Call it puppy love. In 1952, Vice-President wannabe Richard M. Nixon was in deep trouble. Nixon, th ...
Call it puppy love. In 1952, Vice-President wannabe Richard M. Nixon was in deep trouble. Nixon, the mighty avenger of corruption in politics, had just been accused of a having a secret slush fund that kept his wife in fancy clothes and had the Nixons living way beyond their means. Yep, it's that same Richard Nixon who was elected President in 1968 and resigned in disgrace in 1974 (the only President to ever do so). But in 1952, Nixon was just a senator and veteran of modest means in the world of McCarthy-era politics, making his name in the Senate as an anti-corruption and anti-Communist crusader. But he had his sights set on higher office. Having secured the Republican Presidential nomination, Dwight D. Eisenhower was in need of a running mate. Nixon, a young and charismatic rising star in the Republican Party, was a natural choice due to his hardline stance against the Russkies and their global communist agenda. The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket promised an antidote to the corruption they saw running rampant in government and a replacement for the "soft on communism" Truman administration. Then came a bombshell. In the midst of the election campaign, The New York Post ran an article titled "Secret Rich Men's Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary." The article alleged that Nixon had access to a hidden fund of $18,000 that he was using to live large. Nixon did, in fact, have a fund provided by some wealthy buddies that he used to defray political expenses that weren't covered by his Senate allowance. It wasn't illegal, but it raised some ethical questions, especially considering that anti-corruption was the centerpiece of the Republican campaign. The "scandal" threatened to blow up the Republican party, generating outrage from voters and prompting party members to demand that Nixon be removed from the 1952 ticket. Even Eisenhower hoped he'd resign and stave off further damage to the party's chances to win back the White House. Nixon knew he had to do some major damage control before this thing ran away from him completely. He decided to take his case straight to the American people. The Republican party purchased some television time, and Nixon addressed the nation in a speech that he hoped would prove to the nation that he was an honest man—financially struggling just like them—who'd never think of cheating his constituents by accepting gifts or secret cash for personal use. Nixon spoke without a script, using just an outline and some notes for the speech. He wanted it to sound spontaneous and heartfelt. With his wife, Pat, gazing rapturously from the other side of the room, he opened up his entire financial history to his listeners, starting with his humble beginnings working at his parents' grocery store to put himself through college and law school. He discussed the so-called secret fund (which wasn't secret at all), explaining that it paid for political expenses that he didn't want to charge to the American taxpayers. He'd never think of accepting gifts or contributions in exchange for political favors. Nixon admitted to accepting one gift, though. One day, he told his listeners, he got a call from the train station in Baltimore to come pick up a package. When he got there, he found it was a cocker spaniel puppy, a gift from a man who'd heard him mention that his daughters always wanted a dog. Because the puppy was black and white, they named him Checkers. Nixon told the nation that little six-year-old Tricia loved that puppy, and he wasn't about to give him back. Yep. That was the clincher. Not many people today remember why Nixon even gave this speech, but boy do they remember the puppy. Nixon called it the "Fund Speech," but it lived on in American and Shmoop history as the "Checkers Speech." The American people lapped it up. They loved Nixon's emotional appeal to truth, justice, and the family dog, calling and writing in by the millions to beg Nixon to stay on the ticket. Eisenhower agreed, reluctantly at first, and the Republicans went on to win the general election that November. Harry S. Truman famously said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Nixon may not have agreed with anything else Truman said, but we're sure he'd have seconded that. For Nixon, happiness—and political salvation—really was a warm puppy.
