Rating: 
Summary: It Was Not Great Having Him in the Whitehouse
Review: I lived in the US during the time of the Nixon presidency and knew it well - reading the NY Times daily etc. To me it is still a wonder that he got in. But then his opposition was Nelson Rockefeller who by all accounts was a weak candidate. Why he chose Spiro Agnew as his running mate is another mystery.In any case, his problems were far worse than anything that we have seen from Clinton or others. Nixon surrounded himself with a group of men that acted with complete disregard for the law. That is not my opinion but a reflection on the fact that dozens of the members of his administration were successfully prosecuted as criminals including the attorney general who spent time in Federal Prison. Nixon was lucky to be pardoned by Gerald Ford. In any case this book is well written and researched. It misses many important and basic factors outlined in his life as noted by some of the other reviewers including more references to his wife Pat and others. I think the book as a book is not bad, and is well written, but Nixon is a depressing character, a person that surprisingly (for a politician) did not relate well to other people and always seemed stiff and ill at ease with himself. So I would give the book 4 stars but I would not recommend buying. Jack in Toronto
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, biased , work
Review: Mr.Reeves's work is a useful almost day per day account of the days of the first term of Nixon as President of the United States; that is a very good job, very detailed and it makes you feel almost to be there, near the desk of the President, listening the debate of the major issues of the day. Unfortunately, the fact that Reeves is a liberal can be felt throughout the book - only in some parts you are able to forget it - as he takes for granted that the reades shares his feelings towards Nixon (....Rogers was a handsome and charming man, while Nixon was Nixon ... What does it mean ?? ), while he should know that this is not always the case, of course.
Then, strangely the work is interrupted at the beginning of the second term of Nixon as President : I can understand that Reeves did not want to write a book about Watergate, but to sum up Nixon one year and a half of the second term with two pages lets you feel that the opera is left incomplete and a very important piece - although sad - of that experience, that is Nixon life at the White House, is overlooked.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent insight into a very complicated man...
Review: Nixon haters will love this book - Nixon supporters won't be happy and probably won't want to read it. People curious about Richard Nixon the man should certainly want to take a peek under the cover. I really liked this book. The central premise is that Nixon cut himself off from the most of his administration and the rest of the world during the darkest hours of his presidency. It was shocking to read how many important foreign policy decisions that Nixon and Kissinger made together, many possibly illegally. For those wishing to explore the dark side of Nixon, there's plenty to read about, including anti-Semitic, racist and misogynist comments about Indira Gandhi, his misuse of government funds and power and his illegal campaign contributions. The conviction records of his former aides and the tapes do not lie - Nixon was far from our best chief executive in many ways, and Reeves lays a good part of this out in stunning detail. This book makes a great addition to any historian's library.
Rating:
Summary: Liddy's Prince
Review: No editor would publish a novel if the author were to invent a character as contradictory, powerful, and susceptible as Nixon's. I couldn't put the book down, finding the subject as fascinating and as horrifying as ever. Is there any other president that could have an opera written about him? G.Gordon Liddy always referred to him as Machiavelli's prince, and relying on Nixon's own record of his days in the White House, Reeves goes back to the pre-revisionist Nixon, the one who could inspire immense loyalty, winning a second term in one of the authentic landslides in election history, and yet lose it all as a result of his global insecurities and inability to trust, how his idealism and ran side by side with complete disregard anyone else's reputation or semblance of legality; how constant a war played out between conscience and ambition. Other presidents have been as ruthless; few have been as conflicted, and this comes out very clearly in the book, the tragedy of a man who could never trust his better instincts, forever seduced by his own self-image of toughness.
