Nixon's Summa Geopolitica
GRAFF, HENRY F.
Nixon's Summa Geopolitica 1999: Victory Without War By Richard M. Nixon Simon and Schuster 336 pp. $19.95. Reviewed by Henry F. Graff Professor of history, Columbia This country...
...That they come from the former President on his 75th birthday suggests, as he likely intended, that they are a summing up of all that he has derived from his remarkable career in public life—what he recalls as his "on-the-job training...
...Some of Nixon's words echo ideas he has expressed before—in many places...
...Jimmy Carter, between engaging in good works, writes books that find a limited audience...
...Nixon is most interesting, if not especially informative, on Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whom he delightedly sees as opening the door to a "fresh breeze" for the Soviet Union...
...Acheson, in a tone some of his detractors might have recognized as pompous, responded: "As the American people would expect you to...
...His tone, however, is that of a man who reads the newspapers and journals of opinion carefully and recycles their substance with a conservative twist...
...Two examples suffice: "Nuclear weapons are not likely to kill us...
...Still, it is a worthy effort throughout...
...Richard M. Nixon writes more books than Carter, struggling gamely to reburnish his reputation by becoming whatever it is that passes these days as an elder statesman...
...The discourse on the General Secretary that Nixon spins will seem to some readers to contain fuller conclusions than the single meeting between the men could have produced...
...Harry S. Truman, in preparing for his after-Presidency, asked his Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, how he (Truman) should conduct himself in retirement...
...Consider the following: "Like most extremists on the Right as well as on the Left, [Gorbachev] seldom indulges in humor...
...Ours is not a perfect country...
...He prefers to concentrate on the serious issues he has prepared so well to discuss...
...The United States, then, cannot fail to remain on its guard, the former President concludes...
...But Nixon will not fall for the view of those he labels the " glitterati, " who see a moral equality between the United States and the Soviets...
...He continues to see the waterway as the "oil jugular" of the West, and to be persuaded that its defense against any Soviet designs to close it constitutes imperative business "for at least the rest of this century...
...The latest offering, Nixon's seventh, attempts to provide a strategy for the West during the last decade of this violence-stained century—in which, despite or because of the achievements in applied science, there is at least as much misery today as in 1900...
...The third is that "we should insist on monitoring the economic performance of all governments we help...
...The strategic advice for the nation in 1999: Victory Without War is sound...
...The place of the former Chief Executive is a problem for him as well as for the nation...
...But what is the expectation...
...The writing itself is conversational, and some of it should have had closer editing...
...It should be dispensed, Nixon says, on three principles...
...The second is that aid should be bilateral, not multilateral—that is, it must not be distributed through multinational agencies because they cannot be counted on to perform in ways consistent with the United States interests...
...Some say he has a quick temper...
...A candid conclusion must be that this little volume contains much filler in order to make a book out of a few essays...
...The restrictions on how ex-Presidents may disport themselves when the power is turned off shows in the doings of the present crop...
...Gerald R. Ford plays in pro-am golf tournaments and serves on corporate boards of directors...
...Former Presidents have only limited resale value in our system, although Dwight D. Eisenhower's presence at John F. Kennedy's side after the Bay of Pigs fiasco seemed at the time indispensable to the young newcomer in the White House and to national morale...
...The first is that "there should be no aid without strings...
...On the rare occasions he does lose it, he quickly snatches it back...
...Nixon holds forth on other themes he has dealt with previously...
...Especially trenchant is the segment on foreign aid...
...In the new work he updates his stand...
...He expatiates, for instance, on the importance of the Persian Gulf to American interests, picking up the subject from his Real War, published soon after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979...
...Even people who disagree with these nationalistic sentiments may want to ponder that they arise out of a lifetime of thinking and experience...
...A better written and more carefully edited book of his, Real Peace, published in 1983, stated succinctly his position reiterated here, "Talking softly while carrying a big stick is the most effective way to deal with the Soviets...
...for the Soviet Union, reform at home does not automatically lead to restraint abroad...
...The reader is constantly aware that Nixon's first-rate mind is undiminished, and that his factual knowledge of ongoing events is up-to-date...
...he does not lose it...
...The former President speaks with confidence and even optimism about the scene and draws generously on the insights of world leaders he has known...
...Nixon declares: "So far there is no reason to believe that Gorbachev's reforms will make the world a better or a safer place...
...I disagree...
...Reviewed by Henry F. Graff Professor of history, Columbia This country traditionally discards its spent Presidents, as Theodore Roosevelt said, like squeezed-out oranges— yet another example of American wastefulness...
...He uses his temper...
Vol. 71 • May 1988 • No. 9
