117 Facts About Spiro Agnew

Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973.

Spiro Agnew is the second vice president to resign the position, the other being John C Calhoun in 1832.

Spiro Agnew attended Johns Hopkins University and graduated from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Spiro Agnew worked as an aide to US Representative James Devereux before he was appointed to the Baltimore County Board of Zoning Appeals in 1957.

In 1966, Agnew was elected Governor of Maryland, defeating his Democratic opponent George P Mahoney and independent candidate Hyman A Pressman.

Nixon and Spiro Agnew defeated the Democratic ticket of incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey and his running mate, Senator Edmund Muskie.

In 1973, Spiro Agnew was investigated by the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud.

Spiro Agnew took kickbacks from contractors during his time as Baltimore County Executive and Governor of Maryland.

Spiro Agnew spent the remainder of his life quietly, rarely making public appearances.

Spiro Agnew wrote a novel and a memoir, both of which defended his actions.

Spiro Agnew died at home in 1996 at age 77 of undiagnosed acute leukemia.

Spiro Agnew's father was born Theophrastos Anagnostopoulos in about 1877, in the Greek town of Gargalianoi, Messenia.

Anagnostopoulos emigrated to the United States in 1897 and settled in Schenectady, New York, where he changed his name to Theodore Spiro Agnew and opened a diner.

Spiro Agnew was born 11 months later, on November 9,1918.

Theodore acquired a larger restaurant, the Piccadilly, and moved the family to a house in the Forest Park northwest section of the city, where Spiro Agnew attended Garrison Junior High School and later Forest Park High School.

Spiro Agnew refused his father's offer to pay for Greek language lessons, and preferred to be known by a nickname, "Ted".

In February 1937, Spiro Agnew entered Johns Hopkins University at their new Homewood campus in north Baltimore as a chemistry major.

Spiro Agnew had grown up in the same part of the city as Agnew, but the two had not previously met.

Spiro Agnew served there, or at nearby Fort Campbell, for nearly two years in a variety of administrative roles, before being sent to England in March 1944 as part of the pre-D-Day build-up.

Spiro Agnew remained on standby in Birmingham until late in the year, when he was posted to the 54th Armored Infantry Battalion in France as a replacement officer.

Spiro Agnew returned home for discharge in November 1945, having been awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Bronze Star.

On return to civilian life, Spiro Agnew resumed his legal studies, and secured a job as a law clerk with the Baltimore firm of Smith and Barrett.

Until that time, Spiro Agnew had been largely non-political; his nominal allegiance had been to the Democratic Party, following his father's beliefs.

Spiro Agnew took Barrett's advice; on moving with family to the suburb of Lutherville in 1947, Spiro Agnew registered as a Republican, though he did not immediately become involved in politics.

In 1947, Spiro Agnew graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and passed the bar examination in Maryland.

Spiro Agnew started a law practice in downtown Baltimore, but was not successful, and took a job as an insurance investigator.

Spiro Agnew remained there for four years, a period briefly interrupted in 1951 by a recall to the Army after the outbreak of the Korean War.

Spiro Agnew resigned from Schreiber's in 1952, and resumed his legal practice, specializing in labor law.

Spiro Agnew moved his office there; at the same time, he moved his family from Lutherville to Loch Raven.

Spiro Agnew was a lover of order and an almost compulsive conformist.

Spiro Agnew made his first bid for political office in 1956, when he sought to be a Republican candidate for Baltimore County Council.

Spiro Agnew was turned down by local party leaders, but nevertheless campaigned vigorously for the Republican ticket.

The election resulted in an unexpected Republican majority on the council, and in recognition for his party work, Spiro Agnew was appointed for a one-year term to the county Zoning Board of Appeals at a salary of $3,600 per year.

Spiro Agnew accepted their invitation to run for county executive, the county's chief executive officer, a post which the Democrats had held since 1895.

When Symington lost to Democrat Clarence Long in his congressional race, Spiro Agnew became the highest-ranking Republican in Maryland.

In Montgomery County, the state's wealthiest area, a "Democrats for Spiro Agnew" organization flourished, and liberals statewide flocked to the Spiro Agnew standard.

Spiro Agnew denied any conflict or impropriety, saying that the property involved was outside Baltimore County and his jurisdiction.

Spiro Agnew publicly supported civil rights, but deplored the militant tactics used by some black leaders.

In March 1968, when faced with a student boycott at Bowie State College, a historically black institution, Spiro Agnew again blamed outside agitators and refused to negotiate with the students.

Spiro Agnew declared a state of emergency and called out the National Guard.

At least until the April 1968 disturbances, Spiro Agnew's image was that of a liberal Republican.

When in a televised speech on March 21,1968, Rockefeller shocked his supporters with an apparently unequivocal withdrawal from the race, Spiro Agnew was dismayed and humiliated; despite his very public role in the Rockefeller campaign, he had received no advance warning of the decision.

Spiro Agnew took this as a personal insult and as a blow to his credibility.

Spiro Agnew had no antagonism towards Nixon, and in the wake of Rockefeller's withdrawal had indicated that Nixon might be his "second choice".

