The Nixon Saga

RICHARD NIXON: A POLITICAL AND PERSONAL PORTRAIT (309 pp.)--Earl Mazo --Harper ($3.95).

When Richard Nixon was courting Pat Ryan back in Whittier. Calif., they belonged to a group of young people who held readings of plays and stories. At one of these home entertainments, the featured attraction was Beauty and the Beast, with Dick Nixon starring in the second of the two title roles. A great many of Nixon's adversaries are still convinced that this was perfect type casting.

The animosity toward Nixon harbored by his opponents has long been bitter and somewhat mystifying. In this biography, already distinguished for having drawn the wrath of Chief Justice Earl Warren (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), New York Herald Tribune Reporter Earl Mazo recalls that when Nixon gave the 1954 commencement address at Whittier College, two separate receiving lines were necessary--for those who were ready to shake Nixon's hand and for those who refused to. This book, which is basically friendly toward Nixon, may switch some readers from the non-handshaking to the handshaking column. But most of all, what it offers is 1) some fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses of an extraordinary political career; 2) further material for speculation about the subject of what Democratic political workers call the "Nixophobia"--a scrapbook on Nixon kept at the Democratic National Committee (a less bulky collection on the President is known as the "Iklopedia").

No Cold Fish. Maybe one of Dick Nixon's troubles is that he is too perfect. His God-fearing parents of modest means, the excellence of his record in school, his beginnings as a lawyer in Whittier (known as "Ye Friendly Town"), and his liking for pineapple milk shakes are all almost too good to be true. He has an amazing degree of self-control and neatness--the secretary of his old Whittier law firm recalls that when he came to work, the first thing he did was to take several hundred books off the shelves to dust them--and these qualities also mark him in his public life. And yet, says Author Mazo. "nothing about Nixon's public image is less accurate than the view of him as a cold fish."

More serious have been the charges that Nixon is unprincipled, particularly in campaign attacks on opponents. Mazo feels that at times Nixon has "resorted to malignant innuendo"; yet he also makes it plain that Nixon has said no more than other politicians in the heat of a campaign. Possibly Nixon gets blamed more readily because the smooth precision of his speeches always suggests that he knows precisely what he is saying, while the snarls of a Harry Truman, for instance, are often ascribed to a sort of folksy hot temper. Yet Nixon has quite a temper of his own. Once, in a test at law school, asked a question about the President of the American Bar Association, he replied: "If he is anything like his predecessors who opposed the confirmation of Justice Brandeis, he is a son of a bitch."

The Iron Butt. It was at law school, too, that Nixon earned a fellow student's compliment: "You've got an iron butt, and that's the secret of becoming a lawyer.'' The Mazo biography recalls once again that many who have tried to kick Nixon have only succeeded in stubbing their toes on that iron butt. He has been lucky, but he also managed to escape numerous brushes with political disaster thanks to political skill and courage. Mazo reports, for instance, how in 1956 Eisenhower suggested to Nixon that he might want a Cabinet post rather than run again for Vice President. "I would have been like Henry Wallace if I had taken a Cabinet job," Nixon scornfully told Mazo later, and a friend added that Eisenhower's failure to pick Nixon as his running mate at the very start was "one of the greatest hurts of his whole career." For a while, Nixon seriously considered leaving public life.

Even more dangerous to Nixon was the 1952 affair of the "Nixon Fund," which also makes the most dramatic reading in the book. Ike was at first undecided about whether or not to drop his running mate and told reporters that anyone on his ticket would have to prove himself "clean as a hound's tooth." Hearing about the remark, Nixon "forced a disbelieving smile and muttered something to himself." Later, Ike seemed to try to postpone a decision; reports Mazo: "Nixon stiffened and said sternly, 'There comes a time in a man's life when he has to fish or cut bait.' (Actually, his words were stronger.)" Even Tom Dewey, a Nixon supporter, urged him to withdraw. Yet Nixon went on to make his now-classic tide-turning defense speech--he threw in everything including St. Patrick, his children's dog Checkers, and Pat Nixon's good old Republican cloth coat--and went off the air in tears, thinking that he had made a mess of it. Minutes later, Producer Darryl Zanuck called to deliver an old pro's verdict: "The most tremendous performance I've ever seen."

Fan Letter. Nixon may well face another conflict when Nelson Rockefeller tries to take the 1960 Republican nomination, and no reporter--not even one as able as Earl Mazo--can say how Nixon really feels about that. The Vice President is saying all the right things ("The times may require and demand a man with different qualifications"). More to the point may be another remark: "I never in my life wanted to be left behind."

In any event, Reporter Mazo has already made one surefire contribution to campaign literature. Rocky and Nixon, he recalls, used to attend National Security Council meetings, and after one particularly critical session, Nelson Rockefeller wrote the Vice President: "You were superb. You have no idea of what your understanding, integrity, courage and leadership mean to so many of us."

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