Being Nixon: A Man Divided (Evan Thomas)

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These are takeaways from this book.

Firstly, Roots of an outsider, Thomas begins with Nixon’s upbringing in Yorba Linda and Whittier, where frugality, family duty, and Quaker restraint shaped a temperament both disciplined and emotionally guarded. The deaths of two brothers and the grind of working in the family store instilled an ethic of endurance and a habit of inwardness. Nixon learned to power through discomfort rather than seek validation, a survival strategy that later hardened into secrecy. At Whittier College and Duke Law, he honed debate skills and a fierce competitive streak, masking social unease with meticulous preparation. Thomas emphasizes how the mix of modest origins and perceived elite condescension built a durable us versus them worldview. That sensibility made Nixon attentive to the anxieties of the overlooked and skeptical of fashionable opinion, traits that aided his appeal to middle America. Yet the same chip on his shoulder nurtured chronic suspicion. The foundation of the man, Thomas argues, was not cruelty but vulnerability, a divided core that could inspire empathy while incubating grievance.

Secondly, Rise, defeat, and the art of the comeback, Nixon’s early ascent hinged on relentless effort and tactical acuity. As a young congressman, he gained national attention pursuing the Alger Hiss case, branding himself as a Cold War realist. Chosen as Dwight Eisenhower’s vice president, he proved a tireless campaigner and party builder, though often overshadowed by his legendary boss. After the razor thin 1960 loss to John Kennedy and the bruising 1962 California defeat, Nixon seemed finished. Thomas details how those humiliations deepened his resentment of the press and the Eastern establishment, but also hardened his resilience. Instead of vanishing, he studied the changing electorate, courted donors, and rebuilt a coalition around law and order and responsible internationalism. By 1968 he mastered the politics of patience, positioning himself as a steady hand amid unrest. The comeback was not magic but method, a testament to his capacity for long term planning. Yet embedded in the victory was a defensive crouch that would later distort his judgment, especially under pressure.

Thirdly, A strategist of the Cold War, Thomas treats foreign policy as Nixon’s true calling, the arena where his analytical gifts overshadowed his social awkwardness. Working with Henry Kissinger, he reshaped the Cold War through a calculated blend of pressure and engagement. The opening to China in 1972 broke a quarter century of estrangement and altered the global balance, giving Washington leverage over Moscow and anchoring a new triangle diplomacy. Détente with the Soviet Union produced the first Strategic Arms Limitation accords and the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty, embedding restraint into superpower rivalry. Nixon’s approach prized leverage, secrecy, and personal diplomacy, showcased in summitry with Brezhnev and the deft handling of the 1973 Middle East crisis. Yet the same strategic brilliance had a darker ledger in Southeast Asia. Vietnamization and the bombing of Cambodia aimed to secure a face saving end to the war, but extended trauma and moral controversy. Thomas neither whitewashes nor condemns reflexively, instead situating Nixon’s choices within the constraints and cold calculations of the era, showing how success and cost arrived braided together.

Fourthly, Domestic paradoxes and the uses of power, The book highlights a surprising domestic legacy. Nixon championed pragmatic reforms that belie a simple ideological label. He created the Environmental Protection Agency, signed the Clean Air Act, advanced workplace safety through OSHA, and backed the Philadelphia Plan that broadened access for minority contractors, while overseeing rapid school desegregation in the South. He flirted with sweeping welfare reform via the Family Assistance Plan and imposed temporary wage and price controls to tame inflation. At the same time, political instincts led him to harness cultural resentment, deploying a law and order message and courting disaffected whites in the South. Thomas underscores the duality: a policy technocrat comfortable with government activism paired with a combative partisan who often saw politics as siege. The secret wiretaps of aides and journalists, the cultivation of an enemies list, and the centralization of executive power were not afterthoughts but outgrowths of that siege mentality. Nixon’s domestic record thus reads as both innovative and troubling, shaped by a leader who equated control with security.

Lastly, Watergate and the tragedy of self sabotage, Watergate, in Thomas’s telling, is less a bolt from the blue than the culmination of habits formed over decades. The Plumbers unit, birthed amid fury over leaks from the Pentagon Papers, reflected a governing style that prized loyalty, secrecy, and deniability. The 1972 break in and the clumsy cover up revealed a White House where fear of enemies justified unlawful tactics and where the president’s instinct was to double down. The Oval Office tapes expose a mind looping through grievance, tactical scheming, and moral rationalization. The Saturday Night Massacre and the collapse of congressional support end in resignation, a shattering finale for a leader at the height of international stature. Thomas frames the fall as a character tragedy: the same traits that enabled Nixon to outmaneuver rivals and realign geopolitics also corroded his ethics under stress. Post resignation, Nixon sought partial rehabilitation as a foreign policy sage, but the scandal permanently altered public trust. The lesson is stark and human: brilliance without inner security breeds ruin.