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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Nixon Tapes: 1971-1972
Im looking forward to reading The Nixon Tapes: 1971 - 1972, edited by David Brinkley and Luke Nichter. The authors are professors of history; Brinkley at Rice University, and Nichter at Texas A&M. Brinkley has been appearing on various cable news programs, promoting the book, which highlights some of the previously unpublished transcripts of the infamous Nixon White House tapes.
Richard Nixon is, in my opinion, the strangest man to ever serve as President of the United States. Until 2001, he was also the most repulsive, pathological liar to inhabit the White House. I assume that other D.U.ers from my generation had, like myself, assumed that the American public could never elect a worse human being to that office, until Ronald Reagan was twice elected. (I do not believe that George W. Bush won either the 2000 or 2004 election.)
Yet, for all of his unattractive character flaws, Richard Nixon is a fascinating case study. I have more books by or about Nixon, than any other republican politician. In fact, I likely have more Nixon books, than the combined total of books about other republican presidents. Each time I add to my collection, I feel slightly uneasy, and ask myself, Why? Why another book about this criminal?
Part of I reason would be because of that era in our nations history. It was, of course, the best of times, and the worst of times. Nixons political career spanned from the period before World War Two, until the end of the Vietnam War. His aborted presidency came about during the most revolutionary year in the 20th century -- which will be covered on CNN this Thursday, for those interested in that series on the 1960s.
It also seems interesting to me that Nixon is one of the two American presidents who suffered a severe psychological break-down in office. LBJ was the other. Curious the timing there, as they followed JFK, a man that both Nixon and Johnsons presidencies were closely tied to. (I do not believe that either played any direct role in the plot to kill Kennedy. Both benefited, of course. And both were aware of how JFK died.)
Nixon was also an intelligent individual, who understood -- and at times mastered -- the politics of power. More, although I would have denied it at the time (had anyone asked me), Nixon did a few good things as president. Im not in agreement with those who insist that Nixon was more liberal than Barack Obama, however. A person can only be evaluated and understood properly within the context of the era they inhabit.
The extremely complex series of criminal activities that are known as Watergate were an important part of the shaping of my social-political outlook. Hence, I collect books that explore much further than the limited events of Watergate that defines most Americans understanding of it. Together, those events posed a far greater threat to our Constitutional democracy than the various committees investigating it, or prosecutions of the criminals involved, ever disclosed. Later threats -- including the Iran-Contra scandals, and the various Bush-Cheney actions such as the Plame Scandal -- could not have happened but for Watergate. In fact, they were outgrowths of the great presidential scandal of my lifetime.
The good books about Nixon do not sanitize his presidency. While they give credit to him and Kissinger for some foreign policy accomplishments, they expose both as war criminals. More, they document the strong ties between organized crime and Nixons political career, and show hoe the Huston Plan would evolve into the Patriot Act.
This book will not have the shock value that the first book of transcribed tapes had, when the New York Times published a collection of those made public by the Watergate investigations. But, along with a couple of books of tapes published in between, they provide a unique view of that strangest of American presidents, Richard Nixon.
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)my younger son came to visit me. He asked what I was up to? I told him that I was posting my preview of this book.
He asked if I wanted to ride to Barnes & Noble to get a copy? I said that I'm broke until the end of the week. He replied that wasn't what he asked me.
I have good kids.
Off to the book store, then to the gym to watch my boy train. Can't beat it.
panader0
(25,816 posts)So do I. It's a great feeling.
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)in the world.
The book is very good, thus far.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,474 posts)H2O Man
(73,232 posts)Strange man, Nixon. A few customers were near me when I picked up the book today. Others are pretty interested in the book, too.
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)H2O Man
(73,232 posts)What did you think of it?
A store employee pointed out a new book by Dean, that he said I will like after finishing this. Was he talking about that?
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)He's got to be in his mid 70's, I'm thinking.
I heard it on WNYC in NY... around 12 noon on 7/30 but for the life of me cannot find a link.
