Richard Kleindienst

Who was Richard Kleindienst?

Richard Gordon Kleindienst was an American lawyer, politician, and a U.S. Attorney General during the Watergate political scandal.

He was born August 5, 1923, in Winslow, Arizona. He served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946, and attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School, graduating from the latter in 1950.

From 1953 to 1954, he served in the Arizona House of Representatives; he followed that with some 15 years of private legal practice. He concurrently was Arizona Republican Party chairman from 1956 to 1960 and 1961 to 1963, and in 1964, the Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona, losing the general election to Sam Goddard, 53%-47%.