Customer Reviews

Nixon, Vol. 2: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972

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Ambrose's style is excellent for the US politics student. He covers all fields of policy but centers, quite rightly, on Vietnam. Ambrose is very perceptive about Nixon the man, without being too sychophantic he is fair on the guy -- though maybe not always very complimentary. The book is very nicely balanced and the chronology does not flow perfectly so that Ambrose is able to concentrate on policy areas rather than conducting a simplistic and boring narrative.

As usual, Stephen E. Ambrose is flawless in this middle edition of the Nixon trilogy. The book is quite long and detailed to a fault. The detail includes huge quantities of actual quotes, painting a picture of Nixon about as clear as one can get on any man.

The picture I got was of a man not well suited for the presidency. Intelligent, clever, creative, bold, knowledgeable on world affairs, yes. But he also had character flaws. Over-sensitive almost to the point of paranoia, Nixon was driven by an obsession to be President more than the desire to be presidential. His statement in the later David Frost interview that, "If the President does it, it's not illegal," is very telling. The ends justified the means. He had the ability to rank goals above consequences, and almost everything he did was for the acquisition or preservation of political power.

The best example is Vietnam. He took four years to end a war he knew early on could not be won. His delays were to search for ways to avoid being the first American President to lose a war, and to prevent the staining of American honor. Both of which would have cost Nixon reelection in 1972. Ambrose makes the point that half the names on the Vietnam War Memorial are from the period of Nixon's futile attempts to foil Hanoi and fool America. People should never have to die to protect a politician's legacy.

I see Nixon and Clinton, representing both political parties, as two good examples of why character matters when we vote. For some reason, the presidency attracts extreme or narcissistic personalities whose motivations are more for glory than good. After reading Ambrose's book, the simple question, "Why does this person want to be president?" will rank higher in my mind.

Another eye-opener in the book was the lesson in political science. Nixon was neither an appealing candidate, nor a rallying ideologue. He scraped his way to the top because he was the consummate partisan politician. Ambrose shows a glimpse of the American political system's underbelly: maneuvering, manipulating, prevaricating, waffling, and backstabbing. He makes it easy to forget that despite the warts, our republican democracy is still the best system in the world.

The irony and enigma of Nixon is that he also opened up China, warmed the Cold War with the Soviets, began nuclear disarmament, and other worthy and statesman-like accomplishments. The book, like Nixon himself, will mean different things to different people. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of BIG ICE

I'm conflicted over whether this is better than volume one of Ambrose's magnificent trilogy. Either way, this part of Nixon's biography, which covers his recovery after losing the race for the California governorship to the end of his first presidential term, captures the man as well as anything in print.

The work is largely neutral, fully detailed, and loaded with fascinating insights into one of America's most flawed leaders. Ambrose was clearly gifted in his craft -- the way he used evidence, built paragraphs, and constructed a narrative is fascinating to witness -- almost as compelling as the man at the center of the story.

This book was obviously well researched. It certainly shed new light on the Nixon persona that I did not know existed. The 3 Nixon volumes should be required reading in history classes.

Richard Nixon between the years of 1962 - 1972 is ten years worth of a trip to both ends of the success-failure spectrum. Beginning with his loss of the California's governor's race in 1962, he uses the next six years to strategize his presidential victory in 1968, his battles with the Vietnam issue, and then back to the top with an overwhelming victory in the 1972 race. All of this presented in 662 pages by Stephen Ambrose who does a wonderful job in putting down on paper and making it a great read. Personally, I do not have a huge interest in the details of the Vietnam War but Ambrose does a good job in keeping it clear and interesting.

Ambrose manages to be an historian who can accumulate many facts and make them clear and logical. He has an excellent style which makes it hard to put the book down. His description of Nixon's relationship with Henry Kissinger is worth the price of the book. It shows his personality and that of Kissinger better than the dozens of newspaper aricles I have read over the years.

