Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority

Book Description

In recent years historians have paid substantial attention to the origins of modern political conservatism and the record of the Nixon administration in building a Republican majority in the late twentieth century. In Richard Nixon and the Quest for a New Majority, Robert Mason analyzes Nixon's response to the developing conservative climate and challenges revisionist claims about the activist nature of the Nixon administration. Nixon was an activist in intent, Mason contends, but not in deed.

Book Description

Twenty-five years after Richard Nixon resigned from office, his legacy remains shrouded in controversy. His was a complex, inconsistent, and even contradictory presidency, clouded by the man's personality and political practices and played out during one of America's most turbulent eras. Melvin Small now draws on the latest archival releases to take a fresh look at Nixon and place his administration in proper historical perspective.

Nixon once predicted that by the year 2000 scholars would begin to evaluate his presidency more favorably. Small, however, steers a steady course between Nixon's detractors and apologists to offer the most balanced and thorough coverage yet available of the man's character and accomplishments. He notes many of the solid achievements of Nixon's domestic programs while criticizing some of his more celebrated foreign policies, especially concerning the Third World, and illuminates Nixon's broader influence on American political institutions and culture.

Small's topical approach permits readers to observe the development of an entire domestic program or international relationship over an extended period, making it easier to understand such drawn-out issues as reforming welfare or ending the Vietnam War. Regarding Vietnam, Small integrates military and diplomatic policy with Nixon's efforts to neutralize the antiwar movement. His coverage of White House operations and Nixon's war with the media precedes a particularly insightful chapter on Watergate and the threat of impeachment. A closing chapter on Nixon's post-presidential years reveals facts about his health and his "blackmailing" of both Presidents Bush and Clinton, and a bibliographic essay provides an extensive survey of the Nixon literature.

He was the first president to travel to China and Russia and to call for welfare reform, and although he left Washington under a cloud, many of Nixon's ideas and policies have been embraced by Americans--a legacy few presidents can claim. Small's book is a lively and anecdotal account that looks at the many sides of Richard Nixon and comes to grips with both the man and his presidency.

This book is part of the American Presidency Series.

Customer Reviews:

Balanced look at Richard Nixon.......2007-08-08

I read this book for a graduate class in American history. Few U.S. presidents have had as many books written about them and their administrations as Richard Milhous Nixon. Nixon's presidency was defined by the historian Stephen E. Ambrose as a Shakespearean tragedy. Nixon is credited by many historians with great success in foreign and domestic policy. These achievements by themselves would normally rank him near the top of the list of America's great presidents. However, his psychological deficiencies were responsible for dragging the country through its worst constitutional crisis in its history--Watergate. Nixon's involvement in the Watergate cover up culminated in his being the only president to resign from office. This saved him from the humiliation of surely becoming the only president who would have been impeached and thrown out of office. It is against this historical backdrop, that Melvin Small wrote The Presidency of Richard Nixon. Small succeeded in writing an objectively fair history of America's thirty-seventh president. At the end of his book, Small astutely noted why a history of Nixon is so important. "The period from the end of World War II to the end of the cold war was in good measure an age of Nixon" (311).

