Tricky Dick: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Richard M. Nixon

by Roger Stone, Mike Colapietro (Contributor)

Finally, there is a "warts and all" biography of the most enduring American politician of the 20th century Richard Milhous Nixon written by an author with unprecedented access and insight about our 37th President', New York Times Bestselling Author Roger Stone.

Stone and his co-author award winning Investigative reporter Michael Colapietro , look at the totality of Nixon's entire career utilizing stunning new information either suppressed or unknown by the main stream media of the time.

Tricky Dick includes new and never before published documentation that the CIA infiltrated the original Watergate burglary team in order to purposely botch the break-in , that White House Counsel John Dean consistently lied about his true role in planning, execution and cover up of the Watergate break lying to Nixon about White House involvement for nine months and concealing ties between Dean and his wife and a high-priced call girl ring utilized by the Democratic National Committee to entertain visiting Democrat dignitaries.

Building on the blockbuster revelations of Roger Stone's previous book on the Nixon's presidency Nixon's Secrets the longtime Nixon intimate and his co-author have added shocking new material that proves that the Watergate Special Prosecutor met secretly repeatedly and illegally with Watergate Trial Judge John Sirica in a successful effort to railroad Nixon and rig any appeal to a higher court.

Stone and his co-author Colapietro trace Nixon' meteoric climb from his first race for the House in 1947, his dogged pursuit of Soviet spy Alger Hiss (classified Russian documents released after the fall of the Soviet Union prove Hiss was indeed a KGB Spy), Nixon's bruising campaign for the US Senate in 1950, his improbable selection by General Dwight D Eisenhower to be vice president only six years after his election to Congress, the triumphs and humiliations of his vice presidential years, and his razor thin loss of the presidency to John F Kennedy in 1960.

Tricky The Rise and Fall and Rise of Richard M. Nixon proves in intricate detail how the 1960 election was stolen from a surging Nixon, detailing voter fraud in both Texas and Illinois to a degree heretofore undocumented by political scientists and covered only by the New York Herald Tribune at the time.

These New York Times bestselling authors also detail Nixon's reinvention of himself as "The New Nixon” and The greatest single come back in American history which resulted in Nixon's triumphant election as president in 1968.

Tricky Dick also dissects the military industrial complex unhappiness with Nixon's end to the war in Vietnam, his historic strategic arms limitation agreement with the Soviets and his opening to China and the resultant plot to bring Nixon down in the scandal known today as "Watergate".

Genres: History, Politics, Biography

720 pages, Paperback

First published July 11, 2017

About the author

Roger Stone is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ. He is a legendary political operative who served as a senior campaign aide to Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Senator Bob Dole. Stone would parlay being the youngest staff member of the Committee to Re-Elect the President in 1972 into being a conduit of secret memos from Ex-President Nixon to President Ronald Reagan throughout the 80s. A veteran of eight national presidential campaigns, Stone would spend hours talking politics with Nixon as confidant and adviser in his post-presidential years. Stone is known for his hardball tactics, deep opposition research, biting candor, and love of English custom tailoring. Stone serves as mens fashion correspondent for the Daily Caller.

Reviews

[Tristan Searle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Equal parts biography and political history thriller, this book took me two months to read but was quite worth it. In an enjoyable chronological narrative, the author presents a balanced view of one of the most misunderstood figures in history. This book offers shocking alternative views of the 1960 election, the JFK assassination, LBJ, the Vietnam war, Watergate, etc. The political atmospheres of the 50s, 60s, and 70s are described well and will suck anyone in with an interest in these decades. Although it is a bit of an investment of time (consider the audiobook instead), reading this book ultimately leaves you with a greater appreciation of the gray areas of history.

(That said, some parts should be taken with a grain of salt because the author probably isn’t the least bias person ever.)

[Isidore · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is an unedited mess. Chunks of information are repeated not once, or twice, but maybe five or six times, often in the space of only a few pages. Some passages have obviously slipped out of their proper context. The material is not well organized and arguments are not clearly developed. There are many incorrect word choices.

As for its content, the first half deals with Nixon's pre-1968 career, and the second half is focused almost entirely on Watergate, which is discussed in excruciating detail. I am willing to go along with the thesis (borrowed from Len Colodny's books) that neocons steered the inconveniently liberal Nixon to his destruction, but as presented here the argument is sometimes barely comprehensible.

There is simply no reason to read this book when so many competent biographies of Nixon are available, and so many more lucid books on Watergate. I am now reading Evan Thomas's Being Nixon, a similarly sympathetic study of the man, and am regretting I did not read it first—what a difference!

[Tomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this and learned a lot - but there were some things that bothered me. 1) There were things that a good proofreader should have caught. 2) Repetitive - I might not have noticed some of it if I hadn’t just read his previous book, The Man Who Killed Kennedy. There were portions lifted word-for-word from that book. And there were also places where Stone repeated information from a few pages - or even paragraphs- before. 3) So many people! 4) The book jumped around chronologically.
However, I got a lot out of it and feel that Nixon has a bad reputation that he doesn’t deserve. I also know that politicians are slime.

