James Ellroy, our master of noir, has captured the seamier side of JFK in his novels. This book is like the non-fiction continuation of that saga, where mob allegiances switch sides to Richard Nixon.
My Nixon library, which is vast, extends over decades but I no longer buy every Nixon book that comes out. I general feel that they just go over the same turf again and again and nothing new is learned. This book brings back the Nixon we all know and love with all the gritty and sordid details. But there are some mysteries that are also solved--at least to my satisfaction.
Remember the strange plot to burn down Brookings Institute. It sounded like Nixon in a drunken rage against a liberal opponent. But Fulsom uncovers the strange logic of the plot. Richard Nixon knew hat LBJ had wired tapped his plane and had uncovered Nixon's deliberate sabotage of the Vietnam Peace Talks under LBJ. Nixon was terrified that when his rule was being challenged that the fact he committed treason would surface and doom him. He believed that Brookings had documents on his interference with the Peace Talks through Anna Chennault and her contacts with Van Thieu. A fake D.C. fire department would be dispatched to Brookings to put out the fire and under cover the Nixon operatives would rescue the papers. Didn't happen and we don't know whether Brookings had them.
Folsom got the most PR for this book with the revelations that Nixon and Bebe Rebozo had boy crushes on each other dating back to the days when Bebe picked up Nixon's gambling debts in Havana. But the fuller account of the relationship shows that while their homosexual tendencies were probably repressed Bebe was everywhere with Nixon and even accompanied him over sensitive overseas trips. Rebozo was the one man money laundering machine taking in Howard Hughes contributions and the mobs payoffs to Nixon. Fulsom does a good job of documenting how it was Bebe who oversaw the contractors on the Pacific White House, which became a scandal during Watergate.
Using documents only recently declassified, Fulsom points out something no one has ever discovered about the Watergate burglars--they were all assassins for the CIA. In fact, during the Church Hearings, Frank Sturges gave a closed door hearing on how to kill someone and not leave traces. He bragged about his days as an assassin. Likewise, E.Howard Hunt, the friend of William F. Buckley and the sauce CIA agent and novelist, was also an assassin.
Remember Nixon telling Dean about the hush money for Hunt, "Yeah, we can get a million. A Million cash. That wouldn't be a problem." Folsom finds out that Nixon almost immediately made a call to a Teamster rep, the tape of which has been erased. Then in the next tape, the famous gap appears, which probably reflected the conclusion of this phone call.
Fulsom suggests that the little blackmail Nixon pulled with Richard Helms of the CIA to get him to kill the Watergate investigation on national security grounds reflected an insider's knowledge of the Kennedy assassination. Throughout the Watergate tapes, there is frequent mention of "the Bay of Pigs". Because this made no logical sense in the tape, people have concluded that it referred to "Dallas" and the "Kennedy assassination". We will have to wait a few more years for the nearly 1 million pages on CIA documents on the Kennedy Assassination to be made public.
Fulsom's book also details Nixon's plan to kill Jack Anderson, the muckraking journalist in D.C. at the time. That Nixon was capable of this showed up in Spiro Agnew's phrase, "Go quietly, or Else" where he voiced his belief that he would be killed by Nixon's people if he didn't resign and just vanish from the scene.
While we are used to the Kennedy mob ties, Folsom does a a great service in detailing Nixon's own long-time connection to the mob bosses dating back to his gambling days in Havana. Nixon's favorite Godfather was Carlos Marcello, the mob boss in New Orleans, who Bobby Kennedy had kidnapped and taken to Guatemala. Later as he became senile, Marcello would talk about the Kennedy assassination.
For the more popular subjects, there are more revelations. Remember the old canard that Nixon couldn't hold his liquor and only one drink when he was fatigued would make him slur his speech. It turns out the Nixon was a binge drinker--had been one since college--and during the Watergate crisis became even a greater drinker, also taking seconal and other drugs. Once when Edward Heath, the prime minister of the UK called to inquiry about the Mideast War, he had to be put off by Henry Kissinger, who knew that Nixon had passed out drunk in the early afternoon. The episodes became frequent and often Nixon would call Kissinger and tell him to "Nuke" someone. Then Kissinger had to alert the military to ignore Nixon's orders at night, when he thought about nuking everyone, including Congress.
Remember when Nixon a angrily pushed Ron Zeigler back to answer the press questions. Apparently, everyone knew that Nixon would push and punch his aides, even pushing them down stairs. One Madison Avenue executive tasked with helping on his 1972 campaign was punched in the chest and suffering from a heart condition quit soon afterwards. The anger also was focused on Mrs. Nixon, who when not largely ignored was subject to physical abuse.
Folsom covers the Cambodia Bombings, the war against the press, the drama behind the resignation and the deal that led to Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon just as he was about to be hit with a flood of subpoenas. We get to see how Nixon courted Frank Sinatra and won his endorsement through Spiro Agnew and how Sammy Davis, Jr. got to perform at the White House. The book covers some of the greatest hits we remember with the private details we have been missing.
Is this what people mean when they say,"We want our country back?" To the great days when our Presidents were mobbed up and binge drinkers. Some of the dance between LBJ and Nixon is rich, with Nixon trying to cut a deal with Bobby Baker for more dirt on LBJ in return for a shorter prison sentence so Nixon could protect himself. Ah, the Good Old Days.
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