This tome, weighing in at 748 pages, is the second in the author's tetralogy on the ascension of the right and the end of the liberal democratic consensus in America. He tells the "story in four sections, corresponding to four elections: 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1972. Nixon's story is the engine of the narrative. His character-his own overwhelming angers, anxieties, and resentments in the face of the 1960's chaos-sparks the combustion." In 1964, voters voted Democratic to avoid "civilizational chaos." In 1972, and for the same reason, they voted Republican. The term 'Nixonland' was coined by John Kenneth Galbraith and Adlai Stevenson in 1956. It "is the America where two separate and irreconcilable sets of apocalyptic fears coexist in the minds of two separate and irreconcilable groups of Americans."
The story begins with the Watts riots in LA in August, 1965. America watched a major city go up in flames. The violence associated with the south had spread north in a country where two-thirds of Republicans proclaimed themselves conservative. Johnson's brief presidency had already seen a civil rights act, a voting rights act, immigration reform, health care for the elderly, a war on poverty and a crushing Congressional majority to accompany the president's electoral triumph. LBJ seemed unassailable, yet unashamedly plying the Republican circuit pining for a comeback was Richard Nixon. He had won his first election in 1946 by viciously attacking a sitting congressman and smeared his way into the senate four years later. After Ike chose him, he became V-P at thirty-nine. His years as Ike's number two had some ups and downs, but he lost elections in 1960 and 1962. His famous 1962 "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" press conference was the supposed end of the line. But he never gave up and never stopped campaigning. In 1966, the former actor turned politico, Ronald Reagan, ran for governor in California by stoking right-wing fears and anxieties. He struck the same chords as Goldwater, but in a more affable style. Throughout that year, America's apparent peaceful consensus continued to collapse as the war in Vietnam generated increasing opposition and racial antagonisms flared. Racial tensions in the north caused some of the Great Society's traditional supporters to begin to have doubts. The author pegs August 1966 as the point in time when the party of Lincoln turned from a century of support for the negro to the party that offered white people safety in their homes and schools from the Democratic forces of integration. On election day, there was a Republican rout across the nation at every level of government.
In December, LBJ began the saturation bombing of North Vietnam. "By the beginning of 1967, the war in Vietnam had ended America's consensus for good." Johnson began cutting back his domestic programs and sought a tax surcharge to pay for the war. Society splintered over the war. Students on the coasts marched against the war. Students in the heartland founded 'Up With People.' The Federal Reserve chairman and 300 business leaders published an open letter opposing the war in the Wall Street Journal. Martin Luther King began to actively oppose the war. While not running, Nixon organized the team that would put him in the White House, took international trips, sniped at LBJ and stayed above the fray. Once again, the summer brought full-scale riots in Newark, Harlem and Detroit. Johnson raged at the hundreds of thousands marching on Washington as the fissures in the party grew to the point that replacing LBJ became the objective of the left. Westmoreland came to Washington and declared "there was light at the end of the tunnel" and Gene McCarthy filed in four primaries. The opening calamity of 1968, a year of endless misfortune, was the Tet Offensive. Walter Cronkite closed his report on Tet with "It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could." For all intents and purposes, it was over - it just would take almost five more painful years. McCarthy stunned Johnson in New Hampshire, leading the President to announce two weeks later that he would not seek re-election. A Gallup poll showed that the majority of citizens thought crime and lawlessness the most important domestic issue. Bobby joined the fray in March. One symbol of how divided America was was Martin Luther King. He was adored by millions and simultaneously the most hated man in the country. His murder in April led to nationwide rioting, bringing America to its knees. The campaign went on with Humphrey now the Democratic establishment candidate, George Wallace joining the fray as an independent and Rockefeller, encouraged by LBJ, attempting to stop Nixon. June saw RFK murdered after winning the California primary and it seemed as if the world had spun out of control. Nixon held off the challengers at the convention in Miami Beach and the Democrats self-immolated in Chicago. Humphrey was nominated while Richard Daley's police participated in what was later called "a police riot" by "preserving disorder" while the "whole world" watched. Juan Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their hands in the black power salute in Mexico City and Nixon began his smooth and slick Roger Ailes television production campaign for law and order on behalf of the silent majority. In addition, he garnered anti-war votes with his "secret plan to end the war". On November 8 with a plurality in the popular vote of .7%, Nixon was elected and became the first president since 1849 to enter the White House without a majority in either house.
