President Nixon: Alone in the White House [Paperback]

Richard Reeves (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 1, 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Syndicated columnist and biographer Reeves (President Kennedy: Profile of Power) presents an authoritative worm's-eye view of Nixon's insular presidency, wherein even secretaries of state and defense were out of the loop on foreign policy, and Nixon himself couldn't be bothered with domestic policy except as a chess match for power. A tightly chronological abundance of details reveals how secrets, lies and isolation pervaded Nixon's administration. He lied even about things as trivial as his work habits; wrote memos to his family instructing them on how to portray him as a warm family man; preferred dealing only with Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Kissinger, while hiding from and distrusting most of his staff long before Watergate; and extended his enmity for "the establishment" to include business leaders, congressional Republicans and the Pentagon, even accusing the latter of conspiring against his desire to crush North Vietnam. Reeves impressively demonstrates that Watergate grew directly and naturally out of the fundamental characteristics of Nixon's administration. Unfortunately, dogged adherence to his avowed aim "to reconstruct the Nixon presidency as it looked from the center" obliterates much-needed context and reflection. For example, Reeves never critically questions Nixon's evidently cynical exploitations of racism, often recast in neutral terms, nor considers the subsequent historical consequences. He alludes to Nixon's fascination with Disraeli, but never explores how this affected his outlook. This richly detailed miniature, crabbed and claustrophobic, leaves undone the task of placing its subject in perspective. (Oct. 1)Forecast: Reeves is highly respected, as evidenced by the sale of first serial rights to Newsweek (on sale Aug. 27) and a booking on the Today Show (Sept. 24). He will do an eight-city tour. Despite its flaws, this inside look at Nixon will fascinate many and, with a first printing of 65,000, should do very well sales-wise.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743227190
• ISBN-13: 978-0743227193
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( N ) > Nixon, Richard

More About the Author

Richard Reeves is the author of presidential bestsellers, including President Nixon and President Kennedy, acclaimed as the best nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine. A syndicated columnist and winner of the American Political Science Association's Carey McWilliams Award, he lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 71 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Look at a Fascinating and Enigmatic Man October 28, 2001

By Rob Morris

Format:Hardcover

"President Nixon: Alone in the White House" is one of those rare biographies that manages to capture the very essence of its subject. Mr. Reeves, who had access not only to President Nixon himself but to most of Nixon's key advisors and confidantes, has written a book that reveals Richard Nixon's motivations and thus goes a long way toward explaining some of the strange things Nixon did as President. What we see in the book is a man who assumes that all men approach life the way he does--and his approach is quintessentially Machiavellian. Nixon truly believes that all men cheat, lie and are out to get him. All is fair in politics. By assuming the worst in others, Nixon guarantees the worst in himself.

And yet one catches glimpses of Nixon the man where one feels a certain amount of compassion. Nixon was a melancholy and lonely individual, distrustful of those around him. He was a politician who had an aversion to people. He feels awkward in any social situation, to the point where his interactions are meticulously scripted beforehand on one of his handy yellow legal pads. In one hilarious sequence, Nixon is up all night writing and memorizing a script for an "off the cuff" speech he is planning to give the next day. What is amazing is that he does not see how ridiculous it is to be scripting an unscripted speech. Nixon also spends hours writing memos to himself about how he wants to be perceived. Each one of the memos drips with irony, for he sees in himself all the things that he is not. One cannot help but feel compassion for a man so out of touch with who he is.

Reeves argues that Nixon is at his best when looking at the bigger picture, in "connecting the dots" of major policy decisions and their historical precedents as well as the possible outcomes. This is the Nixon who takes the bold steps to open up Communist China and to bring a much-needed thaw to the festering Cold War with Russia. Reeves also shows a Nixon who realizes the disaster of Vietnam but doesn't know how to remove the U.S. and preserve the honor and dignity of the nation. One must admire Nixon for his foreign policy successes and for his broad thinking in this area. The book also paints an interesting portrait of Henry Kissinger, showing him to be brilliant but incredibly vain and condescending. Kissinger spends a great deal of time making sure Secretary of State Rogers is out of the loop on every major foreign policy decision.

Domestically, however, we see in this book a Nixon who is all politician and zero statesman. He waffles on integration, does little to help Blacks because they vote 90% Democrat, and panders in the worst way to groups he believes he must win over in order to win reelection in 1972. Nixon tells his dynamic duo, Haldeman and Erlichman, not to bog him down with policy details, then buries himself in such details as replacement shower heads for the White House or the clownish design for the White House security force. We also see Nixon the bigot, saving his cruelest cuts for the Jews. In these glimpses we see just how shallow and ignorant Nixon could be, despite his moments of greatness. The last section of the book deals with Watergate and the events that brought Richard Nixon to disgrace. It is not a pretty sight, and just goes to show how thoroughly Nixon was involved in the cover-up and how much he enjoyed the dirty tricks attributed to his campaign. At one point, after George Wallace is shot, Nixon laments the fact that Nixon's men didn't think to go into the would-be assasin's apartment and plant McGovern literature to discredit his opponent.