Here's a substitute link: Diane Rehm's show, a few days previously. Not the interview I heard but an interview about the book... which is something along the lines of: "What Nixon Knew and When He Knew It."
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/diane-rehm/about/
Forty years later... I'm surprised at how I'm NOT surprised at Nixon's behavior. Listening to the tapes and transcripts of same... it seems to me this is... for the most part.... how people in power within bureaucratic organizations tend to think and talk. Thank you , Life, for providing this ugly, painful lesson.
Nixon seems to me now no better/no worse than average in terms of ethics.
The STAKES were much higher, that's for sure.
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)of Dean? He's one of the people my son and I discussed on the ride home.
Clearly, he is an intelligent man, and quality author. (My favorite book by Dean is "Worse Than Watergate." But there is an edge to him. He'd be fascinating to talk to, but I don't think I'd be fully comfortable with him.
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)He seemed kind of stilted, robotic. My impression was that he turned "state's evidence" under pressure from the prosecutors. (I'm not the student of the period you are.But I did live through it and followed it fairly carefully.)
His narrative was somewhat suspect at that point as his intention was to minimize his own role and give the prosecutors the big prize, ( Nixon) in return for consideration for himself. (And that's pretty much what transpired.)
While Dean clearly was not acting out of any kind of altruism.... I basically believed the narrative to be truthful in its main points. ( So did everyone , eventually.)
The guy on the radio the other day seemed to be a different person altogether. (Naturally: he's not under threat of indictment for anything.) Spontaneous, sharp, somewhat charming .... and yes... *highly* intelligent.
I know he's moved to the "left" politically in recent years... esp as pertains Bush II and Cheney . I think he still ID's as a libertarian Conservative. He first came to the Nixon group through his association w. the Goldwater movement... if I'm not mistaken. Maybe he's comfortable now w. the Rand Paul wing now.
I didn't catch enough of the interview to get a full sense of him as a person.
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)Like you, I'm fascinated with that period of history. I'm ordering the book. I think Nixon's insecurities & paranoia led to the rampant abuse of power that brought down his presidency. He never understood the younger generation who wanted more transparency in government and more flexibility in a president. I'm glad these transcripts are finally available, as they will provide some more insight into what was a time of great upheaval and division, with the Vietnam War looming over everything.
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)favorite parts of today was the ride to the store and back. It's a little over an hour, each way. The entire time, my son was asking me questions about Nixon and Watergate, and some related issues like LBJ and Cuba. He's a student at SUNY-Binghamton, and employed (currently "part-time" in social work. Of course, it's not the first time we've discussed Nixon et al. But it was a blast -- I love hearing the younger generation's take on people like Nixon.
I told him that my father, a good FDR Democrat, disliked Nixon. Yet, he was horrified by Watergate -- that a US president would be so criminal. For me, it was confirmation of what I thought of "the system." My son said that his generation tends to think, "that's just the way the system is." He said that an increasing number of them are concluding that the current system is unacceptable (in large part, due to huge student loans). I think his generation will improve upon the advances made in the 1960s and early '70s.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Coincidentally, in the last six weeks I re-read Fawn Brodie's book, Rick Perlstein's Nixonland - which is a tremendous read - and Tom Wicker's inexplicable, bend-over-backwards apologia for Nixon, "One of Us."
Maybe it's because Watergate was the biggest thing in the news when I, too, became truly interested in politics, but Nixon has always fascinated me. His inner nature had to be incredibly petty and twisted for him to have done the things he did from the time of his first campaign against Jerry Voorhis in 1948 right up through the end of his political career, but a part of him was clearly intelligent enough to know the difference between right and wrong, the difference between truth and a baldfaced lie. Unlike Reagan and Chimpoleon - who were both "amiable" cretins who served as useful front men/liars/propagandists for the plutocratic takeover of America - Nixon was no fool, but he was utterly amoral. The only thing that ever mattered to him was self-glorification. So any means which achieved that end was in his mind permissible. To put it far too simply, I do not think Richard Nixon had a conscience.
