"Nixon's Secrets: The Rise, Fall, and Untold Truth about the President, Watergate, and the Pardon" by Roger Stone and investigative reporter Mike Colapietro; released Aug 11 by Skyhorse Publishing; 669 p. plus a center section of historic photographs. Cover price: $24.95
Those of us who lived through the Nixon era -- TV debates with JFK, Vietnam, Watergate -- inherently knew there was far more we didn't know than we did about the enigmatic 37th president.
Maybe that's why I've never been able to get enough of Richard Milhous Nixon in books and films: James Reston Jr.'s "The Conviction of Richard Nixon," Gary Wills' "Nixon Agonistes," Conrad Black's "Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full" -- I've read them all.
As it happens, "Nixon's Secrets" was the work of a man who I think was closer to Richard Nixon than any of his previous biographers -- a man New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd calls "the keeper of the Nixon flame."
South Florida resident Roger Stone,author of New York Times bestseller "The Man Who Killed Kennedy: the Case against LBJ,"gets that nickname for being the consummate Nixon admirer. Who else but Stone would have a tattoo of Richard Nixon's smiling face inked on his back?
"Nixon's Secrets" chronicles Nixon's greatest triumphs, bitter losses, his Spartan-like discipline, meticulous preparation, hard work and resilience. Roger Stone tells you straight-up at the beginning of the 600-page book: He's offering you an opportunity to chart the rise and fall, rise and fall again, and final comeback of "the most durable political leader of the 20th century."
For me, the author's feeling for the former president is part of the power of the book. It's their relationship that gives this biography perspective, and why some of the revelations made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
Stone was the youngest member of the Nixon staff in 1972 and was credited with Nixon's rehabilitation during his post-presidential years. The two were obviously close.
Nevertheless, Stone makes it clear in the introduction that he hasn't written a sanitized version of Nixon's political life, "nor is it an attempt to rehabilitate his reputation. Don't expect a whitewash of Nixon's sins because 'no man is a hero to his valet.' On balance, I conclude that Nixon's greatness and his vision for a global political realignment to achieve world peace must be viewed as well as his numerous mistakes."
Stone, you can tell, was no fan of weaselly White House counsel John Dean. But he insists it wasn't Dean who brought Nixon down. It was General Alexander Haig who "greased the skids for the president through a series of purposeful blunders in Nixon's handling of the legal, public and political problem triggered by the Watergate break-in."
I think you will be struck with the portrayal of the controlling staff Nixon kept around him, particularly during the days leading up to the Watergate burglary -- people he would trust day in and day out, who only fed his paranoia. Would his presidency have ended differently without them?
Without giving away the store, here is some of what you'll learn by the time you finish the last of the book's more than 600 pages (not counting appendixes):
-- How the mob financed Nixon's early campaign -- and JFK's, LBJ's and Adlai Stevenson's.
-- How the Bush family helped Nixon rise, and how George H.W. Bush's circle financed the Watergate break-in, and how $100 bills found on the Watergate burglars were traced to Texas through a Mexican bank.
-- How Nixon approved the assassination of Fidel Castro but the CIA failed.
-- How Nixon lost the famous 1960 debate with Kennedy and why JFK was high on meth.
-- How the Kennedys bugged the Republican National Committee and didn't get caught.
-- How Nixon put the moves on Jackie Kennedy one night in 1953.
-- Nixon's secret meeting with LBJ the day before Kennedy was murdered.
-- How Roger Ailes reinvented the "new Nixon" for television.
-- How and why Nixon pressed the CIA for the Bay of Pigs records.
-- Why there is no Deep Throat and who really leaked to Bob Woodward.
-- Why Nixon had Gerald Ford "by the balls" and how Nixon got a deal for a pardon for his Watergate crimes before he resigned, by holding Ford's role as a member of the Warren Commission and the cover-up of JFK's murder over his head.
-- How Nixon and Bill Clinton got together after Hillary Clinton repeatedly blocked Nixon from the Clinton White House -- and how America benefited.
-- What was said in the famous 18-and-a-half-minute erasure on the White House tapes.
History still hasn't decided if Richard Nixon got a bad rap or was actually worse than we knew. If you've never read a Nixon biography -- even if you've read one or two -- "Nixon's Secrets" is going to fill you up, and maybe help you answer that question for yourself. It's a long book, but it doesn't drag.
My friends in England, where I was working during almost the whole of his presidency, referred to Nixon as "His Royal Trickiness" -- in reference to his infamous statement, "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal."
Seen from abroad, particularly in the late '60s, Nixon was shock and awe. I hope those folks in England, particularly the ones so fascinated by cowboy-style American politics, will read Roger Stone's book, too.
Stone is a veteran of eight national presidential campaigns who, in his own words, "cut my teeth with Nixon before going to work for perhaps the greatest president in my lifetime, Ronald Reagan. I have been the recipient of an enormous amount of politial intelligence. I know how the game is played."
He remains a political consultant, lobbyist and strategist, a master of the dark arts of politics and noted for his use of opposition research, usually for Republican candidates. He is a member of the Libertarian Party. In fact, last year he flirted with a run for governor on the Libertarian ticket. Besides his books, he writes a column for The Huffington Post.
If you're anywhere near Coral Gables at 7 p.m. Sept. 13 -- that's tonight -- catch Roger Stone at Books and Books, 265 Aragan Ave. He'll be discussing "Nixon's Secrets," answering questions and signing copies of the book.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