Upon finishing this book, I immediately wondered if Reeves began working on a sequel, following Nixon from his resignation through his period of exile and disgrace to the era of his partial rehabilitation near the end of his life. I certainly hope Reeves follows up, for the story of Nixon the private citizen in the years after his fall from power would be fascinating and remains largely untold.

This is a good book, and I believe that both fans and detractors of our former President would enjoy it. Reeves has not written it to discredit the man, but to try to explain him. After finishing the book, I felt I knew the real Richard Nixon somewhat better, and that had Richard Nixon had a different take on the motivations of his fellow man, he may have gone down as one of our better Presidents.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good April 22, 2006

By Aging Hipstorian

Format:Paperback

I finished Richard Reeve's "President Nixon" this week. I have read several books about Nixon. I don't really know why he has always fascinated me. I suppose it is because he had the potential to do so much good, and he had so many successes in his first term to throw it all away in the end because of a pack of lies. Reeves' book is a long one, at around 600 pages, but Reeves is a pretty decent writer, and it makes going through the book a pleasant experience. Much to my amazement, late in the book, he correctly revealed the identity of Mark Felt as deep throat- and since the book came out in 2001- that was years before the Felt made the revelation himself. Nixon was certainly focused on foreign matters, and cared little about domestic issues, leaving it to his henchmen- principally Ehrlichman. Kissinger is portrayed as a dangerous, vain egotist, out for glory, often sulking when upstaged by Secretary of State Rogers. Having read several books about Nixon, this one reaffirms a theme that appears over and over- something went wrong with Nixon's mental state around 1971 or 1972.

Superceding Theodore White, I think the book is probably a decent enough starting place for understanding Nixon, and with the bibliography at the end, you can go from there.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The who, what, when and where but sadly not the why April 24, 2003

By John Tilelli MD

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

To those of us old enough to remember the Nixon administration, it is not surprising that a chronicle of his presidency is a series of ancecdotes that leaves us shaking our head and completely baffled. This history deftly describes the "Nixon years" in a series of events painted for us as a series of tableaux. That it does quite admirably. We see him as a moody, paranoid, and impulsive man literally with his finger on the button. As public opinion of him, never very strong, wanes and his accomplishments pale under public approbation, we see him becoming more relentlessly isolated and desperate. One might then read this as the diary of a man descending into the very deepest despair.

As a chronicle, then, this book succeeds. However, the most compelling aspect of the Nixon presidency is missing; its central question. How is is possible that this man who mistrusted so deeply the workings of a free society, who resented so many of its people, become its leader, and its spokesman to the world? We see here a Nixon that resents intellectuals, the media, racial groups, religious minorities, his predecessors, his successors, all Democrates, and on and on. This is a president who had his reelection wrapped up who still felt the need to bug his electoral opponents and undermine their campaign. Here is a man who can't run a shower and forever bans soup at state dinners because he mussed his shirt. Here is a man who regards any criticism whatsoever as forever condemning its author. We want to know how this all came to pass. The fascinating part is the understanding of what forces shaped him and led this adminstration to it ignominious end. Why did he want to be president at all? Why did we elect him? Why did he self-destruct? Certainly it is more than an acciddent of the times - filling the void left by the equally tragic Johnson's abdication. No, there must be a deeper story here that is not manifest in the day-to-day business. By depriving us of any image of Nixon's childhood, his dance with the Kennedy's and his ultimate election (admittedly not the focus of this book), and dropping us into his life on day one of the administration, we miss who Nixon was and get no perspective on the actions that are so meticulously described.

Maybe it was all just an accident. Maybe it was an unresolved oedipal thing, as the movie Nixon suggests. I really think nthat neither are true. It is my belief that Nixon the man is a reflection of our society, that it is somehow born of the American independant spirit. We inherit our paranoia as a side-effect of our individualism. If Nixon is alone, we all are alone. There is something in what happened to Richard Nixon that calls to us all. His tragedy should pluck at some string in our soul. The inevitable, and relentless question, "Why?" is missing herein. President Nixon: Alone in the White House is a fascinating chronicle, but the Lear in this story, the workings of the tragedy that propelled him to an inevitable end, is sadly missing.