Richard Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972

Richard Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972 by Stephen Ambrose

“I’m not going to be the first President of the United States to lose a war.” – Richard Nixon

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss…” – The Who

After reading the highly enjoyable first of three books of the life of Richard Nixon by Stephen Ambrose, I was delighted to pick up the second volume, and I immensely enjoyed this work with the same fervor as the first.  This one immediately picks up where the first volume ended, Nixon’s failed run for Governor of California in 1962, which in a sense, was a bigger defeat than his first run for President two years earlier in 1960.

At the infamous press conference after he lost the governor’s race, he informed the press that it would be his “last” press conference, and that he was, so to speak, retiring.  Those close to the man knew better.  Although he does go into a successful practice as a lawyer in New York City after his defeat, it’s very clear to everyone close to him that the man is nowhere near finished with his political career.  Being the smart politician he was, he knew just what to do to keep his name “alive”.  Realizing (correctly) that he has no shot at the 1964 nomination, he spends the years preparing for 1968.

Well, anyone who knows anything about history in the 1960s knows that this was the decade of Vietnam.  Before Nixon becomes president, Vietnam is already a tangled mess of a nightmare, and the counter culture of American youth has never been so exasperated.  Nixon realizes that he’s to win the election, he needs to speak about all of the wrongs of the current administration’s handling of the war, and what needs to happen differently.  Without knowing it, this begins his downfall.  Simply put, he never really knew what he wanted to do differently in Vietnam.  Yes, he wanted to end it, but so did the Lyndon Johnson administration.  So his plan was shaky at best, but being the politician he was, he made a lot of lofty promises that sounded awfully good.  He’s elected over Hubert Humphrey (Johnson’s VP) by a slim margin, and the long awaited presidency begins.

And sadly, this where the Nixon story sadly deteriorates.  First, as I mentioned in my review of the first Ambrose biography, there were many that hated this man because of his ruthlessness.  The fact that he was never a warm, fuzzy kinda guy, meant that his mudslinging and name calling seemed much worse than it actually was.  It didn’t help when the youth of the day distrusted him from day one, and had their feelings justified shortly after Nixon took office.  Ending a jungle war in Vietnam “with honor” was not as easy as it sounded.  In many instances, you could forget that this book was about Nixon and, instead, about the war itself.  There are many immaculate details of all of the plans, talks, strategies and ideas to bring the war to a conclusion throughout these pages, that one can easily get a bit lost.  It seems as though nothing can go Nixon’s way.

What makes things worse is that Nixon takes all of the criticism that is heaped upon him incredibly personal.  So much that he directs his “inner circle” of advisors to sabotage those in the press and the left-wing that are out to get him.  Each day, Nixon reads a briefing of what is being said about him and his administration, and simply makes notes to have those that are “harming him” to be discredited.  It’s amazing the length and frequency of what President Nixon will do.  So much so, that when there’s an order to bug the DNC chairman, Larry O’Brian’s, telephone at the Watergate hotel, it really isn’t a surprise when Nixon later stated that he “couldn’t recall” giving such an order.

Watergate is only briefly touched here, and the scandal doesn’t unfold until after Nixon wins re-election.  With all the turmoil, it’s almost hard to imagine how Nixon could win a re-election.  He manages quite well, however.  As the 1972 election draws closer, he manages to reduce the fighting in Vietnam significantly as well as open up relations with Communist Russia and Communist China.  It didn’t hurt that the Democratic Party was in a bit of a mess themselves and were deeply divided.  Their nominee ends up being South Dakota Senator George McGovern who manages to actually swallow his feet several times during his own presidential campaign.

So Nixon is back for, what appears to be, four more years.  The press are starting to talk more and more about Watergate, but Nixon and his crew aren’t the slightest bit worried.  These things, after all, happen all the time in politics.  So the second volume concludes after Nixon’s re-election.

Unlike the first volume, I actually began to immensely dislike this man.  Once he became President,  he was simply too paranoid, too untrusting, and never good at understanding why so many were against him.  He knew how to win, but when he lost, even in public opinion, he never handled it well.  So with “dirty tricks” abound, the man simply plays hardball a bit too feverishly and alienates many around him.  It really is a shame that a man that was so smart in areas of foreign affairs and world government could be so helpless and baffled while trying to do something relatively simple, such as  make small talk with a group of students.  A tragedy indeed.

Eagerly awaiting to read the third, and final installment.