His Seventh Crisis: Richard Nixon So Calls His Humiliating Loss, and Final Press Conference, in the 1962 California Governor’s Race 

After Nixon lost the 1960 presidential election, and in the midst of his 1962 gubernatorial run, he wrote the immensely popular book, “Six Crises.” The book is part autobiography and part political memoir, and it focuses upon what Nixon considered to be the six greatest moments of his political career up to 1961.

The first crisis was the infamous “Hiss Case” in 1948, which elevated Nixon – then an unknown junior Congressman – into national prominence. In that case, Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist-turned-AntiCommunist magazine editor, accused Alger Hiss, a high-ranking member of the State Department, of being a Communist spy for the USSR. The case made national headlines, and Nixon – a member of a congressional committee investigating Communism in the US – used the case as a springboard to the US Senate. The second crisis occurred during Nixon’s first Vice-Presidential campaign in 1952, when he was accused by the press of being a crook who took bribes. Eisenhower considered forcing Nixon to resign as his running mate, but Nixon saved his career with the famous “Checkers” speech on national television. The third crisis happened in 1955 when President Eisenhower had a serious heart attack, and until he recovered Vice-President Nixon had to be the “acting President” for a few weeks. In 1958 Vice-President Nixon and his wife Pat made a “goodwill” tour to South America, but were attacked and nearly killed by pro-Communist mobs in Venezuela – thus the fourth crisis. The fifth crisis came a year later when Nixon went to Moscow, where he engaged in a famous debate with Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev in a mock American “kitchen” that had been set up to show Russians how the ordinary American family lived. Although the debate was heated, most observers felt that Nixon had gotten the better of Krushchev.

The last crisis was the legendary 1960 presidential campaign between Vice-President Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy, a race he lost by a hair, and a thin hair at that. What really made this book so popular was what it revealed about Nixon the man – his emphasis on handling “crises”, his desire to maintain his self-control during those crises, and the way in which he managed the events.

Although at the time California was a Republican state, and one that he had carried in 1960, in November 1962 Nixon lost his gubernatorial race to Edmund (Pat) Brown. He was bitter, and on November 7, 1962, following his loss, he appeared before reporters at his famous “last press conference,” where Nixon lashed out at the media, proclaiming that “You won’t have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” Nixon’s electoral loss in his home state, combined with his actions at the press conference, were seen at the time as permanently damaging his chances at playing a role in national politics.

That Nixon clearly saw this loss as his Seventh crisis is fascinating, and it is a reference we have never seen before. This book “Six Crises,” Doubleday and Company, 1962, signed and inscribed on the first free end page, “To Florence and Olin Wellborn with grateful appreciation for their loyal support in my seventh crisis! Dick Nixon.” The Wellborns are listed as donors to his 1962 campaign.