The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon

The recent release of taped conversations of President Lyndon Johnson along with other reference sources, such as Richard Goodwin's excellent chronicle of his years in the John Administration, reveal a man who went over the brink. The Vietnam War caused Johnson to lose mental and emotional control, becoming a troubled man in a most dangerous position. In the case of Richard Nixon, his successor in the Oval Office, a pattern of instability had been recognizably long afoot prior to assuming office. Anthony Summers is a prodigious researcher, a former BBC operative who has used his voracious capacity for research to generate a successful career in biography. He previously wrote a massively researched work on former F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover. Summers reveals the almost total career long involvement of Nixon with Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, a highly acclaimed psychotherapist, who attempted to steer Nixon past his mercurial mood swings, particularly his bouts with depression. Summers recounts Hutschnecker's comment to then Senator Nixon about his dislike for Joseph McCarthy, upon which Nixon responded with the look of a sad-eyed boy, replying, "But he's my friend."Summers cites his research and does not editorialize in situations where the facts lead in a particular direction but cannot be conclusively established. Such is the case with Nixon's relationship with his long suffering wife Pat. Summers cites evidence of the possibility that Nixon on two occasions physically abused his wife to the point where she required hospitalization, using interviews with former Nixon aides to reach this possible conclusion, which he concedes rests on entirely circumstantial evidence.Another area where Summers unleashes controversial research is with what was considered Nixon's greatest triumph as a Congressman, his role in the conviction of former State Department aide Alger Hiss of perjury, leading to the conclusion that Hiss was a Communist spy. The result boosted Nixon's stock and he was able to shortly thereafter be elected to the Senate. The typewriter allegedly owned by Hiss was produced to prove that letters written to government witness and former Communist Whittaker Chambers must have been typed on it. After Hiss' conviction for perjury he alleged that it rested on "forgery by typewriter." Nixon scoffed at the charge, contending that it was impossible to forge a typewriter, a claim he repeated as late as 1976. Summers reveals evidence that American and British intelligence operatives had developed as early as 1941 machines that "could reproduce faultlessly the imprint of any typewriter on earth."Summers also delves into Nixon's pathological obsession with the Kennedys, and how it drove him to excesses in his political career, covering ground also recently traversed by Chris Matthews. He also cites Nixon's sellouts to big business early in his career, as well as presenting evidence that he became involved with the mob through his association

Whoever claims that this book is badly researched hasn't read it! Summers has collected enough persuasive evidence in his Nixon biography to prove that this was a man that should never have become president of the United States.This book leads its readers to a more important question for today's world: is there something wrong in the way America's leader (and thus the most powerful politician in the world) is (s)elected? Events in autumn 2000 have shown that with the support of big business weak political figures can still achieve the highest office of the land.This is not to say that George Bush Jr. and Richard Nixon share the same character flaws. But if there's a message in Summers' book it is this: political funding by the big business interests must be properly regulated and restricted if a repeat of the Nixon desaster is to be avoided. Over to you, Senator Mc Cain!

I remember vividly as a young teen watching this man announce his resignation. My father was devastated, my mother was jumping for joy. My Republican father (god rest his soul) just did not know what Nixon and his henchmen were all about. I have since read many books on Nixon, this is by far the best researched expose of the Nixon that was hidden from the public.The only hatchet job I have seen are some of the flagrantly biased previous reviews here. Nixon was crooked from the get-go, from his dubious campaign tactics in '46 & '48 straight on through to his deserved humiliation in '74. Hundreds if not over a thousand people were interviewed, many of them insiders. The Nixon Tapes have already struck a devastating blow to his supposed "rehabilitation", and that's with only the small fraction which have been released. As an example a previous reviewer touched on Nixon and Colson's totally lowlife reaction to the shooting of George Wallace. This book is a must read for anyone interested in recent American history.

First and foremost, I wanted to think Nixon was a great President. In part, because I was one of the Americans who helped elect him. But during those years, I myself saw many of the same things his aides saw. I thought I had read or heard everything there was to hear or know about Nixon. I believe every word of this book because I was there and I know and knew many of the people he tried to destroy, to intimate and to threaten. The saddest part of all in his tragic life is that I doubt that there was anyone in the world who ever truly and completely loved him, including his family. And even sadder still, is the fact that at some level, he knew this.

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