Rating:
Summary: History by a Syndicated Columnist
Review: Open up a number of major newspapers and every once in awhile you'll find a column penned by Richard Reeves. Given the limited space available in a newspaper op/ed section, Reeves is rarely given a chance to provide a detailed analysis on any topic. Instead, he writes intersting opinion pieces on national affairs that are usually worth reading even if you don't agree with him. In his new book regarding President Nixon, Reeves employs a similar style in recounting Nixon's five plus years in the White House. In many ways, this book is a compilation of anecdotes and brief historical passages that gives readers a glimpse of the Nixon White House and of Nixon himself. The key thing to remember is that it will be little more than a glimpse. If you are looking for a detailed study of the Nixon presidency, you might want to look elsewhere. The positive thing about this subject is that there are so many books regarding the Nixon years. If you lived through the era and have read many of the other books such as Haldeman's diary, Nxion's own autobiograhpies or even Anthony Summers hatchet job, you'll enjoy this book too. My only complaint about the book is actually a central part of its premise. The book centers solely on Nixon without examining his relationship with others. For example, I would be surprised if there are more than 10 mentions in the entire book about Pat Nixon. There is also very little about his relationship with political supporters other than brief mentions about Watergate-related scandal. Part of Reeve's thesis, is that Nixon was very isolated in the White House and had little human interaction. The recent theatrical movie also portrayed a very narcisistic human being too. However, Nixon wasn't a hermit. He did have friendships with Bebe Rebozo and others and had a enough people skills to set the record for being on the cover of Time Magazine more than any other person. I wish this book would have delved into that greater. In short, this is not the definitive book on the Nixon Administration. Yet, it is an enjoyable read that will certainly bring this era in history back to life. Regardless of your political leanings, Nixon' presidency is worth learning more about and understanding.
Rating: 
Summary: A lost opportunity
Review: Other reviews (professional and contributed) have pretty much covered the contents and perspective of this book while missing its relatioship to its twin "President Kennedy: Portrait of Power." The Kennedy book was a remarkable success for its intimate detail and often unflinching willingness to admit deep flaws in the martyr-president. It was honest and thought-provoking. This book, on the other hand, tells us more about the author than its subject -- although here is much on Nixon
First some convergences. The Kennedy and Nixon of these books share many traits: both lied consistantly to the public; both were happy to manipulate other politicians and the public; both manufactured a bogus public image; both were willing to break the law for what they considered reason of state or political advantage; both relied on a small fanatically devoted inner circle and excluded much of the cabinet and the congress from their little worlds; both believed themselves to be "men of destiny"; both made maintaining American "credibility" in the world central to foreign policy. But they were very different. Kennedy never moved beyond 1950s cold war views (did he die too early or did he just lack Nixon's thinking outside the box?); Nixon did. Kennedy had fabulous wealth, an adoring press, and seductive personal charm; Nixon had not of these. Kennedy never had a doubt about his entitlement to membership in the ruling class; Nixon believed himself excluded even at the peak of his power.
Reeves great failures in this book are his unwillingness to face the convergences of K. and N. and to recognize the origins and implications of the divergences. We are told over and over that Nixon lied and cheated (often by sweeping authorial judgments about character); Kennedy's parallel acts are passed over as isolated incidents, his megomania and sense of entitlement as a charming part of his charisma; Nixon's insecuries are pathological. Nixon's brutal treatment by his (only sometimes) self-made enemies is ascribed to their integrity and critical stance; when they appear, Kennedy's critics are mindless loons. Even paranoids have real enemies. The question in the end, never answered by Reeves, is whether his enemies did not play the crucial role in creating the "bad" Nixon. Would there have been a Watergate if Nixon had had Kennedy's press? Maybe, maybe not. If Kennedy and Nixon were to read these two books, they would have come away convinced: Kennedy of his entitlement and Nixon of his persecution. Reeves gives to each what they got in life from their publics and the press.
For the sake of disclosure, by the way, I have never understood the pathology of the Nixon-haters, although I dislike him and view many of his policies as misguided. Conversely, I have never understood the Clinton-haters either, even if I too could not like the man. I voted for neither. Sad that Reeves, who is capable of such clear sightedness in writing about Kennedy could, not give us a similar disinterested view of Nixon.
Still, for the story alone, this is not a bad book.
