The secrecy, manipulation and deceit of the Nixon years had no larger foci than the two consuming topics of Vietnam and the Kennedys, and for President Richard M. Nixon those two topics were joined. Watergate stemmed from them.

Nixon knew how unpopular the Vietnam War was, and against this backdrop of Vietnam as well as the larger backdrop of the Cold War, Nixon was secretly pursuing détente with Russia and China. In his strategizing, Nixon, who would have been happy to get off the hook for Southeast Asia himself, wanted to paint Vietnam as the Democrats’ war. Setting ...   more »