Birth: January 9, 1913, Yorba Linda, California
Death: April 22, 1994, New York, New York
Early Influences:
- Mother was a devout Quaker
- Father owned a gas station
- Served in the navy during World War II
Education:
- Attended public school
- Entered Whittier College at age 17
- Graduated second in his class in 1934 and received a scholarship to Duke University Law School
- Graduated third in his class from Duke in 1937
Major Accomplishments:
- Won a seat in the US House of Representatives as a virtual unknown in 1946
- Helped draft the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947
- Only freshman member of the House to be sent to visit post-war Europe
- Prominent in the Alger Hiss case while serving on the House Un-American Activities Committee
- Became US Senator in 1950
- Ran and won as Eisenhower's vice-president in 1952 and 1956
- Won the Presidency in 1968
- Gradually disengaged American from the war in Vietnam
- Made a trip to China to work towards opening it up for trade
Significance:
- As Vice-President, provided important party leadership during the troubling McCarthy era
- Traveled abroad as Vice-President numerous times, including his famous trip to Moscow where he had his 'Kitchen Debate' with Nikita Khrushchev
- Made his historic trip to China where he began trade talks
- Caused a major loss in trust among the American people for the president because of his association with and eventual resignation because of the Watergate scandal
Contemporaries:
- Nikita Khrushchev - Soviet Premier
- Mao Zedong - Communist leader of China
- Joseph McCarthy - US Senator
