NIXON: A LIFE [Inscribed to Crown Prince]

A British MP offers an in-depth reassessment--written with Nixon's cooperation--of the career and character of America's most controversial modern president, discussing Nixon's rise, fall, and resurrection; his beliefs and intellectual influences; and his goals.

Sympathetic toward his subject, Aitken, a British Member of Parliament and Minister of State for Defense, portrays former U.S. President Richard Nixon as a master geopolitical strategist who shifted the global balance of power in the West's favor through rapprochement with China and who achieved "peace with honor" in Vietnam. Aitken views Nixon as "an original and progressive domestic President" who ended the draft, created the Environmental Protection Agency and was a hands-on manager of the economy. In Aitken's scenario, the Watergate break-in was an irresponsible act carried out by overzealous aides without Nixon's knowledge; Nixon's endorsement of a cover-up transformed Watergate into a political disaster. First published in 1992 in Britain, this biography draws on interviews with Nixon, his aides and family, and unique access to his private diaries and letters. Both critics and supporters will find new material to ponder. Aitken sheds light on Nixon's spiritual crisis at ages 20-21, his friendly early relationship with fellow Congressman John F. Kennedy, his accusations against Alger Hiss as a Soviet spy, his interaction with National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, and his role as elder statesman and informal adviser to the Carter, Reagan and Bush administrations. Photos. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Nixon's historical reputation has been the steady concern of numberless books, with the protagonist himself writing a few. Biographers range from the unreconstructed haters (Nixon Agonistes by Garry Wills, 1970) to the revisionist liberals (One of Us by Tom Wicker, 1991) to the diffident admirers (Nixon by Stephen Ambrose, 1991), and now, to pinion the right end of the spectrum, to a sympathetic advocate in Aitken. Unlike his predecessors, Aitken is a politician (Tory MP in Britain) and views his subject with a degree of professional courtesy and personal compassion that the Nixon haters lack. But Aitken seems as perplexed as anyone by Nixon's personality. "It is sometimes difficult to see where the cynical politician in him ends, and where the visionary side of his character begins," he writes. Watergate dumbfounds him, as it did and still does most foreigners. What little exculpation Aitken advances falls into the sphere of disloyal aides, John Dean the arch-Judas among them. The oft-recited preludes to that incredible crash of the durable Nixon saga--his humble family origin, first congressional races, the Hiss case, the "Checkers" speech, the lost (or more likely stolen) election of 1960--unfold in fluid, judicious fashion. How readers will react to the generally commiserative tone (Nixon was comfortable enough with the author to grant interviews and access to diaries)--aye, that can well depend on opinions formed 20 and 30 and 40 years ago. Yet readers all across the political spectrum will reach for Aitken's effective, interest-sustaining narrative. Gilbert Taylor

In light of Nixon's most recent trips to Russia as an unofficial sounding board for the U.S. government and his extensive writing in the foreign policy area, this work gives its readers a better understanding of the man who has been caricatured more than evaluated since Watergate brought down his political career. It is not the official biography, but it could well be for the remarkable task that Aitken, a member of the British Parliament, has performed in combing oral histories and conducting interviews with Nixon intimates and the former president himself. In this monumental tome, Aitken meticulously and insightfully delves into the personality and career development of this brilliant yet enigmatic former chief executive. In engaging prose, Aitken winds through Nixon's early years, then chronicles his election to Congress, the Alger Hiss case, his Senate and vice presidency days, and his subsequent political defeats in presidential and gubernatorial races. With the first extensive use of Nixon's Yorba Linda library papers, Aitken has unearthed a treasure trove of insights via letters and other communications. A human, if flawed, Nixon emerges from this fascinating account, which could not be more highly recommended.
Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.