Speeches of Richard Nixon - Checkers Speech
Speeches of Richard Nixon - Checkers Speech
Compilation of speeches made by Richard Milhous Nixon.
Speeches of Richard Nixon - Checkers Speech
MSs of Vice-Presidential candidate RICHARD NIXON standing with wife PAT NIXON on stage at the 1952 Republican National Convention
Speeches of Richard Nixon - Checkers Speech
Excerpts of RICHARD M. NIXON delivering the infamous "Checkers" speech, September 23, 1952 (televised political broadcast): "My Fellow Americans, I come here before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice President and as a man whose honesty and integrity has been questioned. The usual political thing to do when charges are made against you is to either ignore them or to deny them without giving details. I believe we've had enough of that in the United States, particularly with the present Administration in Washington, D.C. To me the office of the Vice Presidency is a great office and I feel that the people have got to have confidence in the integrity of the men who run for that office and who might obtain it. I have a theory, too, that the best and only answer to a smear or to an honest misunderstanding of the facts is to tell the truth." Edit. "Do you think that when I or any other Senator makes a political speech, has it printed, should charge the printing of that speech and the mailing of that speech to the taxpayers? Do you think when I or any other Senator makes a trip to his home state to make a purely political speech that the cost of that trip should be charged to the taxpayers? Do you think when a Senator makes political broadcasts or political Television broadcasts, radio or television, that the expense of those broadcasts should be charged to the taxpayers? I know what your answer is. It is the same answer that audiences give me whenever I discuss this problem. The answer is no. The taxpayers shouldn't be required to finance items which are not official business but which are primarily political business. Then the question arises, how do you pay for these and how can you do it legally? There are several ways that it can be done, and that it is done legally in the United States Senate and in the Congress. The first way is to be a rich man. I don't happen to be a rich man so I couldn't use that one. Another way that is used is to put your wife on the payroll. Let me say, incidentally, my opponent, my opposite number for the Vice Presidency on the Democratic ticket, does have his wife on the payroll and has had it, her on his payroll for ten years. That's his business and I'm not critical of him for doing that. You will have to pass judgment on that. But I have never done that for this reason. I have found that there are so many deserving stenographers & secretaries in Washington that needed the work that I just didn't feel it was right to put my wife on the payroll. My wife's sitting over here. She's a wonderful stenographer. She used to teach stenography and she used to teach shorthand in high school. That was when I met her." C/A of PAT NIXON.
Speeches of Richard Nixon - Checkers Speech
Vice Presidential candidate RICHARD M. NIXON continues the infamous Checkers speech, Sept. 23, 1952: "Now what I am going to do-- and this is unprecedented in the history of American politics. I am going at this time to give this television & radio audience a complete financial history; everything I've earned; everything I've spent; everything I owe." Edit. 07.06 "First of all I've had my salary as a Congressman and as a Senator. Second, I have received a total in this past 6 years of $1600 from estates which were in my law firm at the time that I severed my connection with it. I have not engaged in any legal practice & have not accepted any fees from business that came to the firm after I went into politics. I have made an average of approx $1500 a year from nonpolitical speaking engagements and lectures. And then, fortunately, we've inherited a little money. Pat sold her interest in her father's estate for $3,000 and I inherited $1500 from my grandfather. We lived rather modestly. For 4 years we lived in an apartment in Park Fairfax. The rent was $80 a month. We saved for the time that we could buy a house." C/A PAT NIXON sitting in chair, looking on. "That was what we took in. What did we do with this money? This will surprise you, because it is so little, as standards generally go, of people in public life. First of all, we've got a house in DC which cost $41,000 and on which we owe $20,000. We have a house in Whittier, California which cost $13,000 and on which we owe $3000. My folks are living there at the present time. I have just $4,000 in life insurance plus my G.I. policy which I've never been able to convert & which will run out in two years. I have no life insurance on Pat. I have no life insurance on Tricia & Julie. I own a 1950 Oldsmobile car. We have our furniture. We have no stocks & bonds of any type. We have no interest of any kind, direct or indirect, in any business. That's what we have. What do we owe? In addition to the mortgages, I owe $4,500 to the Riggs Bank in DC with interest 4 1/2 percent. I owe $3,500 to my parents & the interest on that loan which I pay regularly, because it's the part of the savings they made through the years they were working so hard, I pay regularly 4 percent. And then I have a $500 loan which I have on my life insurance."
