Written in 2015, Tim Weiner exposes readers to the inner workings of Richard Nixon with the release of his private tapes. For those not familiar ex US president Richard Nixon kept listening devices in the Oval Office of the White House where he recorded day to day meetings and phone calls. During the height of the Water Gate controversy there was a legal battle to make the tapes public but Nixon cited executive privilege to avoid the release of the tapes. The tapes eventually came to light in congressional investigations and hearings leading to his eventual resignation and eventual pardon by Gerald Ford. After numerous legal battles from 1974 until his death in 1994 the tapes were not made public until 2007. This book is an in depth analysis of the tapes and a powerful biography of an extraordinarily controversial president.
Though it is impossible to get inside the mind of Richard Nixon, this book comes pretty damn close. Using his spoken and written words from both the tapes and speeches readers are led through the political rise of Nixon from the Alger Hiss Trials in the 1950’s through his presidency in the 1970’s. Through the tapes readers are revealed the nature to which Nixon thought of his political opponents, foreign leaders, the press and his allies. Some of the most damning information in the book was his efforts to block Lyndon Johnson’s negotiations with North Vietnam in 1968 which led to the deaths of tens of thousands of lives in order to sink the Democratic Party’s popularity. His bombing plans of North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were also horrifying and largely kept secret from congress and other opponents. Throughout, we are shown a paranoid and self interested leader negotiating with China and in the Middle East to distract from domestic problems. During 1970, Nixon was unsure of his chances of victory in the 1972 election and sunk to low tactics of using prostitutes and drugs to sting and incriminate opponents at the Democratic National Convention. Nixon was also an angry drunk who lashed out in phone conversations and even warned by insiders in his administration to cut back or they would quit. These drunk conversations sink lower as the investigations into his spying on Daniel Ellsberg and the Water Gate break in controversy. We are shown a man driven by power with victory and anti-communism being his driving philosophy.
The book is also a useful contribution to the historiography of Nixon. For those who do not have a bachelor’s in history this basically means the history of history and reflecting on the importance of a figure or event. These tapes contained a lot of damning information but for decades were not readily available. Nixon knowing historians would not be kind to his legacy was very proactive in defending and promoting his place in history. Much like George W Bush was brought back from the dead during Donald Trump’s presidency, Nixon kept himself alive by telling his own story and the tapes could not refute him. in the age of social media Nixon sometimes receives a polished and glossy retelling based on getting us out of Vietnam and his visit to China and signing some landmark legislation on consumer protection and environmental protection. This book should serve as a way to slap people back to their senses by revealing the awful man he was and the horrible crimes he committed.
Finally, I would like to leave off with the story of the White House cook the day Nixon left for good. The secretary of state, another administration official and the cook stood chatting. They argued about technicalities and who the new president would be and the cook stated, “I have to make lunch for the president”. And with that life goes on, our country goes on and people move forward. We have a beautiful ability to survive mistakes and tragedies and plow ahead. The country lives on, our values live on and hope to restore what was lost.
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