Agnew, Spiro T.

Agnew, Spiro T. (Theodore)

(1918–  ) vice-president, governor. In his one year as governor of Maryland (1967–68) he enacted liberal policies, but after he assumed the vice-presidency in 1969 he became the Nixon administration's "hard-line" spokesman. In 1973, charged with accepting secret payments while governor of Maryland, he was allowed to plead "no contest" to tax evasion and resigned the vice-presidency.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.