Author: Leon Friedman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313389330
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
This timely compilation of papers was originally presented at the 1987 Hofstra University Conference on the Nixon Presidency. Bringing together noted Nixon scholars, including Stephen Ambrose, Tom Wicker, and Hugh Sidey, and politicos such as Eliot Richardson, Maurice Stans, H.R. Haldeman, and Robert Finch, the editors have included essays primarily on domestic policies. A lively section on Nixon the man is followed by scholarly articles on all aspects of the domestic agenda. Notable contributions include David Caputo's analysis of revenue sharing and Michael Balzano's study of the adrift Democrats who emerged as Nixon's silent majority and ultimately as the Reagan coalition . . . . [A] worthy addition for specialized collections. Library Journal Thirteen years after Richard Nixon left office Hofstra University's sixth conference on the Modern American Presidency sets the stage for an exchange of views on Richard M. Nixon's presidency, his politics, and his administrative abilities. Leon Friedman and William F. Levantrosser bring together the papers and discussions presented at this conference by scholars, journalists, and Nixon administration officials in this first of a trilogy of volumes issuing from the conference. With the perspective of time, the commentary of leading administration figures such as H. R. Haldeman, Elliot Richardson, Maurice Stans, and Charles Colson takes on a special quality. Papers and discussions explore three major aspects of Richard Nixon: his capacity for greatness, his shortcomings, and his impact on today's youth; the scope and depth of his domestic policy; and his political acumen. Richard M. Nixon: Politician, President, Administrator records the interactions of scholars, journalists, and Nixon administration officials as they search for a better understanding of the Nixon phenomenon. Part I explores the man--his persona and his presidency. A special panel presents the reaction of today's youth to this segment of American history. Part II concentrates primarily on domestic policy. It uncovers the scope and depth of Nixon initiatives in revenue sharing, social welfare, civil rights, environment, and the economy. In Part III, papers and discussions on the silent majority, election campaigning, and the reorganization of the executive branch, disclose Richard Nixon's role in changing the face of American politics.
Richard M. Nixon
Author: Leon Friedman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313389330
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
This timely compilation of papers was originally presented at the 1987 Hofstra University Conference on the Nixon Presidency. Bringing together noted Nixon scholars, including Stephen Ambrose, Tom Wicker, and Hugh Sidey, and politicos such as Eliot Richardson, Maurice Stans, H.R. Haldeman, and Robert Finch, the editors have included essays primarily on domestic policies. A lively section on Nixon the man is followed by scholarly articles on all aspects of the domestic agenda. Notable contributions include David Caputo's analysis of revenue sharing and Michael Balzano's study of the adrift Democrats who emerged as Nixon's silent majority and ultimately as the Reagan coalition . . . . [A] worthy addition for specialized collections. Library Journal Thirteen years after Richard Nixon left office Hofstra University's sixth conference on the Modern American Presidency sets the stage for an exchange of views on Richard M. Nixon's presidency, his politics, and his administrative abilities. Leon Friedman and William F. Levantrosser bring together the papers and discussions presented at this conference by scholars, journalists, and Nixon administration officials in this first of a trilogy of volumes issuing from the conference. With the perspective of time, the commentary of leading administration figures such as H. R. Haldeman, Elliot Richardson, Maurice Stans, and Charles Colson takes on a special quality. Papers and discussions explore three major aspects of Richard Nixon: his capacity for greatness, his shortcomings, and his impact on today's youth; the scope and depth of his domestic policy; and his political acumen. Richard M. Nixon: Politician, President, Administrator records the interactions of scholars, journalists, and Nixon administration officials as they search for a better understanding of the Nixon phenomenon. Part I explores the man--his persona and his presidency. A special panel presents the reaction of today's youth to this segment of American history. Part II concentrates primarily on domestic policy. It uncovers the scope and depth of Nixon initiatives in revenue sharing, social welfare, civil rights, environment, and the economy. In Part III, papers and discussions on the silent majority, election campaigning, and the reorganization of the executive branch, disclose Richard Nixon's role in changing the face of American politics.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313389330
