When Sadness Comes


                                  

   Nine books on Richard Nixon that I'd ordered from AbeBooks arrived in the mail yes-
terday. I set a new standard for stupidity by accidently ordering something (Richard
Reeves' President Nixon: Alone in the White House) I owned not once but twice already--
a copy on the shelf, and another one boxed away with some other duplicate books and
movies. Weirder still, of the nine books, the Reeves turned out to be the only one that
was damaged; as soon as I removed it from the box, pages started falling out. This may
end up being lucky--if I can get a full refund, I'm off the hook. But if, as my initial
contact with the seller would indicate, they're expecting me to spend five dollars ship-
ping the book back in order to get a refund of six, obviously I won't follow through,
in which case I'll have taken that standard of stupidity to a new level still.
   I'm not exactly sure when I started collecting books about, by, or related to Nixon.
When he died in '94, I think I'd already started; I vaguely recall it occurring to me
that I'd missed my chance to get a book signed. (And I still believe that Nixon was so
in need of validation that a friendly letter and some return postage would have been
enough to make that happen, at least in the days before eBay.) In any event, it was
somewhere around that time that I consciously decided that, so long as it was reason-
ably priced (under $10, let's say), I'd buy any and every Nixon book I came across.
   Whenever Nixon's name comes up in conversation with someone, and I mention the
books, and relate my fascination with the man, I always feel the need to immediately
explain myself. I'm always sensitive to the fact that the assumption will be that I'm
someone who views Nixon as a heroic figure, as somebody who was done in by the media,
the counterculture, intellectuals, the Kennedys, liberals, etc., etc. (basically, that
my view of Nixon is no different than what Nixon's view of Nixon was). No--my fascina-
tion, I go on to clarify, can instead be attributed to two things.
   First, there's the simple fact that Nixon was in office when I first paid any at-
tention at all to politics--I sat in front of the TV as a 12-year-old and taped his
resignation speech on a cassette recorder--and, even more than that, that he was abso-
lutely central to a moment in time, the early and mid-70s, that continues to this day
to be of such paramount importance to my own imagination. So much of the music and so
many of the films that I love from that time were either explicitly about Nixon, or
implicitly about him. He was there in Michael Corleone, in Travis Bickle, in "Ambulance
Blues," in "Smiling Faces Sometimes," in Nashville, in Welfare--he was lurking every-
where. And when the art wasn't so good, and a world was conjured up where he and the
realities of the day were seemingly absent--The Brady Bunch, Love Story, K-Tel--that
meant something too.
   More personally, I've long recognized that I share in some of Nixon's worst charac-
ter flaws. I won't dwell on that too much here, other than to scan a little chart I
once drew up for Martina and Kay's Big Secrets #2, a fanzine put out by Martina Eddy
in the mid-90s, in which I contrasted myself with Nixon and LBJ:

            