No historian writing about Nixon can avoid trying to understand and explain his psychological profile. One would think with all the biographies from historians and memoirs from close aides, the voluminous presidential papers, and thousands of hours of tape recordings, one could get a clear understanding of Nixon's psyche. Most historians and close friends and aides of Nixon still admit that they never fully understood him. Both Nixon historians Theodore H. White and Nixon speechwriter William Safire, wrote that they were still perplexed by Nixon's multi-faceted psyche. Small recognized this conundrum while writing his biography, and like most biographers, searched Nixon's early life and upbringing to try to understand his psychological character traits. Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. He was the second of five brothers. Two of his brothers died from respiratory diseases. Nixon remarked that these traumatic events in his life caused him to champion the government's involvement in health care. Nixon's family was lower middle class Quaker. During the Depression they struggled like millions of other families. Richard was an intelligent child who learned to read before entering grade school. He had a photographic memory that allowed him to excel in both his academic and political careers. He was famous for remembering the names of thousands of politicians from across the country and could memorize speeches; thus making it seem he was talking extemporaneously. Although he had the grades to attend a more prestigious college, due to financial considerations, Nixon settled on attending Whittier, a local college. He graduated second in his class in 1934, and received a partial scholarship to attend Duke University Law School. He was a very serious student in law school and never dated during his three years in attendance. "Many of his peers at Duke thought that Nixon was destined for the scholarly life, considering his powerful intellect and remote personality" (5). He was appalled by the segregated south and racism displayed by classmates. He graduated third in his class from law school in 1937 and traveled to New York to seek employment with prestigious law firms. Since it was the height of the Depression and because Nixon did not posses a law degree from an elite Northeastern law school, he found that doors would remain shut to him. Nixon was turned down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as well. Feeling disappointed from his rejections, he went back to Whittier, California and joined a small law firm where he became a partner within two years. In 1938, Nixon met his future wife Pat, while both were performing in a community theater. For Nixon, it was love at first sight and they married in 1940. During World War II, he was an airfield operations officer in the Navy. More importantly, he proved to be a very accomplished poker player, which he claimed prepared him to become a skilled negotiator. After the war, he accepted an invitation from a group of Republican businessmen to run for Congress in his home district against the incumbent Democrat, Horace (Jerry) Voorhis. Nixon's campaign against Voorhis and his later campaign for the Senate seat against Helen Gahagan Douglass were bare-knuckled affairs which relied on character assassinations painting both opponents as Communist sympathizers.

Nixon soon gained national notoriety as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). During committee hearings, Nixon doggedly pursued Alger Hiss, a well-heeled former State Department employee in the Roosevelt administration who was accused of being an American Communist Party member and Soviet spy. Nixon's work on HUAC garnered him a reputation as a tough anti-Communist which brought him to great prominence in the Republican Party. At the 1952 convention the party leaders prevailed on Dwight Eisenhower to take Nixon as his vice presidential running mate. "Eisenhower was astonished to discover that his running mate was only thirty-nine, which soon made him the second youngest vice president in history" (14). The relationship between the two men was not warm. Nixon wanted to please Eisenhower. However, Eisenhower saw Nixon as a political lightweight and even asked him to consider not running as vice president for the second term, but instead take a cabinet position to gain "executive experience." Despite Eisenhower's treatment of Nixon, he became his party's standard-bearer for president in the 1960 election against John F. Kennedy (JFK). He lost the election in one of the closest races in history; JFK defeated Nixon in the popular vote by a 49.7 to 49.5 percent margin. Just two years later leaders of the Republican Party talked Nixon into running for governor of California, against the Democratic incumbent Edmund "Pat" Brown. Nixon was politically humiliated in another close election. In what he called his last press conference after his stinging defeat, Nixon lashed out at the press, who in days after ran stories predicting the end of Nixon's political career. However, Nixon used his years out of the limelight to build a lucrative law practice in New York City, and traveled around the country making hundreds of speeches, as well as campaigning on behalf of Republican congressional candidates. In addition, he studied and wrote articles on foreign policy issues. All this work in addition to the problems of the Vietnam War made him an attractive candidate and he once again became the Republican candidate for president in1968. The "new Nixon" burst forth on the political scene.

Nixon won the election against the incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, because the Vietnam War became unpopular with the American public, and Nixon promised to restore law and order to a riot torn country. Nixon soon busied himself with building his cabinet before his inauguration. President Johnson was very amicable to Nixon and invited him to the White House for several transition meetings. It would be the first time that Nixon ever saw the living quarters. When Nixon observed Johnson's taping machine in the Oval Office, he ordered a staffer to get it out. He would not use a taping machine until 1971. Small's chapter entitled A Private President's Public Relations, expertly points out Nixon's unusual character traits while he was president, which many historians and politicians have written about in countless books. Two of Nixon's closest aides, Bob Halderman and John Ehrlichman where known as the "Berlin Wall" because it was their duty to reduce strictly access to the president. Nixon was a shy man who hated to meet new people. "Nixon also preferred talking on the phone to seeing people in person" (215). He had an aversion to firing and hiring people, and he would get others to perform these odious functions for him. Nixon was much more at ease working alone in the Executive Office Building than in the Oval Office.

