by David Borgenicht and Turk Regan
popular prankster Dick Tuck began tormenting Richard Nixon in California in 1950 , after he became a mole in Nixon ’s successful Senate military campaign . When Nixon unsuccessfully seek the administration 10 year later , his opponent , John F. Kennedy , hired Tuck to play pragmatic jokes on Nixon .
The day after the first candidates ’ debate ( a contest many felt Nixon had won ) , Tuck spin the result by lease an elderly woman wearing a Nixon push button to hug Nixon in front of reporters and console him for losing the public debate .
Two twelvemonth later , when Nixon ran for governor of California , Tuck had children in Los Angeles ’ Chinatown greet him with a mansion read “ Welcome Nixon ” in English and beneath the greeting , “ What about the Hughes loan ? ” in Chinese — a reference to a controversial loanword Nixon ’s brother had received . Nixon , who did n’t interpret Chinese , posed smile next to the signaling , then pull it up in front of reporters when Tuck told him the transformation .
accord to legend , during a whistle - stop train turn on the same campaign , Tuck disguise himself as a conductor and ordered Nixon ’s train to pull away from the post just as Nixon had begun a speech communication to the gang .
When Nixon black market for President in 1968 , Tuck hired pregnant women to show up at his rally wearing MT - shirts that read “ Nixon ’s the One . ”
Nixon , who ’d mastered the nontextual matter of dirty tricks early in his career , make out to both despise and begrudgingly look up to Tuck . During his 1972 presidential re - election campaign , Nixon ordered aides to develop a “ Dick Tuck capableness . ” Nixon ’s staff member and operative initiate a series of covert dirty magic trick , culminating in the break - in of popular main office in the Watergate building . The subsequent Watergate scandal force the disgraced Nixon to resign from position two years later .
