Definitely a book that I recommend to friends. If you are interested in the political process, Watergate, Nixon; or simply this tumultuous period in American history then this book is for you. And it's grammatically correct too. Rob--Fairhope, AL

Russ Witcher's book, that Watergate thing, is one of the best books that I have ever read. The tension kept me on the edge of my seat! The climatic conclusion is unparalled by anything except for certain Betty Davis movies. Keep up the good work, Russ. I hope to see more work from you in the near future.

Even today, it's difficult to be objective about Richard Nixon. Author Russ Witcher succeeds, however, in his seminal study about how Nixon dealt with the press in the two decades following his resignation from the presidency. Relying on articles about Nixon in the three national newsweeklies during this period, Witcher presents a dispassionate look at how Nixon's image improved in the national print media. By quantifying the number of positive and negative statements the newsweeklies made about the former president, Witcher avoids the subjectivity that has marred much of the earlier research that has been done about Mr. Nixon.

Richard M. Nixon with his "Leaders" not only master the understanding of leadership, but also writing in general. The book treats several leaders of the 20th century, Winston Churchill, Konrad Adenaur, Shigeru Yoshida, Charles de Gaulle, Nikita Khruschev and many more with granduer. What one should particularly pay attention in this book is that the author himself, has personally known every single leader in the book, which adds a great deal of invaluable personal reminiscences which at the same time analyse each person. The book is a must read for those interested in history, politics, biography, and of course leadership in general. The numerous personal advices which the author present as indispensable to great leader, pinpoints the weaknesses and qualities a leader has. At the same time, Richard Nixon, with his outstanding political career which spans over much of a lifetime, tells the reader what to do and what not to do as a leader, how and why leaders have failed in history and how and why they've reached the top. A magnificent piece of work, which will live in my memory for a long time.

There is no reason, whatsoever, for any student of politics not to read these amazing insights from one of the greatest political minds in American history.

The book Leaders by Richard M. Nixon showes how to make you fit for your business as a leader. Is political leaders happy for their lives? Is it interesting to be a leader in the country? What are most important characters to you if you want to become a great guy? How to make you stand up once you failed? Richard Nixon told you all by his own experience and his study of many great people in other countries. It won't disappoint you, but satisfy you. Read it, learn it, study it, and then make you fit for the challenges!

Any student of foreign policy simply must read this book. In fact, anyone with a remote interst in international affairs would benefit from its contents. Kissinger presents an honest and intimate assessment of world events from 1968 to early 1973. His comments on personal relationships and candid opinions of world leaders like De Gaul, Mao, Nixon, Brandt, Brezhnev, Gandhi (Indira), Rabin and others are insightful. Kissinger covers world event touching on Vietnam, India/Pakistan relations, Middle Eastern conflicts, Russian and Chinese relationships and domestic affairs among others. The reader is afforded touching personal insight into many events that shaped the cold war world and continue to impact foreign policy today. It is a privlege to read someone with so vast an intellect that is as critical of himself as he is of other policy makers. The book is as often serious as it is funny. Kissinger honestly portrays his personal point of view on all the issues facing him. It is not every day we get to read about the nuances of policy making with such honesty and clarity. Kissinger also provides behind the scene insight into the Nixon presidency and all its ravaging conflicts and triumphs. If world issues and politics interest you then this book will as well.

The title of this review stems from an ancient Chinese proverb. Henry A. Kissinger's book, White House Years is the first of a three-volume trilogy that covers his remarkable career. This initial book begins with his appointment as National Security Advisor to Richard M. Nixon January 1969, and ends with the initialing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. Kissinger lets the reader know early on, they were under no illusions their journey would be easy or joyous.

He paints a vivid picture of Lyndon Johnson at Nixon's inauguration. If a political heavyweight like L.B.J. could be humbled by (sic) "Veetnam" no one could expect an easy time. Nixon, who had made a career of exhorting political opponents to, "Get tough with the Communists," now had his turn. He would either succeed where his predecessors had failed, or share L.B.J.s fate.

A series of opportunities to "get tough" with the Communists soon followed. The Soviets continued to harass Berlin; the Strateg!ic Arms Limitation (SALT) Talks provided critics from the right and left; West German leader Willie Brandt's Ostpolitik threatened the cohesion of the Atlantic Alliance and the Soviets' establishment of a submarine base at Cienfuegos, Cuba created a situation reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also, the election of Salvador Allende in Chile threatened to introduce a second, Communist state into the Western Hemisphere. Elsewhere, a crisis was brewing between India and Pakistan, and the powder keg in the Middle East threatened to explode at any time.

