Anthony Summers is the past master of scandal, the man who brought you Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe and that unforgettable (alleged) eyewitness account of J. Edgar Hoover in a flouncy black dress. Greater experts than I must rule on Summers's exhaustively researched portrait of Richard Nixon, The Arrogance of Power, but it sure is one racy read. Summers depicts a Nixon stoned out of his mind on Seconal, single-malt Scotch, Dilantin, speed, and clinical paranoia, pummeling his wife, Pat (who was rumored to have once been rescued by the Secret Service from drunkenly drowning in a bathtub). Summers's Nixon apparently took Mickey Cohen Mob money to fund his anti-Semitic, salacious smear campaign against Helen Gahagan Douglas to get his Senate start; framed Alger Hiss with a fake typewriter; traded gold for POWs with Vietcong; and issued orders to bomb Damascus and Jordan and nuke Vietnam and Korea (orders that were ignored until Nixon sobered up in the morning). His favorite limo was the SS100X that JFK died in. Nixon's shrink reportedly also treated Rita Hayworth, spoke like Dr. Strangelove, and used "Pavlovian technique" to "brainwash Nixon into becoming a better person." No luck.

Summers's Nixon favored the Greek generals who tortured pro-democracy types, and took a bribe from Göring's pal Nicolae Malaxa, who, thanks to Nixon, traded his Romanian mansion (in which thousands of Jews were tortured and killed) for a posh Manhattan apartment. Summers's most fascinating stuff concerns the Howard Hughes/Castro/Watergate connection. Did Nixon order CIA/Mafia plots to kill Castro? Did Robert Maheu (said to have inspired Mission: Impossible) arrange "sex services" and "assassination planning" for the CIA, and spy on Jean Peters and Ava Gardner for Howard Hughes? Did Hughes give big money to Nixon under the guise of saving the fast-food "Nixonburger" franchise of Richard's brother Donald Nixon (whom Richard had the FBI spy on)? Did the Castro plot get JFK killed, as Haldeman suspected? Was the Watergate break-in (one of perhaps 100 Nixon break-ins) intended to seize information about Nixon's Hughes loans and Castro plots?

Summers tries to assess his massive data while he's presenting it, and he doesn't credit every wild tale equally. Still, without him, I would never have heard about Castro's alleged ex-girlfriend, "the Mata Hari of the Caribbean," hired by future Watergate burglars to re-seduce Castro and slip two poison pills in his coffee. But she hid the pills in her cold-cream jar, and when she took them out in their Havana Hilton bathroom, they'd melted. Besides, her close encounter with the leader left her "torn by feelings of love." The Arrogance of Power won't give you this feeling. --Tim Appelo


From Publishers Weekly
Summers's hefty, well-researched and unrelentingly negative biography seeks to make one thing perfectly clear: something was wrong with Tricky Dick all along, and the misdeeds that marked his presidency flowed naturally from his flawed character. Nixon, he argues, became a captive of his own pride and ambition, driven to demonstrate "guts" and keep his power, no matter whom he hurt. Summers paints the Nixon of the '50s as racketeer-influenced: he supports his claims with material on early adviser Murray Chotiner, presidential pal Bebe Rebozo, crime boss Meyer Lansky, eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes and other shady affiliates. Nixon's outwardly tranquil marriage to Pat drove her to secret chain-smoking, Summers writes, and nearly to alcoholism. In the Oval Office, Summers notes, Nixon was sometimes "rendered unstable by fatigue, alcohol and medication," such as the psychoactive drug Dilantin. His White House cabal pulled off more and stranger dirty tricks than the public record has shown; and flights of irrational belligerence led him to order off-the-cuff "acts of war"Dorders his aides had to scramble to intercept. After news of Watergate broke, Nixon's incoherence grew worse; top aides shielded him even while questioning his sanity. Summers (Official & Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, etc.) talked to hundreds of sources, some previously untappedDamong them Nixon's sometime confidant and psychotherapist, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker. Though he sometimes construes as nefarious schemes what others might call normal politics, Summers's impressive research largely backs up his condemnatory attitude. With almost 150 pages of carefully spelled-out documentation and notes, the volume is no hit-and-run job; it's the most thorough case against Nixon yet, reminding us both how complex our 37th president was and how much damage he ultimately did. 32 pages b&w photos. First serial to Vanity Fair (Aug. 28) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Anthony Summers' biography of Richard Nixon reveals a troubled figure whose criminal behavior did not begin with Watergate. Drawing on more than a thousand interviews and five years of research, Summers reveals a man driven by an addiction to intrigue and power, whose subversion of democracy during Watergate was the culmination of years of cynical political manipulation. New evidence suggests the former president had problems with alcohol and prescription drugs, was at times mentally unstable, and was abusive to his wife Pat. Summers discloses previously unrevealed facts about Nixon's role in the plots to topple Fidel Castro and Salvador Allende, his sabotage of the Vietnam peace talks in l968, and his acceptance of funds from dubious sources. The Arrogance of Power shows how the actions of one tormented man influenced fifty years of American history, in ways still reverberating today.


