A view of the Nixon presidency, through the eyes of it's arch conservative member, Patrick Buchanan. The detail is amazing. The author must either have an incredible memory, or kept notes on everything he has done.
Throughout the book, the central theme is that Buchanan's ultra conservative beliefs are the only path to success for the United States. Everyone who has a differing opinion is just wrong, and is the enemy. (Sounds eerily familiar to the current administration). It must be something to be so sure of oneself, and to have never an inkling of doubt of one's beliefs, or that you may sometimes be wrong. However, I think it would be a sad and lonely existence. It makes me feel bad for Mr. Buchanan.

NIXON’S WHITE HOUSE WARS documents, in great detail, the battles among top White House staff—especially the struggles for conservative causes. The author, Patrick J. Buchanan, kept detailed records and his correspondence with the president and other top officials. Richard Nixon “asked for and welcomed my missives. It became our primary means of conversation. Over the Nixon White House years, I would send him a thousand.”

This book is designed specifically for political junkies who really like all the nitty-gritty details about the Nixon presidency. If you are fascinated by reading detailed memoranda arguing for or against certain political causes, you will likely enjoy this book. I generally skipped over the memos.

It’s easy to see how the author came to such a high position at such a young age (barely 30!). Buchanan writes well, and argues fervently for his conservative beliefs. Coming into the White House, the author had high hopes that Nixon would advance true conservative causes. He soon discovered, however, that Nixon was not nearly as dedicated as Buchanan. The author laments Nixon seemingly embracing “Great Society” extensions in the tradition of LBJ. Right after Nixon took office, “My fears that this was not going to be the conservative administration I had envisioned during my three years with Nixon were confirmed. “

If you read nothing else, don’t miss the chapter on Nixon’s historic visit to China. I thought this chapter was the most interesting part of the book; it also shows the author’s dismay with the administration’s lukewarm embrace of conservative principles.

After the visit to China, for example, the author is disgusted at what he saw as a complete sell-out of our Taiwan friends. On the flight back, Buchanan stands up to Henry Kissinger, who negotiated the “Shanghai Communique.” Kissinger asked Pat what was wrong with the document, and tried to defend it. Buchanan would have none of it: “Though sitting in a window seat , I stood up, leaned over, put my face about eighteen inches from his, and shouted, “Bulls**t!”

The latter part of the book covers the whole Watergate mess—all the way from the first reports of a break-in, to Nixon’s resignation. I did not know that Buchanan had actually testified about his peripheral role in Watergate. Similarly, I had no idea that the author’s brother had been falsely accused of money laundering during that same time period. (Cronkite’s network had to issue an apology.)

The author includes the transcript of a light-hearted testimony before Senator Sam Ervin. The author also includes voluminous copies of memoranda sent to the president. Perhaps the most interesting was the one recommending that Nixon burn the tapes.

This book is quite serious, as is the author. There are a few lighthearted moments, however. In China, Buchanan describes the drinking bouts: “One problem we all had that night was the drinking. The mao-tai the Chinese served for toasts— I still have four bottles—tasted as one imagines gasoline might taste. It was awful. The only thing that made it tolerable was that the more we consumed the more we began to ignore the taste.”

Another funny moment describes the author and Henry Kissinger poolside: “Henry, wearing his bathing suit and working on a tan, repaired to his chaise, beside which lay papers and files. As we talked, he bemoaned the fact that though he was national security adviser to the most powerful man on earth and had secret papers lying all about him, no beautiful women had tried to seduce him.”

So all in all, I found NIXON’S WHITE HOUSE WARS to be an interesting book, documenting one of the most turbulent political periods in recent times. I liked seeing the author’s perspective on the Nixon years—especially the visit to China. Prior to reading this book, I did not realize how controversial this trip was, and how it angered the conservatives in the White House. The whole time I was reading this book, I kept thinking, “Buchanan was barely 30?”


See also Bassocantor.com

Ok, so a couple of disclaimers up front. I am definitely a left leaning person politically (if not a bit more than leaning) and was honestly mostly interested in this book to learn more about Watergate. That being said, I also just have a fascination with history and have been trying to learn more about all the presidents since I discovered the Washington Post's Presidential podcast a few months back. I also have heard people compare the current White House to being most similar to Nixon's so I was curious about that as well. All of this is leading to say I hated this book so much.

