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Checkers speech

Nixon delivers the speech
Date	September 23, 1952 (1952-09-23)
Time	6:30 pm
Duration	30 minutes
Venue	El Capitan Theatre
Location	Los Angeles, California, United States
Also known as	Fund speech
Participants	Senator Richard Nixon
Outcome	Nixon retained on Republican ticket after receiving a wave of public support.
Website	video, audio, transcript

The Checkers speech or Fund speech was an address made on September 23, 1952 by the Republican vice presidential candidate, California Senator Richard Nixon. Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. With his place on the Republican ticket in doubt, 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 regardless of what anyone said, he intended to keep one gift: a black-and-white dog who had been named Checkers by the Nixon children, thus giving the address its popular name.

Nixon, as he related in his address, came from a family of moderate means, and had spent much of his time after law school either in the military, campaigning for office, or serving in Congress. After his successful 1950 Senate campaign, Nixon's 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 as Nixon had made a point of attacking government corruption, it exposed him to charges 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. Within a few days, the story grew until the controversy threatened Nixon's 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 to make a television and radio broadcast to the nation; the $75,000 to rent the television time was raised by the RNC. The idea for the Checkers reference came from Franklin 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 or heard by about 60 million Americans, including the largest television audience to that time, and led to an outpouring of public support. A huge majority of the millions of telegrams and phone calls received by the RNC and other political offices supported Nixon. He was retained on the ticket, which then 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 has since sometimes been mocked or denigrated. 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:

Transportation and hotel expenses to cover trips to California more frequently than his mileage allowance permits. Payment of airmail and long-distance phone charges above his allowance ... Preparation of material ... to send out to the people ... who have supported him ... Defraying expenses of his Christmas cards to the people who worked in his campaign or contributed financially ... paying for getting out material for radio broadcasts and television programs. ... and various other similar items.

As a senator, Nixon received an annual salary of $12,500 (about $150,000 in 2009 dollars). While he received an expense allowance of over $75,000, an amount larger than that of most senators since California was one of the most populous states, the money went to pay his staff of 12 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

President Harry Truman (left, seated) meets with Gov. Adlai Stevenson (right, seated) and Sen. John Sparkman

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.

See also

• Six Crises

References

Explanatory notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Ambrose, Stephen (1988). Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 1913–1962. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-65722-2.
• Black, Conrad (2007). Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-58648-674-7.
• Bochin, Hal (1990). Richard Nixon: Rhetorical Strategist. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-26108-4.
• Boller, Paul F., Jr.; George, John H. (1989). They Never Said It. New York: Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-505541-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Greenberg, David (2004). Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-32616-1. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
• Halberstam, David (1993). The Fifties. New York: Villard Books. ISBN 978-0-679-41559-6.
• Kerbel, Matthew (1999). Remote & Controlled: Media Politics in a Cynical Age. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-6869-6. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
• Morris, Roger (1990). Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-1834-9.
• Nixon, Richard (1962). Six Crises. New York: Doubleday and Company. OCLC 456542.
• Parmet, Herbert (1990). Richard Nixon and His America. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 978-1-56852-082-7.
• Safire, William (2008). Safire's Political Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534334-2. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
• Thompson, John (2000). Political Scandal. Cambridge: Polity. ISBN 978-0-7456-2550-8. Retrieved 2009-04-10.

Other sources

• Fox, Margalit (May 17, 2006). "L. Carrol, 83, Is Dead; Gave Nixons Dog Known as Checkers". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
• Hill, Gladwin (September 22, 1952). "G.O.P. rift in West tied to Nixon data". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-13. (subscription required)
• Hill, Gladwin (September 24, 1952). "I'm not a quitter: Senator says he'll let Republican National Committee decide". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-06-04. (subscription required)
• Madden, Richard (October 12, 1970). "A Nixon lieutenant since 1946: Murray M (for 'absolutely nothing') Chotiner". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-03-16. (subscription required)
• "Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2009-05-05. (Consumer bundle)
• "Nixon does excellent job in expense fund report". Mobile Register. September 25, 1952. p. 8.
• "Nixon replies tax phone, wire lines". The New York Times. September 24, 1952. Retrieved 2009-04-11. (subscription required)
• "Headstone put on L.I. grave of the Nixons' dog Checkers". The New York Times. December 31, 1964. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
• "Primary Sources: Checkers speech". pbs.org. WGBH Educational Foundation. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
• "Press reaction to Nixon is split" (PDF). The Washington Post. September 25, 1952. Retrieved 2009-04-25. (subscription required)

Further reading

• Mattson, Kevin (2012). Just Plain Dick: Richard Nixon's Checkers Speech and the "Rocking, Socking" Election of 1952. New York: Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-1-60819-812-2.

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

External links

• 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
• SawieV/sandbox at IMDb

Category:Animals in politics Category:Political scandals in the United States Category:Speeches by Richard Nixon Category:1952 in American politics Category:United States presidential election, 1952 Category:1952 works