What was the deal? U.S. Senator Richard Nixon was nominated for vice-president in 1952, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s running mate. The two Republicans ran against Democratic candidates Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. Nixon had earned a reputation as a strong anti-Communist crusader, which he believed was an asset to him during the campaign. Nixon also criticized Stevenson and the Democrats for being unethical, corrupt, and out of touch with the average American citizen.
In the middle of the autumn campaign a newspaper reported allegations that Senator Nixon was hiding an $18,000 secret political fund, paid for by millionaire supporters. After criticizing the Democrats for corruption and a cozy relationship with wealthy donors, these accusations made Nixon appear, at best, hypocritical and, at worst, corrupt himself. Many urged Nixon to quit the campaign.
What did he say? A full transcript and audio of Nixon's speech, delivered 60 years ago tonight, can be found here and the first part of the speech video can be found at the top of this post and Part 2, including the famous passage about Checkers, is here.
How did he do? Knowing that his bosses seemed to want him to fail, the Senator from California brought the house, as they say in football. At least a dozen different self-defense strategies are employed and most were pretty effective with 1952 Americans. The speech has a three part structure with each part performing an important rhetorical function. First, Nixon addresses the merits of the scandal--the fund. In a straightforward and clearly supported series of denials, he claims innocence on three key points: (1) The fund was not secret; (2) The fund was not for Nixon's personal use; and (3) Nixon paid no political favors to fund contributors. For many citizens, these issues constituted the heart of the matter and Nixon's lack of equivocation in his denials early in the address probably eased viewers' minds and made them receptive to the rest of his argument. This section also serves as an extended use of differentiation strategy, as Nixon sets forth the conditions under which such a fund would be "morally wrong" and then indicates that his behavior falls far short of each condition. Nixon ends this first section by quoting from a Price Waterhouse independent audit and legal opinion that confirms Nixon's innocence. The latter was rendered by the law firm of Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, which is still going strong as can be seen here, although Crutcher apparently is no longer needed.
The second part of the speech is a remarkable recounting of the Senator's financial status, which he, somewhat breathlessly, reminds viewers was "unprecedented in the history of American politics." He launches into "a complete financial history, everything I've earned, everything I've spent, everything I own." "Complete" is an understatement as Nixon literally begins with "I was born in 1913" and continues on...and on...and on...working the family grocery store, marriage, military service, and a listing of assets and debts that includes an Oldsmobile car and specific dollar amounts, right down to the 4 percent interest he pays on a loan from his parents. But his accounting saves the best for last. After concluding that what he has "isn't very much," Nixon adds that his wife Pat (who actually is sitting about 10 feet away from Nixon during the entire speech, as is seen in the video) "doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I always tell her she'd look good in anything." This line reveals both (1) how much the GOP brand has changed in the last six decades, and (2) that "Tricky Dick" had some "Slick Willie" in him at this early stage in his career. This entire section operates as one giant bolstering strategy, as Nixon connects himself to the positive appeal of the common and humble self-made man. This works both as a contrast to Stevenson and Sparkman and offers further evidence that he had not feathered his own nest (Nixon's phrase) with millionaire slush fund cash.
And then it happens. Nixon has one last financial revelation up his sleeve and he sets it up like a seasoned storyteller: "One other thing I probably should tell you, because if I don't they'll probably be saying this about me too." If you watch the video, you'll notice master thespian Nixon wearily touch his forehead in a pained expression that underscores his inner turmoil. As the audience ponders what terrible transgression the VP nominee is about to confess, Nixon relates the now-legendary There is a third part to this speech, but at this point Nixon, having established his populist, puppy-loving cred, pivots to campaign attack mode, linking his Democratic rivals to the spread of corruption and Communism in Washington. It's a heaping helping of attack the accuser strategy served with a side of transcendence strategy as Nixon makes his puny little slush fund troubles pale in comparison to government-wide political graft and worldwide Soviet domination. By the time the speaker generously refuses to cash a $10 check mailed in by a 19 year old soldier's wife, Nixon is running up the score and showboating his oratorical genius. If you watch the video, it's interesting to note how during this part of the speech Nixon is no longer seated behind the desk but is standing out front, his delivery more dynamic and passionate, marking the shift from personal humility to political hatchet man.
Final Call? Cakewalk. Nixon left it to the RNC to decide whether he should remain on the ticket with Ike but also urged viewers to let the party chiefs know how they felt (jurisdiction strategy). Letters and postcards supporting Nixon flooded the RNC and the Senator was soon elected vice president. This speech worked because Nixon abandoned all ego and left nothing to chance--a lesson lost on many public figures. Despite the rather quaint (by today's standards) amount of money at the center of the scandal and the silliness of family pet references, the "Checkers" speech had enormous ramifications for our country. First, it saved Richard Nixon's political career, without which the U.S. would have been spared the national trauma of Watergate. Okay, maybe there's a bit of "butterfly effect" in that linkage but I think it's reasonable. Second, as communication scholars Stephen E. Lucas and Martin J. Medhurst rightly point out in their excellent book Words of a Century: The Top 100 American Speeches, 1900-1999: "At a time when Americans were beginning to fall in love with television, [the Checkers speech] also demonstrated the potential power of the new medium for political communication, a development fraught with implications for the future of American public discourse and civic life."
