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and recently discovered or declassified documents and tapes -- including Nixon's tortured memos to himself and unpublished sections of H. R. Haldeman's diaries -- to offer a nuanced and surprising portrait of the brilliant and contradictory man alone in the White House.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
Party On! The Revolt Of The Old
LOS ANGELES — My favorite Tea Party guy is Merle Firestone from Rainbow, Miss., who left home at 4 a.m. last Saturday morning to drive to Nashville. He left a note on the coffeepot for his wife saying he wanted to hear Sarah Palin at the "National Convention" of the "Tea Party." He could not afford a $300 ticket to get into the auditorium at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, but he thought he might get a glimpse of the former Alaska governor.
Column Archive
Edmund Burke And Obama 2.0
LOS ANGELES — First the news: Barack Obama is a hell of a speaker. His first State of the Union message will not change history, but it was a skillful balancing act between the winds of change he wants to ride and the sour and contradictory winds of discontent blowing across the United States.
Who Is That Masked Man?
WASHINGTON — When Barack Obama of Illinois first walked into the Capitol of the United States as a senator-elect in 2004, he was greeted with the usual bowing and scraping that senators take for granted in those hallowed halls. His wife was stunned, saying, as I recall: "What will they do if you actually achieve something?"
Why We Are In Haiti -- Because We're Americans
PHILADELPHIA — In February of 1961, President Kennedy asked this question of Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India: "What do you think of the idea of our Peace Corps?"
Why You're Your Own Doctor
DENVER — All of your adult life it seems you are told that you are your own doctor. You don't believe that, or perhaps, just don't think about it, until there inevitably comes a time when you have to spend a good deal of time with physicians.
Harry Reid: The Dealer From Nevada
WASHINGTON — Harry Reid, you may have noticed, is not a very colorful fellow. Among the interesting things you can say about him is that he is the first Capitol police officer to become a senator working in that same building.
Is Obama A B-plus President?
LOS ANGELES — It's the time of year when college instructors grade papers. Having done this for more than 10 years at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism here at the University of Southern California, I would offer this general rule: Students usually think they deserve a half-grade better than what they get. Give them a B, they think they should have gotten a B-plus.
We, The People, Are Not At War
WASHINGTON — So, our extraordinarily rational and articulate president went to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and identified himself as a wartime commander-in-chief. True, but he neglected to mention that his nation is not at war.
Lost In Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama says a lot of smart things. During his campaign last year, in his second debate with Sen. John McCain, in Nashville, he closed by saying:
The Late, Great State Of California
LOS ANGELES — California, contrary to popular opinion, is not broke. It's only crazy, mean and at war with itself.
The United States — Decline And Fall?
LOS ANGELES — It has become fashionable on both the left and the right to compare the United States to ancient Rome. Decline and fall: We are a militaristic power trying to make everyone else in the known world submit to our way, or we are an irreligious, hedonistic bunch going the way of all flesh. Or maybe both.
An Audience Of One
LOS ANGELES — Most of what you read, see and hear about Afghanistan is not meant for you. The words, optimistic and pessimistic, right and wrong, all the leaks, all the numbers of troop estimates, costs and polls are aimed at an audience of one: the president.
Conservatives Poised To Repeat History
LOS ANGELES — Was George Santayana right when he said that those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it?
Why Canadians Are Laughing At Us
AUSTIN, Texas — A guy walks up to you in a bar here and asks, "Are you a Republican, conservative or independent?" You can't tell if he's kidding. After all, this is the most liberal place in the state. It's also where I first heard about Shona Holmes, the Canadian lady.
When History Calls
LOS ANGELES — Sen. Olympia Snowe said last week that in the end, which is near, she may or may not vote for health care reform. But she will, judging by her last comment as the Senate Finance Committee voted out a bill: "When history calls, history calls."
Better Jaw-jaw Than War-war
LOS ANGELES — Obviously, the world, or at least a heck of a lot of foreigners, love Barack Obama. The Nobel Peace Prize is an impressive, if surprising, symbol of that.
Trust Your Instincts, Mr. President
LOS ANGELES — We do not pay the president by the hour and, I understand, he has some pretty good telecommuting equipment. So if he wants to take a 20-hour trip to Copenhagen, even in a lost cause, the Republic will survive.