He remains sphinx-like in that the common thread one reads from those closest to him is that "nobody really knew" Nixon. Enigmas, even rotten ones, exert a particular fascination on those who seek to understand history.
I had gotten out my copy of Perlstein's book this morning. I think it is one of the most important books on the presidency that I've had the pleasure of reading. Glad to see you have a very high opinion of it, too.
It's interesting, in regard to your last point: I don't think his wife really knew him, either. Only on a relatively surface level. Perhaps the daughters had closer relationships with him, as he seemed to have taken an interest in their lives .....maybe even, to an extent, on an emotional level.
On the ride home from the book store, my son said, "What you really are describing sounds much more like a mobster with an inferiority complex, than a president." That describes part of Nixon.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)in a nearly endless list of same - was allowing Julie to go out and make 100+ speeches defending his innocence during Watergate. The bastard knew that he was lying through her by proxy and he let the poor girl do it. That was an unspeakably awful thing to do to one of your own children.
WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)His White House tapes if anything (I think) have enhanced his reputation to a great extent (while, so far the Nixon tapes, imho, diminishes his). With LBJ tapes you really get to see a man who was involved and truly concerned about Civil Rights and poverty. You also get to see a real political wheeler dealer at work--somebody who knew how to get votes. Even on Vietnam in the early tapes you see a skeptical LBJ (esp in March of 1965) asking all the right ?'s about Vietnam and it is actually the advisors he inherited from JFK (the so-called "Best and the Brightest" who are the ones who are the most hawkish. It's a shame that he didn't stand up to them if he did have ?'s about U.S. action or sought more outside information. Truly without Vietnam Johnson would be one of the five greatest presidents of all-time.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)I remain nearly convinced that LBJ gave the Pentagon its war in return for being allowed to proceed with The Great Society and civil rights, which were his true passions in politics. He knew all too personally happened to the last guy who stood up to the MIC that wasn't named Eisenhower - he was with him in the same motorcade in Dallas.
bigtree
(85,813 posts). . .and ideals about how government should operate.
I would note that Johnson's tapes were appalling. Nixon's should make many of those coarse and anti-democratic and anti-constitutional and sometimes outright racist and bigoted discussions sound like a society tea party in comparison.
Strange man, he was. Paranoid. Pathological liar. (Many examples in what I've read thus far.)
crazyward
(1 post)I have another book for your collection, one I'm looking forward to reading: Nixon's Secrets by legendary Nixon political operative Roger Stone. Stone is the ultimate political insider who blew the cover off the JFK assassination in "The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ." Now Stone gives the inside scoop on Nixon in his newest book, "Nixon's Secrets". Stone reveals what was said in the famous 18 ½ minute erasure in the White House Tapes and tells why the media ignored other gaps in the Watergate tapes, that there is no Deep Throat, and why Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein lie about it. And what hold Nixon had over Gerald Ford and how Nixon used it to get the deal for a pardon for his Watergate crimes before he resigned. Stone even reveals how Nixon put the moves on Jackie Kennedy one night. (I ordered my copy on that alone!) It's available at Barnes and Noble. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nixons-secrets-roger-stone/1118070886?ean=9781629146034
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)Thank you for the tip.
You might enjoy (or, may have already enjoyed) Lamar Waldron's 2012 "Watergate: The Hidden History (Nixon, the Mafia, and the CIA). It was published by Counterpoint, of Berkeley, CA.
The book makes use of hundreds of government documents that have only been released in recent years.
In a very real sense, it can be considered the follow-up to the two books he wrote with Thom Hartman -- "Ultimate Sacrifice" and "Legacy of Secrecy."
Per "Deep Throat" -- yesterday, on the ride home from the book store, one of the issues that my son and I discussed was why -- without any question -- Woodward's claim that Mark Felt was the individual depicted in Woodward's story is fiction. No question that Felt played a role; he had supervised Woodward per their ONI tasks at the Nixon White House in the late 1960s, in fact. However, as a rule, I wouldn't trust Woodward to give an honest weather forecast.
Uncle Joe
(58,029 posts)Thanks for the thread, H2O Man.
