Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962

Nixon - The Education of a Politician 1913-1962 by Stephen E. Ambrose

I seem to be subconsciously drawn towards presidential biographies that need to be told over multiple volumes.  In the past year, I’ve read four books detailing the life of Lyndon Johnson (the fifth hasn’t been written yet), as well as the Edmund Morris trilogy on the life of Theodore Roosevelt.  So I guess it shouldn’t really surprise me, that when I wanted to read about Richard Nixon, I would somehow get sucked into another multi-volume chronology.  Perhaps it was because these works by Nixon were penned by Stephen Ambrose - an author who I have not read yet, but know by reputation.  Safe to say that Mr. Ambrose deserves his reputation.  This book was excellent, and I’m eagerly waiting to finish, not only the other two retrospectives on Nixon, but many of Ambrose’s other works as well.

Perhaps one of the best things I enjoyed about Ambrose’s writing, is his ability to be somewhat succinct.  He never babbles on uncontrollably over details.  Whereas the Lyndon Johnson biographer, Robert Caro, would spend pages just describing LBJ’s grandparent’s facial features or the texture of the grass in Central Texas, Ambrose seems to give you just about the right information that you need to paint a good, overall picture of the settings, and then move on.  This is not only true when discussing the subject’s upbringing and background, but also when he is in the thick of important politics.  A perfect example that comes to mind is that the LBJ story spent probably over 100 pages discussing the intricacies of the emasculated Civil Rights Bill of 1957, whereas Ambrose seems to cover it (very well) in only a few paragraphs.

After reading the first volume of the future President Richard M. Nixon, I’m left with two overall impressions of this man:

1. He was a very hard working, honest, sincere man, that wanted to do an enormous amount of good for his country.

-and-

    

        2. He was a ruthless politician.

You might then ask, how can a “ruthless” politician have ascended as quickly as Nixon did in his rise to become one of the youngest Vice-Presidents in history?  Short answer: see #1 above.  More on that later.

The book, fortunately, does not go into too much detail of Nixon’s upbringing.  There’s not much in the early chapters that we don’t already know.  He was raised in a very poor environment, by tough, but sincere Quakers.  He lost two of his four siblings to disease at a very young age, and worked very hard throughout his studies as a young man.  Although he was well respected by being such a smart, articulate young man in school, his peers found him aloof, odd, awkward, and simply not very sociable.  He rarely ever had a “good time” as young kids are prone to chase, and his early nickname was “Gloomy Gus”.  He seemed to never have any interest in dating either.  It’s almost a miracle that he hooked up with beautiful future-wife Pat when he did.  You have to wonder what she ever saw in this man.  Of his awkwardness, the Martha Mitchell character in the Oliver Stone movie seemed to sum it up best when she said to him “Your smile and your face never seem to be in the same room at the same time”. (Whether or not the real Martha Mitchell actually said this, I have no idea)

The fact that his personality was so dry, was probably the reason why he was accused of playing dirty politics.  I never found his accusations to be any worse than any of his contemporaries, but perhaps if these zingers had come from someone a bit more charismatic and likable, they never would have stung his opponents as strongly as they did.  Needless to say, as much as many loved this man, there were many who hated him throughout his political life for this very reason.

As mentioned, he moved up the political ladder very quickly.  The first time he ran for congress, he handily beat incumbent Jerry Voohris.  The very next election, he plowed into his first Senate race against the very popular (and very beautiful) Helen Gahagan Douglas.  He easily won that election as well.  Then, a mere two years later, he was selected by General Dwight Eisenhower to be his running mate as Vice President.  It’s not really that difficult to see why.  Without going into too many details, Nixon was rallying up a frenzy during the communist scare of the post World War II era, eventually bringing the spy Alger Hiss to justice.  He was seen as a young hero by so many at the time.  Fortunately, contrary to what many post historians believe, Nixon was smart enough to distance himself from some of the wackos such as Joseph McCarthy that managed to create undue hysteria during the “red scare” error.  So Nixon seemed to be a great choice for Ike.

