15. An intensely paranoid individual, Richard Nixon was unable to let his guard down around even his closest relations, consequently seeing little of his young daughters and spying whilst President on his brother Donald
Although predating the Nixon presidency, spanning from 1969 until his resignation in 1974, Father’s Day – a day on which the contributions and efforts of one’s male parent(s) are celebrated – was signed into law as a permanent national holiday in 1972 by the 37th President of the United States. Whilst one might believe that this was due to the affections Nixon had for his own father, or that his children, Tricia and Julie, possessed for him, Richard Nixon was not the most paternal individual. Reportedly, Nixon rarely saw his own daughters during their childhoods, frequently sleeping at his office and spending little time with them during their formative years.
An immensely paranoid individual, with biographer Richard Reeves concluding “he assumed the worst in people and he brought out the worst in them”, Nixon’s relationship with his younger brother, Donald, was even worse. Having been loaned $205,000 by Howard Hughes in 1957 to bail out a drive-in restaurant in California, Donald’s debts and potential exposure to manipulation plagued Nixon during his political campaigns. After fearing Donald was being coerced into feeding information to the Watergate investigators, Nixon secretly hired a private investigator and even wiretapped his brother’s phone.