Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #580513 in Books
• Published on: 1990-05-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1136 pages

Synopsis
The former president recounts his life and political rises and falls, concentrating on the events, domestic and international, of his presidency and those leading up to his unprecedented resignation.

Customer Reviews

The Private Life Of A Public Man
From his childhood in Whitter, CA, to his fall from grace with the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon relays his thoughts and ideas to the reader with excellent fluency and non-pretentious language and style. Nixon does not over-glorify himself, but he manages to show us both his good intentions and inevitable flaws. Recommended for anyone with the slightest interest in Nixon or US politics...it's far more readable and far more personal than any other book on Nixon.

"Tricky Dicky", In his own words
Without a shadow of a doubt, Richard Milhous Nixon is the most controversial President in the history of US politics. Infamous for the Watergate scandal, which lives on to this day, Nixon, in his own words, seeks to give his own account of happenings, from his childhood days in California, through his college days at Whittier College and Duke University,his running for Vice President alongside Dwight Eisenhower, his unsuccessful race for the Whitehouse against JFK, and his later, successful effort, in 1968. Nixon, was the 6th President to pen an autobiography, with the aim here, according to Nixon, being to inspire others, historians would add its to go for being a great president and to clear his name at Watergate. Nixon tells of his great foreign policy successes, in the Vietnam period, and with the Soviet Union and Communist China, as well as revealing his war against the press, whom Nixon, accuses some, of having a vendetta against him. Whether Nixon can be trusted or not is a matter of debate, some will point to him being a disgrace to the Presidency, whilst others can make the valid point that Watergate was simply a politician doing what politicians do, whilst adding Nixon has no concrete evidence against him, and the only person to be harmed by Watergate were Nixon and his staff. Nixons Memoirs is a fascinating read, although a lengthy one at that. Well written, concise and informative, one unheralded bonus of this work is that Nixon's memoirs covers a lengthy history of US politics, from his time in the senate to his last days in the White House, Nixon always gives a view on the American political game at that point in time. Whether Nixon can be trusted or not is open to debate, but the work and usefulness of this book to any student of the era is undoubted.

Compelling account by a great but flawed president
"Even Richard Nixon has got soul", wrote Neil Young in his song 'Campaigner'. This book chronicles Richard Nixon's rise and fall with candid honesty and demonstarates a warmth and human falibilty that does indeed afirm Young's lyric.
I was surprised at Mr. Nixon's book in that I was unsympathetic at the time with his handling of Vietnam and felt he was out of touch with the vast anti-war movement in the USA. I feel now that he was harshly judged and that he should be saluted for his untiring efforts to maintain freedom and democracy in Asia.
The best parts of the book are when he describes meetings with other world leaders and provide a fascinating insight into the process of diplomacy at the highest level of goverment.
The Watergate sections are complicated and one is left with the impression that he got into a hole and could'nt stop digging. Nixon's presidency deserves to be remembered for more than the disgrace of Watergate he displayed an abiltity in foreign relations and diplomacy that kept the world safe and laid the foundations for the eventual triumph of democracy in Europe.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the machinations of high politics and anyone who wishes an insight into a turbulent period in American history.