RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon

Overview

Richard Nixon’s RN is a sweeping first-person account that traces his journey from a modest California upbringing to the Oval Office and through the crisis that ended his presidency. He sets out to explain decisions, defend achievements, and reckon with the personal flaws and political conflicts that culminated in Watergate. The narrative blends policy detail with portraiture of allies and adversaries, presenting a leader who believed his strategic vision abroad and domestic reforms at home were eclipsed by scandal.

Early Life and Rise

Nixon recounts a hardscrabble youth in Yorba Linda and Whittier, shaped by Quaker discipline, family loss, and relentless work. He charts his path through law school, early practice, Navy service in World War II, and a rapid political ascent after 1946. The Alger Hiss investigation made him a national figure and a lightning rod. He describes his 1950 Senate race as a bruising initiation into bare-knuckle politics and devotes significant space to his eight years as Dwight Eisenhower’s vice president, emphasizing heavy travel, crisis management, and the often-misread dynamics of the Eisenhower-Nixon partnership. Episodes like the fund controversy and the kitchen debate with Khrushchev are framed as tests of endurance and adaptability.

Setbacks and the Road Back

The close 1960 loss to John F. Kennedy and the bruising 1962 California gubernatorial defeat leave Nixon sidelined and bitter. He offers a candid look at personal doubts, the strain on his family, and the decision to rebuild as a lawyer in New York. Foreign trips and policy study laid the groundwork for a 1968 comeback, when he positioned himself as a unifier promising order at home and a negotiated end to the Vietnam War. Nixon presents the victory as vindication of persistence and strategic patience.

Foreign Policy and the Presidency

The heart of the memoir is a case for his statecraft. He details Vietnamization, the drawdown of U.S. troops, and hard choices like the incursion into Cambodia and the mining of North Vietnamese harbors, arguing they were necessary to secure leverage for peace. He frames the opening to China as a geopolitical breakthrough that reshaped the Cold War, recounting secret diplomacy, meetings with Mao and Zhou, and the domestic risk of the move. He pairs that with détente with the Soviet Union, culminating in the Moscow summit, the Strategic Arms Limitation accords, and expanded cultural and scientific exchanges. He describes crises from the India-Pakistan war to the 1973 Middle East conflict, highlighting the airlift to Israel and Henry Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy as pillars of an emerging global architecture.

Domestic Policy and Politics

Nixon argues his domestic record is underappreciated. He promotes revenue sharing and New Federalism as pragmatic reforms, chronicles the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the strengthening of clean air and workplace safety laws, and recounts school desegregation advances and controversial court-ordered busing. He defends wage and price controls as emergency measures against inflation, and outlines efforts to restructure government and reshape the Supreme Court. The 1972 landslide is presented not as a blank check but as a public endorsement of this agenda and his foreign policy trajectory.

Watergate and Resignation

Nixon’s Watergate account begins with the burglary and his initial detachment, then moves through mounting investigations, staff defections, and the battle over White House tapes. He contests the portrayal of a criminal conspiracy while acknowledging grave mistakes in judgment, secrecy, and loyalty. The Saturday Night Massacre, the Supreme Court ruling on the tapes, and the loss of congressional support form the irreversible cascade. He narrates the final days with stark economy: the decision to resign, the farewell to staff, and the quiet departure from Washington.

Reflections and Legacy

Across the closing chapters, Nixon weighs triumph and tragedy. He argues that opening China, easing superpower tensions, and ending U.S. combat in Vietnam will endure as accomplishments, even as Watergate remains a personal and national wound. He accepts responsibility for failures while insisting that history judge the whole record. The voice is analytical, defensive, and at times elegiac, offering a portrait of an ambitious, solitary figure who believed strategic vision demanded resilience, and who paid dearly for the limits of his own.