Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #864495 in Books
• Published on: 1990-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 456 pages

Synopsis
The former president recounts six events that shaped his early political career, including the Hiss Case, the Checkers speech, the kitchen debate with Khrushchev, and the 1960 presidential campaign.

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Vice-Presidential Memoir!
"Six Crises" is Richard Nixon's first book. Although he believed that it would be his last, we are fortunate that he surprised himself and wrote nine more. Originally published in 1962, it covers six leading events in the author's life up to that time. Nixon chose to characterize these events as "crises" because of responses that they called out of those whom they challenged. In the introduction he shares with the reader the lessons which he draws from the role in crisis management of confidence, coolness, courage and experience.

The Six Crises which Nixon highlights in his book are The Hiss Case, The Fund, The Heart Attack, Caracas, Khrushchev and the Campaign of 1960.

The Hiss Case was Nixon's first big step on the national stage, in which his subcommittee of the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated Whittaker Chambers' claim that Alger Hiss had been a Communist. This section of the book reads like a mystery thriller in which Nixon gives his candid assessment of the principals involved and the reputations of each. He makes it clear that Hiss started with a much more impressive persona than his accuser, Chambers. He relates in detail the evidence and the analysis to which the subcommittee subjected it in trying to determine how far to take the investigation and what to make of its findings. The reading of the narration of this crisis leads the reader to appreciate the internal struggle with which each committee member wrestled in doing his duty of protecting the national security. Nixon concludes, probably rightly that, without the publicity of the Hiss Case he would not have been placed on a national ticket in the 1950s and, therefore, not been nominated for president in 1960, but that without the enemies he made during the case, would have been elected president that year.

The second crisis, The Fund, arose during the 1952 campaign for vice-president. Press reports reported that Nixon had a fund for personal use derived from private donations. The claim was made that wealthy backers had contributed money to enable Nixon to live far beyond his legitimate means. Nixon explains the provisions of the fund, that being that the money was placed in the hands of a trustee, accounted for, and used for what would now be considered non-stop campaigning. He points out how others, including Adlai Stevenson, had similar funds, although few with as stringent controls as Nixon's. The controversy was to take a tremendous toll on Nixon as he struggled to understand the nature of the crisis and devise and execute a plan to respond to it. The response was the famous "Checkers" speech which saved his place on the ticket. In this section of the book, Nixon introduces the reader to the behind the scenes struggle within the campaign and some of the deliberate references in the speech which saved his career. For anyone with an interest in American politics, this chapter alone makes the book a worthwhile read. An amusing feature is to be reminded, in our era of instant communications, of just how limited communications were in 1952.

The third crisis was Eisenhower's heart attack of 1955. In this section, Nixon lumps the heart attack in with Eisenhower's stroke of 1958 and the related question of the decision to keep Nixon on the ticket in 1956. This section is significant because it is the time when the issue of presidential disability was most clearly faced. It is true that the issue arose after Garfield's shooting and after Wilson's stroke, but, in my opinion, the faster pace of world affairs in the 1950s forced Nixon and other administration officials to respond to the situation more directly than in during prior or subsequent occasion. Acting over a period of months, with virtually no legal guidance, Nixon and the cabinet traversed constitutional terra incognita with courage and experience which enabled the government to continue to function.

With the section on Caracas, the book shifts from domestic to foreign issues. The overriding foreign policy issue of the day was Communism. In this section, Nixon relates how he confronted the challenge of communists during his 1958 tour of South America. This is the trip in which he and Pat were harassed by student agitators in Peru and attacked by mobs in Caracas which placed their lives in jeopardy. Nixon shares with the reader his assessment of the political pressures which lead to the incidents related in the book and his responses to them. His comments about the South American figures with whom he dealt display a degree of candor rarely seen in political memoirs. The degree to which the vice-president of the United States was left on his own, the indignities to which he was subjected and the real risk of murder by a mob seems impossible in this era of heightened security.

The fifth section deals with Nixon's 1959 trip to the Soviet Union during which the famous "Kitchen Debate" with Khrushchev took place. In this section Nixon outlines President Eisenhower's hopes for the trip and the strategy which Nixon devised and executed to attempt to realize them. The candor and detail provided make this section an essential part of a thorough understanding of the Cold War sparing of that time.

The last crisis is the 1960 campaign. This section is essentially a memoir in which Nixon gives his reminiscences of the main events and issues of the campaign. Again, the candor with which he relates his own actions and impressions is rare among political memoirs.

This book is, essentially, an excellent vice-presidential memoir. Nixon was a hero of mine when I came of age politically so I enjoyed every page. Even for one taking a more neutral view Nixon, this book provides a valuable insight into some of the major events in this crucial period of American history.