Rating:
Summary: .egos in the white house
Review: PRESIDENT NIXON SEEMS TO BE A PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIC AS WELL AS A COMPULSIVE LIER . ONLY TO BE OUT DONE BY KISSINGER.THE TWO OF THEM LIE AND KEEP INFORMATION FROM EVERYONE. KISSINGER WANTS CREDIT ONLY IT IS GOOD. NILON WANTS TO TRUMP KISSINGER. HE IS NUTS ABOUT LEAKS AND SETS UP THE PLUMBERS. IT SCARES ME TO THINK THAT WE ELECTED HIM IN A LANDSLIDE. THE SELLOUT OF TAIWAN TO BE THE FIRST PRESIDENT TO GO TO CHINA IS SO EGO DRIVEN THAT I THINK NIXON WOULD DO ANYTHING TO BECOME THE MAN OF HISTORY. THE ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION SPIES ON EACH OTHER . SICK AND DISTURBING.
Rating:
Summary: Ultimately, the man is still missing
Review: Reeves is a master chronicler of events and no occasion of the Nixon Presidency, however incidental, is missed here. The book is long on details relating to the professional side of Nixon, but I was disappointed that there was a lack of personal anecdote within the covers of the book. Of course RN was an inscrutable, moody, paranoid and ultimately unknowable man, but I would have liked more material on Pat Nixon, as well as Tricia and Julie. Reeves quotes copiously of Nixon's own self-serving memoirs but doesn't include much primary source material on Nixon as a human being. The strong points are the chapters on Watergate and the gradual demise and destruction of RN as President. The ancillary characters of Watergate all get their just due: Halderman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean are described in sometimes sympathetic but occasionally, brutal detail. Reeves shows masterfully that Nixon dissembled and lied to the bitter end, not to the American people, but most disturbingly, to himself. It's well-written and full of detail, just don't expect much on Nixon the man. Otherwise, an enthusiastic thumbs up
Rating:
Summary: Interesting approach to Nixon
Review: Reeves uses diaries and other personal documents to sketch out a picture of Nixon's presidency that is at once familiar and novel. This will not appeal to Nixon apologists nor to those who want a stereotypical "psychological" portrait (Garry Wills' "Nixon Agonists" is the best psychological description of Nixon's development, although Wills' original take on personality development will stymie those looking for Freud-lite). Instead, we see Nixon's presidency unfold and Nixon's reaction to the events around him. Even though I've read most of the "standard" Nixon biographies, Reeves' approach was fresh to me and an interesting complement to Haldeman's diaries, which I had read a couple years ago. Nixon's isolation and inability to trust are well-documented, but to see them here is to see them anew. It was a thought provoking book, both in terms of Nixon's presidency and with respect to the political tactics and skills that are needed to win elections, which unfortunately, are not the same tactics and skills needed to provide strong leadership. As was the case with LBJ, Nixon the office seeker undid Nixon, the president, and this book makes this point more clearly than previous biographies.
Rating:
Summary: Presidential History at Its Best
Review: Reeves' book is a monumental work of presential history that depicts Nixon as a complicated, brilliant, but ultimately all-too-human president whose downfall comes as the result of several tragic flaws, such as Nixon's deep feelings of insecurity and paranoia, and his infatuation with secrecy and cloak-and-dagger operations. The author is to be commended for his amazingly adept use of a wide range of resources, including interviews, diaries, the all-important Nixon tapes, and, perhaps most intriguingly, Nixon's own handwritten memos to himself (the ubiquitous yellow notepads that Nixon kept at hand for jotting down his most private thoughts). The book's only flaw, and a minor one at that, is that after 500+ pages of detailed insight into the workings of the White House, Reeves skims over the President's last few months in the White House, after it was too late for Nixon to redeem himself and when it was merely a matter of time before he resigned. One gets the feeling that nothing much happened between the time Nixon dismissed the last of his "true-believer" lieutenants and his departure from the White House. I'm unsure that this was actually the case, and that perhaps one more chapter was in order. Regardless, I don't know of a better book about the Nixon presidency.
| 
