Steps of an Exiled President
A Review of The Presidency of
Richard Nixon by Melvin Small
Author Biography
Melvin Small is currently a professor at
Wayne State University. He received his Ph.D at the
University of Michigan after receiving his B.A. from
Dartmouth College. He has focused his research on writing on
the postwar era, Vietnam War, antiwar movement and President
Johnson and Nixon. Small is currently the department head at
Wayne State University and the author of five books
regarding the Nixon presidency and the Vietnam War.
Richard M. Nixon. When one hears the name, more often than
not, biased thoughts of the former President come to mind.
Beyond the disaster of Watergate, Nixon may be viewed as a
“pragmatic opportunist whose achievements in foreign policy
were less impressive than commonly believed, whose successes
in the domestic field have been thus far
underappreciated.”1 The author of The Presidency
of Richard Nixon, Melvin Small, gives a thorough and
balanced review of President Nixon’s character and
accomplishments while giving praise to his successful
domestic programs and condemning his celebrated foreign
policies.
Small’s book on Nixon is successful in creating a nonbiased
review on the former President’s life, domestic programs and
foreign policies. Small begins his account of President
Nixon’s life by giving information of the president’s birth.
Despite harsh living conditions and financial troubles,
Richard Nixon is depicted as an optimistic young boy who
took a variety of jobs in order to help support his
struggling family. In addition to the enormous task of
helping to support the family, Nixon “was the valedictorian
and president of his eighth-grade class, finished third in
his high school class in 1930, was second in his college
class in 1934, and was third in his law school class in
1937.”2 Eventually, Nixon joined the Wingert and
Bewley law firm, with the help of his mother who had gone to
college with Tom Bewley, in the summer of 1937. While
attending college in Whittier, CA, Nixon met the love of his
life and “told the incredulous Pat that he was going to
marry her.”3 After pursuing Patricia Ryan
persistently for more than two years, she accepted his
proposal of marriage in March 1940. The couple then married
on June 21, 1940 and honeymooned in Mexico. After his
marriage, Nixon joined the Office of Price Administration
then went on to become a lieutenant in the army. Although
Nixon never saw combat, he adopted the nickname “Fighting
Quaker” when he ran for Congress in 1946. The Alger Hiss
Case helped raise Nixon to national prominence and helped
him win by over 700,000 votes and become the second youngest
Senator at age 37. After joining the Senate, Nixon went on
to become Eisenhower’s running mate and the second youngest
vice president. However, Nixon’s career was almost
destroyed when news of a secret political fund leaked out.
In order to stop his political career from falling apart,
Nixon explained the fund on TV and convinced the public to
side with him 350:1. Although Nixon was an admirable Vice
President, Eisenhower recommended that Nixon not run again.
However, Nixon set his sights on the Presidency when he
chose Henry Lodge as his Vice Presidential running mate.
Small reveals Nixon’s abuse of power early on when the FBI
helped Nixon’s election by providing information on
Kennedy’s family and foreign issues. Regardless of the
FBI’s efforts, Kennedy won the presidency from Nixon who
went on to write his well known book, Six Crises. After
losing the election, Nixon moved to California and agreed to
run for California Governorship. Unlike the close
presidential election, Nixon lost miserably in the race for
the Governorship of California. After his miserable defeat,
President Kennedy questioned Nixon’s mental stability when
Nixon proclaimed “You won’t have Nixon to kick around any
more, because gentlemen, this is my last press
conference.”4 Regardless of his previous
statement, Nixon went on to become President after winning
the electoral vote by 301:191:46. When Nixon came into
office, many anti-war movements were beginning in both
America and Europe. In accordance with his Civil Rights
Act, Voting Rights Act, and Women’s Rights Act; Nixon
attempted to create variety when choosing his White House
staff. Also, to keep the White House fit to face new
issues, Nixon consistently reorganized the White House and
had over 33 cabinet heads in 5 years. While consistently
facing new problems, Nixon attempted to end the Vietnam War
quickly and reached peace on January 27, 1973.
