ng his seat in Congress, he became the junior member of the infamous House Committee on un-American Activities. Nixon's determined pursuit of Alger Hiss, a former adviser to Franklin Roosevelt and one of the organizers of the United Nations, brought him national exposure. Hiss had been accused of being a communist and of transmitting secret State Department documents to the Soviets. Though many believed him innocent, Nixon fiercely pushed the case forward eventually getting Hiss convicted of perjury and jailed. At the age of thirty-five, Nixon was a national figure, and he rode this fame to an easy victory in his senate race against three-term Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950, once again adopting a communist baiting campaign strategy. He accused Ms. Douglas, who opposed the activities of the House un-American Activities Committee, of being "pink right down to her underwear." Nixon was only in the US Senate for a year and a half when, in 1952, the Republican national convention selected him to be General Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate. Most of Nixon's success to that point had been built on the political and personal ruination of his honest Democratic foes. He was expected to do much of the same type of campaigning, leaving Eisenhower to take the "high road," remaining pure and untarnished by messy politicking. Nixon performed his task admirably, casting doubt on the abilities and patriotism of his and Eisenhower's Democratic opponent, Adlai Stevenson.Nixon himself had to face close scrutiny during the campaign, when the New York Post announced that he had received secret campaign contributions from wealthy sources, he was nearly pushed off the ticket. Instead of giving up, Nixon went on national, prime time television and appealed directly to the voters. He delivered what has come to be known as the "Checkers Speech," fully exposing his financial situation and revealing that he was not a wealthy man. The speec...