If you are like me, you found Ambrose's first volume at a used book store or online for a reasonable price. Now you are looking for volume 2 and experiencing sticker shock. Don't worry, if you are patient, you can obtain a copy of this book at a reasonable price. Check Amazon and other online sites regularly and you'll eventually obtain a good reading copy for $30 - $50 dollars. And while the final volume is also hard to find, it's more abundant that the second.

Now to the book. Ambrose provides a fair look at Nixon. He points out both his great strengths and weaknesses. The seeds of Nixon's destruction are evident throughout this book. In fact, Watergate itself occurs in this volume. The scandal occurs in the final volume.

If you wish to learn about Nixon and politics in the post World War II era, you'll be hard pressed to find a better source than Ambrose's three volumes.

Stephen Ambrose's second volume of Nixon:
"Triumph of a politician" is just as good as
volume one.
This is the heart and soul of presidential politics.
Surely we have the politicians we deserve, but some of them
are complex, confusing, ruthless, criminal, fascinating,
moving, grand and great - which kind of make it hard
for us poor voters. Nixon was all of that! as is so
clearly demonstrated in this
portrait of the Nixon presidency.

In 1962 Nixon held his famous last press conference
after losing the California gubernatorial contest.
The reporters wrote his political obituary.
Five years later he had held hundreds of press
conferences and was on his way to becoming president!

He won the presidency over Humphrey in 1968
partly by the not very statesman like behavior of
namecalling and allegations about Humphreys neglect of
national defense and his softness on law and
order and his willingness to spend the country into
bancruptcy. Or perhaps he almost lost because
of these wild charges?

I think the book explains how it all happened.
Even the parts that are really unexplainable.
Fascinating.

-Simon

It's the second volume of Stephen Ambrose's two-volume work on our greatest Republican president and my favorite president, Richard Milhous Nixon. I'm also a fan of Stephen Ambrose and have enjoyed everyone one of his books. For history and biography buffs, I recommend this book to add to your collection. After you have completed reading it, you too will agree with me on these three little words; "NIXON'S THE ONE!

The American political system at its worst! This view of Nixon reveals a despicable man, doing whatever he could do to discredit his opponents, manipulate whoever he could, lie, and cheat to get elected. Hard-working, brilliant, but disgusting. Nixon even tried to undermine peace attempts in Vietnam just before the 1968 election. All that said, the incumbent president wasn't much better, as those peace attempts were really lies propagated by the LBJ administration to influence the election in Humphrey's favor. The 1968 campaign was absolutely horrid and unforgivable. What was different between Nixon and LBJ is Nixon's paranoia and vindictiveness.

It's interesting how Ike never really endorses Nixon, even when his grandson married Nixon's daughter. Finally, from his hospital bed Ike endorses him before the 1968 election, but even then it was lukewarm. Ambrose - who wrote an Eisenhower biography as well - contrasted the two. He says Ike loved life and loved people, while Nixon was distrustful of people, and gave in to hate. Ike brought people together; Nixon tore people apart. Ambrose cites a diary entry from Ike's secretary during Ike's administration: "The Vice President [Nixon] seems more like someone acting like a nice man more than a nice man".

The author commented how much different the Nixon administration may have been had Nixon had his first choice - Bob Finch, a genuine nice person - as his running mate. As it was Nixon surrounded himself with clones, all vindictive and paranoid. All fed his paranoia and anger and goaded his wrath. Their daily orders - delivered via comments in the margins of Nixon's daily news summaries - were very telling (and extremely interesting).

Nixon's foreign policy accomplishments - the settlement with North Vietnam, the opening to China and détente with the Russians - were indeed exceptional. But could these events have happened sooner had Nixon not circumvented his own State department in order to increase the histrionics and guarantee the credit for himself? Also, regarding the China and Russian initiatives, the author poses an interesting rhetorical question - who could have done it but Nixon, since he did not have to deal with a Nixon critic!

This is the middle book of a Nixon trilogy, so you don't get the childhood and Congressional years, or "Nixon in winter", but you get to know the man, and it is depressing.