Now, it should be mentioned that author Stephen Ambrose has written several biographies about the life of Dwight Eisenhower, so it times, it seems like strays a bit too far from his main subject here, and focuses too much on Nixon’s boss.  However, upon closer examination, such a digression is necessary as Eisenhower was, without really knowing it, a huge factor in the successes and failures of Richard Nixon in the years to follow.

We must remember that Dwight Eisenhower was the biggest war hero on the planet in 1952 (yes, bigger than Douglas MacArthur).  So when rumors started to swirl that he might run for the highest office in the country, people were already sold on him.  For awhile, nobody even knew whether he would run as a Democrat or a Republican.  It simply wouldn’t have mattered.  Ike was Ike - and he was liked.  This actually gave Eisenhower a huge advantage over any of his contemporaries, because he never had to pander to any of the political demagogues.  He could get away with saying whatever he wanted, and people ate it up.  Example: He “got credit” for ending the Korean War in 1953, yet his policies were identical to his successor, Harry Truman’s.  The difference?  People loved Ike, and they were ready to drink whatever kool-aid he served them.  Truman, like 99% of any other politician that ever lived, was loved by most in his own party, yet hated by most who were not.

So whereas all this was a tremendous advantage for the former D-Day hero, it didn’t help Nixon in the slightest.  Ike actually had Nixon do a lot of his politicking for him, so Nixon would say what needed to be said, yet people who disagreed with the administration, would usually find a scapegoat in Nixon.  Then, when 1956 came around, Ike thought of dropping Nixon from the ticket.  It wasn’t that he disapproved of the job that he was doing, but he felt Nixon would gain more experience with a Cabinet position.  Although in theory, Eisenhower was right (a VP is a pretty worthless job), it would have been political suicide for Nixon had this happened in any shape or form.

So Nixon proceeds to be, arguably, the greatest Vice-President ever.  Obviously, he’s the front-runner to run against John F. Kennedy in 1960, yet sadly, Eisenhower does absolutely nothing to help his second-in-command.   What makes things even more difficult is that Nixon and Kennedy seem to have so many of the same ideas, beliefs and solutions for the country.  Difficult because even though Nixon shares Kennedy’s ideals, Eisenhower does not.  So during the campaign, Nixon can’t say such things publicly.  Oh politics!  Well,  during the 1960 presidential race, anything and everything that can go wrong for Nixon does.  Had these events happened to anyone else, Kennedy would have whipped his opponent in a landslide.  Instead, Nixon ends up with half the country’s votes.  How he pulled this off with all of the turmoil is amazing.  Not to mention most historians believe the election was actually stolen for Kennedy by some of his shadier supporters.

It probably would have been best had this first volume ended after the 1960 election, but the book continues as Nixon tries to go back to “normal” life in his home state of California.  He quickly gets sucked in to running for Governor against popular incumbent Pat Brown in the 1962 election, and, again, everything goes wrong for Nixon.  Unlike 1960, these mishaps can only be blamed on Nixon himself.  Nixon tries to run for Governor like he ran for President and he ends up looking like a proverbial bull in a china shop.  He simply needed to tone down his rhetoric to have any effect, and he ends up miscalculating in a very bad way.  Not to mention that more and more people simply dislike the man by now.  At the conclusion of the race, his infamous concession speech tells the reporters that he’s gone and they “won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore”.  Of course, those in the know simply knew he would be back, it was just a question of when.

And that’s where the first volume ends.  This was an incredibly satisfying read, and I was pleased to find out that the author was not a fan of Nixon when he set out to write his series of biographies.  Yet the tone is never malicious.  You end up liking Nixon to some extent, and you actually feel sorry for the man knowing his eventual outcome.  Had his face and his smile simply been in the same room at the same time, history would have probably been much different.  And different for the better.