I was too hard on myself--I definitely don't view myself as a manipulative person to-
day, and I'm not really sure why I thought I was at the time. As for the rest, well,
much less so now than 15 years ago, but I can't say that it's not all some part of who
I am.
   Taken together--Nixon as part of my personal timeline, and also as a mirror into a
corner of my own less-than-admirable self--I do maintain an unusual bond with him. It
helps that I'm about five years too young to share in the visceral hatred of Nixon
that demarcates the half-generation ahead of me--if I'd been 17 in '74 instead of 12,
I doubt that bond would exist. And it helps even more that I've got some emotional
and geographical distance as a Canadian. If I'd lost a family member or a friend in
Vietnam, I'm pretty sure the visceral hatred would be there. (As I mentioned some-
where over in the Obama blogging, Palin has helped me to understand--to experience
in the here and now--some of that Nixon-hatred.)
    Every January 9, on Nixon's birthday, I show my students that amazing slow zoom
that concludes the first Frost interview--the shot that culminates with Nixon finally,
after five agonizing minutes of stumbling and rambling and self-serving legalisms,
coming as close to an apology as he likely ever came. (I first provide as much con-
text as I reasonably can in a brief introduction, else I'm not sure the clip would
mean anything.) Greil Marcus once compared the intensity of The Godfather's slow zoom
into Michael as he formulates the murder of McCluskey and Sollazzo to a similar shot
in Persona where Bibi Andersson recalls her sexual encounter on the beach. I'd add
the closing shot in Long Day's Journey into Night ("That was in the winter of senior
year...") as being close to their equal, and I'd say the Nixon zoom is even more mes-
merizing than all three. My students almost always remain quiet and focussed for the
duration of the shot; maybe they're connecting with something close to what I connect-
ed with at their age.
    The books. You can argue against a few of these as being Nixon books--e.g., Centre
Stage, a biography of Helen Gahagan Douglas, or Before the Storm, Rick Perlstein's
account of Goldwater's ascension and run for the Presidency in '64--but I tend to in-
clude anything where Nixon figures prominently in the events or life being chronicled.
In Douglas's case, it's an easy call--whatever historical interest she retains today
resides almost entirely in her losing Senate race against Nixon in 1950. Ditto the
books by Dean, Haldeman, Erlichman, and others. Nixon's centrality to the lives of
people like Chambers or Ellsberg is perhaps less obvious, but to me they belong.