[Frank Fleischmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fair Book

This title uses a great deal of assumptions and is only fair, however once I began it I had to finish it.

[Clay Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A one-sided but fascinating book on a controversial president. Made me do a lot of thinking.

[Ty Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Under any other circumstances, Roger Stone should be avoided - however, when it comes to former President Richard Nixon, Stone is as candid of a source as there is.

This book does an excellent job detailing President Nixon's rise to the Presidency, the massive confusion that is the Watergate Scandal, and the determination of Nixon to correct his reputation before his death.

I chose three stars because Stone has a tendency to be highly repetitive and get lost in the unimportant partisan details.

[Nicky Billou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roger Stone is a true political Svengali. He knows Nixon better than anyone. And he can write!

[Davy Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this fast paced political bio of Nixon.
Nixon was president while I was in high school and college but I didn’t pay much attention to current events back then. Especially regarding Watergate which I found boring.

This lively book caught me up on those years, and it rang true. I also read Stone's expose of LBJ in the JFK murder. That book was a compilation of a lot of well documented research by mostly well respected researchers. It rang very true also.

I always had a generally positive feeling about Nixon while growing up, even though I was also caught up somewhat in the hippie/ rock n roll culture of the times. The Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968 seemed like a freak show circus and I never needed the Weathermen and the Chicago 7 to see which way the wind blows/blew. I thought the police used too much force, but was not questioning adults too much on the cusp of turning thirteen. Stone highlights the Police Riots under Mayor Richard Daley and it seems very abusive to me today, and to Stone too (partly cuz he is a lifelong Republican).

I had a radical right wing experience when I first became a Christian in the early 80s. I really appreciated Nixons efforts to bring Alger Hiss down in those days of McCarthy. McCarthy did some abuse that may have been unwarranted, but he also helped ferret out some very unsavory characters. I have moderated considerably over the years and have totally abandoned certain strains of the radical right. I like Sen McCarthy a little less. I now detest J Edgar Hoover. What an evil man. Rivaled his neighbor and bosom buddy LBJ even.
I wasn't a big fan of Nixon and Kissinger meeting Mao, but now I see it as mostly a good thing. I still have no use for Mao, or Stalin. I would throw Hitler and Lenin in there too.

I think Nixon was very smart, much in the vein of Bill Clinton. Nixon himself saw a lot of similarities to himself in Clinton. Nixon thought HW Bush was pretty dim in comparison. Gerald Ford is lit up here, and I think rightfully so. Read the other Stone book if LBJ is still high up in your pantheon. He gets lit up here some, but is absolutely skewered in the JFK Assassination book.
Looking back, I lived better under Clinton than at any other time. He saved me a lot of ulcers too, because I was so disgusted by his victory despite everyone knowing what a liar he was, that I went pretty much apolitical. Looking back I think it was best that HW Bush was defeated, I always thought he was way too establishment, even more so today after W and Iraq and the Patriot Act and waterboarding and Dick Cheney.
(particularly his old company KBR rebuilding Iraq on a no bid contract). Crazy how Gore Bush turned out, with Jeb Bush bringing Florida in for the Bush win. Please no more dynasties, whether it be Bush Clinton or Roosevelt, or whomever.

However, RN was all politician and didn't really seem to have a good foundational philosophy that he stuck to. More of an opportunist looking for more power and glory.

Examples were imposing bolshevik- like wage and price controls to fight inflation.

Uncoupling the dollar from gold, which is why the dollar has lost about 95% of it's value since then.

Stone spends a lot of time hammering John Dean. He respects Al Haig but thought him devious. Stone likes Carl Bernstein but is not a big fan of Bob Woodward.
Stone doesn't think Mark Felt was Deep Throat, but that Deep Throat was more of a story telling and interest making device, that was a compilation of various sources.

Stone also gives you a very cynical take on shenanigans done in Washington.

I think it is vital for American citizens to understand the concept of a Deep State, or whatever you want to call it, that is standing mostly unscathed in the background and still calling shots, no matter which party is in power.
I think Roger Stone does a very good job of revealing real information, as opposed to the normal establishment schlock.

Stone says RN got a full pardon from FBI informant and Warren Commission man Gerald 'Magic Bullet' Ford because Ford for one was blackmailed over his indiscretions from the LBJ cohort Bobby Baker's motel, and Nixons knowledge of Fords role with Arlen Spector in doctoring autopsy info to support the numbskull magic bullet theory. So happens Nixon was in Dallas on Nov 22, 1963 at a Pepsi convention, though have not heard he was in on it. HW Bush was there too and was low level CIA (later Director). I have heard he was aware in advance.

War is a money making racket, and it should be understood who benefits from it. I used to really like Reagan and I still do. However, that is moderated somewhat by his radical increase in military spending. Gimme Rand Paul on that stuff, he is much like his dad Ron Paul was.

We are truly swimming with sharks.