All these things occurred while the bulk of our military forces were mired in a seemingly endless stalemate in Vietnam that was tearing our nation apart and steadily draining both our coffers and our national resolve. Any of them had the potential to bring the two nuclear equipped superpowers into direct confrontation at any time. Kissinger calmly states: "Statesmen do not have the right to ask to serve only in simple t!imes." The early '70's were anything but, "simple times."

White House Years is a first-person account from a key player in each of these crises. Kissinger takes us step-for-step through the decision-making process they undertook before each action. These deliberations led to the most spectacular diplomatic initiative of our time: Nixon's historic trip to The Peoples Republic of China! The diplomatic opportunities made possible by this trip still shape our world today. Among other things it made Hanoi serious about negotiating an end to the War in Vietnam.

Dr. Kissinger narrates the maddening, secret negotiations with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho in Paris. The differences between what the Communists were feeding the Western media and what they were saying behind closed doors makes the reader both loathe and admire them for their political skill. Their efforts finally led to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. Kissinger sincerely believed South Vietnam would surv!ive. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

White House Years reads like a Greek tragedy. The reader gets excited and then remembers how it all ends. The very secretiveness that produced spectacular successes also sowed the seeds that would lead to Nixon's self-destruction.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the War in Vietnam and/or international relations. The conduct of international diplomacy today is still unquestionably influenced by the events narrated here. I am much better informed for having read it. You will be as well!

Dr. Kissinger's book is a must read for those wishing to gain insight into the politics of the diplomatic process. He takes great pains to be fair in his assessment of a number of personalities from President Nixon, to Indira Gandi. Self-observations are modest to the point of self-deprecation. The chapters in which he chronicles the Nixon Administration's involvement in the Vietnam War is worth the price of the book. Mr. Kissinger's observation of this tumultuous time in our history is candid, sometimes sad, but scholarly without being pedantic. I highly recommend this book.

Documentation galore. While the book is a bit outdated, the material still holds much truth with respect to current politics. Good luck trying to find a copy, this has been out of print for some time. According to Powell, this supposed non-profit think tank and its numerous spinoff's have established themselves in the confines of Washington as a purely research/academic oriented organization with the intent to change public policy for the better. Unfortunately, he finds many of their founders and directors along with published literature and recorded discussion groups to have an opposite appeal and hidden agenda. Admittedly, the book is leftist centered and this reviewer is not going to deny that the right is not involved in their own misdeeds, but after investigating much of the bibliography I found that the documentation speaks for itself and gives a wonderful insight into the labyrinth of power politics. Be frightened, be very frightened, this is not something many are willing to admit much less accept, especially with so many still involved. Research what you have trouble swallowing, you just might come away a disheartened believer.

this book is so cool cus its true and it tells the truth about the government. /ps. dont let the government skrew you over like thay did to dennis r.trist, hes a realy cool guy.

This was truly a wonderful book. The writer really gives you personal account of the "comeback" of Nixon. There were a lot of details that I am sure most Americans do not know as Nixon basically fell off the radar screen until his death. This book gave you some much personal information that I put it down and have a new appreciation for what he went through. I would suggest reading this book right after 'The Final Days", the two books work very well together. There is also an interesting section in "Shadow" about Clinton and his speak at Nixon's funeral. This is a very interesting book and if you are interested in his life of just American politics I am sure you will also find the book interesting.

An excellent book for those at least slightly familiar with all the ins and outs of the Nixon story. Many stories and anecdotes that are rare and memorable involving Nixon and everyone around him. I highly reccomend this book.

"Even Richard Nixon has got soul", wrote Neil Young in his song 'Campaigner'. This book chronicles Richard Nixon's rise and fall with candid honesty and demonstarates a warmth and human falibilty that does indeed afirm Young's lyric.
I was surprised at Mr. Nixon's book in that I was unsympathetic at the time with his handling of Vietnam and felt he was out of touch with the vast anti-war movement in the USA. I feel now that he was harshly judged and that he should be saluted for his untiring efforts to maintain freedom and democracy in Asia.
The best parts of the book are when he describes meetings with other world leaders and provide a fascinating insight into the process of diplomacy at the highest level of goverment.
The Watergate sections are complicated and one is left with the impression that he got into a hole and could'nt stop digging.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the machinations of high politics and anyone who wishes an insight into a turbulent period in American history.