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433
Book Description
This timely compilation of papers was originally presented at the 1987 Hofstra University Conference on the Nixon Presidency. Bringing together noted Nixon scholars, including Stephen Ambrose, Tom Wicker, and Hugh Sidey, and politicos such as Eliot Richardson, Maurice Stans, H.R. Haldeman, and Robert Finch, the editors have included essays primarily on domestic policies. A lively section on Nixon the man is followed by scholarly articles on all aspects of the domestic agenda. Notable contributions include David Caputo's analysis of revenue sharing and Michael Balzano's study of the adrift Democrats who emerged as Nixon's silent majority and ultimately as the Reagan coalition . . . . [A] worthy addition for specialized collections. Library Journal Thirteen years after Richard Nixon left office Hofstra University's sixth conference on the Modern American Presidency sets the stage for an exchange of views on Richard M. Nixon's presidency, his politics, and his administrative abilities. Leon Friedman and William F. Levantrosser bring together the papers and discussions presented at this conference by scholars, journalists, and Nixon administration officials in this first of a trilogy of volumes issuing from the conference. With the perspective of time, the commentary of leading administration figures such as H. R. Haldeman, Elliot Richardson, Maurice Stans, and Charles Colson takes on a special quality. Papers and discussions explore three major aspects of Richard Nixon: his capacity for greatness, his shortcomings, and his impact on today's youth; the scope and depth of his domestic policy; and his political acumen. Richard M. Nixon: Politician, President, Administrator records the interactions of scholars, journalists, and Nixon administration officials as they search for a better understanding of the Nixon phenomenon. Part I explores the man--his persona and his presidency. A special panel presents the reaction of today's youth to this segment of American history. Part II concentrates primarily on domestic policy. It uncovers the scope and depth of Nixon initiatives in revenue sharing, social welfare, civil rights, environment, and the economy. In Part III, papers and discussions on the silent majority, election campaigning, and the reorganization of the executive branch, disclose Richard Nixon's role in changing the face of American politics.
President Nixon
Author: Richard Reeves
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743227190
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 708
Book Description
PRESIDENT NIXON shows a man alone in a White House ruled by secrets and lies, trying to impose old values at home and new balances of power everywhere in the world. Reeves proves that the Watergate scandal was no abberation in an administration foreshadowed by a series of successful uses of 'national security' to cover coups, burglaries, lies, the abandonment of America's allies - and even murder. Reeves portrays a man of vision and iron will who created, used and was used by a small cast of hard, ambitious men who formed a poisonous circle around their insecure leader. Alone, Nixon challenged and changed the world's political and military balance while also plotting to destroy both the Democratic and Republican parties in an attempt to create secretly a new party of the centre. This account of Nixon's stewardship will stand as the balanced, authoratative portrait of an astonishng president and his ruined presidency.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743227190
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 708
Book Description
PRESIDENT NIXON shows a man alone in a White House ruled by secrets and lies, trying to impose old values at home and new balances of power everywhere in the world. Reeves proves that the Watergate scandal was no abberation in an administration foreshadowed by a series of successful uses of 'national security' to cover coups, burglaries, lies, the abandonment of America's allies - and even murder. Reeves portrays a man of vision and iron will who created, used and was used by a small cast of hard, ambitious men who formed a poisonous circle around their insecure leader. Alone, Nixon challenged and changed the world's political and military balance while also plotting to destroy both the Democratic and Republican parties in an attempt to create secretly a new party of the centre. This account of Nixon's stewardship will stand as the balanced, authoratative portrait of an astonishng president and his ruined presidency.