The presidential duty that Nixon was most passionate about was foreign policy; a duty that was so important to him that he virtually became his own Secretary of State for several years, and he never trusted the State Department bureaucrats. What became Nixon's most important staff hiring would be that of Dr. Henry Kissinger as his National Security Advisor and later his Secretary of State. Little did Nixon realize that Kissinger would become "not only the president's chief planner, coordinator, and operator of U.S. foreign policy but also the most popular, respected and internationally famous of all the president's advisers" (50). Together both men would add a new word to the American vocabulary--détente. Small noted that Nixon embarked on a monumental foreign policy shift for America. The consummate Cold War warrior, Nixon was most proud of his two great foreign policy achievements, "the establishment of détente with the Soviet Union and the opening of relations with China" (97). Kissinger, in his book Diplomacy, is very flattering of Nixon's foreign policy acumen. "No American president possessed a greater knowledge of international affairs. None except Theodore Roosevelt had traveled as much abroad, or attempted with such genuine interest to understand the views of other leaders." In Small's chapter titled "Running for Ex-President," he related that in an attempt at rehabilitating his legacy Nixon wrote eight books dealing with foreign policy issues between 1980 and 1992, "almost all of which became best-sellers" (305). Nixon's 1985 book No More Vietnams had an ominously prophetic warning for America. "The most violent and dangerous forces in the Mideast are not Communist revolutionaries taking orders from Moscow but Moslem fundamentalist revolutionaries egged on by Khomeini." Although Nixon as well as most historians focused on his diplomatic successes, Small wrote glowingly about Nixon's domestic policy triumphs in his biography.

Since Nixon spent most of his time dealing with foreign policy, he allowed cabinet heads and White House aides on domestic affairs to propose new legislation. Daniel Patrick Moynihan a former Harvard professor and Johnson aide, started to doubt "big government's approaches to social problems" (45). He accepted a position as advisor on domestic affairs and enjoyed a very friendly relationship with Nixon. Moynihan once quipped that Nixon's administration may have been one of the most progressive ever on domestic issues. Small believed that Moynihan's remark was a bit of a stretch, though for a Republican administration, it was not too far a stretch. Small noted that conservative Republicans "were horrified when Nixon proposed a guaranteed annual wage for poor people disguised as welfare reform and a variety of other social and environmental policies" (185). Nixon doubled the budgets for the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as the Arts. Nixon's administration created the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, and established the Environmental Protection Agency. In a special message delivered to Congress on the environment in February of 1970, Nixon proposed twenty-two pieces of legislation including, regulating automobile emissions, water pollution, pesticides, strip-mining, and ocean dumping. During his first term in office, Nixon approved a 51 percent increase in Social Security benefits and in 1972 signed into law an automatic cost-of-living increase to keep up with inflation. Just in Nixon's first term, "outlays for the elderly increased by 71 percent" (190). Thus, Small contended that by looking at Nixon's domestic policies, "one can understand why observers in the year 2000 might label him the last liberal president" (214).
Despite all of Nixon's achievements in foreign and domestic policy, his legacy will forever be blackened by the stain of the break in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building and his direct attempt to cover it up. Small and other historians in explaining the Watergate debacle have opined that Nixon desperately wanted to win re-election in 1972 in a landslide victory. By doing so, Nixon thought that he could remake the Republican Party, and "bring about the New American Revolution" (273). Politically, he wanted to remake the Republican Party by uniting conservative southern Democrats with the working class Americans of the Silent Majority, and traditional Republicans around social issues. In addition, Nixon announced in his second inaugural speech that the federal government needed to be smaller and less paternalistic in its scope with the American people. Unfortunately for Nixon, he and his aides were willing to bring the re-election victory about at any cost, including egregious violations of rights and laws. Small summed up the Watergate debacle in Lincolnesque terms when he wrote about the crimes and misdemeanors that had been committed. "Whereas some presidents participated in some of those illegal activities much of the time, and others did almost all of them on occasion, none of them committed all the illegal acts that constituted Watergate all the time" (273).

In conclusion, Melvin Small did an excellent job using a plethora of primary and secondary sources, and presidential papers from the National Archives to write an engaging and balanced biography of Richard Nixon. In his book, he provided informative notes, one of the best bibliographical essays found in a history book, and a thorough index; all of which will aid readers who want to further research aspects of Nixon's presidency. Small decided to write a topical biography instead of a chronological biography. Since Small told Nixon's story in a little over 300 pages, his topical narrative device worked quite well. Small's biography of Nixon is an excellent introductory work for anyone wishing to gain a better understanding of Richard Nixon, his political career, and the history of the Cold War era.

