Richard M. Nixon for President with Ribbon and Fob

After losing the 1960 presidential election against John Fitzgerald Kennedy, few thought that Richard Milhous Nixon (1913 - 1994) would run and eventually win a presidential election. In 1968, the country was embroiled in the Vietnam War and had suffered the political assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Francis Kennedy. There were race riots and anti-war demonstrations on campuses; the nation was divided. This was reflected in the 1968 Republican candidate's campaign, where Nixon called repeatedly for “law and order.”

Nixon's voters were called the “silent majority,” made up primarily of World War II veterans, and young people in the Midwest, West, South, many of whom served in Vietnam. The withdrawal of Lyndon Johnson's reelection bid and the protests at the Democratic Convention in Chicago because of the Vietnam War also helped Nixon in his pursuit of the White House.  

During the 1968 campaign, Nixon, and collaborators like Roger Ailes, a producer from the Mike Douglas Show, developed the image of a “New Nixon” that was less combative, more mature, and presidential through a series of managed interviews and TV ads. Nixon won by a margin of less than one percent. Nevertheless, Democrats kept control of House and the Senate.