Richaid Reeves on Political Books
Richard Reeves on Political Books A woL'k al'lor the '"Siiti.iRlav Night Massacre" of OcloK-r 1973. Raymond J'rice. President Nixon's chief speechwriter, received a letter from a...
...h a l f - fomied slugs like Dean and Jeb Mai'iudor...
...It is his answer to that friend's letter of four years ago...
...In m\ case...
...Piice...
...I was less concerned with whether there had been an obstruction of justice than I was with whether Ni.xon would have a chance to complete what he had begun, domestically and intern a t i o n a l l y . . . . I care less about whether a President breaks a law than I do about whether he keeps the peace...
...In hi^ bnnl...
...And he serves still, ending his book by saying: "After Nixon's resignation, the pressures on those of us who had remained loyal became more rather than less intense: pressure to renounce him, t o join the chorus of denunciation, or at least to put .some visible disLniiv belween ouiM>Kes and our former piesideni...
...The Viking Press will publish Price's book...
...So...
...kids in Roosevelt's New Deal...
...A President had to be impeached someday to keep the office under control...
...I first met Ray Price in 1965 when we were both with the old .\cw York Herald Tribune...
...President Nixon's chief speechwriter, received a letter from a college friend: "I know that it is your integrity and loyalty that keeps yon from delecting from hopeless -and in this case unworthy causes...
...With Nixon...
...It is probKicliaril Hccvrs is ihc uiiiliDr nf ConvcnUon...
...But, at the moment, I would loan toward answering "yes" to a couple of (]uestions Price raises late in the book: "What then was to be the standard lor singling out one President lor impeachment...
...for the bogus organization man...
...Flashing his irisii grin, his eyes twinkling, he said to me: 'The trouble with your people is that they're always writing memos...
...it t h e s o oilier White l l l ) M ^ e ^ had g o n e ihniugh \ \ l i dl t h e . \ i \ i i n While MIMI'M.' lias b e e n put through...
...Price has only contempt: "I thought [John] Dean's conduct was outrageous, and that in a similar situation I would have shot myself before following such a course...
...But I do hope you'll leave office as proud of your accomplishments here as I am proud to have been associated with you and to have been and remain a friend...
...I knew we were dilTerent kinds of men...
...w h o is not tlie anecdoUl type, docs offer a revealini: one...
...Only a fool would dismiss that tlipsis...
...I respect that . . . but I do not believe that you will even derive personal satisfaction from loyalty lo a man who is at I'.-ast venal, selfish, and the worst traitor to our country in its history at worst, a felon . . . I urge you to consider . . . resigning...
...W;isiiin"lon Monthlv...
...I meant it . . . . When issues of war and peace are at stake, obedience lo the law seems to me no excuse for conduct at once so self-serving and so consequential...
...His toluiiin is n irf^itlar Icatitrc of Tin...
...Price writes...
...Perhaps he was ready for that and accepted it in 1967 when, as he tells it in the book, he received his first bit of advice on serving Nixon: "I got a briefing from John Davies . . . . One thing Davies told me was that I would soon get a sense of when Nixon wanted t o falk and when he did n o t . . . t h a t when he wanted to talk, he would usually signal it by opening the conversation himself...
...someMmes noi S D s u b i l \ . v.e got the message: lurniny on \ i \ o n is llie price of your readmission to polite society...
...Ihesc pressures . . . simpihardv-iied ni\ delermination to stand firm on my own beliefs...
...Was it to be by counting noses, to see which one a 'dominant faction' could muster the votes to impeach...
...What reaction...
...I n Watergate...
...The speech writer, in the end, saw his President EK "brilliant, complex, dedicated, often devious, sometimes duplicitous...
...Siimelimes subtly...
...Joseph Alsop probably had i t about riglit in 1973 w h e n he wrote: "This reporter has known three different White Houses in the range of very well t o exceptionally intimately...
...alily lio:ilthy that i t begins with someone like Ryy Price, who is indeed a man of integrity, i n tlic primary sense of being complete, fie has a whole, con.sistcnt and lione.st viewpoint: Richard Nixon, operating well within the established morality of 1iis office, was building a structure of world peace and eflcctivcly reducing the domestic power of an overgrown federal government when he was politically destroyed b y resourceful enemies led by the Democratic Party and the press...
...Which shows will book him'.' Which newspapers will run features when the author hits town...
...It might be worth it lo follow Price as he hits the talk show circuit to promote With Nixon...
...I've forgotten the subject, but I remember that he used the word " w e " where 1 said " l " or " t h e paper...
...During tliat same summer," he writes, "at a party in Washington, 1 ran into Thomas'Corcoran...
...Was it to be by spinning the wheel of chance, singling out the one unlucky enough to have all his private papers exposed to the public view, thus providing the technical opportunity to impeach...
...For MI\ old colleajme...
...and l \ n d ( M i .iohuM^i...
...who as •'Tommy tJie Cork' was one of t h e whi...
...when he sent Nixon a draft of the President's own resignation with a n o t e attached: "As I believe you know, f think this has become a sad but necessary decision in the circumstances...
...the real defense the historical defense of Richard Nixon and the Nixon presidency begins...
...And...
...That, then, is the price...
...that he certainly was closer to William II...
...T h e y belonged, successively, to l i t i n k l in Koowvell...
...Perhaps my memory is too convenient...
...Me was the paper's chief editorial writer, a fact that struck me because he looked so young he was in his mid-30s then to li.ivo thai kinil of j o b . We talked about ;; siory I was covering that he planned lo do an editorial on...
...When wc did that sort of thing, we never put it on paper.' " It will obviously be fascinating to see how far the revisionism will go...
...but I can't be sure that the Ray Prices of the worid don't c o n t r i b u t e a good deal more than 1. The organization whole may be' greater than the sum of its parts...
...Inlin Kennedx...
...Wliyto's characterization of the organization man: "Of himself, he is isolated, meaningless: only as he collaborates with others does he become worthwhile, for by sublimating himself in the group, he helps produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its p a r t s ." This month...
...1 could never pay it...
...I guess, the organization Ni.xon has become his life...
...W i l l i i n f u r m e r s c l i i n l M M g o u l t h e windows aiui llnods o l s c T el papers pouring out the doors, there is n o i-(<i>ni f o r doubt thai i n i p e a c h i n e Ml c r i e s wmild ha\e been heard in the l a n d ." Nixon was the one because he was the first to face a Congress that h a d the n u i n b e i s l o d o il and b e c a u s e h e . i i K - i e d i b l \ . gj\i.- t h e dinniiiani taction w h a l II n e e d e d , i n e m n s . t a p e s , a n d lluw o r s t kinvl o f ort' . a n i / a l i o n ni.-n...
...lie served perhaps not wisely, Ijut well...
...Price did not resign, nor consider it until after August 7, 1974...
Vol. 9 • November 1977 • No. 9
