President Nixon: Alone in the White House
Who was Richard Nixon? The most amazing thing about the man was not what he did as president, but that he became president. In President Nixon, Richard Reeves has used thousands of new interviews and recently discovered or declassified documents and tapes -- including Nixon's tortured memos to himself and unpublished sections of H. R. Haldeman's diaries -- to offer a nuanced and surprising portrait of the brilliant and contradictory man alone in the White House.
President Nixon is a startling narrative of a desperately introverted man who dreamed of becoming the architect of his times. Late at night, he sat upstairs in the White House writing notes to himself on his yellow pads, struggling to define himself and his goals: "Compassionate, Bold, New, Courageous . . . Zest for the job (not lonely but awesome). Goals -- reorganized govt . . . Each day a chance to do something memorable for someone. Need to be good to do good . . . Need for joy, serenity, confidence, inspiration."
But downstairs he was building a house of deception. He could trust no one because in his isolation he thought other people were like him. He governed by secret orders and false records, memorizing scripts for public appearances and even for one-on-one meetings with his own staff and cabinet. His principal assistants, Haldeman and Henry Kissinger, 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.
Nixon's first aim was to restore order in an America at war with itself over Vietnam. But in fact he prolonged the fighting there, lying systematically about what was happening both in the field and in the peace negotiations. He startled the world by going to communist China and seeking détente with the Soviet Union -- and then secretly persuaded Mao and Brezhnev to lie for him to protect petty White House secrets. Still, he was a man of vision, imagining a new world order, trying to stall the deadly race war he believed was inevitable between the West, including Russia, and Asia, led by China and Japan. At home, he promised welfare reform, revenue sharing, drug programs, and environmental protection, and he presided, reluctantly, over the desegregation of public schools -- all the while declaring that domestic governance was just building outhouses in Peoria.
Reeves shows a presidency doomed from the start. It begins with Nixon and Kissinger using the CIA to cover up a 1969 murder by American soldiers in Vietnam that led to the theft and publication of the Pentagon Papers, then to secret counterintelligence units in the White House and finally to the burglaries and cover-up that came to be known as Watergate.
Richard Reeves's President Nixon will stand as the authoritative account of Nixon in the White House. It is an astonishing story.
The Reagan Files (www.thereaganfiles.com)
Jason Saltoun-Ebin has been researching Ronald Reagan since 2001, when Richard Reeves hired him as a research assistant to help with the research for his presidential biography of Ronald Reagan. Mr. Reeves' book, "President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination," was published in 2005.
During the course of their research, Mr. Reeves and Mr. Saltoun-Ebin filed numerous Mandatory Review (MR) requests for classified documents and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for unprocessed documents held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Though Mr. Reeves was able to make use of some newly released documents in "President Reagan," most of the FOIA requests and MR requests were never answered.
After graduating the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2007, Mr. Saltoun-Ebin returned to the Reagan Library to follow-up with his research from 2001-2005. In 2008 he discovered that many of President Reagan's NSC/NSPG meeting minutes had recently been declassified. Mr. Saltoun-Ebin, believing that history is too important to be kept a secret inside the Reagan Library, created The Reagan Files to encourage the further study of the Reagan presidency.
On April 13th, 2009, President Obama ordered the release of nearly 150,000 pages of documents that President George W. Bush had kept secret though declassified by the classifying agency. Some of those documents are already published on The Reagan Files, others will be added to The Reagan Files collection in the near future. Many correspond to the MR and FOIA requests that Mr. Reeves and Mr. Saltoun-Ebin filed between 2001 and 2005.
Mr. Saltoun-Ebin is a graduate of U.C.L.A. (2001, B.A., European Studies). During his time at U.C.L.A. he wrote for The UCLA Daily Bruin. Prior to law school, he worked for a short time at The Wisconsin State Journal. He also contributed to The New York Time's coverage of the Supreme Court nomination of Chief Justice Roberts.
Reviews
"Reeves [is] a researcher of high standards and a writer whose paragraphs can read like delicacies. . . . It's hard to think of a better introduction to [Nixon] and his presidency." Rick Perlstein, The New York Times Book Review
"Reeves has once again succeeded in making a presidency come alive. . . . [Reeves captures] Nixon's brooding and lonely personality as well as his subtle mind. With a wealth of color about key days and decisions, the book shows what it is really like to be president." Walter Isaacson, Author of Kissinger: A Biography
"A wealth of information that makes the absolute convincing case that Nixon was not just alone but isolated, walled off, and even lonely. May we never again have a president so cut off from the rest of humanity. It is a haunting story that no reader will ever forget." Bob Woodward, Author of Maestro
"[Reeves places] the reader inside the lonely world of President Nixon, day after day, like no one has before. . . . There are hundreds of surprises here for even the most obsessed Nixon watchers." David Maraniss, Author of When Pride Still Mattered
Latest Column
This is How Congress Works
LOS ANGELES — There is a story Rep. Henry Waxman during hearings on steroid use in baseball that some say is apocryphal. But I believe it — and we have been friends for more than 25 years. It is said that after the sensational hearing where Mark McGwire said he did not want to talk about the past, the congressman came into his office the next morning and said he was surprised there was so little coverage in the newspapers.
