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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2007 > April > 29 > Entry
Power—the ultimate aphrodisiac
Richard Nixon has been on my mind a lot lately. Last week I interviewed the historian, Robert Dallek. He has a new book, “Nixon and Kissinger—Partners in Power,” (Harper Collins). So, I’ve been thinking about Nixon.
You know how when you think a lot about someone how it seems to somehow increase your odds of a meeting with that person? No, I didn’t encounter the Ghost of Richard Nixon. Still, I was delighted when I turned on the television last night and “All The President’s Men” was airing on PBS.
I had to watch it. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford turned in some brilliant performances portraying the Washington Post reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. Their investigation of the Watergate scandal took down President Nixon and many of his men, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Dean…it followed a pattern, if you know what I mean.
Robert Dallek has written about a number of presidents, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and now, Nixon. I asked Dallek how he approaches these presidential biographies. He told me that “I like to let the argument, the story, tell itself. These folks are then damned out of their own mouths.”
Nixon and Kissinger doomed themselves by egotistically preserving the damaging conversations that Nixon taped and Kissinger had transcribed. You see, they were planning to write their memoirs and they wanted accurate records of their historical utterances. Big mistake.
Dallek has made a study of their triumphs, and their failures. He told me that “ All these presidents want you to think they walk on water but of course they’re all deeply flawed.”
Henry Kissinger had transcripts made of his phone conversations, 20,000 pages worth. He did not want them made available for public consumption during his lifetime. In 2004, the transcripts were made available. Dallek had hit the motherlode. One thing that amazed Dallek was how Kissinger, the owner of an enormous ego himself, was able to feed Nixon’s desire for ego gratification with fawning statements.
Dallek explained to me that “what’s surprising is how he strokes Nixon in good times and in bad and how almost cloying he is with the president.”
Kissinger actually agreed to an interview with Dallek. I asked how that went? Dallek said: “he let me interview him, if you want to call that cooperation.” Apparently, Kissinger didn’t offer many useful insights during that conversation.
Fortunately, for the sake of history, we have all those transcripts of Kissinger saying things that he might live to regret.
History can be brutally seductive.
“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” (Henry Kissinger)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: politicked
Comments
By Barbara Delaney
May 2, 2007 7:21 AM | Link to this
I don’t know if you’ve read any of John Dean’s excellent books but I can highly recommend ” Worse than Watergate “. John Dean is also a frequent guest on the Countdown with Keith Olbermann show and is always an interesting and informative addition to that program.By Mark from St. Paul
April 29, 2007 6:07 PM | Link to this
I think just about every bio of Kissinger from 1980 on made heavy mention of what a fawning sycophant he was. It still pains me that the one article of impeachment that Nixon/Kissinger were most guilty of, was the illegal bombing of Cambodia. That act did not help our troops significantly, but it turned Cambodia upside down and led directly to the killing fields and millions of dead. Yes, Pol Pot pulled the trigger, so to speak, but it was Kissinger who handed him the gun.