DaytonDailyNews.com

Nixon and Kissinger — Partners in Power by Robert Dallek, Harper Collins, 740 pages, $32.50

Richard M. Nixon never ceases to fascinate us.

He lost the 1960 presidential race. In 1962, he lost the California governor's race. He bid farewell to politics that year with the words "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore."

He lied. In 1968 Nixon was elected president. Four years later, he won again in a landslide victory.

The Watergate scandal ultimately drove Nixon from office. We are obtaining historical perspective on those times. Robert Dallek has published Nixon and Kissinger — Partners in Power.

In 2004, Dallek gained access to 20,000 pages of transcripts of Henry Kissinger's telephone conversations. Kissinger, Nixon's national security adviser, wanted these records suppressed. They are every bit as scandalous as the infamous tapes that torpedoed Nixon's presidency.

Nixon and Kissinger had some traits in common. Both were tremendously insecure. Both had gigantic egos. They lusted for power. Transcripts revealed Kissinger ingratiating himself with Nixon, saying things like: "You never make little news, it is always big news. ...You are a man of tremendous moves."

Nixon had to extract America from an unpopular war in Vietnam if he hoped to get re-elected. Polls showed that 84 percent of Americans wanted to withdraw the troops. Dallek describes how Nixon manipulated the peace negotiations for his own political ends; Nixon felt that "a quick withdrawal from Vietnam was too much a confession of defeat."

Dallek explains: "by 1970-71, the U.S. military in Vietnam was badly demoralized. All ranks suffered from the belief that they were fighting a lost cause. Thousands of troops had become heroin addicts." At the White House, Nixon and Kissinger were holding out for "peace with honor."

This reviewer felt an eerie sense of deja vu to learn that "the war had become a national disaster, a constant irritant, and a divisive force in American life."

Their diplomacy reeked of machismo: "It was as if the contest with Soviet Russia was a test of Nixon's manhood. Personalizing a great crisis or turning any political debate into a battle over a leader's identity or sense of self is never calculated to serve the national interest."

Nixon's medical records remain sealed. Dallek claims that "there is ample evidence that Nixon struggled with excessive drinking, suffered from paranoid fears, relied on medications to manage his personal problems and consulted a psychotherapist to help him function."

I asked Dallek if he saw parallels between then and now. He said, "It's really a very good case in point. We don't seem to have learned anything from the Vietnam War, from the deceitfulness, the secrecy, manipulation, the imperial presidency that (Vice President) Cheney has been pumping ... the idea that we need it ... we need presidential authority — that too much was taken away."

He said, "I certainly don't see it that way."

Book reviewer Vick Mickunas blogs daily about books atwww.DaytonDailyNews.com/booknook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.