Nixon in Winter : The Final Revelations

by Monica Crowley

Monica Crowley was a 21-year-old graduate student when, having answered an advertisement, she became Richard Nixon's research assistant in 1990. Gradually she evolved into a confidante who remained with him until his death four years later. In this book she records Nixon's assessments of world events and world leaders, both as he sat brooding over his papers and draft memoirs, and during his almost manic peregrinations around the world. Ultimately the shadow of Watergate hung over his every moment, leading to revelations which startled the young Crowley. This portrait of an enigmatic and reviled former US President reveals him discussing international affairs at length; he is also seen as an aged widower cooking spaghetti for himself, reflecting on scandal, ageing and dying, and craving the company of the young researcher to whom he can pontificate and with whom he can keep his faculties alive.

Genres: History, Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, Political Science

480 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1998

About the author

Monica Crowley is a conservative radio and television political commentator based in New York City. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science from Colgate University and a doctorate in international relations from Columbia University. In 1990, she became Foreign Policy Assistant to former President Richard Nixon, a post she held from 1990 until his death in 1994. She was an editorial adviser and consultant on his last two books, Seize the Moment (1992) and Beyond Peace (1994). Crowley used this period to record her conversations and observations about Nixon (she kept a diary), and she published two subsequent books on the former President in his final years: Nixon Off the Record: His Candid Commentary on People (1996) and Nixon in Winter (1998).

In the mid-1990s Crowley wrote a column for the New York Post and was a commentator for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition". She has also written for The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times and the Baltimore Sun.

Since 2002, she has her own radio show on WABC Radio in New York called The Monica Crowley Show. She is also a regular commentator on The John Batchelor Show.

Reviews

[Brenda Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is my opinion about the book; not the politics of the author or of the book’s subject.
“Nixon in Winter” is a well written first hand account of the Man and the Times from the author’s very personal view point.
As such, I highly recommend “Nixon in Winter” to everyone who wants an honest, deeper understanding of Nixon, the times in which he lived, and the deep ways his life and his choices impacted those times and these as written by someone who is a sympathetically honest admirer.

[Dean Hamp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why would Richard M. Nixon hire a young, naive grad student as his research assistant? Because, until the very day of his death, Nixon was about shaping the message. "Nixon in Winter" is indeed a well-shaped message, depicting a King Lear-esque figure, proud, regal, brilliant, learned, nimble, nuanced, with a small dash of chagrin for those few faux pas committed for the sake of the nation. This book is very much how Nixon wanted us to see him in his last years. I would have preferred a book about how he really was.

[Scott Duffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. When I think of the worst US Presidents he’s not one of them, not even close. I put him the top 10. He truly cared about the United States.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating insight from an insider/research assistant in Nixon's final years. There is even relevance to current event as Nixon decries Bush's gutless "Chicken Kiev speech" urging Ukraine to back away from independence. The book takes place during the preparation for
Seize the Moment: America's Challenge in a One-Superpower World and post-USSR Richard M. Nixon Beyond Peace. Nixon never seems to deeply self-assess on Watergate while decrying the sins of Ted Kennedy (Chappaquiddick), Bill Clinton's infidelities, the death of Vincent Foster, Whitewater, Travelgate, etc. Despite Nixon's sins and apparent inability to find anything to specifically apologize for relevant to his handling of his C.R.E.E.P. operatives, handling of the expansion of the Vietnam War into Laos, Cambodia, etc. it comes across that he had formed real wisdom and energy to apply to the geopolitical quandaries of his time. Also, I think it doubtful he could be accepted broadly on today's GOP stage - he was basically open to a woman's right to choose among other centrist things...

[Corey J. Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at what Nixon thought in his final years.

[Kristy Allor]

Fascinating Roe commentary.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have always had a neutral-to-unfavourable opinion of Richard Nixon. I am too young to hate him but old enough to remember his presence in American politics. After reading what was clearly intended to be hagiography, I like him even less. According to Nixon (as told to the author, his graduate student foreign-policy Padawan), Bush (41) was weak; Baker was a fool; Gorbachev was not to be trusted but Yeltsin was an honourable man; Russian Communists are bad but Chinese Communists are different; the foreign service is filled with pusillanimous know-nothings; and only Nixon was smart enough/tough enough to successfully negotiate with the Russians and the Chinese. Even when his analysis is considered and insightful, his arrogance and petulance overshadow his contributions. The chapters on domestic policy don’t cast him in any better a light. They show a paranoid partisan with little regard for democracy: women who accuse Clinton of misconduct are telling the truth, but Anita Hill’s accusations of Clarence Thomas’s misconduct are lies, and the women who accuse Bob Packwood of misconduct are too sensitive; the Watergate scandal was caused by a vindictive press (not really by his own abuse of power); his prosecution of the Vietnam war for five years was in the role of a peacemaker; Vietnam protesters caused more damage to American culture than his own misdeeds; and Oliver North was justified in disobeying Congress. While he gives lip service remorse for Watergate, he spends more time complaining that others got away with what he did not. Following the foreign and domestic policy chapters, there is a chapter meant to demonstrate Nixon’s capacity for philosophical reflection, but his views come across as superficial and self-serving. But perhaps this is simply because the author did not (or could not) engage with Nixon on this topic at a deeper level. And the final chapters about Nixon’s family life and fear of death were meant to humanize him. But why would his ordinary connections to his family or his relatively common thoughts on aging be surprising? There is often a disconnect between a person’s public life and their private life. Overall, the book is a portrait of an intelligent, driven, blinkered egomaniac. He is damned with his own words.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He was no longer the indestructible former president, the man thrusting the defiant victory signs in the air, the iron-willed master of the comeback. He was now simply another husband about to lose his life's partner."

[David-jacky Breech]

Excellent insight to a politician that career covered over four decades.