Spiro Agnew did not indicate a preferred choice, and Agnew's name was not raised at this stage.

Spiro Agnew was intending to go to the convention with his Maryland delegation as a favorite son, uncommitted to any of the main candidates.

Immediately after the 1968 election, Spiro Agnew was still uncertain what Nixon would expect of him as vice president.

Spiro Agnew met with Nixon several days after the election in Key Biscayne, Florida.

When Spiro Agnew spoke to reporters afterwards, he stated that he felt "exhilarated" with his new responsibilities, but did not explain what those were.

Spiro Agnew vacationed on St Croix, where he played a round of golf with Humphrey and Muskie.

Spiro Agnew went to Memphis for the 1968 Liberty Bowl, and to New York to attend the wedding of Nixon's daughter Julie to David Eisenhower.

Spiro Agnew hired Charles Stanley Blair as chief of staff; Blair had been a member of the House of Delegates and served as Maryland Secretary of State under Agnew.

Spiro Agnew was sworn in along with Nixon on January 20,1969; as was customary, he sat down immediately after being sworn in, and did not make a speech.

The new president preferred to deal directly with only a trusted handful, and was annoyed when Spiro Agnew tried to call him about matters Nixon deemed trivial.

Nixon complained that Spiro Agnew had no idea how the vice presidency worked, but did not meet with Spiro Agnew to share his own experience of the office.

Herb Klein, director of communications in the Nixon White House, later wrote that Spiro Agnew had allowed himself to be pushed around by senior aides such as Haldeman and John Mitchell, and that Nixon's "inconsistent" treatment of Spiro Agnew had left the vice president exposed.

Spiro Agnew's pride had been stung by the negative news coverage of him during the campaign, and he sought to bolster his reputation by assiduous performance of his duties.

Spiro Agnew lunched with small groups of senators, and was initially successful in building good relations.

Spiro Agnew earned praise from the other members when he presided over a meeting of the White House Domestic Council in Nixon's absence but, like Nixon during Eisenhower's illnesses, did not sit in the president's chair.

Nevertheless, many of the commission assignments Nixon gave Spiro Agnew were sinecures, with the vice president only formally the head.

Nixon resented this, but on the advice of his aides, thought it best to say nothing, and instead had Spiro Agnew give a press conference at the White House, calling upon the Moratorium protesters to disavow the support of the North Vietnamese.

Spiro Agnew handled the task well, and Nixon tasked Spiro Agnew with attacking the Democrats generally, while remaining above the fray himself.

Spiro Agnew had finally found a role in the Nixon administration, one he enjoyed.

Nixon had Spiro Agnew deliver a series of speeches attacking their political opponents.

The attendees at the speeches were enthusiastic, but other Republicans, especially from the cities, complained to the Republican National Committee that Spiro Agnew's attacks were overbroad.

Spiro Agnew thus put into words feelings that many Republicans and conservatives had long felt about the news media.

Frank Stanton, head of CBS, accused Spiro Agnew of trying to intimidate the news media, and his news anchor, Walter Cronkite, agreed.

The speech was praised by conservatives from both parties, and gave Spiro Agnew a following among the right.

Spiro Agnew deemed the Des Moines speech one of his finest moments.

Spiro Agnew accused the papers of sharing a narrow viewpoint alien to most Americans.

Spiro Agnew traveled over 25,000 miles on behalf of the Republican National Committee in early 1970, speaking at a number of Lincoln Day events, and supplanted Reagan as the party's leading fundraiser.

Spiro Agnew continued to try to increase his influence with Nixon, against the opposition of Haldeman, who was consolidating his power as the second most powerful person in the administration.

Spiro Agnew was successful in being heard at an April 22,1970, meeting of the National Security Council.

Nixon had Haldeman tell Spiro Agnew to avoid remarks about students; Spiro Agnew strongly disagreed and stated that he would only refrain if Nixon directly ordered it.

Worried that Spiro Agnew was too divisive a figure, Nixon and his aides initially planned to restrict Spiro Agnew's role to fundraising and the giving of a standard stump speech that would avoid personal attacks.

Spiro Agnew planned not to do any active campaigning, but to remain above the fray and let Agnew campaign as spokesman for the Silent Majority.

Spiro Agnew attacked the "pusillanimous pussyfooting" of the liberals, including those in Congress, who Spiro Agnew said cared nothing for the blue- and white-collar workers, the "Forgotten Man of American politics".

Nixon did not want to be seen as engineering the defeat of a fellow Republican, and did not have Spiro Agnew go to New York until after Nixon left on a European trip, hoping Spiro Agnew would be perceived as acting on his own.

Nixon instructed Spiro Agnew to avoid personal attacks on the press and the Democratic presidential nominee, South Dakota Senator George McGovern, to stress the positives of the Nixon administration, and not to comment on what might happen in 1976.

At the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Spiro Agnew was greeted as a hero by delegates who saw him as the party's future.

Spiro Agnew viewed the break-in as foolish, and felt that both major parties routinely spied on each other.