The Professor and the President
Author: Stephen Hess
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815726163
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194
Book Description
What happens when a conservative president makes a liberal professor from the Ivy League his top urban affairs adviser? The president is Richard Nixon, the professor is Harvard's Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Of all the odd couples in American public life, they are probably the oddest. Add another Ivy League professor to the White House staff when Nixon appoints Columbia's Arthur Burns, a conservative economist, as domestic policy adviser. The year is 1969, and what follows behind closed doors is a passionate debate of conflicting ideologies and personalities. Who won? How? Why? Now nearly a half-century later, Stephen Hess, who was Nixon's biographer and Moynihan's deputy, recounts this fascinating story as if from his office in the West Wing. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927–2003) described in the Almanac of American Politics as "the nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson", served in the administrations of four presidents, was ambassador to India, and U.S. representative to the United Nations, and was four times elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. Praise for the works of Stephen Hess Organzing the Presidency Any president would benefit from reading Mr. Hess's analysis and any reader will enjoy the elegance with which it is written and the author's wide knowledge and good sense. -The Economist The Presidential Campaign Hess brings not only first-rate credentials, but a cool, dispassionate perspective, an incisive analytical approach, and a willingness to stick his neck out in making judgments. -American Political Science Review From the Newswork Series It is not much in vogue to speak of things like the public trust, but thankfully Stephen Hess is old fashioned. He reminds us in this valuable and provocative book that journalism is a public trust, providing the basic information on which citizens in a democracy vote, or tune out. — Ken A
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815726163
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194
Book Description
What happens when a conservative president makes a liberal professor from the Ivy League his top urban affairs adviser? The president is Richard Nixon, the professor is Harvard's Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Of all the odd couples in American public life, they are probably the oddest. Add another Ivy League professor to the White House staff when Nixon appoints Columbia's Arthur Burns, a conservative economist, as domestic policy adviser. The year is 1969, and what follows behind closed doors is a passionate debate of conflicting ideologies and personalities. Who won? How? Why? Now nearly a half-century later, Stephen Hess, who was Nixon's biographer and Moynihan's deputy, recounts this fascinating story as if from his office in the West Wing. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927–2003) described in the Almanac of American Politics as "the nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson", served in the administrations of four presidents, was ambassador to India, and U.S. representative to the United Nations, and was four times elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. Praise for the works of Stephen Hess Organzing the Presidency Any president would benefit from reading Mr. Hess's analysis and any reader will enjoy the elegance with which it is written and the author's wide knowledge and good sense. -The Economist The Presidential Campaign Hess brings not only first-rate credentials, but a cool, dispassionate perspective, an incisive analytical approach, and a willingness to stick his neck out in making judgments. -American Political Science Review From the Newswork Series It is not much in vogue to speak of things like the public trust, but thankfully Stephen Hess is old fashioned. He reminds us in this valuable and provocative book that journalism is a public trust, providing the basic information on which citizens in a democracy vote, or tune out. — Ken A
A Tangled Web
Author: William P. Bundy
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429954388
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 706
Book Description
An authoritative historical assessment of american foreign policy in a crucial postwar decade. William Bundy's magisterial book focuses on the controversial record of Richard Nixon's and Henry Kissinger's often overpraised foreign policy of 1969 to 1973, an era that has rightly been described as the hinge on which the last half of the century turned. Bundy's principled, clear-eyed assessment in effect pulls together all the major issues and events of the thirty-year span from the 1940s to the end of the Vietnam War, and makes it clear just how dangerous the consequences of Nixon and Kissinger's deceptive modus operandi were.
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429954388
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 706
Book Description
An authoritative historical assessment of american foreign policy in a crucial postwar decade. William Bundy's magisterial book focuses on the controversial record of Richard Nixon's and Henry Kissinger's often overpraised foreign policy of 1969 to 1973, an era that has rightly been described as the hinge on which the last half of the century turned. Bundy's principled, clear-eyed assessment in effect pulls together all the major issues and events of the thirty-year span from the 1940s to the end of the Vietnam War, and makes it clear just how dangerous the consequences of Nixon and Kissinger's deceptive modus operandi were.
