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Richard NixonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The “Checkers” speech was delivered in response to the Fund Crisis of 1952. Richard Nixon had been accused of accepting secret campaign donations from anonymous sources and of using these funds for his own personal expenses. This accusation brought turbulence to his campaign with Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had pledged to clean up corruption in Washington. This Fund Crisis generated significant conflict between Nixon and Eisenhower. Though Eisenhower showed public support for his running mate, pressure for Nixon to resign is what ultimately prompted him to make this address.
The 1952 election was the first in over 20 years in which there was no incumbent running for either president or vice president. Nonetheless, Eisenhower and Nixon tried to tie their Democratic opponents, Adlai Stevenson II and John Sparkman, to the perceived failures of the outgoing, Democratic Truman administration. As part of this strategy, Nixon frequently makes disparaging references in his speech to “the present Administration” (Paragraph 2). Later in the speech, he also pointedly claims that Stevenson has been selected for the presidency by Truman.
Eisenhower’s campaign strategy was designated internally as “K1C2,” for Korea, communism, and corruption. The plan was to take advantage of public dissatisfaction with the war in Korea (which had reached a stalemate after three years of bloody combat), fears around the spread of communism both globally and within the US, and accusations of corruption within the Truman administration. In this, they were aided by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had successfully convinced many Americans that the federal government was rife with communist sympathizers if not outright Soviet spies.
In the context of this anti-corruption campaign, the accusations of corruption against Nixon himself had the potential to be especially damaging. Prior to the speech, Eisenhower was rumored to be on the verge of asking Nixon to resign. In responding to the charges against himself, Nixon is also careful to turn the spotlight back on his opponents, taking the opportunity to reiterate his campaign’s three key themes: “Korea, Communism, and Corruption.”
The “Checkers” speech was broadcast on both television and radio, reaching a total audience of around 60 million people, including the largest audience of any single television event up to that time. Though Nixon himself was initially doubtful about its impact, it was a resounding success in generating public support for the embattled candidate. Nixon closed the speech by asking audience members to contact the Republican National Committee on his behalf, promising that he would resign from the campaign if the committee asked him to do so. Over one million people contacted the committee, and the flood of support likely swayed both the committee and Eisenhower to keep Nixon on the ticket. Nixon thus bypassed Eisenhower’s authority as head of the Republican Party, using public opinion to force the presidential candidate’s hand.
This event set a precedent for the use of television as a political tool. Before this address, the relatively new medium of television had not been widely used for direct political communications with the public. This speech gave politicians and strategists an early glimpse of the power of television, which allows politicians to appear as though they are speaking directly to individual voters while actually speaking to an immense audience. Nixon’s speech arguably contained numerous obfuscations and tactics of manipulation. He made frequent use, for example, of the rhetorical device of apophasis—criticizing his opponents’ alleged misdeeds by pointedly saying that he’s not going to criticize them. Nonetheless, he was overwhelmingly perceived as honest and trustworthy in large part because he appeared to be looking each member of his audience in the eye, and his body language and facial expressions conveyed sincerity.
While this medium allowed Nixon to be seen as personable and likeable in 1952, it also raised the standard for all political figures’ communication skills. It was no longer enough to know policy and procedure; television allowed for a face, body language, demeanor, and execution to be witnessed by the masses. The American people no longer read the speeches or heard them on the radio, instead, they witnessed and analyzed the person behind them. Soon after Nixon’s “Checkers” speech, many addresses and even debates were televised. Ironically, it was Nixon’s televised debate against Kennedy that may have cost him the presidential election of 1960.