Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents (The James Madison Library in American Politics)

364 Pages·2008·0.84 MB·English

by  Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon
THE JAMES MADISON LIBRARY
IN AMERICAN POLITICS
The James Madison Library in American Politics of the Princeton
UniversityPressisdevotedtorevivingimportantAmericanpolitical
writings ofthe recentand distant past.American politicshas pro-
duced an abundance of important works—proclaiming ideas, de-
scribing candidates,explaining the inner workingsof government,
andanalyzingpoliticalcampaigns.Thisliteratureincludespartisan
andphilosophicalmanifestos,pamphletsofpracticalpoliticaltheory,
muckrakingexpose´s,autobiographies,on-the-scenereportage,and
more.TheJamesMadisonLibraryissuesfresheditionsofbothclas-
sicandnow-neglectedtitlesthathelpedshapetheAmericanpolitical
landscape. Up-to-date commentaries in each volume by leading
scholars,journalists,andpoliticalfiguresmakethebooksaccessible
tomodernreaders.
TheConscienceofaConservativebyBarryM.Goldwater
TheNewIndustrialStatebyJohnKennethGalbraith
LibertyandtheNewsbyWalterLippmann
ThePoliticsofHopeandTheBitterHeritage:American
Liberalisminthe1960sbyArthurM.Schlesinger,Jr.
RichardNixon:Speeches,Writings,Documents,edited
andintroducedbyRickPerlstein
Richard Nixon
Speeches, Writings, Documents
EditedandintroducedbyRickPerlstein
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright©2008byPrincetonUniversityPress
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Nixon,RichardM.(RichardMilhous),1913–1994.
[Selections.2008]
RichardNixon:speeches,writings,documents/edited
andintroducedbyRickPerlstein.
p. cm.—(TheJamesMadisonLibraryinAmericanpolitics)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-691-13699-8(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Nixon,RichardM.(RichardMilhous),1913–1994—Archives.
2.Presidents—UnitedStates—Archives.3.UnitedStates—Politics
andgovernment—1945–1989—Sources.4.Speeches,addresses,
etc.,American.I.Perlstein,Rick,1969–II.Title.
E838.5.N52 2008
973.924092—dc22 2008014928
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinSabonwithHelveticaNeue
andDidotdisplay
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
press.princeton.edu
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
GeneralEditor’sIntroduction ix
Introduction xiii
BibliographicNote lxxi
I. Youth
1. From RN: The Memoirs of
Richard Nixon (1978) 3
2. Two letters (1923 and 1924) 5
3. “Our Privileges under the
Constitution” (1929) 7
4. From the Frank Gannon
interviews (1983) 14
II. Congress
5. “The Hiss Case—A Lesson for the
American People” (January 26, 1950) 19
6. The “Pink Sheet” (1950) 60
7. The “Checkers Speech”
(September 23, 1952) 64
III. Vice President
8. “When you go out to shoot rats”
(March 13, 1954) 83
9. The “Kitchen Debate” (July 24, 1959) 88
10. Opening Statement, The Great Debate:
Kennedy v. Nixon (September 26, 1960) 97
IV. Comeback
11. “Gentlemen, this is my last press
conference” (November 6, 1962) 105
12. “The irresponsible tactics of some of
the extreme civil rights leaders”
(February 12, 1964) 113
13. “Appraisal from Manila”
(November 4, 1966) 117
14. “What Has Happened to America?”
(Reader’s Digest, October 1967) 121
15. “Asia after Viet Nam” (Foreign
Affairs, October 1967) 128
16. “The first civil right of every American
is to be free from domestic violence”
(August 8, 1968) 145
V. President
17. “To lower our voices would be a
simple thing” (January 20, 1969) 153
18. “The present welfare system has to
be judged a colossal failure”
(August 8, 1969) 163
19. “The great silent majority of my
fellow Americans” (November 3, 1969) 170
vi Contents
20. “The postwar period in international
relations has ended” (February 18,
1970) 191
21. Four Vietnam Statements (1970) 200
22. Two political statements (1970) 209
23. “Our best days lie ahead”
(August 15, 1971) 217
24. “One China” (February 24, 1972) 223
25. “He can undisappear if we want
him to” (June 23, 1972) 232
26. “Her name was Tanya”
(August 23, 1972) 238
27. “There can be no whitewash at
the White House” (April 30, 1973) 242
28. “I am not a crook”
(November 17, 1973) 255
29. “I made clear there was to be
no coverup” (April 29, 1974) 259
30. “My mother was a saint”
(August 9, 1974) 269
Index 277
Contents vii
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General Editor’s Introduction
The American political tradition is preeminently
practical.Ideas,sometimesofgenuinephilosophi-
calgrandeur, havecertainly motivatedthe getting
andexerciseofpower.Americanpoliticalrhetoric,
whether delivered in speeches, written in pam-
phlets and treatises, or incorporated in state pa-
pers,hasinspiredcountlessmillions,athomeand
abroad.Buttheheartoftheday-to-dayAmerican
politicalsysteminvolveslesselevatedyetessential
tasks,includingoverawingorevenbetrayingapo-
litical opponent, cajoling and compromising in
order to win legislation (or, sometimes, to defeat
legislation),orbuildingawinningcoalitionoutof
disparate political constituencies. Ironically, two
of the most profound, and profoundly American,
documents in American history, the United States
ConstitutionandtheFederalistPapers,offeredand
defended, with great intellectual care, a national
polity that insures the primacy of the practical, re-
jecting the flight toward abstraction and uncer-
tainty in favor of a realization that men are not
angels,andthatgovernmentsmustbedesignedwith
apragmaticsenseofthedangerofhumanfrailtyas
wellasthepromiseofhumanachievement.
Richard Milhous Nixon, a man of numerous
frailties, was in many ways an odd and even
unique figure, but his career describes an im-