Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. His presidency was marked by significant foreign policy initiatives, including opening relations with China and pursuing détente with the Soviet Union.¹

Pre-Presidential Activities

Prior to his presidency, Nixon cultivated relationships with influential figures. He was often seen at Clint Murchison, Sr.'s Hotel Del Charro in La Jolla, California, during the 1950s, alongside J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy.³ In 1961, after losing the presidential election to JFK, Clint Murchison, Sr. sold Nixon a lot in Beverly Hills for $35,000, a transaction financed through a Hoffa loan. Nixon subsequently sold this lot two years later for $86,000.³

As Vice President in 1960, Nixon served as the White House's liaison to the CIA's Cuban operations, a period during which the CIA initiated a series of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro.³ Bebe Rebozo was also identified as a close associate of Nixon.³

Nuclear Policy and Israel

During his presidency, Israel received warmer treatment and support compared to the later Carter administration.² Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger approached inauguration day on January 20, 1969, convinced that Israel's nuclear ambitions were justified and understandable. Once in office, they endorsed Israel's nuclear ambitions. They also shared a contempt for the 1968 Nonproliferation Treaty. Nixon, midway in his campaign against Hubert H. Humphrey, urged the Senate to delay ratification of the NPT until after the election, expressing concern about its failure to permit the transfer of "defensive nuclear weapons" to non-nuclear powers.²

In the secrecy of their offices, Nixon and Kissinger simultaneously issued a presidential order (National Security Decision Memorandum No. 6) undercutting their public statements. This document stated that there should be no efforts by the United States government to pressure other nations, particularly West Germany, to ratify the NPT. The government's public posture was to reflect optimism that other countries would sign or ratify, while privately disassociating itself from any plan to bring pressure on these countries.²

This new policy led to the end of the Floyd Culler inspections of Dimona in 1969. The Nixon administration made a judgment that would become American policy for the next two decades: Israel had gone nuclear, and there was nothing the United States could—or wanted to—do about it.²

Unusual Intelligence Incidents

Nixon's administration also saw the continuation of covert intelligence programs. In the early 1970s, he made a strange complaint to the CIA, as testified by Sidney Gottlieb, claiming that he and his staff experienced "inappropriate tears and crying" during a visit to a "potentially hostile country." ¹

Later Connections

Later, Alan Michael May, who had served as a former Northern California field director in Nixon's presidential campaign and as an attorney for Nixon's brothers, was found dead in San Francisco on June 19, 1991. This occurred four days after a newspaper story outlined May's alleged role in a plot by Republican Party officials to bribe Iranian officials to delay the release of U.S. hostages until after Ronald Reagan's inauguration.³