Nixon's Darkest Secrets
Author: Don Fulsom
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429941367
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
A veteran White House reporter reveals our 37th president was even more sinister and haunted than we knew. Richard Nixon left the White House in 1974 as our most disgraced president, but the American people never knew the full extent of his demons, deceptions, paranoia, prejudices, hatreds, and chicanery. Calling on his work in covering Nixon, scores of interviews with members of Congress, White House staffers, and others close to our nation's thirty-seventh president, and invaluable, newly declassified documents and recordings, veteran journalist Don Fulsom sheds new light on "Tricky Dick." The author's revelations include: - That the future president sabotaged the 1968 peace talks for political gain - By the time Nixon became president in 1969, he had linked to the mob for more than two decades and, as president, had a close connection with New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello, the most powerful Mafioso in the nation - The president had a drinking problem and top aides referred to him as "Our Drunk" - Nixon had a misogynist streak and was abusive toward first lady Pat Nixon - The intimate and possibly homosexual nature of Nixon's relationship with confidante Charles "Bebe" Rebozo, a banker with mob ties - Testimony alleging that the president had ordered the killing of White House reporter Jack Anderson Fulsom's examination of these and other startling aspects of Nixon's personal and political dimensions paint an unflinching portrait of a leader who was once the most powerful man in the world. Nixon's Darkest Secrets provides a chilling final chapter in literature on our most troubled president.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429941367
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
A veteran White House reporter reveals our 37th president was even more sinister and haunted than we knew. Richard Nixon left the White House in 1974 as our most disgraced president, but the American people never knew the full extent of his demons, deceptions, paranoia, prejudices, hatreds, and chicanery. Calling on his work in covering Nixon, scores of interviews with members of Congress, White House staffers, and others close to our nation's thirty-seventh president, and invaluable, newly declassified documents and recordings, veteran journalist Don Fulsom sheds new light on "Tricky Dick." The author's revelations include: - That the future president sabotaged the 1968 peace talks for political gain - By the time Nixon became president in 1969, he had linked to the mob for more than two decades and, as president, had a close connection with New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello, the most powerful Mafioso in the nation - The president had a drinking problem and top aides referred to him as "Our Drunk" - Nixon had a misogynist streak and was abusive toward first lady Pat Nixon - The intimate and possibly homosexual nature of Nixon's relationship with confidante Charles "Bebe" Rebozo, a banker with mob ties - Testimony alleging that the president had ordered the killing of White House reporter Jack Anderson Fulsom's examination of these and other startling aspects of Nixon's personal and political dimensions paint an unflinching portrait of a leader who was once the most powerful man in the world. Nixon's Darkest Secrets provides a chilling final chapter in literature on our most troubled president.
Richard M. Nixon
Author: Conrad Black
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 0786727039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1169
Book Description
From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, Richard Nixon was a polarizing figure in American politics, admired for his intelligence, savvy, and strategic skill, and reviled for his shady manner and cutthroat tactics. Conrad Black, whose epic biography of FDR was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece, now separates the good in Nixon -- his foreign initiatives, some of his domestic policies, and his firm political hand -- from the sinister, in a book likely to generate enormous attention and controversy. Black believes the hounding of Nixon from office was partly political retribution from a lifetime's worth of enemies and Nixon's misplaced loyalty to unworthy subordinates, and not clearly the consequence of crimes in which he participated. Conrad Black's own recent legal travails, though hardly comparable, have undoubtedly given him an unusual insight into the pressures faced by Nixon in his last two years as president and the first few years of his retirement.
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 0786727039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1169
Book Description
From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, Richard Nixon was a polarizing figure in American politics, admired for his intelligence, savvy, and strategic skill, and reviled for his shady manner and cutthroat tactics. Conrad Black, whose epic biography of FDR was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece, now separates the good in Nixon -- his foreign initiatives, some of his domestic policies, and his firm political hand -- from the sinister, in a book likely to generate enormous attention and controversy. Black believes the hounding of Nixon from office was partly political retribution from a lifetime's worth of enemies and Nixon's misplaced loyalty to unworthy subordinates, and not clearly the consequence of crimes in which he participated. Conrad Black's own recent legal travails, though hardly comparable, have undoubtedly given him an unusual insight into the pressures faced by Nixon in his last two years as president and the first few years of his retirement.
