President Nixon: Alone in the White House
by Richard Reeves
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard ReevesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-10-01
ISBN: 0743227190
Number of pages: 704
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of President Nixon: Alone in the White House
Book Review: Man-in-the-center look at one of the compelling political figures of our time.
Summary: 5 Stars
Mr. Reeves look at the Nixon presidency from the vantage point of the President himself provides the reader with a fascinating look at one of the most compelling political figures of our time.
To paraphrase Bob Dole, it was a miracle that Nixon ever made it to the pinnacle of political power. From the very first day in office, we are given the picture of a man who is both elated that he has reached his destiny, but at the same time is unable to savor the moment. Although the book does not deal with RN's life, Reeves does a masterful job at painting a portrait of a man embittered by the cut and thrust of politics. We see a man who has his eye on his enemies, real and imagined, and who is bound and determined to triumph over him.
Reeves does indeed show us the "who, what, when, where..." of the Nixon presidency, yet resists the temptation of playing amateur psychologist and does not address the "why" of Richard Nixon.
Instead we are treated to a story of a man who was truly "alone in the White House." However, this title is misleading, for Nixon's penchant for solitude, and secrecy are only part of the story. A better title for this book would have been "President Nixon: The Remaking of the Presidency," because that is exactly what he set out to do.
Reeves presents a balanced look at RN. We see him at his best; statesmen, "architect" of foreign policy, strategic thinker, and visionary for a stable world order.
We also get a look at the man at his worst; the many "horrors" of Watergate, his pathological Jew-baiting, his thin-skinned reaction to the press, his obsession with being seen as a "man of the people," and on and on. In sum, there is much to dislike about Richard Nixon; there is also much to admire.
After reading a book like this, one has to wonder what would the Nixon legacy have been if he chose not to cover up Watergate and lanced the boil, dug deep, and plowed ahead to finish his second term. Reeves' book shows all too clearly, and poignantly, that "the Old Man" was incapable of doing anything but he did at the time, which is a shame. RN's legacy is that he left a stain on the body politic that has engendered a cynacism toward politics.
Summary of President Nixon: Alone in the White House
Who was Richard Nixon? The most amazing thing about the man was not what he did as president, but that he became president at all. Using thousands of new interviews and recently discovered or declassified documents and tapes, Richard Reeves's President Nixon offers a surprising portrait of a brilliant and contradictory man.Even as he dreamed of presidential greatness, Nixon could trust no one. His closest aides spied on him as he spied on them, while cabinet members, generals, and admirals spied on all of them -- rifling briefcases and desks, tapping each other's phones in a house where no one knew what was true anymore. Reeves shows a presidency doomed from the start by paranoia and corruption, beginning with Nixon and Kissinger using the CIA to cover up a murder by American soldiers in Vietnam that led to the theft and publication of the Pentagon Papers, then to secret counterintelligence units within the White House itself, and finally to the burglaries and cover-up that came to be known as Watergate. President Nixon is the astonishing story of a complex political animal who was as praised as he was reviled and who remains a subject of controversy to this day.
Drawing on thousands of pages of archival material and on interviews with surviving associates, presidential biographer Reeves paints a complex, sometimes disturbing portrait of the man forever enshrined as Tricky Dick.
"I have decided my major role is moral leadership," Nixon wrote in 1972 in one of his myriad memos to himself. (As Reeves writes, "Whatever else he accomplished, Richard Nixon produced more paper and tape than any president before or since.") That resolution quickly collapsed; instead, as the Vietnam War shaded into defeat and protests at home mounted, Nixon sank into a siege mentality, seeing himself as a lone crusader at war with the rest of the world. Reeves examines the cat-and-mouse quality of Nixon's relations with his inner circle and family, as well as the excruciating collapse of national leadership in the wake of missteps, miscalculations, and sheer crimes. Rigorous and thoughtful, Reeves's book adds much to our understanding of Nixon's troubled presidency--and of his troubled soul. --Gregory McNamee
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