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)When I went to the counter to pay for the book, the young lady preparing to ring me up said, "You are certainly happy today!" I told her that I was eager to start reading the book.
She said, "Oh, Nixon. He was a fascinating character." I said, "Nixon was a terrible human being." She started laughing, and said, " Your description is more accurate than mine!"
I love the atmosphere of a book store. And I think that, at its best, DU:GD radiates that same low-key intensity. I always appreciate your contributions to my OPs here, Uncle Joe.
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)I watched the Watergate hearings when they were televised on national tv during the summer of 1973, just before I started my senior year in high school. And I have to admit Nixon was fascinating, if for only one thing . . his self-absorbed proclivity to gain power.
He was like Hitler, totally obsessed by his own bloviated opinion of himself, falsely positive that he was the only one who could be the leader of whatever group he was with at the time.
How he ever got re-elected in 1972 is beyond me.
When Watergate happened, not only my father, but my mom's father, were deeply disappointed that a man like Nixon had ever become the President of this country. It caused them to doubt their own lifelong feelings of loyalty toward their country. The entire event caused them to re-evaluate their value systems. Occurring near the end of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal shook the very foundations of this country as it caused a constitutional crisis like none other had in over 200 years.
As it turned out, Abbie Hoffman was right about Nixon.
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)Thank you!
I remember my father asking my uncles: "Would you buy a used car from that man?" I assumed it was something he came up with, although later in life, I learned it was something that good Democrats of Dad's generation were asking across the country.
As I'm reading the book, that question keeps popping into my mind. I believe that to DUers our age, the context has more meaning, because of what it meant to our fathers' generation.
Also, I think that despite his outrageous antics -- he was a genius in terms of street theater -- that Abbie was one of the most intelligent, thoughtful people from that era. In the literal sense, he had far more respect for the US Constitution than thugs like Nixon or Hoover.
MinM
(2,650 posts)featured extensive use of the Nixon tapes in their Jimmy Hoffa investigation.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025277060#post33
Thank you for that.
You would enjoy the Lamar Waldron book "Watergate: The Hidden History" that I mentioned above. (Maybe you already have read it?) Plenty of information on the Nixon-Hoffa relationship in it.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)I collect Nixon political pins and jewelry!
DARN that Theodore White with "The Making of the President: 1960"!
I have found it interesting how more than a few of our presidents from Nixon on had tragic childhood events: his brother's illness and death and concomitant abandonment emotionally by his mother; Ford's biological father's being a wife-abuser; Clinton's father's untimely death; Dubya's baby sister's death; Obama's father's early departure.
Edited to add "interesting" in above paragraph!
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)I'm not alone! Thanks!
I used to have some of the "Now! More Than Ever!" posters from Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign. Of course, in those college years, such items often took a beating during the late-hours socializing we engaged in.
The series of Theodore White's books became the foundation for much of my library's presidential sections. They still hold up, after all these years, as valuable reads.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)I was the only "vote" for JFK in my troop.
I've had a weird fascination with RMN for a loooong time!
H2O Man
(73,232 posts)I was telling my son yesterday, about my cousin's experience in 1960. He ran several of the democratic campaign offices in rural, upstate New York. One was in Norwich, a small "city" that is the seat of Delaware County. In my book on the experience of Irish immigrants in NYS, towards the end I wrote about how he was pulled over and ticketed by local police, five weekends in a row. (He later corrected me: it was six times!) The police told him, "We don't want your type around here."
That's from my father's side of the family; they were all solid FDR Democrats. My mother's side was split, between socialists (the white ones), and Onondaga (non-participants in US politics).
We came of age in the same era. And it sounds as if we had some of the same good influences on our thinking!
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)their final vowel before they settled and worked the same mines.
So my Democratic bona fides are born and bred!
But the most interesting part of your post, to me, is that you are an author! Ah, yes, living my dream....!
