Spiro Agnew

Spiro Theodore Agnew November 9 1918 September 17 1996 was the 39th vice president of the United States serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973 He is the second of two vice presidents to resign the position the first being John C Calhoun in 1832 Agnew was born in Baltimore to a Greek immigrant father and an American mother He attended Johns Hopkins University and graduated from the University of Baltimore School of Law He was a campaign aide for US Representative James Devereux in the 1950s and was appointed to the Baltimore County Board of Zoning Appeals in 1957 In 1962 he was elected Baltimore county executive In 1966 Agnew was elected governor of Maryland defeating his Democratic opponent George P Mahoney and independent candidate Hyman A Pressman At the 1968 Republican National Convention Richard Nixon asked Agnew to place his name in nomination and named him as running mate Agnews centrist reputation interested Nixon the law and order stance he had taken in the wake of civil unrest that year appealed to aides such as Pat Buchanan Agnew made a number of gaffes during the campaign but his rhetoric pleased many Republicans and he may have made the difference in several key states Nixon and Agnew defeated the Democratic ticket of incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey and his running mate Senator Edmund Muskie and American Independent Party candidates George Wallace and Curtis LeMay As vice president Agnew was often called upon to attack the administrations enemies In the years of his vice presidency Agnew moved to the right appealing to conservatives who were suspicious of moderate stances taken by Nixon In the presidential election of 1972 Nixon and Agnew were reelected for a second term defeating Senator George McGovern and his running mate Sargent Shriver in one of the largest landslides in American history