The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Right or wrong, Richard Nixon has been singularly defined in biographies, commentaries, TV and film productions and, yes, even an opera, by his resignation in 1974 of the presidency of the United States. Not here. Just as author Anthony Summers did in his definitive analysis of another 20th century icon ("Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe"), he lays out more than 600 pages of incredibly minute attributions in a relentlessly negative yet saucy treatment of the nation's 37th president. Although not scandal, Summers' final product is, if nothing else, racily relentless and throughly negative. Through it all, we get more of Nixon's alleged misbehaviors and unethical and illegal acts than a truly defining psycho-profile of this truly dark - even scary - figure. This isn't to say that Summers' work isn't a contribution to the continuing Nixon saga. It is. If nothing else, Summers' "challenge" to other writers might be to throttle them out of 1974 - and for most Nixon commentators, if not all, it still is and always will be 1974 - to probe the man capable of orchestrating the alleged events that Summers lays out in this book. Among them: Nixon's only Senate campaign in 1950 against Helen Gahagan Douglas, she who was "pink right down to her underwear" and was ravaged by Nixon's defamatory and anti-Semitic and trademark smear ideology, was funded in part by mob money from Mickey Cohen. Just a few years earlier, as a junior member of Congress' obscene Communist witchhunt committee, Nixon stooped to the illegal altering of evidence to condemn his dogged nemisis, Alger Hiss, to four years in a federal prison. Another unethical, if outright illegal plot after another in a supposed link between Howard Hughes, Fidel Castro and - yes - Watergate is laid out. And while there's never been any direct evidence that Nixon ordered the break-in that led to his presidential self-destruction (although he clearly authorized its cover-up), Summers claims here Nixon okay'ed more than 100 other break-ins throughout his political career. While the reader gets more of Nixon's alleged but previously unknown examples of illegal and unethical conduct, we get fewer explanations of what has been elusive to virtually everyone studying the man: what drove him. But we do get some glimpses into the Nixon psyche that could account for what made the total man: an ambition with no goal that started as early as age six but whose goal targeted politics a few years later; a never-satisfied thirst for power that was abused to "punish" Nixon's "enemies" and for the purpose of holding onto that power; a descent into experimentation with Seconals, Dilantin, speed and Scotch; having as his favorite limo the SS110X which, coincidentally, was the one in which JFK was killed; and, maybe in a brief concession to his dark side, an attempt with "Paviovian technique" to become "a better person." By book's end, Summers makes one thing "perfectly clear:" there was definitely something wrong with Richard Nixon. What exactly is elusive. But Summers' bio is still an important and compelling contribution to the written body of the Nixon library, and we can only hope that post-Watergate writers and researchers will carry Summers' work further and do what any few Nixon-ites have: to try to define the man by his totality rather than by his single act of being the only president in U.S. history to resign the world's most powerful seat.

Anthony Summers setting of his decision to spend five plus years working the details of the life of Nixon is important. Along with Norman Mailer, he was pissed off at the obits cranked out in 1994 on Nixon's death, Obits written in the spirit of the cover-up. Perhaps the best way to frame this book is an obit crafted by an enemy list wanna-be. As yet another citizen still distressed at being left off that famous list -- I think Summers got Richard M. Nixon right on.

"Arrogance" is a full biography crafted around a collection of psychological insights into the subject -- it is a tale of one soul's journey through 20th century American Politics -- a tale of predictable disasters. It is so much more than Watergate, though readers knowledgable of Watergate detail will find much here that is new, and demands integration into one's Watergate fact file. But since Nixon materials are scheduled to be opened by various archives well into the second quarter of the 21st century, we probably will need more Summers-like books, books that synthesize new materials either as additions or corrections into the detailed analysis of Nixon.

But in year 2000 Summers adds it up as follows: Nixon as a kid learned telling the truth frequently led to a whipping, telling lies avoided that possibility. He learned to stuff his emotions so deep, they never really matured. He came to doubt his parents evangelical Quaker piety -- but he never explored so as to replace it with a mature value and belief system. He was ripe to be caught by that place where the American Mafia and American Business intersect, and need presentable political actors. In 1946 they needed a vet, good education, someone with a velvet fist to bust the labor movement, someone who would serve interests so long as he was well paid, (under the table mind you). Nixon got and took the offer -- and Summers details the whole long list of transactions that salt Nixon's rise...all the way to the post resignation annual visits to his secret Swiss Bank Accounts.

Much has been made in the press of the possible physical abuse of Pat Nixon at her husband's hand -- the sources are interesting, but not convicting. Nonetheless, the narrative is filled with instances of psychological abuse, a profound story of attachment disorder. One wonders why no one speculated about this during the long Nixon public career?

Summers provides the basis for raising the question needing debate -- how was it that a political party selected this flawed person for leadership? Just reading through the sources one understands Nixon's intimates knew something of the truth -- but they nominated him twice for Vice President, and three times for President -- we need to comprehend why. His own psychologist seemed to know in 1951 that he could not handle stress, but professional ethics of course kept him from speaking out. His profound problems with truth and trust were apparent to his political allies -- but they turned away from the responsibility to act. Summers does not ask these questions, but readers ought to consider them.

If you are expecting a biography of President Nixon, you will be disappointed. The book fails to discuss any of his achievements or to talk about the problems he faced in office and how he responded to them. The book has only one purpose and that is to destroy the reputation that Nixon tried to create for himself in later years.

The book basically spends some 480 pages listing his dodgy deals and character flaws. This will if you are a democrat supporter fill you with feelings of warm, and if you are a republican supporter will strike you as unbalanced and a sneak attack. Never the less the book is readable and the list of wrongdoing is long. It includes

1. That possibly his career was supported by organised crime
2. He may have been involved in the early plots to kill Castro
3. He accepted large amounts of money from Howard Hughes in return for favours
4. He may have been part of a conspiracy to frame Alger Hiss
5. He accepted a huge campaign contribution from the Colonels who overthrew the democratic government of Greece and supported them as a result
6. He received campaign contributions from the Shah of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Marcos of the Phillipines and this led to him supporting those regimes
7. He prevented the possibility of peace in Vietnam in 1968 and sent a representative to the South Vietnamese government asking them not to participate in Johnsons peace program. Possibly this led to an lengthening of the war and loss of American lives
8. The Phoenix program in Vietnam occurred with his consent resulting in the murder of 20,000-40,000 people.
9. Extension of the war into Cambodia and Laos and the secret bombing of Cambodia
10. The destruction of a friendly regime in Chile
11. Watergate

However the main weapon of the book is not so much in listing the wrongdoing but in the way it portrays Nixon. He is described as a wife-bashing drunk who was addicted to prescription medication. He is a person who was a pathological liar who would lie about his wives birthday to get a small advantage.

His early career is discussed in some detail. It seems that when he first ran for congress and the senate he was bankrolled by big oil and a number of other interests. They put money into a fund that not only paid for his expenses but also subsidised his living expenses. His initial campaigns were unethical, using false slurs against sitting members and full of dodgy leaks push poling and the like.

The portrait towards the end of the book (it finishes when he resigns) shows him to be an unstable drunk giving orders such as bombing Damascus and Nuking North Vietnam in regard to minor provocation. The suggestion was that Kissinger and his military advisers would generally disregard these commands to see if he would rescind them in the morning. The book also suggests that towards the end the nuclear trigger he carried was disabled because of fears about his sanity. An interesting but not dispassionate book.