[nopardons]

No, the Commies and other assorted lefties had been after him since he beat Helen Gahagn Douglas, for the Senate seat from California. She had been a "starlette" ( she was in the remake of SHE and it was a lousy movie! ), married Melvin Douglas and went into politics. She absolutely WAS a stinking "PINKO" and Mr. Nixon printed an anti-Gahagan-Douglas flyer on pink paper, which made their heads explode; especially because he beat her.

And yes, there were damned RINOs back then as well, who were anti-Nixonians. They and the lefties NEVER stopped harassing him and doing EVERYTHING they could ( including trying to make Ike ditch him, as his running mate for Ike's second term ! ) to trash/get rid of him.

The idiotic beginnings of that failed impeachment took just about THREE decades.

What did poor Mr. Nixon in, was that damned tapping...which every single president, from FDR down, had engaged in!

[Publius]

No, the Commies and other assorted lefties had been after him since he beat Helen Gahagn Douglas, for the Senate seat from California.

No, it started four years earlier in 1946 when he defeated Rep. Jerry Voorhis of the 12th District, a darling of the Left.

[livius]

I’d forgotten about Helen Gahagn Douglas. Yes, it’s true that they hated Nixon long before he got to be president.

Personally, I think there were excesses in the HUAC hearings, but on the other hand, most of those people identified as Communists actually were Communists and were either actively working for the Soviets or were enabling Communism as “fellow travelers” (although I think “useful idiots” may have been a better term). Then as now, except that Russia finally saw the light - but Communists in the US are still Communists, no matter what they call themselves.