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...Nixon had essentially committed treason to win the White House, and he was obsessed with keeping it secret, and learning what the Dems knew about it all. Thus--the Watergate break-in. Certainly, Nixon was hiding something much bigger than a cover-up of a burglary. Something that *still* hasn't come out yet...and here's a piece of utterly baseless paranoia. Could LBJ have been murdered? At the moment he died, the Watergate affair was slowly unraveling, and mutual blackmail was going on between just about everybody. LBJ had been good and pissed about the 1968 shenanigans, and Nixon *knew* he was pissed. Could the Plumbers have helped LBJ on to his eternal reward? Like I said--just baseless speculation...but I've always wondered about it...
I'd also add that I think Woodrow Wilson, as well as LBJ and Nixon, was clearly paranoid by 1919. Read about his behavior at Versailles...and his actions when he returned home...it's spooky...
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)a few years back. Nixon should have been jailed for treason for that alone. (Can't remember, was Kissinger involved in that one too? Even if he wasn't, as my old dad used to say of liars, Kissinger was so crooked they will have to screw him into the ground when he finally dies).
No, Nixon had nothing to do with LBJ's death. LBJ had his first major heart attack back in the Fifties. He mentioned on several occasions that he would not live past 65 as heart problems killed his father and his paternal grandfather at the same age. And the same thing got LBJ at the same age. Genetics killed Johnson.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)more than passing strange that post-WWII saw murdered JFK, one-term LBJ, and one-term Jimmy Carter. That is to say, it took 4 decades to get a 2-term Democratic President, and, much as I love Bill, it was one who even said he'd be considered an "Eisenhower Republican" back in the day.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Heard an interview with him on radio on a road trip and he was telling some of the personal/insider stories of the early campaign days and how as a Goldwater supporter he came to work for Nixon. For all Buchanan's racist, bigoted side...he can tell a great story and is entertaining to listen to.
The book sounds interesting politically.
The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority
http://www.amazon.com/The-Greatest-Comeback-Richard-Majority/dp/0553418637
Thanks for this post!
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Ol' Prescott Bush who as a Senator at the time was looking for someone to bring along into Congress. George HW was subsequently mentored by Richard and IIRC was the guy who talked Dick into resigning. Given that Nixon was heavily involved in the planning of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and HW was running cover for it also with Zapata Oil, it's not surprising in hindsight that Nixon's behavior and attitude was so criminal. I'm not sure who appointed HW to DCIA.
I still want to know what exactly Nixon meant by 'The Cuban Affair.' He was worried that there was some fire smoldering still around whatever that was and it appears he worked hard to contain the smoke.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Nixon's "The Bay of Pigs Thing" line meant for delivery to Richard Helms at CIA shows that the same people as got JFK got him.
H. R. Haldeman, in his book, "The Ends of Power," cites several conversations where Nixon expressed concern about the Watergate affair becoming public knowledge and where this exposure might lead. Haldeman writes:
"In fact, I was puzzled when he told me, 'Tell Ehrlichman this whole group of Cubans is tied to the Bay of Pigs.' After a pause I said, 'The Bay of Pigs? What does that have to do with this ?' But Nixon merely said, 'Ehrlichman will know what I mean,' and dropped the subject."
Later in his book, Haldeman appears to answer his own question when he says, "It seems that in all of those Nixon references to the Bay of Pigs, he was actually referring to the Kennedy assassination."
In taped conversations with Haldeman, Nixon is obviously worried about what would happen if Hunt's involvement in the Watergate burglary came to light. Nixon says, "Of course, this Hunt, that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab, there's a hell of a lot of things, and we feel that it would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further...But, you can say, this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, the President believes that it is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again."
http://dirtypolitics.50megs.com/dirty.htm
And that guy's protégé was some serious Old Money.
Baron de Rothschild and Prescott Bush, share a moment and some information, back in the day.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)But I didn't have that connection in my head. Sort of explains how Ol Prescott got in the banking bidniss, back in the day.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)...when asked why he robbed banks is exactly why banks and banksters.
These two were more genteel, perhaps, than their ancestors, but they still felt entitled to rule the world and all still on it they haven't bought or injured.