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You Don’t Truly Know these 10 Vice Presidents of the United States… Until Now

Larry Holzwarth March 20, 2018 31 min

Spiro Agnew

Spiro Agnew was a Maryland politician who became one of the many criminals who populated the administration of President Richard Nixon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Agnew was brought on the ticket at Nixon’s request, and served as Nixon’s attack dog on the press and on liberals he felt were too soft on law and order. Agnew had been active in Maryland politics since the mid-1950s, rising through the ranks of local elections until by the early 1960s he was the most influential Republican in the state. In 1966 Agnew ran for Governor of Maryland and won, taking office in early 1967.

As a county executive in Maryland in the 1950s and 1960s, Agnew developed a pattern of accepting bribes, kickbacks, and other gifts from contractors for state and county projects, money which went unreported on his income taxes. Kickbacks from one contractor, Lester Matz, were regularly paid at 5% of the contract’s value, and occurred while Agnew was a county executive, continuing while he was in office as governor. These payments were not revealed while Agnew was in office as governor, they were discovered during an investigation in 1973, but they demonstrate that throughout his political career Agnew was involved in criminal behavior.

When Nixon selected Agnew as his Vice President it was to be on a ticket which called itself the law and order candidacy. Agnew became the President’s fiercest advocate, attacking the media for being too liberal, the court’s for being soft on crime, and the draft protestors for being disloyal and supporters of communism. He held a special disdain for the students who protested against the war in Vietnam, calling them disloyal and cowardly. Agnew blamed the administrators and professors on college campuses for the protests, claiming that the schools were misleading their students.

Meanwhile Agnew appealed to what he and Nixon referred to as the Silent Majority for their support putting down the lawlessness, ending the war in Vietnam with honor, and leaning on the courts and police to rigorously enforce the law. In the 1972 campaign Nixon ordered Agnew to tone down his attacks on the media and focus on attacking their opponent, while Nixon himself avoided personal attacks. As Watergate began to unfold Agnew rose to defend the President. Soon after his re-election as Vice President he was forced to deny that he had been involved in kickbacks and bribes in Maryland.

The ensuing investigation soon unearthed evidence that Agnew had continued to receive bribes and kickbacks as Vice President, including a ten thousand dollar cash payment delivered to his office in the White House. After numerous denials he reached a plea agreement under which he was forced to resign the Vice Presidency. He was fined $10,000 and entered a plea of no contest to the charge of tax evasion. He also received 3 years of probation. He had to pay back taxes, but never made restitution to Maryland for the money he had taken from the taxpayers.