Six Crises is the first book written by Richard Nixon, who later became the thirty-seventh president of the United States. It was published in 1962, and it recounts his role in six major political situations.
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In 1948 Nixon was a member of the United States House of Representatives serving on the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating communism in the United States. He first rose to national prominence when the committee considered accusations that Alger Hiss, a high-ranking United States Department of State official, was a communist spy for the Soviet Union.
In 1952, as a member of the United States Senate, Nixon was the Vice Presidential running mate of Republican presidential nominee Dwight Eisenhower. After he was accused during the campaign of having an improper political fund, he saved his political career and his spot on Eisenhower's ticket by making a nationally televised speech, commonly known as the Checkers speech, in which he denied the charges and famously stated he would not be giving back one gift his family had received: a little dog named Checkers.
In 1955, while Nixon was vice president, President Eisenhower suffered a serious heart attack; during the next several weeks, Nixon was effectively an informal "acting president".
In 1958 Nixon and his wife made a tour of South America; while in Venezuela, their limousine was attacked by a rock-throwing mob.
In 1959, while still vice president, Nixon traveled to Moscow to engage in a debate with Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev. The debate took place in a mock kitchen that was intended to show Soviet citizens how ordinary American families lived.
In 1960, while finishing his second term as vice president, Nixon became the Republican nominee for President; in the general election he lost an extremely close race to Senator John F. Kennedy.