When Nixon was being inaugurated into the presidency, he
proclaimed that “after a period of confrontation, we are
entering an era of negotiations.”5 Nixon started
pushing for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks when he saw that
the Soviet Union was becoming a “normal” great power. Once
talks with the Soviet Union were going well, Nixon attempted
to pressure the Soviet Union into convincing North Vietnam
to enter peace talks with the United States. Eventually,
China replaced the United States as the biggest threat to
the Soviet Union. In order to keep battles from occurring,
Nixon warned Moscow that the United States would side with
China if the Soviet Union were to attack. When Nixon got the
Soviet Union to agree to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
(SALT), the United States had more tactical weapons and
nuclear submarines than the Soviet Union. When the SALT
talks began, Nixon hosted Brezhnev personally in the summer
of 1973. Nixon and his supporters believed that peace with
the Soviet Union and China would last and that the Vietnam
War was coming to a halt. However, during the peaceful times
in the US, Israel had won the Six Days War in 1967 and
gained Golan Heights. The Nixon administration soon made a
plan for peace in the Middle East. Nixon’s advisor,
Kissinger, believed that the Middle East would come to the
conclusion that the Soviet Union was weak and turn to the
United States for help. Kissinger believed this would
happen because the Soviet Union was unable to help the
Middle East achieve what they wanted. In turn, the Soviet
Union would join Syria and test the United States’
friendship with Israel and pressure the US to convince
Israel to give a cease fire. Although much was going on with
foreign affairs, Nixon was working to help solve domestic
issues. Although little credit is given to Nixon for his
domestic programs “it becomes clear that welfare-state
programs and government regulatory bodies, against which
Nixon railed during the 1968 campaign, actually flourished
on his watch.”6 Despite the many domestic
programs Nixon created, he only forwarded 12 percent of his
programs to Congress. However, of those 12 percent, four
anticrime bills were sent, of which RICO which was passed in
1970, was the most important. In affect with the anticrime
bills, campus violence went down in schools in 1972, but
increased again in 1973. In an attempt to help lower the
crime rate, many programs were created to help with drug
abuse. Because of these programs, Nixon appealed to many who
were disturbed by the rise of Black Power. In addition to
helping fight crime, Nixon introduced many welfare plans to
help the many Americans that were dependent on welfare. In
addition, Nixon was the first President to submit an energy
program to Congress in 1971.
Behind the genius of foreign peace talks and domestic
programs, Nixon was “fundamentally relatively shy and could
not ‘really let my hair down with anyone’”7
Strangely, Nixon spent most of his time alone and boasted
that breakfast and lunch would only take him five minutes to
finish alone. Because of his shyness and aloofness, Nixon
rarely talked with the lower staff in the White House.
Strangely, Nixon stressed that he wanted his wife to have
more publicity and less for himself in order to help open up
the White House. Another aspect of Nixon was that he was
largely supportive of the arts. Nixon boasted of the “high
quality of music at the White House”8 Nixon also
recognized the importance of Elvis Presley when he agreed to
meet him on December 21, 1970. During the meeting, Presley
even told the President that he could help push an antidrug
message to the youth. Like many people, President Nixon was
against drug usage, but didn’t mind the use of alcohol. As
reported from his aides, Nixon was often drunk to excess.
During the preparation for reelection, Nixon had over
$1,668,000 from the 1968 election. In addition to the large
amount of money left over from the previous election, Nixon
controlled over two million dollars in private funds. Once
reelected in 1972, he formally asked for everyone’s
resignation. However, this act was a “mistake because it
created a morale problem.”9 The reason behind
this sudden move was the desire to completely reorganize the
government. By this reorganization, Nixon hoped to decrease
the size in the government by taking away some of the
budget. Soon after, the break in at Watergate occurred
while Nixon was away on vacation. While Nixon was suffering
from the Watergate scandal, Congress passed the War Powers
Resolution which would require the President to report to
Congress within 48 hours of committing US troops to combat
and to get permission after 60 days, a bill which Nixon
promptly vetoed. However, Nixon was about to be impeached.
Being a step ahead of Congress, Nixon resigned from office
and flew to San Clemente, CA, on August 9, 1974, in exile.
