President Nixon: Alone in the White House

Mr. Reeves look at the Nixon presidency from the vantage point of the President himself provides the reader with a fascinating look at one of the most compelling political figures of our time. To paraphrase Bob Dole, it was a miracle that Nixon ever made it to the pinnacle of political power. From the very first day in office, we are given the picture of a man who is both elated that he has reached his destiny, but at the same time is unable to savor the moment. Although the book does not deal with RN's life, Reeves does a masterful job at painting a portrait of a man embittered by the cut and thrust of politics. We see a man who has his eye on his enemies, real and imagined, and who is bound and determined to triumph over him. Reeves does indeed show us the "who, what, when, where..." of the Nixon presidency, yet resists the temptation of playing amateur psychologist and does not address the "why" of Richard Nixon. Instead we are treated to a story of a man who was truly "alone in the White House." However, this title is misleading, for Nixon's penchant for solitude, and secrecy are only part of the story. A better title for this book would have been "President Nixon: The Remaking of the Presidency," because that is exactly what he set out to do. Reeves presents a balanced look at RN. We see him at his best; statesmen, "architect" of foreign policy, strategic thinker, and visionary for a stable world order. We also get a look at the man at his worst; the many "horrors" of Watergate, his pathological Jew-baiting, his thin-skinned reaction to the press, his obsession with being seen as a "man of the people," and on and on. In sum, there is much to dislike about Richard Nixon; there is also much to admire. After reading a book like this, one has to wonder what would the Nixon legacy have been if he chose not to cover up Watergate and lanced the boil, dug deep, and plowed ahead to finish his second term. Reeves' book shows all too clearly, and poignantly, that "the Old Man" was incapable of doing anything but he did at the time, which is a shame. RN's legacy is that he left a stain on the body politic that has engendered a cynacism toward politics.

Reeves' book is a monumental work of presential history that depicts Nixon as a complicated, brilliant, but ultimately all-too-human president whose downfall comes as the result of several tragic flaws, such as Nixon's deep feelings of insecurity and paranoia, and his infatuation with secrecy and cloak-and-dagger operations. The author is to be commended for his amazingly adept use of a wide range of resources, including interviews, diaries, the all-important Nixon tapes, and, perhaps most intriguingly, Nixon's own handwritten memos to himself (the ubiquitous yellow notepads that Nixon kept at hand for jotting down his most private thoughts). The book's only flaw, and a minor one at that, is that after 500+ pages of detailed insight into the workings of the White House, Reeves skims over the President's last few months in the White House, after it was too late for Nixon to redeem himself and when it was merely a matter of time before he resigned. One gets the feeling that nothing much happened between the time Nixon dismissed the last of his "true-believer" lieutenants and his departure from the White House. I'm unsure that this was actually the case, and that perhaps one more chapter was in order. Regardless, I don't know of a better book about the Nixon presidency.

Richard Reeves takes a different tact (from his previous Presidential biography of JFK) in this comprehensive and, at the same time, haunting portrayal of Richard Nixon. Granted, there is more material available (compared to Kennedy's presidency) to make an in-depth judgement of the Nixon administration, but Reeves' appears to have also re-fit his writing style and reporting to this specific story and the results (in my opinion) are a major success. We see Nixon as an insecure and manipulative chief executive while at the same time scoring major Foreign policy coups (China and Moscow summit visits as examples...) and Reeves manages to weave these together in a very detailed but highly readable account that, I feel, paints Nixon fairly and accurately. Relying on many sources, and with the perspective of almost 30 years, Reeves presents surprisingly in-depth coverage of the inner-workings of the Nixon presidency...full of late 60's and early 70's domestic and foreign policy discussion that effectively sets the framework for the end of the Vietnam conflict as well as giving the reader a feeling of what it was like actually inside the White House. The little known fueding between Henry Kissinger and Secretary-of-State Bill Rogers is shown to be one of the major motivations behind Kissinger's somewhat duplicitous actions on the Foreign policy front along with the, at times, un-believably insecure actions and writings of Nixon himself...all the covert actions against perceived Presidential rivals, the Establishment and anyone else who got in his way (either real or imagined) is covered in explicit detail...making for fascinating reading. Watergate and it's slow dissolution of Nixon's Presidency is effectively covered as is the destruction of his staff and, ultimately, himself. The only critique I'd mention is that the book essentially ends with the "firings" of Haldeman and Erlichman and leaves the rest of his Presidential collapse in the Epilouge (with only a fraction of the detail found in previous chapters...makes me wonder if the "Haldeman Diaries" was the primary source). In the final analysis, the Nixon administration was famous for lying, cheating and inappropriate behaviour while at the same time being famous for opening major Foreign policy doors and Reeves' book presents both with equal treatment that should be added to essential reading of the Nixon administration.

No editor would publish a novel if the author were to invent a character as contradictory, powerful, and susceptible as Nixon's. I couldn't put the book down, finding the subject as fascinating and as horrifying as ever. Is there any other president that could have an opera written about him? G.Gordon Liddy always referred to him as Machiavelli's prince, and relying on Nixon's own record of his days in the White House, Reeves goes back to the pre-revisionist Nixon, the one who could inspire immense loyalty, winning a second term in one of the authentic landslides in election history, and yet lose it all as a result of his global insecurities and inability to trust, how his idealism and ran side by side with complete disregard anyone else's reputation or semblance of legality; how constant a war played out between conscience and ambition. Other presidents have been as ruthless; few have been as conflicted, and this comes out very clearly in the book, the tragedy of a man who could never trust his better instincts, forever seduced by his own self-image of toughness.

"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