Donald A. Nixon

Donald A. Nixon, Jr. is the son of President Richard Nixon’s brother, F. Donald Nixon.

Donald Nixon, Jr., grew up in Southern California as the nephew of President Richard Nixon. He attended college and later served in the Vietnam War. Upon his return from Vietnam, in his mid 20s, Nixon was encouraged by his parents and uncle to take a job working in finance, and was connected with financier Robert Vesco in Europe. Jack Anderson wrote an article that newspapers printed on October 30, 1973,^[1] revealing that Don Nixon, Jr., while he was in Geneva, had written a letter to Howard Hughes personal advisor John H. Meier, whom he knew, angry at the President in regards to having to associate with Vesco. “This place is beginning to get me down due to the people I have to work with. Gil Straub (a Vesco executive) is an ok guy, but this Vesco fella and I don’t get it on. Oh well, I got myself into this by letting my parents and the great god in the White House pull wool over my eyelids…”, and that “I’ll know where I fit in to this organization in the next couple of weeks, that is, if I don’t happen to kill Vesco first…”

Over time, Mr. Vesco developed a relationship with Donald Nixon, Jr., and later allegedly used that relationship to route substantial political contributions to Richard Nixon in hopes of avoiding prosecution on charges of embezzlement by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the mid 1990s, Nixon once again encountered Vesco while working with the Cuban government on clinical trials for an immunity-boosting drug. Nixon engaged Vesco in the project, as he was living in Cuba and had ties to the government. The clinical trials yielded positive results, however Vesco attempted to defraud Nixon and Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul Castro, which led to Nixon and Vesco being detained by government authorities on May 31, 1995. Nixon was released on July 2, 1995.^[2] Vesco, however, was convicted of “economic crimes against the state” and in 1996 was sentenced to thirteen years in jail.

Jack Anderson had reported that they had several affidavits from individuals who had sworn that they heard F. Donald Nixon say he never was involved with any business deals without the permission of his brother, the President. The White House denied any veto power over F. Donald Nixon’s activities. One of Donald Nixon, Jr.’s letters to John Meier, however^[3] seemed to agree with the affidavits. On November 1971, Donald Nixon, Jr. wrote to Meier saying “So far, I’ve met with some pretty interesting people and have hopes of doing business with them. One of them is an American citizen, but was born in Peking and has the OK from the WH for me to do business with him”. It was believed that “WH” meant the White House.

References

1. ^ Nephew Reported Angry at Nixon on Vesco Job, Jack Anderson, October 30, 1973
2. ^ Nixon Nephew Free to Go, The New York Times, July 2, 1995
3. ^ Peace, War, and Politics: An Eyewitness Account, written by Jack Anderson, 1999, Tom Doherty Associates, ISBN 0-312-87497-9

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Name	Nixon, Donald A.
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