Soon after, President Ford pardoned Nixon and stopped all
trials on the former President.
However, because of the Presidential pardon, President
Ford’s ratings dropped from 71 percent to 49 percent.
Melvin Small depicts Nixon as a realistic opportunist who
was underappreciated for his domestic improvements and over
celebrated for his foreign negotiations. Small does an
excellent job in backing up his thesis by praising Nixon’s
domestic programs while criticizing the foreign policies.
However, a weakness of this work is that it “is weak in
analysis and evaluation”10. Rather it gives a
descriptive recount of events that occurred during the Nixon
presidency. However, for the time period, there is an
attempt made for no bias. Small did an excellent job in
keeping the review very balanced and impartial. Because of
this, the book gives an excellent account of the events that
occurred. However, because of its unbiased view, it
contains no analysis and evaluation.
Michael A. Genovese reviewed the work by Melvin Small and
made several conclusions. The first note he makes is that
the book is well-to-do because it is updated with new
archival material. However, Genovese notes that Small sped
over the darker side of the Nixon administration. Because
of this, one would be unable to fully understand Nixon and
his presidency. Lastly, Genovese states that the work is
“good for reviewing policy, less so on process. Managerial
concerns get little attention, and the dynamics of personal
interactions and their impact on policy are
underdeveloped.”11 The review ends with the
conclusion that “Small presents a balanced, cold,
descriptive analysis of the Nixon presidency.”12
Bruce Kuklick starts off with saying there are “only thirty
pages on Nixon before 1969 and only fifteen pages on him
after 1974.”13 Kuklick analyzes Smalls work by
stating Small was eager to “issue report cards on our
political leaders.”14 Small’s approach to Nixon
was to group all topics thematically and to quote comments
that were off the record, recalled from aides or recorded by
the tapes. Kuklick ends with the note that Small amplified
showing how politics changed Nixon from being a human to a
“suspicious and mean spirited president.”15
Small does an excellent job on giving an account of the
events with extreme detail but lacks in analysis. Because
of this, the work fails to interest the reader. After the
first few pages, very little is mentioned of Richard Nixon’s
childhood life and does not give an introduction to the
biography of the President. Secondly, Small rushes to state
the foreign policies were over celebrated while the domestic
programs did not get the praise they needed. However, Small
does an excellent job in relating “Nixon’s personal views on
race and how these views shaped U.S. policy toward
Sub-Saharan Africa.”16
Nixon has left many impressions on American history since
the Watergate scandal and his presidency. Although many are
split upon whether Nixon’s presidency was a success or
failure, it is impossible to think of his “years in the
White House without considering his character and the
scandals that led to his resignation."17
However, Nixon has positively affected American political
history by leaving many successful domestic and foreign
policy programs.
From the beginning of Nixon’s presidency to his resignation,
Nixon has left both a positive and negative impression in
American political history. In Nixon’s self evaluation
“Nixon always began with foreign policy.”18
Although Nixon did end the Vietnam War, and create the
détente with the Soviet Union which eventually led to the
solution for the cold war, the process in how Nixon and
Kissinger operated left a negative impact on American
political practices today.
Richard Nixon. One of the most controversial presidents to
ever be elected. From being the creator of many domestic
programs, the weaver of peace in foreign affairs to a mean
spirited president, Richard Nixon is one of the hardest
presidents to understand because of his “controversial
personality and character.”19
review by David S. Kim
- Genovese, Michael. “Presidential Studies Quarterly: The
Presidency of Richard Nixon.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 07
March 2000: page 1
- Small, Melvin. The Presidency of Richard Nixon.
Lawrence
Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1999. page 4
- Small, Melvin 6
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- Genovese, Michael 2
- Genovese, Michael 2
- Genovese, Michael 2
- Genovese, Michael 2
- Kuklick, Bruce Philadelphia Pennsylvania page 1
- Kuklick, Bruce 2
- Kuklick, Bruce 2
- Genovese, Michael 1
- Small, Melvin 309
- Small, Melvin 309
- Small, Melvin 1
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