Ambrose's "Nixon Volume ll" is an excellent history of US politics 1962-72, and a very insightful bio of Richard Nixon, and as a study of how the White House worked during his first term. I have not read the other two volumes but do plan to read the third at some point in the future. I was old enough during those years to have many vivid memories of the times, but as Ambrose comments many Americans recollection of events is sometimes short-lived and distorted. I might add that in addition to refreshing our memories on a lot of the details, he does an excellent job of analyzing and assessing impacts.

The book was written in 1989, so the author has the benefit of having available for his research thousands of documents, hand-written notes, tapes, and memoirs written by the principals, including Nixon, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean. Many documents were still not available at that time; many others, but not all, were subsequently released in 2012. Midway in the book, Ambrose admits that even after all the research he still felt that he didn't know Nixon, didn't have a real understanding of him. This is not a failure on Ambrose's part, rather it is further revelation of Nixon's character. Here was a man, with virtually no friends, mistrustful of everyone, hateful toward many. Yet Ambrose clearly respects Nixon for his many accomplishments as President, for his unique ability to foresee the eventual dynamic shifts in World politics, and for his intellectual abilities. Ambrose is neither a Nixon hater, nor lover, though interestingly he does admit to being in a group (along with his wife) that heckled Nixon during a famous Kansas State University speech in the 60's.

The book is very well written; it is very readable, and enjoyable to read. For example, Ambrose cites a number of one on one meetings between Nixon and Haldeman that are very revealing and sometimes quite shocking. The book does not bog down with a lot of stodgy footnoting, rather there are many interesting anecdotes that give insight into how the White House was run from '68 to '72. Pat Buchanan and other aides prepared daily a 50+ page summary of news stories from around the globe, a document Nixon eagerly awaited each morning. In the margin, Nixon would then scribble marching orders to his top aides, e.g., a note to H (Haldeman) to get big Democrat contributors investigated (by the IRS). Sometimes the orders would be followed out, other times they would be recognized as blowing off steam and disregarded.

There are many revelations in the book that came as a surprise, others bought back memories, many of them sad ones. Items like the high percentage of our troops in Viet Nam hooked on heroin, Secretary of State Rogers learning of the first Nixon trip to China by reading of it in the morning newspaper, how Nixon pitted people in the WH against each other, why the Plumbers were first created, all of the other secret domestic deals that had to be protected by the Watergate coverup, Pat Nixon's reaction to no women nominated for Supreme Court appointments, the high level secret negotiations with the Soviets, Chinese, Vietnamese. While much of the book deals with Viet Nam, Watergate (June 17, 1972) arises shortly before the November election. It is incredible to read of the shortsighted efforts to bury Watergate pre-election, and "deal with it later".

An excellent read, highly recommended. ( )

2765 Nixon: Volume Two The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972, by Stephen A. Ambrose (read 13 Jul 1995) This volume shows Nixon was a deeply flawed man and could have been very dangerous. It says something for our governmental system that we could survive him as President. This volume covers very familiar territory, but is very well put together. I think Ambrose's view is right, and this no doubt is due to his being personally opposed at the time to much of what Nixon did--especially, I suppose, in Vietnam. ( )