Column Archive
Happy Days Will Be Here Again
LOS ANGELES — The word "recession" became part of my vocabulary in 1958, when I dropped out of college to look for a job. It was a tough year, particularly if your resume was as thin as mine. Working as a lifeguard, selling records at a department store or lugging material around at an ironworks did not impress many employers.
Why is Obama So Popular?
LOS ANGELES — The New York Times and CBS News headlined and broadcast last week that their polling indicated Americans have more confidence in President Obama than they do in his programs — especially when it comes to health care and the federal budget.
Sotomayor Looks Like One of Us
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Growing up in Jersey City in the late 1950s, I thought the United States was an Italian country governed by the Irish. So it was a rather pleasant surprise for me when I moved out into the country and realized that this was a nation of white Protestants, governed by white Protestant men, for white Protestant men.
What to do With Enemy Prisoners?
BERLIN — On Sept. 14, 1948, Capt. Kenneth Slaker of Lincoln, Neb., was making his sixth flight as a Berlin Airlift pilot, bringing food and fuel to the World War II enemy capital, which was blockaded on land and on rivers by the army of the Soviet Union. The United States Air Force, along with Great Britain's Royal Air Force, was trying to keep alive more than 2 million people in West Berlin, which was surrounded by East Germany and hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Red Army.
The Late, Great State of California
LOS ANGELES — It's just another day in paradise. Sunny, 75 degrees. Also, this news from the morning papers around California last Friday:
L.A. CANCELS MOST SUMMER SCHOOL CLASSES
GOV. PROPOSES 5 PERCENT CUT IN STATE EMPLOYEE SALARIES
AREA'S STATE PARKS ARE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK
COUNTY RAIDS HOMELESS CAMP
BART FARES GOING UP 6.5 PERCENT ON JULY 1
To The Lucky Class of 2009
LOS ANGELES — Another year, another graduation. But, of course, this is not just another year. For the graduates themselves, it is one of the most important times of their lives. For many of them, their parents and millions of ordinary Americans, it is a very, very tough time.
What is the American Way of Life?
NEW YORK — This is how they got young men into the military in Honduras in the 1980s: They would show Kung Fu movies in local theaters and then surround the building with trucks, scooping up the audiences, young men, of course, and driving off them to army camps and basic training.
The Last Days of Pakistan?
NEW YORK — Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord that the United States and India have plans to seize Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
Let's Mess with Texas
DALLAS — Rush Limbaugh, the entertainer, announced the other day that he was moving out of New York City because New York Gov. David Paterson proposed higher state taxes on the rich. Paterson reacted by saying that if he had known Limbaugh would go, he would have proposed the tax a long time ago.
Women and Islam
LOS ANGELES — As many teachers of history and journalism do, I show my students "The Battle of Algiers," not because it is one of the great films, which it is, but because it is a good way to begin talking about the cultural clash between Islam and the West.
Obama and Erectile Dysfunction
LOS ANGELES — George W. Bush's last press secretary, Dana Perino, whom I know to be a perfectly sensible person, was on CNN last Thursday playing her part as a loyal Republican by saying that President Obama had embarrassed all real Americans by bowing a bit as he shook the hand of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. That is the same guy Bush once held hands with when he was nothing but a crown prince — Abdullah, not Bush.
Hearts and Minds — and the Grim Reaper
LOS ANGELES — Two months ago, I wrote a column about Afghanistan and the goals of President Obama, ending: "Who are we fighting? Why?"
The Crisis Scorecard: Winners and Losers
LOS ANGELES — There are going to be winners and losers as America tries to dig itself out of this economic hole. You can't tell the players in this very big game without a scorecard, and they're subject to change from inning to inning. There will be hits, there will be errors, and there will be substitutions and new players coming up from the minors.
The Coming Health Care Debate
LOS ANGELES — Uwe Reinhardt is a professor of economics at Princeton and one of the wiser scholars of health care in the developed world. But he was not always a professor with a string of fancy titles and a gold-standard Ivy League health plan. He grew up poor in Germany, and this is part of what he says about that:
"I grew up in a tool shed, and I know how good it was that when we were paupers, my family, we had health insurance like everyone else in Germany. I've never forgotten that, and I would like the American people to have what I had, and my mother had as a kid. So that is why I care."
Which Way is Right for the Right?
LOS ANGELES — Republicans and conservatives are not necessarily the same people. They are not even kissin' cousins these days, as they try to figure out whether they should help the new Democratic and liberal administration try to save a shaky country or follow the lead of their largest person and pray our new leader fails.
Class Warfare: Bring It On!
LOS ANGELES — "We seem to be going back to class warfare," said a Republican congressman from Ohio, Steven LaTourette, after looking at President Obama's first budget.
O, Democracy: A Coast-to-Coast Mess
NEW YORK — Ask about Mayor Michael Bloomberg these days and you get a classic on-the-one-hand answer: "On the one hand, he's been a good mayor." Some say a great one. "On the other hand, it's outrageous what he's doing on term limits."
Why Are We in Afghanistan?
NEW YORK — Twenty-five years ago, when more than 100,000 soldiers of the Red Army were trying to gain control of Afghanistan, I spent most of a day at the Afghan Surgical Hospital on the Pakistan side of the Khyber Pass, listening to stories about Soviet atrocities.