--- title: President Richard M. Nixon Impeachment: Facts from TIME's 1952 Cover description: Before Watergate, there was "a smelly, cannibalistic brood of minks" canonical: https://time.com/3079683/richard-nixon-resignation-anniversary-watergate/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-06T11:00:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:57.569Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Richard M. Nixon Impeachment: Facts from TIME's 1952 Cover og:description: Before Watergate, there was "a smelly, cannibalistic brood of minks" og:url: https://time.com/3079683/richard-nixon-resignation-anniversary-watergate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8755d3af477bb1/69869e4455a859e421a820a5/1101520825_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 400 og:image:height: 225 og:image:alt: TIME Cover Aug. 25, 1952: Richard Nixon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Richard M. Nixon Impeachment: Facts from TIME's 1952 Cover twitter:description: Before Watergate, there was "a smelly, cannibalistic brood of minks" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8755d3af477bb1/69869e4455a859e421a820a5/1101520825_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 9 Things You Didn't Know About Richard Nixon > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fa299bfb-e526-4ca7-9c0d-84ba23c7cba4&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Nixon Talks Panda Sex (March 13, 1972) [Watch (HLS stream): Nixon Talks Panda Sex (March 13, 1972)](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kVHPJq4E.m3u8) (3:01)  _Published 2014-07-28. Nixon Talks Panda Sex (March 13, 1972)_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 6, 2014 11:00 AM UTC  Boris Chaliapin for TIME  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 6, 2014 11:00 AM UTC This week marks the 40th anniversary of the resignation of President Richard Nixon, the milestone for which the scandal-plagued politician is best remembered. But in 1952, when not-yet-President Nixon [first appeared](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,816768,00.html) on [the cover of TIME magazine](http://time.com/3080127/nixons-time-magazine-covers/), the scandal was decades away. He was a relatively young man, 39, whose political career was just taking off. Having successfully moved from the House to the Senate, he was the Republican nominee for Vice President, a man whose background could have still been unknown to readers. In hindsight, it’s hard not to see foreboding or irony in the story that appeared under the headline “Fighting Quaker.” For example, his mother, the piece notes, preferred not to call the police on shoplifters at their family’s store, thinking of the shame it would bring to their families; Nixon apparently internalized the harm that could be done by exposing wrongdoings. Did he think of the harm he would do when he was the one exposed? But it’s also easy to see why his life story would have been fascinating to voters. Here are nine things to know from [the 1952 cover story](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,816768,00.html). **He once worked as a carnival barker,** for the “wheel of fortune” at the Frontier Days Rodeo in Prescott, Ariz. The Nixon family spent time in Arizona for the health of older son Harold, who had tuberculosis. **His parents had a lemon grove in Yorba Linda, Calif.**—but, TIME noted, they would have rather grown oranges. (Nixon’s grandfather had moved to California from Indiana with the thought of growing the latter.) When the fruit farm proved “a lemon,” the family opened a general story in Whittier, Calif., called Nixon’s Market. **He played the piano and acted.** His family, devout Quakers, attended church services four times a week. The young Richard Nixon played piano for the Sunday school. When he returned to Whittier after law school, he returned to work at the Sunday school when not busy as a divorce lawyer. He also participated in community theater. He met his future wife, Pat Ryan, while playing a fictional attorney in _Night of January 16th,_ a play written by Ayn Rand. **His debating career began with bugs.** In a seventh grade boys-vs.-girls debate on the relative merits of insects, Nixon asked an uncle who was an entomologist for a list of good things about insects, thus helping the boys’ team convince the judges that “insects are more beneficial than harmful.” However, he would later find that bugs weren’t so great: While in the South Pacific with the Navy, he said, the only things that bothered him—despite being under fire—were “lack of sleep and the centipedes.” **He worked his way through college, and lived in “a shack” during law school.** While at Whittier College in his home town, he worked at Nixon’s Market. (He also helped his mom with the dishes, TIME noted, but that was probably not a paying gig.) After graduating, Nixon attended Duke University law school on scholarship, and lived “in a wooden patch a mile and a half from the campus” with three shack-mates. **He got into politics by answering a newspaper ad.** In 1945, a Republican group was looking for someone to run against a popular Congressman in California. They placed an ad, which was seen by a family friend of the Nixons, who called him up and suggested he give it a shot. **But that early political career was dogged by the stench of by cannibalistic minks.** When Dick and Pat Nixon moved back to California so he could run for office—they’d been in Baltimore before that—they ended up living next door to a family that owned “a smelly, cannibalistic brood of minks.” **He almost didn’t take the gig that got him national attention.** Once he got to Congress, Nixon was offered a spot on the House Un-American Activities Committee, which had a terrible reputation. He hesitated before accepting, but his role in sorting out the Alger Hiss scandal—in which TIME editor and former Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers identified the State Department’s Alger Hiss as a Communist—brought him to the national stage, and led the GOP to encourage him to run for Senate, which he did successfully. **He never went to the movies.