Nixon's Darkest Secrets
The Inside Story of America's Most Troubled President
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3.6 • 52 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A veteran White House reporter reveals our 37th president was even more sinister and haunted than we knew.
Richard Nixon left the White House in 1974 as our most disgraced president, but the American people never knew the full extent of his demons, deceptions, paranoia, prejudices, hatreds, and chicanery.
Calling on his work in covering Nixon, scores of interviews with members of Congress, White House staffers, and others close to our nation's thirty-seventh president, and invaluable, newly declassified documents and recordings, veteran journalist Don Fulsom sheds new light on "Tricky Dick." The author's revelations include:
- That the future president sabotaged the 1968 peace talks for political gain
- By the time Nixon became president in 1969, he had linked to the mob for more than two decades and, as president, had a close connection with New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello, the most powerful Mafioso in the nation
- The president had a drinking problem and top aides referred to him as "Our Drunk"
- Nixon had a misogynist streak and was abusive toward first lady Pat Nixon
- The intimate and possibly homosexual nature of Nixon's relationship with confidante Charles "Bebe" Rebozo, a banker with mob ties
- Testimony alleging that the president had ordered the killing of White House reporter Jack Anderson
Fulsom's examination of these and other startling aspects of Nixon's personal and political dimensions paint an unflinching portrait of a leader who was once the most powerful man in the world. Nixon's Darkest Secrets provides a chilling final chapter in literature on our most troubled president.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former White House reporter Fulsom (The Billary Quiz) mines his experience to offer the "inside story" on Nixon, and the result is unfortunately a salacious, demonizing account marked by unreliable sources and unapologetic sensationalism of a flawed president and his equally flawed attendants. According to Fulsom, Nixon initiated or approved numerous assassinations that evenhandedly targeted foreign and domestic targets (including columnist Jack Anderson); had homosexual tendencies; conspired with the mob; was an anti-Semitic drunk; and for good measure, a horrible husband. One unexpected element in the story is the role the Watergate burglars may have played in the Kennedy assassination, and many old, often conflicting, conspiracy saws are offered willy-nilly, including the theory that Lyndon Johnson plotted to kill JFK. Fulsom's problematic sources include "some JFK assassination researchers"; a little known "veteran Nixon watcher"; and discredited New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison.
Customer Reviews
Needs editing
I looked forward to this book and am very disappointed -- it is either badly written or badly edited, or both. Some examples: (1) The author says that after resigning, Nixon spent the next twenty-five years trying to rehabilitate his image; however, Nixon died just short of twenty years after leaving the White House. (2) The author refers to Nixon and Ford as "lifelong friends"; however, they did not meet until they both served in the House of Representatives -- a fact the author himself acknowledges a few pages later. (3) Nixon's psychiatrist Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker is referred to as Albert Hutschnecker. (4) Transportation Secretary John Volpe is referred to as George Volpe. (5) The name of Nixon's daughter Tricia is misspelled as "Trisha."