A Tissue of Lies: Nixon vs. Hiss – Morton Levitt & Michael Levitt
Abuse of Power – Stanley I. Kutler
All the President’s Men – Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward
An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate – Jeb Stuart Magruder
An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968 – Lewis Chester, Godfrey
    Hodgson & Bruce Page
An Evening with Richard Nixon – Gore Vidal
Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation – Ken Gormley
Before the Storm – Rick Perlstein
Being Nixon: A Man Divided – Evan Thomas
Beyond Peace – Richard Nixon
Blind Ambition – John Dean
Breach of Faith – Theodore H. White
Center Stage – Ingrid Winther Scobie
Crazy Rhythm – Leonard Garment
Dirty Tricks: Nixon, Watergate and the CIA –Shane O'Sullivan
Exile – Robert Sam Anson
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 – Hunter S. Thompson
Feiffer on Nixon – Jules Feiffer
From: the President – Bruce Oudes (editor)
Great Society: A New History – Amity Shlaes
Hubris and the Presidency – Richard Curtis
I Gave Them a Sword: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews – David Frost
    (hardcover & paperback)
Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage – Jeffrey Frank
In Search of Deep Throat – Leonard Garment
Johnson, Nixon, and the Doves – Melvin Small
Just Plain Dick – Kevin Mattson
Kennedy & Nixon – Christopher Matthews
Kissinger – Marvin Kalb & Bernard Kalb
Kissinger – Walter Isaacson
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House – Mark Felt & John O'Connor
Mayday 1971 – Lawrence Roberts
Mrs. Nixon – Ann Beattie
1999 – Richard Nixon
1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon – David Pietrusza
Nixon Agonistes – Garry Wills
Nixon: A Life – Jonathan Aitken
Nixon and Kissinger – Robert Dallek
Nixon at the Movies – Mark Feeney
Nixon in China – Margaret MacMillan (hardcover & paperback)
Nixon in Winter – Monica Crowley
Nixon off the Record – Monica Crowley
Nixon: Ruin and Recovery 1973-1990 – Stephen E. Ambrose
Nixon: The Education of a Politician 1913-1962 – Stephen E. Ambrose
Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972 – Stephen E. Ambrose
Nixon's Darkest Secrets – Don Fulsom
Nixon's Enemies – Kenneth Franklin Kurz
Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image – David Greenberg
Nixonland – Rick Perlstein
No More Vietnams – Richard Nixon (hardcover & paperback)
Observing the Nixon Years – Jonathan Schell
One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon – Tim Weiner
One of Us – Tom Wicker
Papers on the War – Daniel Ellsberg
Pardon Me, Mr. President – Ranan R. Lurie
Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics – Lawrence O'Donnell
Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington's
    Scandal Culture – Mark Feldstein
Power and the Presidency – Robert A. Wilson (editor)
President Nixon: Alone in the White House – Richard Reeves
President Nixon’s 24 Hours in Warsaw – Stanislaw Glabinski
Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership with Reflections on Johnson and
    Nixon – Richard E. Neustadt
Recollections of a Life – Alger Hiss
Report of the County Chairman – James Michener
Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full – Conrad Black
Richard Milhous Nixon – Roger Morris
Richard Nixon and His America – Herbert S. Parmet
Richard Nixon: An Oliver Stone Film – Eric Hamburg (editor)
Richard Nixon: The Man Behind the Mask – Gary Allen
Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character – Fawn M. Brodie
RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon – Richard Nixon
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers – Daniel Ellsberg
Seize the Moment – Richard Nixon
Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate – Bob Woodward
Silent Coup – Len Colodny & Robert Gettlin
Six Crises – Richard Nixon
Stonewall – Richard Ben Veniste & George Frampton, Jr.
The Agony of the G.O.P. 1964 – Robert D. Novak
The American President – William E. Leuchtenburg
The Arrogance of Power – Anthony Summers
The Contender – Irwin F. Gellman
The Conviction of Richard Nixon – James Reston, Jr.
The Day the Presses Stopped – David Rudenstine
The End of a Presidency – New York Times staff
The Ends of Power – H.R. Haldeman
The Fall of Richard Nixon – Tom Brokaw
The Final Days – Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward
The Forty Years War: The Rise and Fall of the Neocons, from Nixon to Obama –
    Len Colodny & Tom Shachtman
The Greatest Comeback – Patrick J. Buchanan
The Haldeman Diaries – H.R. Haldeman
The Impeachment of Richard Nixon – Leonard Lurie
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan – Rick Perlstein
The King and Us – Paul Conrad
The Last of the President's Men – Bob Woodward
The Lonely Lady of San Clemente – Lester David
The Making of the President 1960 – Theodore H. White (hardcover & paperback)
The Making of the President 1968 – Theodore H. White
The Making of the President 1972 – Theodore H. White
The Nixon Administration and the Death of Allende’s Chile – Jonathan Haslam
The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It – John Dean
The Nixons: First Families – Cass R. Sandak
The Palace Guard – Dan Rather & Gary Paul Gates
The Pentagon Papers
The Public Burning – Robert Coover
The President and the Apprentice – Irwin F. Gellman
The Presidents Club – Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy
The Price of Power – Seymour M. Hersh
The Real Nixon – Bela Kornitzer
The Real War – Richard Nixon
The Right and the Power – Leon Jaworski
The Secret Man – Bob Woodward
The Selling of the President 1968 – Joe McGinniss
The Strange Case of Richard Milhous Nixon – Jerry Voorhis
The Unholy Hymnal – Albert E. Kahn (editor)
The Watergate: Inside America's Most Infamous Address – Joseph Rodota
The Watergate Girl: My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President – Jill Wine-Banks
The White House Transcripts
The White House Years: Triumph and Tragedy – Ollie Atkins
Tricky Dick: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Richard M. Nixon – Roger Stone
U.S. v. Richard M. Nixon – Frank Mankiewicz
Very Strange Bedfellows – Jules Witcover
Washington Journal – Elizabeth Drew
Watergate – Fred Emery
Watergate – Lewis Chester, Cal McCrystal, Stephen Aris & William Shawcross
Whittaker Chambers – Sam Tanenhaus
Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg – Tom Wells
With Nixon – Raymond Price
Without Honor – Jerry Zeifman
Witness to Power – John Ehrlichman
Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate – Alicia C. Shepard
Wounded Titans: American Presidents and the Perils of Power – Max Lerner

(Obviously this is all just a very calculated scheme to get anyone who knows me to get
out there and start searching for books that aren't on the list. How very Nixon of me--
maybe I'd better rethink the manipulative part.) 



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