Richard Nixon experienced a "comeback" in the late 70's and throughout the 80's, and it started with this excellent book. In it, he goes through all of the relevant things concerning his family experiences, and, of course, his politcal life, culminating in the Presidency and then complete disgrace. But this book isn't really a "downer," and it has wonderful Historical value. It is an excellent read as well as a terrific buy.

This third volume of the Nixon series is dominated by the Watergate scandal, with Ambrose skilfully detailing how the great election victory in 1972 slowly unravelled, as the full weight of the media and Democrat-controlled Congress worked to expose the whole tawdry episode. During this era, there was also the bombing of Hanoi followed by the Vietnam ceasefire, and summits with the Soviet leadership, but Watergate overshadowed all. Ambrose makes it clear that Nixon reinvented the story over and over, and bears a large burden of blame for the predicament he found himself in. He also makes clear that this was the opportunity for Nixon's arch enemies in the media and Congress to go for blood. The descent into the nightmare of possible impeachment and eventual resignation reads like an inevitablity, that Nixon lasted till August 1974 said a lot about his tenacity and stubborness in the face of relentless adversity.

The recovery of Nixon was never fully realized, although he was an authoritative elder statesman in later years, and Ambrose shows that Nixon had regained a fair amount of respect in his later years. Since his death the left has continued to disparage and villify his legacy, but as hard as it is to defend Nixon at times, he was still a statesman to be reckoned with, and his foreign policy record, especially with his China trip, is one of distinction. The eastern establishment despised Nixon, but he did not cater to them, it was the silent majority that was his constituency. One finishes this book wondering where America would have gone had the Watergate scandal not occurred.

I enjoyed this concluding part of Stephen Ambrose's three-volume biography of Richard Nixon. This could have been the most difficult of the volumes to write - as the author needed to write in a way which maintained the reader's interest through the often tortuous intricacies of Watergate. I thought that the dangers (or challenges) were twofold: a reader's familiarity with the issues behind and history of Watergate could produce boredom, or the sheer complexity of the affair could bewilder the less well-informed reader.

I sat somewhere in the middle - I knew the broad issues (having read Woodward and Bernstein, and seen various TV documentaries) but being a non-American, my grasp of the relative roles and importance of the various US institutions involved and the politico-constitutional nuances was to say the least, tenuous. I think that Ambrose succeeded in both keeping my attention and guiding me through the whole affair: the book read at times like a political thriller, but with passages which guided me through the more complex issues. Whether or not this would bore politically aware Americans is not for me to judge.

The vast majority of this book is (rightly) devoted to Watergate. I thought that Ambrose made a good point, and one which is perhaps forgotten as the collective memory of the 1970s fades, that Watergate became such a tremendously irritating bore - people wanted rid of it because it was just so tedious, seeming to have been dominating the news forever, and producing a sclerosis in the body politic when major events of world importance needed to be addressed. Again, not being an American, I can't attest to the accuracy of Ambrose's point, but it seems to me to ring true.

The remainder of the book deals with Nixon's post-resignation reconstruction of himself, and one has to admire Nixon's sheer tenacity and willpower. At the end, Ambrose attemps an assessment of the man and his impact on America and the world. It's up the each reader to take his/her own view on that assessment, but in this cynical world when our trust in politicians seems to be ebbing ever further away, I thought that it's tempting to agree with Ambrose that Nixon's tragedy was that he got caught.

Stephen Ambroses third Nixon Volume : "Ruin And
Recovery" takes on into the heart and soul
of democracy.
Cynics accustomed to political scandal might
be bemused by Watergate. What was all the
hullabaloo really all about?

Ambrose puts it something like this in the book:
To the british, with their official Secrets Act, nothing
that Nixon had done seemed that out of the ordinary,
much less illegal. The Italians simply threw up their hands
at the crazy Americans. To the French. Watergate
confirmed their suspicions about the naive Americans.
In west Germany, the frequent comparison of Nixon
to Hitler by his enemies in America showed either
how little the Americans understood Hitler,
or how little they understood Nixon, or both.
Nixons friends in China, could not understand
why he just didn't shoot his critics.

But in a democracy you must play by the law,
and you must trust and have faith in the wisdom
of the election process.
Watergate was all about how these things were
violated and how american democracy proved strong
enough to recover.
Ruin and Recovery reads like a detective story,
absolutely undeniable brilliant stuff.