bloomington, Indiana, and member of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University. In full: “This is just a note to tell you how deeply I appreciated the action by the Indiana Delegates and Alternates at your organization caucus on July 26. / I am sure you realize how much such an expression of confidence and support means in the light of some of the recent political developments.”
Nixon likely was referring to a vote of confidence for the Eisenhower administration in view of political developments in the Middle East. On the very day of the caucus that Nixon mentions, July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal Company, the company that operated the Suez Canal, taking it away from the British and French investors who owned it. Nasser nationalized the canal operation in order to raise money to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River, a project that the United States and Britain had agreed to help fund but from which they later withdrew their support after Egypt bought tanks from Czechoslavakia, a Soviet bloc country, and extended diplomatic recognition to the People’s Republic of China. Between July and October 1956, the United States sought to reduce tensions. Ultimately the American efforts were unsuccessful, and, in late October, Israel invaded Egypt. British and French troops followed, ostensibly to separate the warring countries, but in reality to take over the canal.
Nixon was the second youngest Vice President in American history. He was elected at age 39 and turned 40 just before the 1953 inauguration. Only John C. Calhoun, who took office at age 36, was younger.
By the time he became Vice President, Nixon had served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and two years in the United States Senate. He was elected to the House of Representatives from California in 1946 and 1948. As a member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Nixon took a central role in investigating espionage charges against Alger Hiss. The case made Nixon a national figure. He was elected to the Senate from California in 1950, and two years later General Eisenhower chose him for his running mate.
After two terms as Eisenhower’s Vice President, Nixon lost the presidency by a razor-thin margin to John F. Kennedy in 1960. He lost again in his bid for election as Governor of California in 1962. But he staged a political comeback, returning to win the White House in 1968 with the promise of “peace with honor” in the Vietnam war. By 1972, the United States escalated bombing, and Nixon, running for reelection, promised that the war would soon end. He was overwhelmingly reelected in November 1972.
The Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign the presidency in 1974. In the 20 years between his presidency and his death, Nixon wrote nine books and reestablished himself as a respected statesman.
This letter is in very fine condition, with a single mailing fold that does not affect the signature and a few scattered wrinkles from handling. Nixon has signed boldly in black.
Unframed.
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