Nixon: Acclaim and Shame

"Nixon: Acclaim and Shame" romps through Richard Nixon's family history, early schooling, university education at Whittier College and Duke University Law School, service in the U. S. Navy during World War II, and small town practice of family law to his entry into national politics in 1946. The pace then slows to describe in some detail his ascent the House of Representatives, the U. S. Senate, and the Vice Presidency, to his failed campaign for the Presidency of the United States of America in 1960, on to his first successful campaign for the Presidency in 1968. His organization and re-organizations of the Office of the Presidency and the functioning of the U. S. government are then described at some length. Nixon's triumphs in foreign affairs, particularly rapprochement with the People's Republic of China and detente with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and his enthusiastic endorsement of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration receive well-deserved praise. His success on the domestic front, particularly school desegregation, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Supplemental Security Income and the Food Stamp program are applauded. These accomplishments are followed by Nixon's strivings for a second term as President, seeking not simple re-election, but landslide victory. This lofty ambition launched as inept campaign of "dirty tricks" finally leading to the disastrous break-in to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee on June 17, 1972. After the bunglers were arrested, President Nixon and his senior staff, apparently without due consideration of the consequences, embarked on a lengthy "cover-up." Eventually, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered release of the tape-recordings of the deliberations of the Nixon Administrations into the public domain. These exposed to the world criminality from the Presidency on August 9, 1974. After his resignation, Nixon pursued a wide-ranging strategy to mitigate his shame and to enhance his legacy. He (and later his estate) worked diligently and with considerable success to resolve in his favor issues arising from his flawed Presidency. Nixon's roller coaster life story continues to fascinate the American people, politicians, historians and mental health professionals. This bare-bone summary only hints at the underlying details of his remarkable odyssey.