Spiro Agnew defended Nixon on Watergate, and when McGovern alleged that the Nixon administration was the most corrupt in history, made a speech in South Dakota, describing McGovern as a "desperate candidate who can't seem to understand that the American people don't want a philosophy of defeat and self-hate put upon them".

Investigative reporters and Democratic operatives had pursued rumors that Spiro Agnew had been corrupt during his years as a Maryland official, but they had not been able to substantiate them.

In February 1973, Spiro Agnew heard of the investigation and had Attorney General Richard Kleindienst contact Beall.

The vice president's personal attorney, George White, visited Beall, who stated that Spiro Agnew was not under investigation, and that prosecutors would do their best to protect Spiro Agnew's name.

The statute of limitations would not prevent Spiro Agnew from being prosecuted for these later payments.

Spiro Agnew had already met with both Nixon and Haig to assert his innocence.

Spiro Agnew cited as precedent an 1826 House investigation of Vice President John C Calhoun, who was alleged to have taken improper payments while a cabinet member.

Albert, second in line to the presidency under Spiro Agnew, responded that it would be improper for the House to act in a matter before the courts.

Spiro Agnew filed a motion to block any indictment on the grounds that he had been prejudiced by improper leaks from the Justice Department, and tried to rally public opinion, giving a speech before a friendly audience in Los Angeles asserting his innocence and attacking the prosecution.

Nevertheless, Spiro Agnew entered into negotiations for a plea bargain on the condition that he would not serve jail time.

Spiro Agnew wrote in his memoirs that he entered the plea bargain because he was worn out from the extended crisis, to protect his family, and because he feared he could not get a fair trial.

On October 10,1973, Spiro Agnew appeared before the federal court in Baltimore, and pleaded nolo contendere to one felony charge, tax evasion, for the year 1967.

Richardson agreed that there would be no further prosecution of Spiro Agnew, and released a 40-page summary of the evidence.

Spiro Agnew was fined $10,000 and placed on three years' unsupervised probation.

Spiro Agnew had hoped he could resume a career as a lawyer, but in 1974, the Maryland Court of Appeals disbarred him, calling him "morally obtuse".

Spiro Agnew pursued other business interests: an unsuccessful land deal in Kentucky, and an equally fruitless partnership with golfer Doug Sanders over a beer distributionship in Texas.

The book received mixed reviews, but was commercially successful, with Spiro Agnew receiving $100,000 for serialization rights alone.

Also in 1976, Spiro Agnew announced that he was establishing a charitable foundation "Education for Democracy", but nothing more was heard of this after B'nai B'rith accused it of being a front for Spiro Agnew's anti-Israeli views.

In 1977 Spiro Agnew was wealthy enough to move to a new home at The Springs Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, and shortly afterwards to repay the Sinatra loan.

In 1980, Spiro Agnew wrote to Fahd bin Abdulaziz, at the time Crown Prince and de facto Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, claiming that he had been bled dry by attacks on him by Zionists, whom he blamed for forcing him out of office.

Spiro Agnew requested an interest-free three-year loan of $2 million, to be deposited in a Swiss bank account, on which the interest would be available to Agnew.

Spiro Agnew made a new claim: that he resigned because he had been warned by White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig to "go quietly" or face an unspoken threat of possible assassination.

Students of Professor John F Banzhaf III from the George Washington University Law School found three residents of the state of Maryland willing to put their names on a case that sought to have Agnew repay the state $268,482, the amount it was said he had taken in bribes, including interest and penalties, as a public employee.

In 1981, a judge ruled that "Mr Spiro Agnew had no lawful right to this money under any theory," and ordered him to pay the state $147,500 for the kickbacks and $101,235 in interest.

In 1989, Spiro Agnew applied unsuccessfully for this sum to be treated as tax-deductible.

Spiro Agnew was briefly in the news in 1987, when as the plaintiff in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, he revealed information about his then-recent business activities through his company, Pathlite, Inc Among other activities, Spiro Agnew arranged contracts in Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, and represented a conglomerate based in South Korea, a German aircraft manufacturer, a French company that made uniforms, and a dredging company from Greece.

Spiro Agnew represented the Hoppmann Corporation, an American company attempting to arrange for communications work in Argentina.

Spiro Agnew discussed with local businessmen a potential concert by Frank Sinatra in Argentina.

When Nixon died in 1994, his daughters invited Spiro Agnew to attend the funeral at Yorba Linda, California.

Spiro Agnew was persuaded to accept the invitation, and received a warm welcome there from his former colleagues.

On September 16,1996, Spiro Agnew collapsed at his summer home in Ocean City, Maryland.

Spiro Agnew was taken to Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Maryland, where he died the following evening.

Spiro Agnew remained fit and active into his seventies, playing golf and tennis regularly, and was scheduled to play tennis with a friend on the day of his death.

At the time of his death, Spiro Agnew's legacy was perceived largely in negative terms.

Spiro Agnew's disgrace led to a greater degree of care in the selection of potential vice presidents.

Spiro Agnew's fall shocked and saddened conservatives, but it did not inhibit the growth of the New Right.