** Never! If that’s not enough to demonstrate that he charmed some Republican voters, perhaps the letters section from the Sept. 15, 1952, issue will: “There is very little—if anything—that his opponents will find in his career to criticize,” wrote one reader. That opinion would have seemed vindicated when the fall came, as Eisenhower and Nixon took the White House. But, as history showed, another reader had a firmer grasp on the situation: “Surely I’m not the only TIME reader,” wrote George Brasington Jr. of Waycross, Ga., “who is now convinced that the GOP picked a lemon in ex-Lemon Picker Nixon.” [_Read more about Nixon in TIME’s archives_](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,816768,00.html) ## Transcript You get me, Mr, Crosby Noyes, of the Washington Star. Hello Mr Crosby Noyes, Mr President. How are you. Fine, thank you Sir. I don't have anything of earthshaking importance enough for your column, but I thought you'd be interested to know that, Most of your readers will be more interested in this, I'm afraid than what I say on International Ferret, or you say in your column, but I notice the Star had an editorial about our Pandas, Yes, And I think you'll be interested to know that I just told, Ziegler, at the morning briefing, so that it could make the afternoon edition of the Star, that Mrs Nixon and I. I decided that the pandas should go to the the zoo. Now, that's very good news indeed. Now I, I think you should know too that we've as you can imagine the requests from all over the country, that, that San Diego has a spot in the zoo, St. Louis, New York. Yeah. But we the, basically the this is the place for them from the standpoint, first it's a national zoo rather than a local and second, and this was the key thing, the reason we were waiting on it. The key thing is climate. the, the panda, of course we want to be sure they don't come up here and die and we find that the Larsham climate is somewhat more mild. In their usual habitat. But, but nevertheless, cold enough for, we think, for what they are. So. Yeah. So, in any event, you're, you're gonna get the, you're gonna get the pandas. We're gonna get both of them. Yeah, oh yes. Now, as a matter of fact. Let me tell you an interesting thing about their, you, you must know. [ LAUGH ] You can, you can [ UNKNOWN ] use on your own, if you want. [ INAUDIBLE ]. I was just talking to Bob [ UNKNOWN ], who talked to his Chinese hosts. And [ INAUDIBLE ] mating is very interesting. These are. It is a male and a female. huh. The problem with, the problem however with pandas is that they don't know how to mate. The only way they learn how is to watch other pandas mate, you see. [ LAUGH ] And so they're keeping them there a little while, leave your younger ones to sort of learn, you know, how it's done. Learn the ropes. Now. If they don't learn it, they'll get oer here, nothing'll happen. So, I guess what you should, should have your best reporter out there, to see. We certainly will. What we, what we have learned, and now that I've given you the story of pandas, let me let you get back to your more serious questions. [ LAUGH ] When are they arriving? April 1st. huh, when we, when we. Think about it the first. I just saw him sit there and he'd been you know, shrouded in mystery. As kind of the pandas are. And I kind of do know, the head of the nationals and took the muscots, and oxen over, and were trying to work it out. Although, I don't know whether he's bringing them back, or whether somebody else is. But, hi ho, there they are. But I can imagine that, that lou will get the biggest play in history. Yes, it will. They let in a lot of Fredos. Big deal . >> Yes sir . >> Okay . >> Thank you Mr. President . >> And I just want you to know we do pay attention to the editorials in the star. Now then, I'm glad to learn something . >> Okay, thank you. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3079683/richard-nixon-resignation-anniversary-watergate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3079683/richard-nixon-resignation-anniversary-watergate/"},"headline":"9 Things You Didn't Know About Richard Nixon","datePublished":"2014-08-06T11:00:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:57.569Z","description":"From his first TIME cover story","url":"https://time.com/3079683/richard-nixon-resignation-anniversary-watergate/","keywords":["Presidents","politics","White House","Richard Nixon","Cover","vice president","nixon","Impeachment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8755d3af477bb1/69869e4455a859e421a820a5/1101520825_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c8755d3af477bb1/69869e4455a859e421a820a5/1101520825_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME Cover Aug. 25, 1952: Richard Nixon","caption":"TIME Cover Aug. 25, 1952: Richard Nixon","creditText":"Boris Chaliapin for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/presidents/","name":"Presidents"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3079683/richard-nixon-resignation-anniversary-watergate/","name":"9 Things You Didn't Know About Richard Nixon"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Nixon Talks Panda Sex (March 13, 1972)","description":"Nixon Talks Panda Sex (March 13, 1972)","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/kVHPJq4E/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-28T20:59:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kVHPJq4E.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3079683/richard-nixon-resignation-anniversary-watergate/","duration":"PT3M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3079683/richard-nixon-resignation-anniversary-watergate/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```