I genuinely wanted to learn from this book. I wanted to know more about Nixon than just the scandals. I wanted to hear a well thought out justification for some conservative policies that I generally find abhorrent. Unfortunately, it seems the primary purpose of this book is for Buchanan to simultaneously take a victory lap for being the genius that got Nixon elected and was behind every move that could be conceived of as good by him and at the same time bemoan how unfairly Nixon and therefore he was treated throughout the presidency. Again this is ok. I get it he is telling his part of the story and naturally most people make themselves more of the protagonist in their own stories, but it gets very tiresome after a while to hear that if Nixon just followed his advice he would be seen as the greatest post-war president.

However, even this is not what drives me to dislike this book. For that, I have to credit Buchanan's abilities to take political potshots at current politicians and situations in a book about the Nixon years. At one point he brings up Bill Ayers and the Weathermen and cannot resist the urge to bring back the attack on President Obama from 2008 that he was friends with him. He also does not ever explain why his conservative views (which he is very proud of being the rightest of right wingers in the administration) were correct, but instead just insists that the idea of the silent majority proves that these views are politically worthwhile. Again, he brings up current events by saying that the only people who are still allowed to be discriminated against are white males (I almost threw my kindle) and then proceeded to say that the rise of Donald Trump shows this is true. To be fair to him, his goal was probably not to explain his views in the book and it reads a lot more like political strategy than actual political theory, however, I think it makes it very hard to engage anybody who does not share his views since the book is so aggressive and sanctimonious about how correct all his political ideas are without offering much justification.

It was somewhat fascinating to read someone actually try to defend Nixon when it came to Watergate. Again he casts himself as a hero, saying that if he was listened to Nixon would not have been forced to resign. He also makes the point that the whole investigation was started over leaks which are also illegal which sounds eerily similar to arguments being made now about investigations into the current administration. Again, to give the book some credit it was fascinating to read someone have these views and also to see the inner workings of a White House that hated the press, especially since Buchanan was tasked to deal with this in a lot of ways. My advice to you would be if you can overlook his hack-y, conservative-cable-news style that this book is kind of an interesting read. If not, stay away.

A President elected with less than a majority of the vote. The President and a hostile press in open warfare with one other. Organized protests against the President on the streets of Washington, D.C. and cities around the nation. College students silencing speakers on campus with whom they disagree. While these are all headlines from 2017, they are also moments describing the first year of the Nixon Administration in 1969 as described by Pat Buchanan in Nixon's White House Wars.

In his previous book, The Greatest Comeback, Buchanan writes of how former Vice President Nixon went from losses for the Presidency in 1960 and the California Governorship in 1962 to a stunning victory in 1968. Serving as the only political aide at Nixon's side prior to the campaign of 1968, Buchanan writes with an insider perspective that truly no one else could provide. As The Greatest Comeback ends with Nixon's 1968 victory, I hoped that Buchanan would write a follow-up book detailing his account of what happened next. And this volume does not disappoint.

As history repeats itself, so many of the same issues and battles of the Nixon Administration seem pulled straight from today's current events at the beginning of the Trump Administration. Republicans and Democrats alike can learn lessons from this important work of history, which also happens to be a very entertaining read.

The chapter on Nixon going to China and Buchanan's disappointment as a member of that China delegation is particularly powerful, as he struggles with loyalty to the President he fought so hard to elect and a desire to resign from the Administration he believes had betrayed America's friends and allies with the embrace of China.

In Nixon's White House Wars, Buchanan also reveals the surprising name of the person Nixon originally was thinking of nominating for Vice President when Spiro Agnew resigned.

You don't have to be a Nixon fan to enjoy The Greatest Comeback and Nixon's White House Wars. (I'm definitely not. I'm a Reagan guy.) Anyone interested in history or politics will find them entertaining and instructive with their historical lessons. I am grateful--as history should certainly be--that Pat Buchanan wrote these two incredible books to provide an insider perspective on the Nixon years that no one else could have done.