With accusations of misappropriating public funds, Richard Nixon needed something big to save his career. This came in the form of a dog and his televised letter. In this address, he successfully won the public’s hearts and showed them a different side of him. Rather than resigning in disgrace, Richard Nixon was able to survive for several more years and eventually become the president of the United States.
Nixon’s Checkers Televised Letter
During Richard Nixon’s 1952 vice-presidential campaign, he was accused of misappropriating campaign funds. Instead of using this money in his campaign alongside Dwight D. Eisenhower, the rumors claimed that he was using it for personal use. Richard Nixon faced immense public pressure to drop out of the race and allow someone else to run.
Instead of bowing to public pressure, the future vice president would do something few at the time would try, talking in a televised letter. In his now famous “Checkers Speech” on September 23, 1952, Nixon would speak directly to the people to address these rumors.
Here Nixon insisted that he had taken no campaign funds and that the accusations leveled against him were untrue. But more than that, Nixon claimed he had only ever accepted one gift in his political career, a dog named Checkers who had been given to him by a supporter. Nixon insisted that he would refuse to give back this dog due to how much his family, especially his daughter loved it.
This wasn’t only one of the first televised letters, it also became an effective rallying cry for people who felt emotional after Nixon’s appeal. The surge in support was enough for Nixon to remain on the ticket and eventually become vice president and later president.
An expert from the televised letter can be found here.
“One other thing I should probably tell you, because if I 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 the 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 and white, spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—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.”
-Richard Nixon, Former Vice-President.
Nixon wasn’t the only one on this team capable of using modern technology to sway people. Although he didn’t use a televised letter, his running mate, Eisenhower was known to have used radio and letters to inspire his troops such as during D-Day.
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