Nixon - A Presidency Revealed

About as comprehensive as any bio of Nixon gets
I only wish the biography was longer, more comprehensive of his entire life's work, rather than going on mostly about the Watergate affair. But overall, a must-see, even if you're not at all a Nixon fan. It's pretty fairly balanced, for those who love him and hate him.

The dark side of Nixon
Initially I was disappointed that this production focused mostly on Nixon's dark, "paranoid" (as some who knew him described him) side. But the longer I watched this I came away with a better understanding not so much of the man, but of his administration and how wrapped up in Vietnam and later with Watergate he got. The audio tapes are quite revealing of Nixon's abuse of power.

The downside to this production is that it doesn't go into his pre-political life. For that I suggest one watches the PBS Presidential version of Nixon, a good production that balances this one out. This work starts with Nixon's term under Eisenhower and how he rose to power in the 1950s.

Nixon's daughter is interviewed for this, Alex Butterfield, Sen Bob Dole, Henry Kissinger and a few others, but not VP Ford or others closely working with Nixon. That is fine, though as the tapes we get to listen to in part say enough of Nixon the man.

Sen Dole said it best that Nixon the...

Nixon
I think the video did a good job of explaining the presidency of Richard Nixon. However, I think the video should have focused more on Nixon's good qualities. The video could have dealt more on his early family history. The video could have mentioned something about his stance on Civil Rights early in his career. No one doubts that Nixon did wrong during the Watergate episode. In spite of this, Richard Nixon had a profound influence on American foreign policy. One question I ask is "What would have happened if Nixon had won in 1960?" We probably would not have had the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam debacle. I also think Nixon would have advanced Civil Rights in a more forward manner than Kennedy. The question will never be answered, but it is fun to think about.

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