I’m nearly finished with a wonderful book on Richard Nixon, After the Fall written by a new friend of mine: Kasey Pipes. Our sons are classmates and he recently gave me a signed copy of this Nixon volume. I’ve read a few biographies of the 36th President, whom I’ve always considered an enigma. This one, however, focuses on Nixon’s post-presidency. If my favorite reading is about American presidents, my favorite sub-genre is about American presidents after they leave office. So this book hits on all counts.
Few Americans in history have suffered such an epic fall from grace as Richard Nixon. Few embody America’s comeback, second-chance spirit as Richard Nixon. He was a rising young Senator, chosen by Dwight Eisenhower to be his running mate in 1952. In 1960, suffered a very narrow defeat for the presidency in 1960, went home to run for California governor in 1962, and then lost again. His career was surely over. Or was it?
In 1968, he won the Republican nomination for President and won convincingly. In 1972, he won re-election in a 49-state landslide. But Watergate forced him to resign two years later. Upon assuming office, his successor, Gerald Ford, declared that America’s "long, national, nightmare is over.”
But Nixon wasn’t done. He would live another two decades, actively influencing the foreign policy of his Democratic and Republican successors, making multiple visits to foreign countries, and writing 9 well-regarded, bestselling books on foreign policy and leadership.
In Pipes’ book, he shares three principles that guided Nixon in this last season of his life:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to One Little Word to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.