As a graduate student, I recommend this book for anyone interested in Nixon, American History, and Cold War History.

I Liked It.......2001-07-17

The only reason to give this a bad review would be due to its lack of getting down to the juicy Nixon facts. Other than that, it is a marvelous journey into the Nixon administration. For the most part, it is unbiased and I enjoyed it. If you want to get a look at the Nixon administration from a more or less politcal standpoint, then go for it. If you would like an Enquirer/novel type "tell all" book, then look again. 4/5

Informative and fun to read.......1999-08-29

The author has written a refreshing account about Richard Nixon's years in office. He traces Nixon's rise as a politician, his failures, presidency, and ultimate demise. The reader gains insight about Nixon's successes with China, the Soviet Union, along with failures in Chile and the Third World. In contrast, the writer argues that Nixon made significant achievements in domestic affairs--welfare reform, environmental improvements, and conservation--that have not received adequate recognition. Next, we learn that Nixon reluctantly approved wage and price controls for political reasons. Nonetheless, the most interesting chapter about Watergate reveals the rampant corruption in Nixon's administration. Also, the author criticizes Nixon for his Vietnam strategy.

Book Description

Although much material concerning the Nixon presidency remains unavailable to scholars, Michael A. Genovese has successfully pieced together the many puzzles that make up Richard Nixon and his presidency. A study of the Nixon presidency, it is also a study of the nature of "the presidency" broadly defined that is informed by the concerns of both traditional political biography and of contemporary presidential scholarship. As such, the volume raises many vital issues and questions relating to the office of president. Focusing on Nixon as a political leader and on his style of decision-making and management, The Nixon Presidency is the first book to bring together all the key elements of Nixon's presidency into an integrated and interrelated whole, tracing Nixon's rise and fall and the how and why of Watergate. The first four chapters present a biographical sketch of Nixon's early years and rise in politics; assess Nixon's personality and how he approached and organized his administration; and document his domestic, economic, and foreign policies. Chapter five examines the events that led to Watergate and the collapse of the Nixon presidency. Balanced yet critical, the study concludes with an analysis of the impact and legacy of Richard Nixon on the presidency and the U.S. and an assessment of Nixon within the broader comparative perspective of other United States presidents. A most readable book for the informed generalist and a valuable addition to college-level courses in the Presidency, U.S. Government, and Modern U.S. History.

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The Emperor of Ocean Park

Manufacturer: Random House Audio Publising Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: 0736686460

Product Description

Unabridged Audio CD/20 CDs. Clamshell Type CD Case. One Listen.

The Nixon Presidency: An Oral History of the Era, Revised Edition (Presidential Oral Histories)

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A very unique and insightful look

The Nixon Presidency: An Oral History of the Era, Revised Edition (Presidential Oral Histories)
Deborah Hart Strober , and Gerald S. Strober
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Oral History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Leadership | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1574885820

Book Description

Deborah Strober and Gerald Strober cover the entire Nixon presidency (1969-74), not just Watergate and Nixon’s resignation. Their book analyzes both his domestic programs during his first term and partial second term and his conduct of foreign affairs, including his surprising opening to the communist Chinese. It also explores his highly controversial handling of the Vietnam War.

Customer Reviews:

A very unique and insightful look.......2005-07-12

This is an excellent book. I've been reading up on Nixon as of late, and I thoroughly enjoyed this updated edition. Basically, the book is composed of quotes from various figures organized into sections relating to a topic or question. It does away with boring biographical details and just goes into the real meat of any issue--using the personal observations of those who were there.

It's a great read--you get plenty of insight into Nixon's personality (even what he ate for lunch!), how he operated the White House, how he ran his campaigns, his policy ideas, and ultimately the events that led up to Watergate and his resignation.

All the big boys are interviewed--Colson, Dean, Halderman, Erlichman, etc. But still, nobody can figure out who ordered the break in. They're all still blaming eachother.

The theories on who Deep Throat was are funny in the context of his recent admission. Haig almost nails it. Everyone else is way off.

Anyway a great read--I'm now going through the rest of the Oral History books these authors have written. I hope they do more!