The President's Man
Author: Dwight Chapin
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063074737
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
In time for the 50th anniversary of President Nixon’s epic trips to China and Russia, as well as his incredible Watergate downfall, the man who was at his side for a decade as his aide and White House Deputy takes readers inside the life and administration of Richard Nixon. From Richard Nixon’s “You-won’t-have-Nixon-to-kick-around-anymore” 1962 gubernatorial campaign through his world-changing trips to China and the Soviet Union and epic downfall, Dwight Chapin was by his side. As his personal aide and then Deputy Assistant in the White House Chapin was with him in his most private and most public moments. He traveled with him, assisted, advised, strategized, campaigned and learned from America’s most controversial president. As Bob Haldeman’s protege, Chapin worked with Henry Kissinger in opening China—then eventually went to prison for Watergate although he had no involvement in it. In this memoir Chapin takes readers on an extraordinary historic journey; presenting an insider’s view of America’s most enigmatic President. Chapin will relate his memorable experiences with the people who shaped the future: Henry Kissinger, his close friend Bob Haldeman, Choi En-lai, Pat Nixon, the embittered Spiro Agnew, J. Edgar Hoover, Frank Sinatra, Mark "Deep Throat" Felt, young and ambitious Roger Ailes, and John Dean. It’s a story that ranges from Coretta Scott King to Elvis Presley, from the wonder of entering a closed Chinese society to the Oval Office, and concludes with startling new insights and conclusions about the break-in that brought down Nixon’s presidency.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063074737
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
In time for the 50th anniversary of President Nixon’s epic trips to China and Russia, as well as his incredible Watergate downfall, the man who was at his side for a decade as his aide and White House Deputy takes readers inside the life and administration of Richard Nixon. From Richard Nixon’s “You-won’t-have-Nixon-to-kick-around-anymore” 1962 gubernatorial campaign through his world-changing trips to China and the Soviet Union and epic downfall, Dwight Chapin was by his side. As his personal aide and then Deputy Assistant in the White House Chapin was with him in his most private and most public moments. He traveled with him, assisted, advised, strategized, campaigned and learned from America’s most controversial president. As Bob Haldeman’s protege, Chapin worked with Henry Kissinger in opening China—then eventually went to prison for Watergate although he had no involvement in it. In this memoir Chapin takes readers on an extraordinary historic journey; presenting an insider’s view of America’s most enigmatic President. Chapin will relate his memorable experiences with the people who shaped the future: Henry Kissinger, his close friend Bob Haldeman, Choi En-lai, Pat Nixon, the embittered Spiro Agnew, J. Edgar Hoover, Frank Sinatra, Mark "Deep Throat" Felt, young and ambitious Roger Ailes, and John Dean. It’s a story that ranges from Coretta Scott King to Elvis Presley, from the wonder of entering a closed Chinese society to the Oval Office, and concludes with startling new insights and conclusions about the break-in that brought down Nixon’s presidency.
The Last of the President's Men
Author: Bob Woodward
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501116460
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Bob Woodward exposes one of the final pieces of the Richard Nixon puzzle in his new book The Last of the President’s Men. Woodward reveals the untold story of Alexander Butterfield, the Nixon aide who disclosed the secret White House taping system that changed history and led to Nixon’s resignation. In forty-six hours of interviews with Butterfield, supported by thousands of documents, many of them original and not in the presidential archives and libraries, Woodward has uncovered new dimensions of Nixon’s secrets, obsessions and deceptions. The Last of the President’s Men could not be more timely and relevant as voters question how much do we know about those who are now seeking the presidency in 2016—what really drives them, how do they really make decisions, who do they surround themselves with, and what are their true political and personal values?
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501116460
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
Bob Woodward exposes one of the final pieces of the Richard Nixon puzzle in his new book The Last of the President’s Men. Woodward reveals the untold story of Alexander Butterfield, the Nixon aide who disclosed the secret White House taping system that changed history and led to Nixon’s resignation. In forty-six hours of interviews with Butterfield, supported by thousands of documents, many of them original and not in the presidential archives and libraries, Woodward has uncovered new dimensions of Nixon’s secrets, obsessions and deceptions. The Last of the President’s Men could not be more timely and relevant as voters question how much do we know about those who are now seeking the presidency in 2016—what really drives them, how do they really make decisions, who do they surround themselves with, and what are their true political and personal values?
Nixon's Civil Rights
Author: Dean J KOTLOWSKI
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674039734
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417
Book Description
In a groundbreaking new book, Kotlowski offers a surprising study of an administration that redirected the course of civil rights in America. Kotlowski examines such issues as school desegregation, fair housing, voting rights, affirmative action, and minority businesses as well as Native American and women's rights. He details Nixon's role, revealing a president who favored deeds over rhetoric and who constantly weighed political expediency and principles in crafting civil rights policy.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674039734
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417
Book Description
In a groundbreaking new book, Kotlowski offers a surprising study of an administration that redirected the course of civil rights in America. Kotlowski examines such issues as school desegregation, fair housing, voting rights, affirmative action, and minority businesses as well as Native American and women's rights. He details Nixon's role, revealing a president who favored deeds over rhetoric and who constantly weighed political expediency and principles in crafting civil rights policy.
