nixon's family. there are significant topics covered for the first time. this included frank and hanna nixon's personal biography and background, the tragic death of two brothers, arthur, who died in 1925 at age 7, and harold, who died in 1933 at age 23. gardner also discussed the religious background, the quaker heritage of the nixon family and explored nixon's wartime experience in the united states navy. "fighting quaker" was a useful resource for a number of future nixon biographebiographers. during the vice presidential years richard nixon received surprisingly favorable coverage, he was friends with several journalists and allowed access to his office and files which helped the biographers. earl mazo wrote "nixon a political and personal portrait" game out in 1959 and there's new information about nixon's active duty in the south pacific and it's where he claimed that poker winnings financed the first congressional race in 1946. i'd like to point out the memoirs came out in 1978 and this is important work. released four years after his resignation. served as an instrume

this was something that frank nixon was in the habit of doing. richard bought a brand new olds mobile and drove it home. this was a wonderful bonding opportunity for the two brothers. in conclusion, richard nixon attracted loyal partisans garnering more individual votes and candidates than any other american politician. conversely, he repelled allegiant of detractors. nixon's biographers split into opposing camps as well offering highly objective perspectives. objectivity is not a prevailing characteristic involving the biographical coverage, for the most part. this is certainly manifested in national tur of the materials i reviewed in the prepolitical years. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> ladies and gentlemen, i have news for you. richard nixon was no new dealer. having studied the congressional and vice presidential periods of nixon's political career, a question crossed my mind or a thought crossed my mind. it happens once in a while. what are the true roots of nixon's or at least young nixon's political ideology. i have a few ideas. on

the final will be perspective from someone within the nixon administration, frank gannon. he received his doctor of philosophy from 1971 through 1974. he accompanied to san clemente aboard air force 1 and organized the research and writing. >> good morning, everybody. i would like to thank the nixon library and the staff for their hospitality in welcoming the group today. also i want to acknowledge the editor of the companion to richard nixon project. the work turned out nicely. my task for the project was to assess the bigraph cal coverage from 1913 to 1945. focused on the accuracy and reliability of the work and look to see if bias was apparent. in the early works, the statements are unattributed regularly. my chapter was organized chronologically and works spanning from 1952 to 2009 for the companion. i am looking at trends in bigraph cal coverage of richard nixon. the first full-length biography was fining quaker and he wrote 1952. he was a former publicist and whittier college graduate. the work was never published. the only ones were in the special collections. he coo

of the material that's in there, and i'm so far over my point that nixon was a no new dealer and frank nixon voted for fighting bob and he did vote for fdr 32 and nixon's great hero nationally because he had adm e admired his career. he had followed his career before he went into the navy and in the south pacific he met saasen. and from that meeting, i think he brought mail with him, but he was going on a good will tour to the troops and nixon in the '48 convention was the man and one of nationson's other great memories from the war was that even talking to me in the '70s that he remembered fondly was siegel nor roosevelt. he didn't know who it was. he knew there was a jeep convoy and he sort of craned his neck to see who it was and riding in the back of the jeep with no particular protection was eleanor roosevelt and he'd never seen a first lady and that made a great impression on him. the -- >> i think the early life is -- i'm very partial to it. both in the terms of the formation of nixon, his character and his ideas. and gary wilkes writes about going down to yorba linda and he talks abo

again, i'm so far over my head but frank nixon, i think, voted for fighting bob and did vote for fdr in '32. nixon's great hero initially, because he had admired his career, harold stasson, the boy governor, and he had followed his career before he went into the navy. and then in the south pacific, he met stasson. and from that meeting, stasson was going through, and i think he actually brought mail with him. but he was going through on a good will tour to the troops. and that made a great impression on nixon. and nixon at the '48 convention was a stasson man. one of his other great memories of the war, even talking to me in the '70s, that he remembered fondly was seeing eleanor roosevelt. he didn't know who it was. he knew that there was a jeep convoy. and he sort of craned his neck to see who it was. and riding in the back of the jeep with no particular protection was eleanor roosevelt. and he had never seen a first lady. and that made a great impression on him. the -- i think the early life -- i'm very partial to it. both in the terms of the formation of nixon's character and his i

frank. he's still a friend. so anyway, the question then in my mind was should i call nixon right away and tell him. i decided, no, it would be better to not tell him because he's going to need a lot of sharpness the next day. then i didn't call him. then after a while i decided i should call haldeman and wake him up so i decided to tell him about it. during that night, i thought wallace had been shot at. and this had happened. and if you're going to be in a campaign, you got to decide whether you're going to be afraid to be next to the candidate or not, you're going to be a fatalist. i decided if you're going to stay in the campaign, you better forget about whatever danger there is, just figure that life will take care of itself and do what you need to do. and it's been part of my philosophy for my life since that time. but all occurred that night. >> earlier that year -- >> the other thing. what actually happened with nixon was that julie and david were watching and they decided to wake up their father so they had told him about it so he knew about it. during the middle of the night, the secret se

frank gannon. i can't resist asking about the role of formality in mr. nixon's behavior as president. i remember the question of john ehrlich, have you ever seen him without a suit? i spoke to mr. nugson and he said that even when they went to visit his mother he was wearing a suit. what was it about wearing a formal attire, i think it was generational and it was lots of thicks and it was just what people did. a lot of people did, and i can remember as an undergraduate like 50s and early '60s. everyone wore a jacket and tie so it wasn't that unusual and he did have this infinite degrees within a single color and a palette and there were infinite degrees of formality and informality and it's generational which i don't think is weird about it. he would have smoking jackets that were for relaxation and he would have sports jackets, when he'd go out and golf he'd wear slacks and a polo shirt. the image was nailed down by the unfortunate walk on the beach in wing 10s, so it can be overdone, and on the weekends, we did work, and i can remember one of my favorite phone calls was frank. i kno

frank gannon. i can't resist asking about the role of formality in mr. nixon's behavior, particularly as president. i remember the telling question of john air lick man. have you ever seen mr. nixon without a suit? the answer was no. i spoke with a secret service agent who served with mr. nixon in san clemente. he said that even when they went to visit his mother, he was wearing a suit. what was it about wearing formal attire was so important to the president and his manner? >> i don't think it was important to him. i think it was just -- i mean, i think it was generational. it was lots of things. but it was just what people did. a lot of people did. i can remember as an undergraduate of late '50s and early '60s, everybody wore coat and tie, jacket and tie. so it wasn't that unusual. he did have -- there was a very fine -- an artist, i guess, this infinite degrees within a single color and a palette, and there were infinite degrees of nixon' sartorial formality and informality. again, i think it's generational. i don't think there's anything weird about it. he w