Nonetheless, he promised to be conciliatory and the first few months of 1969 were quiet, almost tranquil. Below the surface, the seeds of Nixon's downfall were being sown. Leaks led to the wiretapping of NSC staff members, Secretary of Defense Laird and a handful of reporters. By the fall, the "secret plan" appeared to be escalation and opposition to the war continued to grow. Casualties were down from 1968, but almost a thousand Americans per month were being killed. White House detectives fruitlessly sought out the communist backers of the Vietnam Moratorium on Oct. 15. Nixon introduced 'Vietnamization' to the public in a November speech, stated his opposition to the war, said we would "win the peace" and finished the year with excellent approval numbers. In May of the new year, Nixon increased the tempo of the bombing and announced an invasion of Cambodia. All hell broke loose. After days of rioting at Kent State, Ohio National guardsmen shot into a crowd of students and killed four on May 4th. ROTC buildings were aflame across the country. A total of 488 colleges were shut down. Over a hundred thousand marched on Washington. On Wall Street, hard-hat construction workers broke up an anti-war demonstration and the White House saw an opportunity. Blue collar workers, the backbone of the Democratic party, were angry and felt disenfranchised and disrespected. Perhaps, cultural issues would move them to vote Republican. The person who would lead the charge in the 1970 elections with endless alliterations and mean-spirited anger would be V. P. Spiro Agnew. Clandestine and under the counter fund raising was ratcheted up. Pointing out that these were perilous times and that we needed to find out who was behind the youth of America's desire to destroy our society, Nixon authorized black bag ops, illegal surveillance and wire taps, IRS inquiries and endless harassment of one of his most visible enemies, Jane Fonda. By "campaigning against hippies", Nixon went after conservative Democrats and hoped to expand the Republican vote in the south. It did not work; they still were the minority in both houses. Now anxious about 1972, Nixon convinced himself he had to save America from complete collapse and concluded he would do anything to be re-elected.
In the new year, "The American army was collapsing in the field." Soldiers were refusing to fight, protesting and ignoring their officers. Vietnam returnees "were the fastest growing segment of the antiwar movement." The Vietnam Veterans Against The War staged dramatic and effective public protests in April in Washington, while Nixon released Calley out on his own recognizance after his murder conviction. Navy Lt. John Kerry testified before Sen. Fulbright's committee and asked "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake". Polls showed that two-thirds of the nation thought Vietnam a mistake and that Muskie had a slight lead for the presidency. The June 13 front page of the Times juxtaposed a picture of Tricia Nixon's wedding and the explosive first publication of the Pentagon Papers. Decades of lies and hypocrisy were exposed. Nixon proposed searching the archives to find the information that showed FDR knew of Pearl Harbor beforehand; Haldeman suggested they sort out if JFK knew the specifics of the Bay of Pigs in advance when Nixon remembered that he believed there were files at the Brookings Institute that showed that the Kennedy's had ordered the assassination of the Diems. "Get in and get those files" led to the hiring of Howard Hunt and the birth of the Plumbers. In early 1972, Nixon took a step on the world stage that cemented his presidency as historic and virtually assured his re-election: he went to Peking and met with Chou-En Lai and Chairman Mao. Meanwhile, back home, his ratfucker crew sabotaged Sen. Muskie's campaign and the White House worked to help George Wallace run as a Democrat, not on a third party ticket. In Florida, Donald Segretti continued the sabotage and used dirty tricks against Humphrey, McCarthy, Lindsay and continued to ratfuck Muskie. Nixon's dream was the Democrats "scratching each others' eyes out" and he realized it when George Wallace crushed all comers. Primary season rolled on and soon it became apparent that they would get the opponent they wanted - McGovern. On the night of June 16-17, five men, including someone on the staff of CREEP were arrested at the Watergate. John Mitchell issued a denial that held the truth back, but did not stop the young Woodward and Bernstein from pursuing it. When the Democrats met in Miami, they obliged the President by continuing to scratch each others' eyes out in one of the messiest conventions in US history. The AFL-CIO did not endorse a candidate after George Meany announced that "the party had been taken over by people named Jack who looked like Jills and smelled like johns." Vietnamization had meaningfully reduced the American foot soldiers in the war, but the air war continued unabated. Nixon and Kissinger's strategy was to bomb and keep bombing in order to keep the South Vietnamese government alive until after the election. All they cared for was the proverbial decent interval. In October, Kissinger falsely announced that "peace was at hand." Nixon absolutely crushed McGovern, but once again lacked coattails as the opposition held both houses of Congress.
This an extraordinary book, amazingly thorough in its detail and painfully adept at reminding us just how hate-filled the times were. And as we know, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." "Americans are not trying to kill one another anymore.......this war has ratcheted down considerably. But it still simmers on." Nixon left behind two Americas. On one side, you have those who call themselves patriots, values voters and people of faith who feel looked down upon by the condescending liberals. On the other side you have the cosmopolitan professionals who see the first group as the "unwitting dupes of the feckless elites who exploit sentimental pieties to aggrandize their wealth, start wars, ruin lives." "How did Nixonland end? It did not end yet."
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