About the Author
Anthony Summers formerly covered wars and other world news events for the BBC. He lives in Ireland with his wife and principle colleague, Robbyn Swan.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Richard Nixon will probably forever be best remembered for the Watergate scandal, but according to The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon, an explosive new biography by Anthony Summers, Watergate was only a sliver of the deceit, manipulation, and criminal activity that took place over the course of Nixon's political career.

In forging this portrait, Summers relied on newly disclosed FBI files and more than 1,000 interviews with those who knew Nixon best. He dedicates the early chapters of the book to Nixon's formative years in California, probing his family life and examining his academic career in an effort to get to the root of the character flaws that plagued his adult life, but the bulk of the book focuses on Nixon's lengthy political career. Supported by anecdotal testimony from literally hundreds of Nixon's colleagues, associates, aides, and friends, including his longtime psychotherapist, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, Summers provides strong evidence that, throughout his years of public service, Nixon abused alcohol and prescription drugs. There are reports that he went to important state meetings drunk and that, on more than one occasion, he ordered the use of nuclear weapons while intoxicated. Summers also recounts instances when Nixon physically and emotionally abused his wife Pat (most notably, just after he lost the 1962 gubernatorial race in California).

Summers, of course, covers the Watergate scandal thoroughly, but even more interesting are the other political scandals that he uncovers. For example, Nixon repeatedly accepted illegal financial contributions from a variety of donors, the Mafia among them. But perhaps the most serious charge is that Nixon, widely credited with bringing an end to the Vietnam War during his time in office (a reputation, Summers says, that Nixon cultivated himself after his resignation), actually maneuvered to prolong that very war for his own political gain, intentionally sabotaging the peace talks of 1968 in an effort to make himself a more attractive presidential candidate. As a result of those additional years of military engagement, more than 20,000 U.S. soldiers died.

The Arrogance of Power is an extraordinary investigation of one man's life and work, and Summers meticulously documents his research in more than 110 pages of source and author's notes. A dry historical account this is not, however; it reads like a fictitious political thriller, as page after page of stunning revelations pull the reader quickly through the book. The Arrogance of Power is sure to profoundly impact the way future generations view the 37th president of the United States.

--Stephanie Bowe

FROM THE PUBLISHER

More than two decades after he resigned from the presidency, Richard Nixon has lost none of his fascination. From the ongoing debates about his record in office to the contentious struggles over the White House tapes, we as a nation seem obsessed with the need to understand our most infamous political figure. In The Arrogance of Power award-winning investigative journalist Anthony Summers offers an unprecedented examination of a president whose personality embraced both political brilliance and criminal vindictiveness.

Drawing on more than a thousand interviews and five years of research, Summers traces Nixon's career from his youth in California through his controversial terms in Congress and the vice presidency to his turbulent days in the Oval Office. The pattern that emerges is of a man driven by a lifelong addiction to intrigue and power, a man whose subversion of democracy during Watergate was, in fact, merely the culmination of years of cynical manipulation of the political system.