Speeches of Richard Nixon - Checkers Speech
Vice Presidential candidate RICHARD M. NIXON continues the infamous Checkers speech, Sept. 23, 1952: "Well, that's about it. That's what we have and that's what we owe. It isn't very much but Pat and I have the satisfaction that every dime that we've got is honestly ours. I should say this, that Pat doesn't have a mink coat, but she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat. And I always tell her that she'd look good in anything. One other thing I probably should tell you because if we don't they'll probably be saying this about me too, we did get something, a gift after the election. A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he'd sent all the way from Texas. Black & white spotted. Our little girl, Tricia, named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it."
Speeches of Richard Nixon - Checkers Speech
Vice Presidential candidate RICHARD M. NIXON continues the infamous Checkers speech, Sept. 23, 1952: "It isn't easy to come before a nation-wide audience and air your life as I've done. But I want to say some things before I conclude." Edit. "in spite of the smears, the misunderstandings, the necessity for a man to come up here and bare his soul as I have? Why is it necessary for me to continue this fight? And I want to tell you why. Because, you see, I love my country. And I think my country is in danger. I think that the only man that can save America at this time is the man that's running for President on my ticket, Dwight Eisenhower. Look at the record. 7 years of Truman-Acheson administration and what's happened? 600 million people lost to the Communists & a war in Korea in which we have lost 117,000 Americans. I say to all of you that a policy that results in a loss of 600 million people to the Communists & a war which costs us 117,000 American casualties isn't good enough for America. I say that those in the State Department that made the mistakes which caused that war and which resulted in those losses should be kicked out of the State Department just as fast as we can get 'em out of there. And let me say that I know Mr. Stevenson won't do that. Because he defends the Truman policy and I know that Dwight Eisenhower will do that, and that he will give America the leadership that it needs. Take the problem of corruption. You've read about the mess in Washington. Mr. Stevenson can't clean it up because he was picked by the man, Truman, under whose Administration the mess was made. You wouldn't trust a man who made the mess to clean it up, that's Truman. And by the same token you can't trust the man who was picked by the man that made the mess to clean it up, and that's Stevenson. And so I say, Eisenhower, who owes nothing to Truman, nothing to the big city bosses, he is the man that can clean up the mess in Washington.
Speeches of Richard Nixon - Checkers Speech
Vice Presidential candidate RICHARD M. NIXON continues the infamous Checkers speech, Sept. 23, 1952: Take Communism. I say that as far as that subject is concerned, the danger is great to America. In the Hiss case they got the secrets which enabled them to break the American secret State Department code. They got secrets in the atomic bomb case which enabled them to get the secret of the atomic bomb, five years before they would have gotten it by their own devices. And I say that any man who called the Alger Hiss case a "red herring" isn't fit to be President of the United States. I say that a man who like Mr. Stevenson has pooh-poohed and ridiculed the Communist threat in the United States, he said that they are phantoms among ourselves; he's accused us that have attempted to expose the Communists of looking for Communists in the Bureau of Fisheries and Wildlife, I say that a man who says that isn't qualified to be President of the United States. And I say that the only man who can lead us in this fight to rid the Government of both those who are Communists and those who have corrupted this Government is Eisenhower, because Eisenhower, you can be sure, recognizes the problem and he knows how to deal with it." "And, now, finally, I know that you wonder whether or not I am going to stay on the Republican ticket or resign. 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. (C/A of PAT NIXON sitting in chair, listening.) "But the decision, my friends, is not mine. I would do nothing that would harm the possibilities of Dwight Eisenhower to become President of the United States. And for that reason I am submitting to the Republican National Committee tonight through this television broadcast the decision which it is theirs to make. Let them decide whether my position on the ticket will help or hurt. And I am going to ask you to help them decide. Wire and write the Republican National Committee whether you think I should stay on or whether I should get off. And whatever their decision is, I will abide by it. But just let me say this last word. Regardless of what happens I'm going to continue this fight. I'm going to campaign up and down America until we drive the crooks and the Communists and those that defend them out of Washington. And remember, folks, Eisenhower is a great man. Believe me. He's a great man. And a vote for Eisenhower is a vote for what's good for America."