Inside the Nixon Administration
Author: Robert H. Ferrell
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700617302
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
As chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in the seventies, Arthur Burns had a unique view of the Nixon administration. Burns first joined the Nixon administration as an advisor in 1969 and was privy to the dynamics of the president's coterie over the course of six tumultuous years. Now the recently released secret diary of this top-level economist offers a surprisingly candid inside look at Richard Nixon's fall. The diary tracks Burns's growing awareness of Nixon's behind-the-scenes maneuverings and worrisome behavior (such as "insane shouting") and reveals how such things undermined his respect and enthusiasm for the president. Perhaps even more telling, Burns's evaluations of his colleagues provide piercing insights into the president's inner circle, including Henry Kissinger ("a brilliant political analyst, but admittedly ignorant of economics"), George Schultz ("a no less confused amateur economist"), John Connally ("a thoroughly confused politician"), and the "vulgarians" H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman-the only people he thought Nixon felt relaxed around. The Burns diary also offers rare and telling glimpses into the era's economy--particularly an account of how Nixon exerted political pressure to shape monetary policies that helped to fuel the stagflation of the 1970s. The administration sought to close the so-called gold window, an approximate valuation of dollars with gold bullion, by floating the dollar, and the consensus over many years has been that Nixon himself arranged this-speculation now confirmed by Burns's diary. It also underscores the growing pressure Burns felt to serve the needs of Nixon's reelection bid rather than the economic welfare of the nation. Sequestered for decades and unavailable until 2008, this document reveals an honest and relatively apolitical man surrounded by partisans in top administrative positions who were dishonest, inept-or both. "The President has many shortcomings," wrote Burns. "He has few convictions, but now and then he gets into a euphoric mood where he wants to persuade himself that he's a statesman. But his sycophantic advisers cannot even recognize that." Deftly annotated by distinguished historian Robert Ferrell, who provides effective historical context and perspective, the Burns diary is a potent-and poignant-testament to the Machiavellian and often Byzantine world of American presidential politics.
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700617302
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
As chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in the seventies, Arthur Burns had a unique view of the Nixon administration. Burns first joined the Nixon administration as an advisor in 1969 and was privy to the dynamics of the president's coterie over the course of six tumultuous years. Now the recently released secret diary of this top-level economist offers a surprisingly candid inside look at Richard Nixon's fall. The diary tracks Burns's growing awareness of Nixon's behind-the-scenes maneuverings and worrisome behavior (such as "insane shouting") and reveals how such things undermined his respect and enthusiasm for the president. Perhaps even more telling, Burns's evaluations of his colleagues provide piercing insights into the president's inner circle, including Henry Kissinger ("a brilliant political analyst, but admittedly ignorant of economics"), George Schultz ("a no less confused amateur economist"), John Connally ("a thoroughly confused politician"), and the "vulgarians" H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman-the only people he thought Nixon felt relaxed around. The Burns diary also offers rare and telling glimpses into the era's economy--particularly an account of how Nixon exerted political pressure to shape monetary policies that helped to fuel the stagflation of the 1970s. The administration sought to close the so-called gold window, an approximate valuation of dollars with gold bullion, by floating the dollar, and the consensus over many years has been that Nixon himself arranged this-speculation now confirmed by Burns's diary. It also underscores the growing pressure Burns felt to serve the needs of Nixon's reelection bid rather than the economic welfare of the nation. Sequestered for decades and unavailable until 2008, this document reveals an honest and relatively apolitical man surrounded by partisans in top administrative positions who were dishonest, inept-or both. "The President has many shortcomings," wrote Burns. "He has few convictions, but now and then he gets into a euphoric mood where he wants to persuade himself that he's a statesman. But his sycophantic advisers cannot even recognize that." Deftly annotated by distinguished historian Robert Ferrell, who provides effective historical context and perspective, the Burns diary is a potent-and poignant-testament to the Machiavellian and often Byzantine world of American presidential politics.