Games Advisors Play: Foreign Policy in the Nixon and Carter Administrations (Joseph V. Hughes Jr. & Holly O. Hughes Series in the Presidency & Leadership Studies, 3)

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Excellent Study of Internecine Political Fights

Games Advisors Play: Foreign Policy in the Nixon and Carter Administrations (Joseph V. Hughes Jr. & Holly O. Hughes Series in the Presidency & Leadership Studies, 3)
Jean A. Garrison
Manufacturer: Texas A&M University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Leadership | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Customer Reviews:

Excellent Study of Internecine Political Fights.......2001-07-20

This is a remarkable book. It approaches the social psychology of the decision making process in comparative case study form. Since the dynamics, personal and structural, in the Nixon and Carter administrations were so different, it is a useful education in the methodology of waging internecine feuds.

The Plot That Failed: Nixon and the Administrative Presidency

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The Plot That Failed: Nixon and the Administrative Presidency
Richard P. Nathan
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Federal Government | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

The Administrative Presidency

ASIN: 0471630659

20th Century Guide to Watergate and the Presidency of Richard Nixon, with Historic Document Reproductions and Nixon Presidential Library Material: FBI ... Night Massacre, President Ford Pardon

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20th Century Guide to Watergate and the Presidency of Richard Nixon, with Historic Document Reproductions and Nixon Presidential Library Material: FBI ... Night Massacre, President Ford Pardon
U.S. Government
Manufacturer: Progressive Management
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM
ASIN: 1592489923

Book Description

This electronic book on CD-ROM presents a collection of historic documents from the Watergate scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, along with material from the Nixon Presidential Library on his term in office. It includes unique reproductions of historic government documents on Watergate, as compiled by the Gerald R. Ford Library.

After June 17, 1972, the word "Watergate" could no longer be just the name of an office and hotel complex in Washington, D.C. On that date it became a byword for political corruption. In the early hours of that mid-June morning, and in the middle of a presidential campaign, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in one of the Watergate offices. The details of this story would form an ever-rising pool of political deceit in which swirled a constitutional crisis that claimed a presidency. Every major aspect of the historic sequence of events in Watergate is reviewed:

* The trial of the "Watergate Seven" burglars
* Judge John Sirica
* Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities hearings, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin
* People: Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Dean, Hunt, Liddy
* Battle for the Tapes
* Trials and Tribulations
* Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and the Saturday Night Massacre
* Transcripts, Document Reproductions, Timelines, Photographs
* FBI Report excerpt with a Chronology of Watergate-related Events and Biographical Sketches of Major Figures
* The Aftermath

When Judge John Sirica gaveled the trial of the Watergate seven to order on January 8, 1973, federal investigators had already discovered a covert slush fund used to underwrite nefarious activities against Democrats. The money and the men on trial could be linked to the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) at whose head sat the former Attorney General of the United States, and President Nixon's former law partner, John Mitchell. At the trial, E. Howard Hunt, who had planned the break-in, and four of the burglars pleaded guilty. G. Gordon Liddy, who helped in the planning, and James McCord, the other burglar, refused to cooperate, were convicted of various charges, and sentenced to prison. Shortly after the trial, the United States Senate formed the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin (D-NC). Meanwhile, James McCord, contemplating a long prison term, had a change of heart and wrote a letter to Judge Sirica. In it, he claimed that high White House officials had pressured the defendants to plead guilty. The five who pleaded had perjured themselves at the urging of "higher-ups." With the letter's release, the saga moved decidedly from being a police story to a political story. It slipped beyond Washington's beltway and captured national attention.

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4 Richard Nixon & his Presidency Books: 1)- The Memoirs of Richard Nixon / 2) - The Real War / 3) - The Final Days (by Woodward & Bernstein) / 4) All the President's Men (Woodward & Bernstein) (Unboxed Set of Watergate Years Books)
Richard Nixon , Bob Woodward , and Carl Bernstein
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VQ1X7C

Product Description

4 Richard Milhous Nixon & his Presidency Books: 1)- The Memoirs of Richard Nixon / 2) - The Real War / 3) - The Final Days (by Woodward & Bernstein) / 4) All the President's Men (Woodward & Bernstein) (Unboxed Set of Watergate Years Books), in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one package to save on shipping costs.

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