Customer Reviews

Biography: Richard Nixon - Man and President (A&E Archives)

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Great biography but if studying the life of Nixon one will need more research material.The video is not really fairly balanced and is a bit more negative then it has to be.Too much is placed on Watergate and not enough on the positives of his work.

Of all the people that have held the presidency of the United States, none was closer to greatness than Richard Nixon, only to have his weaknesses consume him. His momentous trip to China completely altered the geopolitical landscape and was the foundation of a completely different world. Detente with the Soviet Union was a Nixon program and he made landmark agreements in arms control. There are many things to criticize about his handling of the war in Vietnam but the fact is that he did get United States forces out, never to return.

Nixon also doesn't get credit for his work on protecting the environment and for his establishment of social programs. As most people with a sense of history understand, if he was forwarded to the twenty-first century, Nixon would be branded as a liberal and probably could not exist in the Republican party of 2010. Nixon's story is also one of early struggle; he truly was a self-made man, rising from very poor circumstances through hard work and dedication.

Unfortunately, his capacity to self-destruct was more powerful than his capability for success. At the height of his popularity, Nixon was a party to a totally unwarranted break-in that will forever be known as Watergate. He used government agencies to gather information on his opponents and no one that lived through the Watergate era will ever forget the events. In my opinion, Watergate needs to be covered more in modern history classes. Most people coming out of high school have no idea what Watergate was all about or how important it was that Nixon leave office.

This tape presents a very balanced view of Richard Nixon, William Safire is very good at explaining how Nixon was a complex man, acting very different to the different people he encountered. Safire uses the metaphor of a layer cake, where you cannot understand the entire structure without a detailed examination of each layer. Some of the old apologists for Nixon reappear and notably absent are some of the people most heavily associated with Nixon. For example, Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig never appear, except in the background. Kissinger was the driving force for much of Nixon's success in foreign affairs and Haig was White House chief of staff as the end of the Nixon presidency grew near. Obviously, both men could have provided fascinating insights into how Nixon operated.

An extremely complex man, Richard Nixon was the political equivalent of a junkyard dog. His political "crash-and-burn" is an event sorely neglected in modern history classes and this tape is an excellent way to begin the correction of that error.

I disagree with the last reviewer. I thought this documentary went way too easy on Nixon. They seemed to downplay the scandal and, in the end, call him "beloved". I don't think so.

But if it's got Tricky Dick Nixon in it, you KNOW it has to be good...