Now I must confess that when I first picked up this book, I expected it to be yet another anti-Nixon book penned by a Watergate-obsessed liberal. But this book hardly mentions Watergate at all (except towards the end) as it focuses on the 1964-1972 years, beginning with the Goldwater landslide defeat and ending with Nixon's landslide re-election eight years later.
The book was surprisingly even-handed with no cheap shots taken at Richard Nixon, who is the most part sympathetically portrayed as a man who felt he was done wrong by the establishment and who went a little too far in "getting even." Also, Vietnam is correctly blamed on the two people most responsible for getting us into that mess in the first place - JFK and LBJ. Though Nixon is also portrayed as keeping the war going for political purposes.
The them of the book is the fracturing of America into "Left" vs "Right" and that pretty much continues today. I was struck by how much things are the same today as they were back then. For example, in 1972, the usual Hollywood celebrity crowd as well as the media were completely in the tank for George McGovern and Nixon took real pleasure in ensuring that McGovern was defeated on a massive scale. I kind of wish George W. had some of that spunk in him (without having to break into Democratic headquarters).
But Nixon blew his opportunity to capitalize on his victory by refusing to campaign for his fellow Republicans. As a result, Republicans lost ground in the Congress and they never forgave him for it, which is why Nixon had to resign in the end - even his fellow Republicans turned against him. Contrast this to Bill Clinton who also would have been forced to resign had he not had his fellow Democrats sticking up for him and blocking his impeachment.
Anyway, the book is fascinating and I'm just about done with it. I never realized that there were so many riots back in those days. Entire sections of cities were burned down and campuses across America were in full riot and had to be shut down entirely at times. Now I heard of Watts and I heard of Kent State but I never realized until reading this book just how widespread the rioting and civil unrest was in this country - during the 1966-1970 period especially - because I was too young.
Anyway, a very good read and a little chilling as well, because if we can end up beating Obama next month, some folks may very well take to the streets again.
The author, Rick Perlstein, uses the term “Nixonland” to describe a situation in which American politics are dominated by conflict between two irreconcilable groups and contends that Nixon advanced his political career by exploiting such conflicts. However, if this is the case, we have been living in "Nixonland" since our country was founded--and "Nixonland" can probably describe most democratic societies.
In any case, it seems to me that commentator Victor Lasky was more accurate when in a 1977 interview, he credited President Nixon with "the cooling of America," noting that by the time Nixon left office, the unrest and vilence that began in the mid-1969's had largely ceased.
Perlstein also tends to be selective when picking and choosing facts to support his arguments. For example, when dicussing the 1960 presidential election, Perlstein devotes several pages to the first televised Nixon-Kennedy debate, in which he portrays Nixon as performing poorly. However, he doesn't mention that those who heard the debate on the radio thought that Nixon had outperformed Kennedy, and he makes no mention whatsoever of the three subsequent debates in which Nixon did much better than he did in the first debate.
Perlstein ridicules Nixon's attempt to have Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas impeached, in 1970, implying that he did so because Douglas wrote an article in a racy counter-culture journal. However, he neglects to mention the real cause of the impeachment move--a book written by Douglas entitled Points of Rebellion (Random House, 1970), in which he praised the student revolutionaries of the day and generated charges that he was advocating the overthrow of the US government.
Perlstein's account also contains a number of factual errors. For example, Nixon's birthplace was built in 1912, not 1910, as he says, and the SALT agreement of 1972 was not the "Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty."
Interestingly, in an appearance at the Nixon Presidential Library the other day, Perlstein answered a questioner from the audience who asked if we are still in "Nixonland" by saying that, indeed, we were, as manifested by Sarah Palin, an "Agnew-like" choice for vice president who seeks to exploit "middle class rages."