Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2628558 in Books
• Published on: 1994-01-01
• Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews

One of the best books ever written by a former President...
Published in 1962, "Six Crises" by Richard Nixon is easily one of the best-written and most interesting books done by a US President. This book was a bestseller and even today it is regarded as a worthwhile read, largely because of its' insights into Nixon's mind and character. Fittingly, the book isn't an autobiography or a political memoir; instead it focuses upon what Nixon considered to be the six greatest moments of his political career up to 1961. The first crisis is the infamous "Hiss Case" in 1948, which elevated Nixon - then an unknown junior Congressman - into national prominence for the first time. The case started when Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist-turned-AntiCommunist magazine editor, accused Alger Hiss, a high-ranking member of the State Department, of being a Communist spy for Russia. The case made national headlines, and Nixon - a member of a congressional committee investigating Communism in the US - used the case as a springboard to the US Senate. The second crisis occurred during Nixon's first Vice-Presidential campaign in 1952, when he was accused by the press of being a crook who took bribes. Eisenhower considered forcing Nixon to resign as his running mate, but Nixon saved his career with the famous "Checkers" speech on national television (Nixon prefers to call it the "Fund" speech). The third crisis happened in 1955 when President Eisenhower had a serious heart attack, and until he recovered Vice-President Nixon had to be the "acting President" for a few weeks - a delicate task, but one Nixon performed quite well. In 1958 Vice-President Nixon and his wife Pat made a "goodwill" tour to South America, but were attacked and nearly killed by pro-Communist mobs in Venezuela - thus the fourth crisis. The fifth crisis came a year later when Nixon went to Moscow, where he engaged in a famous debate with Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev in a mock American "kitchen" that had been set up to show Russians how the ordinary American family lived. Although the debate was heated, most observers felt that Nixon had gotten the better of Krushchev. The most interesting part of the book for me was the last crisis - the legendary 1960 presidential campaign between Vice-President Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy. Nixon offers a well-written account of his view of the campaign. What really makes this book fascinating is what it reveals about Nixon the man - his emphasis on handling "crises", his obsession with maintaining his self-control during these crises, and the way in which he seems to place "events" above people - when talking about the mobs who attacked his limousine in Venezuela, he barely mentions his wife, who was also in grave danger - instead he focuses upon his own reaction to the attack and analyzes his own reaction to the mobs. In this book Nixon tries to present himself as a calm, cool, and rational man who always makes the best decisions - yet as his Presidency (and especially Watergate) would show, the "real" Nixon was often very different from the unemotional and logical figure presented in this work. Even so, this book is still a worthwhile read - it is very well-written and it examines several of the greatest events of a major politician's career from his personal perspective. Recommended!

Outstanding book!
Has there ever been anyone like Richard Nixon? For sheer resiliency,he stands alone in American history. No one won bigger than Richard Nixon. And no one lost bigger than Richard Nixon. And then won again. And then lost. And won again. He just kept punching and planning and working, to eventually become one of the dominant figures of the 20th Century.

The author of 9 books, 8 of them best-sellers, this is his first,and covers six major crises of his political life to 1962. This is serious history, but so well-written that it reads like an exciting novel. In it, you can see the raw steel of the man emerging through his discipline, beginnig with his first crisis as a 35-year-old freshman congressman,the prosecution of Alger Hiss, the darling of east coast liberals and the state department, as a Soviet spy.. The other crises have been well-described by other reviewers, but all were thrilling examples of courage (backed by preparation) under fire. Highly-experienced Washington veteran David Gergen, who worked closely with four Presidents, in his excellent book "Eyewitness to History" described Richard Nixon as "the toughest man I ever knew". In this book, you can see why.

Interestingly, his overwhelming love of country shines through as well. For example,the 1960 election was unbelievably close.A swing of only 11,000 votes properly distributed, and the election results would have been reversed. And there was verifiable vote fraud by the Democrats, especially in Texas and Illinois. Nixon was repeatedly urged to demand an investigation and recount. He refused. First,it would have greatly delayed the transference of responsiblity to a new administration. But secondly, as he wrote, "Then, too, the bitterness that would be engendered by such a maneuver on my part would,in my opinion, have done incalculable and lasting damage throughout the country." There speaks a Patriot. And a Man!

Also recommnended."Nixon in Winter" by Monica Crowley.

Gripping
Despite the widespread opprobrium with which he was long (and understandably) held, Richard M. Nixon's contributions to America are far more complicated than many of his virulent detractors would have you believe. One such contribution can be found in "Six Crises", a fascinating exploration into the early career of a man whose political career would help define the course of mid-twentieth century American history. His chapter on "The Hiss Case" reads like the high-stake best detective stories (and his assertions have been verified by the Venona cables more than three decades since the book's publication); "The Fund" serves as an interesting look at how Richard Nixon the man handled what was (until Watergate) the greatest political crisis in his career; "The Heart Attack" explores how Vice President Nixon coped with temporarily holding the reins of national power while his Commander-in-Chief's suffered several brief incapacitations due to health problems (a heart attack, ileitis, a stroke); "Caracas", in what is by far the best chapter in the book, details how Vice President Nixon calmly handled a life-or-death situation when angry Communist mobs threw rocks at him, spat upon him, physically assaulted him, attacked his car, and nearly overturned his limousine in an effort to light it on fire; "Khruschev", in which Richard Nixon made a famous voyage to the Soviet Union and engaged in compelling dialogues with Premier Khruschev about the differences of life in the USSR and the USA; and finally "The Campaign of 1960", which - due to its baldly partisan approach to Nixon's first presidential campaign - transforms what was once a fascinating and relatively nonpartisan glimpse into this stage of Nixon's life into a bitter polemic about Nixon's defeat at the hands of Senator John F. Kennedy in 1960. Five out of six isn't bad, though.