10. Richard Nixon's Childhood

Do you know why Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, paid an informal visit to China in 1972, a visit which made it possible for the United States to build a better relationship with China? Nixon has always been regarded as a man of great talent and strong will. Do you want to know what helped to form these characteristics? The following passage will tell you about Nixon's early life.

One way in which both Frank and Hannah did show their love was in their willingness to make sacrifices for their children. As parents, they were devoted to ensuring that their sons obtained the best possible education. At an early age they concentrated their efforts on Richard, as he showed most signs of being a talented and perhaps even a gifted child.

The making of the early mind of Richard Nixon owed most to his mother. If her marriage had not cut short her college education she would have become a teacher. She was a well-educated young woman, proficient in Greek, Latin, German and French, with a deep interest in European culture.

Hannah taught Richard to read before he went to infant school and awakened his interest in her own specialized areas of classics, languages, and history. By the age of five he had become an eager reader of children's encyclopedias, history stories and adult periodicals.

Hannah opened Richard's mind to European culture; she started him off in French and German, introduced him to Shakespeare and trained him to recite poetry. Hannah was, above all, a classicist. She believed that Latin was the fountainhead of language, and that the ancient historians and orators were the masters of clear expression. Under his mother's instruction classics had a strong influence on Richard's childhood imagination.

Besides expanding Richard's mental curiosity and capabilities far beyond the interests of the average five year old, Hannah drilled into him the importance of working hard in order to grow up to be somebody. A small clue to her strong desire for her second son was her attempt to stop the use of the nickname Dick as too foolish, perhaps, for a future man of importance. 'By the way Miss George, please call my son Richard and never Dick. I named him Richard,' Hannah told his school-teacher on the day he entered the elementary school. Miss Mary George never forgot this request—one of the many reasons why this little boy was rather different from the others in her class. Her recollections of Richard Nixon's early progress are revealing.

"He was a very quiet, studious boy and kept mostly to himself ... he was one of those rare individuals born with knowledge. He only had to be exposed or shown and he never forgot ... he absorbed knowledge of any kind ... in that year he read no less than thirty or forty books, maybe more, besides doing all of his other work ... he never had to work for knowledge at all. He was told something and he never forgot. He has a photographic mind, I think."

Although this early judgment of Richard's ability by his first schoolmistress may be too flattering, nevertheless Miss George's reference to the photographic quality of his mind showed much insight. The phrase 'photographic memory' falls too easily from the tongue and is rarely accurate, but what can be said with certainty of Richard Nixon is that he was blessed with a very good memory. For various reasons it has often suited him during his career to downplay this remarkable gift. During his life he preferred to brush aside discussion of this talent with the comment, 'My memory is very good only for a simple reason—I worked at it.' However he acquired it, there is little doubt that this capacity for remembering information of every description, from names, facts and figures to speeches and documents, was fundamental to his later political success.

'He was a very quiet child and rarely ever smiled or laughed', recalled his schoolteacher Miss George. 'I have no recollection of him playing with others in the playground, which undoubtedly he did ... like other youngsters in mild weather Richard always came barefoot. Every day he wore a freshly cleaned white shirt with a big black bow tie and knee pants. He always looked like his mother had scrubbed him from head to toe. The funny thing is, I can never remember him ever getting dirty.'

The one person who could bring Richard out of his shell was his elder brother Harold, the oldest son in the family. Harold was a daredevil, a charmer, an outgoing risk-taker who loved danger, excitement, rough and tumble. Richard hero-worshipped his elder brother. Never quick-moving himself, he found it difficult to match the pace set by Harold as they raced off together into adventures. Their physical inequality was painfully apparent. Richard would tumble down, cut his knees, run out of breath, yet never quit in his struggles to keep up with his stronger brother. The first signs that Richard was going to be a great competitor and a great trier were displayed in his childhood relationship with Harold.

One other close relative who had a major impact on Richard was his grandmother, Almira Milhous. She had strong passions for history, for poetry, for racial equality and especially for educating the young. This last interest made her a good communicator with her thirty-two grandchildren. Having been a schoolteacher before her marriage, Almira had a good eye for the brightest child in the class and she quickly spotted that of all her descendants, Richard Nixon had the most talent for absorbing knowledge. She was the first person ever to say, 'That boy will one day be a leader.' Although she tried to be careful not to single him out for special treatment at family gatherings, it was nevertheless noticed that Almira was 'especially attached to Richard'.

At her knee he read her history books, absorbed her firm belief in Republicanism, and came to share her admiration for Gandhi, Lincoln and other peacemakers whose biographies she gave to him. Above all, Richard absorbed from his grandmother certain key values that stayed with him throughout his life. 'A passion for peace and a passion for privacy' was his summary of his Milhous heritage. He could well have added 'a passion for hard work'.

Richard Nixon grew up to be an industrious as well as a clever boy. The old saying that genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration was applicable to him. When he was ten, Grandmother Almira gave Richard a poem.

Work!

Thank God for the might of it

The ardor, the urge, the delight of it

Work that springs from the heart's desire

Setting the brain and the soul on fire

Abridged from Nixon, A Life by Jonathan Aithken

first published in 1993.