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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Valuable Memoir, July 27, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Nixon in Winter : His Final Revelations about Diplomacy, Watergate, and Life out of the Arena (Hardcover)
This isn't a biography. The author isn't distanced enough for that. And it is hardly a tribute, because the shadow of scandal never leaves the portrayal. I would say this book is a memoir of a young graduate student's intellectual travails with an aging Nixon. His story is very complicated, and his reflections, on politics, the end of the cold war, and scandal, are absolutely riveting. Nixon's evaluation of his own foibles mesmerizes. What does he say about Watergate, 20 years later? How does he think his mother, deceased by then, would have judged the events, and him? I won't spoil the story; it's well worth reading. The only part I was troubled by was the author's portrayal of herself. There's just the slightest hint of condescension for the old man. Fully armed with fresh graduate school knowledge of world affairs, she sees herself as the person who prodded Nixon into revelation. It seems a bit self-serving. Still, that's a minor qualm in a book that, perhaps unintentionally, creates sympathy and respect for the man. As presented here, he clearly is human and, in a way not seen in today's callow politicians, brilliant.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful Observations, February 7, 2004
This review is from: Nixon in Winter : His Final Revelations about Diplomacy, Watergate, and Life out of the Arena (Hardcover)
If one ever wonders what qualifies Monica Crowley to be a talk show host, if one ever questions what relevance her opinions or insight have for the rest of America, if one ever doubts that Monica Crowley is a qualified author, this work will provide a resounding affirmation of her talent, intelligence, and ability. Before WABC and before a Columbia Ph.D., there was only the college of Richard Nixon. Crowley traveled the globe with Nixon, soaking in every detail, every nuance of his intellect and capacity for foreign affairs and political strategy. Concerning posterity, Nixon always knew when he spoke to or with Crowley that he was speaking to history. Nixon has already sought to rewrite his legacy in his memoirs RN as well as In the Arena. Nixon's qualifications are manifest in his own writings as well. Crowley does an excellent job of highlighting Nixon's capacity for political intelligence and machinations while simultaneously showing readers that Nixon is more than a one-dimensional paranoid recluse. Crowley feels obliged to mention Watergate because it figures into Nixon's legacy so prominently but she does not dwell on a low point in an otherwise important career. She also does an excellent job of showing that there are two sides to Nixon: the steely statesman who opened China, diffused tensions with the Soviet Union, and worked toward peace in the middle east (all coauthored with Henry Kissinger) as well as the man behind the myth, saddened by the death of his wife, concerned about the health of his new foreign policy assistant, and full of colorful tales about fellow political personalities from his time in office. It is at this point and at this separation where Nixon comes off as the "grandfather" type that Eisenhower seemed to personify to the average American forty years earlier.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly great. Insights were compelling and revealing., May 10, 1999
This review is from: Nixon in Winter : His Final Revelations about Diplomacy, Watergate, and Life out of the Arena (Hardcover)
I must first admit that I am a great admirer of President Nixon. It is a delight to read his candid thoughts from informal settings. I literally laughed out loud more than once. This books displays President Nixon's wonderful insights in ways that even he couldn't express through his own works. Being able to read his true inner thoughts in private settings without the sugar-coating that is necessary when speaking or writing for the public was a pure delight, not to mention educational. From the triumphs and failures of his presidency to current political scandal and policy to personal beliefs on life itself this book delivers President Nixon perhaps at his best. I found myself nodding in agreement time after time, whether it was in reading his refelective analysis of the Vienam War or his take on the Thomas Confirmation Hearings (by the way what the heck has happened to Arlen Specter since then. I have to believe that President Nixon would be as disappointed in him as I have been over the past year or so). Even the most adamant Nixon-hater would have a hard time putting this book down, for it does give everyone a look at the inner-man. And, I for one do not see how any unbiased reader could conclude upon reading this book that Nixon is the man that the press and others have attempted to make him out to be. Frustrated by the ignorance of the general public regarding the misconceptions about President Nixon this book has refreshed my memory with ample ammo to combat such misguided beliefs. The genuineness is fascinating, the opinions are entertaining and discerning. I couldn't put it down. 5 stars.
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