Checkers speech

The Checkers speech was an address made by then United States Senator and Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon on television and radio on September 23, 1952. Senator Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. With his place on the Republican ticket in doubt, the senator flew to Los Angeles and delivered a half hour television address in which he defended himself, attacked his opponents, and urged the audience to contact the Republican National Committee (RNC) to tell it whether or not he should remain on the ticket. During the speech, he stated that regardless of what anyone said, he intended to keep one gift—a black-and-white dog which was named Checkers by the Nixon children, thus giving the address its popular name.

Nixon, as he related in his address, came from a family of moderate means, and had spent most of his time after law school either in the military, campaigning for office, or serving in Congress. After his successful 1950 Senate campaign, Nixon's backers continued to raise money in order to finance his political activities. These contributions went to reimburse the senator for travel costs, postage for political mailings which he did not have franked, and similar expenses. Such a fund was not illegal at the time, but it exposed Senator Nixon, who had made a point of attacking government corruption, to charges he might be giving special favors to the contributors.

In September 1952, two months after Nixon's selection as General Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate, the press became aware of the fund. In a matter of a few days, the story grew until the controversy threatened Nixon's place on the ticket. In an attempt to turn the tide of public opinion, Nixon broke off a whistle-stop tour of the West Coast and flew to Los Angeles to make a televised broadcast to the nation, for which television time was purchased by the RNC. Nixon got the idea for the Checkers reference from Franklin Roosevelt's Fala speech—given eight years to the day before Nixon's address—in which President Roosevelt mocked Republican claims that he had sent a destroyer to fetch his dog, Fala, when the dog was supposedly left behind in the Aleutian Islands.

Nixon's speech was heard by about sixty million Americans, and led to an outpouring of public support for him; a huge majority of the millions of telegrams and phone calls received by the RNC and other political offices were in favor of the senator. He was retained on the ticket, which swept to victory in November 1952, keeping Nixon on the path which would lead to his own election as President sixteen years later. The Checkers speech was an early example of a politician using television to appeal directly to the electorate, but has since sometimes been mocked or denigrated. "Checkers speech" has come more generally to mean any emotional speech by a politician.