FROM THE CRITICS

Charles Taylor - Salon

The strongest aspect of The Arrogance of Power is the case it makes for Nixon as the most consistent of men. Seen in the context of the lying, cheating and lawbreaking that characterized every aspect of his political career, Watergate was not Nixon's self-destruction but his fulfillment, the essence of everything he stood for. Nixon's apparent mental breakdown toward the end of his presidency, likely exacerbated by his abuse of the anti-epileptic drug Dilantin as a tranquilizer and his drinking problem (which accounts for his frequent slurred speech and disassociated demeanor), reads here as a moment of self-definition....Nixon's real legacy is the cynicism toward government that has become a mainstay of American political discourse since Watergate. Even Summers ends the book by saying "Because of what they learned at Watergate, Americans are perhaps less ready to trust blindly in their leaders ... The downside, however, is that Richard Nixon's abuses and deceptions may have led many citizens not to trust their leaders at all." It didn't have to be so....Summers' book is an example of how the revelations of investigative journalism can awaken rather than inure. It suggests that to be wary of Nixon's ability to rise again and again and again, even from the dead, is a form of patriotism. We haven't seen the last of Dick Nixon. And we should be waiting with garlic and crosses -- and most of all the stake.

Publishers Weekly

Summers's hefty, well-researched and unrelentingly negative biography seeks to make one thing perfectly clear: something was wrong with Tricky Dick all along, and the misdeeds that marked his presidency flowed naturally from his flawed character. Nixon, he argues, became a captive of his own pride and ambition, driven to demonstrate "guts" and keep his power, no matter whom he hurt. Summers paints the Nixon of the '50s as racketeer-influenced: he supports his claims with material on early adviser Murray Chotiner, presidential pal Bebe Rebozo, crime boss Meyer Lansky, eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes and other shady affiliates. Nixon's outwardly tranquil marriage to Pat drove her to secret chain-smoking, Summers writes, and nearly to alcoholism. In the Oval Office, Summers notes, Nixon was sometimes "rendered unstable by fatigue, alcohol and medication," such as the psychoactive drug Dilantin. His White House cabal pulled off more and stranger dirty tricks than the public record has shown; and flights of irrational belligerence led him to order off-the-cuff "acts of war"--orders his aides had to scramble to intercept. After news of Watergate broke, Nixon's incoherence grew worse; top aides shielded him even while questioning his sanity. Summers (Official & Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, etc.) talked to hundreds of sources, some previously untapped--among them Nixon's sometime confidant and psychotherapist, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker. Though he sometimes construes as nefarious schemes what others might call normal politics, Summers's impressive research largely backs up his condemnatory attitude. With almost 150 pages of carefully spelled-out documentation and notes, the volume is no hit-and-run job; it's the most thorough case against Nixon yet, reminding us both how complex our 37th president was and how much damage he ultimately did. 32 pages b&w photos. First serial to Vanity Fair (Aug. 28) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

Summers's reputation as the controversial biographer of Marilyn Monroe (Goddess) and J. Edgar Hoover (Official and Confidential) is furthered by this investigation into the lies and life of Richard Nixon. Summers divides Nixon's career into lies--Mafia connections, illicit campaign contributions, murky relations with eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes--and BIG lies--planning the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the murder of Fidel Castro, advising South Vietnam's President Thieu to boycott peace talks while Lyndon Johnson was a lame duck president because President Nixon would assure South Vietnam a better deal, Watergate, and the author's most controversial claim, that Nixon severely beat his wife, Pat, after his unsuccessful 1962 election campaign for California's governor. This may be the most negative book about Nixon written to date and contrasts sharply with such sympathetic works as Irwin Gellman's The Contender (LJ 8/99), Joan Hoff's Nixon Reconsidered (LJ 7/94), and Stephen Ambrose's three-volume biography, Nixon (LJ 10/15/91). Many of Summers's conclusions derive from interviews with Nixon's psychiatrist, Arnold Hutschnecker, and from many other interviews compiled by Summers and his researchers. The narrative is bogged down by an overabundance of detail, and the bombardment of interviews gives the book a "he said, she said" feeling. Public libraries should purchase if interest warrants.--Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Christopher Hitchens - New York Times Book Review

The great merit of The Arrogance of Power is that it takes much of what we already knew, or thought we knew (or darkly suspected), and refines and confirms and extends it. The inescapable conclusion, well bodyguarded by meticulous research and footnotes, is that in the Nixon era the United States was, in essence, a ''rogue state."...Summers has completed the work of many predecessors, and made the task of his successors very difficult. In the process, he has done an enormous service by describing, to the citizens of a nation founded on law and right, the precise obscenity of that moment when the jutting jaw of a would-be Caesar collapses into the slobbering underlip of a weak and self-pitying king.

Jon Wiener - Nation