Kennedy & Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America - Political History Book for US History Enthusiasts & Cold War Studies - Perfect for Classroom Discussions & Historical Research

Christopher Matthews has produced a most interesting narrative of the concurrent political lives of Richard Nixon and the Kennedys, Inc. The title is more nuanced than it may seem. This is not simply a tale of John Kennedy and Richard Nixon's political rivalry, per se, though that is certainly chronicled. Rather, Matthews looks at the intriguing interplay of a proud and sensitive middle class Californian with a patrician Massachusetts senator and his multi-generational family and the Camelot myths incarnated in Robert and Ted. This is an original and captivating approach in which the author quickly establishes that his work will enlighten and surprise.Matthews is not the first author to debunk decades old scripts, but his reporter's sense of sources and accuracy brings credibility. Who, for example, would have thought that the "brooding loner" Nixon would win thousands of dollars playing poker during WW II? Or that Joseph Kennedy assured Nixon that if Kennedy's son failed to get the 1960 nomination, the Kennedy money would back the sitting vice president?Matthews loves politics; this work was published in 1996, before the author became quite the household television name he is today. Though carefully researched and worthy of being called "history," Matthews' narrative has the energy and tempo of modern political journalism. The format of the book is the careers of Nixon and John Kennedy. Though from different classes and outlooks, Kennedy and Nixon had both made noise for themselves as students: Nixon as a student populist and Kennedy as iconoclast. Both served the war effort with distinction. Both went to Congress in 1946 with strong financial sponsorship; Kennedy from his own family and Nixon from local businessmen. In fact, both men's campaigns for office in the early years would not be without taint, from Kennedy's family money to Pat Nixon's cloth coat.Matthews describes the first "Kennedy-Nixon Debate," a local forum in McKeesport, PA, in 1947. Nixon, he observed, scored in content, but the Kennedy look carried the local press. In truth, both men at this time were friends and shared the same train berth from Pennsylvania discussing foreign policy. In 1947 foreign policy was only a matter of degree, and it is easy to forget that Kennedy was every bit the cold warrior as his Republican counterpart.For much of the 1950's Kennedy and Nixon continued an amiable relationship in Washington. Nixon was gravely concerned for Kennedy's health when the latter nearly died of his wartime back injuries. In fact, Kennedy's ill health, absenteeism, and minimal legislative output gave Nixon no indication that the Massachusetts senator would impede his career, and cordial relations continued for many years. It was the intensity of presidential politics in the late 1950's that began the legendary rift between the two, when Kennedy of necessity began to court the Nixon-hating Stevenson wing of his own party. Kennedy's failed effort to claim the vice-presidential candidacy in 1956, Matthews observed, taught him the ruthlessness of the game and the necessity to do what it takes--including throwing a longtime working colleague under the bus.Not surprisingly the 1960 campaign is covered in great detail. Matthews believes that Nixon's greatest mistake was his assessment of Kennedy's nomination acceptance speech. Kennedy did not impress him that night, and the vice president concluded that his opponent could be had in face-to-face televised debate. Nixon's confidence blinded him to two key factors in the first debate: he himself was ill and looked it, and he did not take seriously the medium/substance dynamic of television that Kennedy absorbed from his Hollywood cronies.Kennedy, for his part, waged a cruel and hard-hitting campaign that became increasingly personal as the weeks wore on. Much of this material is well known but the retelling is still captivating. By election night Kennedy was referring to his old friend as a man without class. And yet, just four days after the election, Matthews reports that Nixon was elated by contact from Kennedy and a personal visit. The author makes a telling point on the closeness of the election: Nixon spent the rest of his life working to avoid such another painful defeat, while Kennedy never discarded his bitterness that Nixon had made it so close.Nixon, in Matthews' view, allowed Kennedy's persona to influence him into an ill-advised run against sitting Governor Pat Brown of California in 1962. Kennedy could not fathom Nixon's decision until it gradually dawn on him that Nixon could not face a second presidential loss to Kennedy in 1964; the California governorship was the perfect excuse not to run against Kennedy. Neither, of course, would run for the presidency in 1964; Nixon was defeated by Brown and Kennedy fell to an assassin's bullet in 1963.Nixon, however, escaped the 1964 GOP presidential debacle unscathed and moved to center stage as his party's senior statesman and strongest opponent to President Lyndon Johnson. Cultivating a calmer, wiser public image, he was however unnerved by Johnson's decision not to run in 1968, and worse, by the specter of running against the new standard bearer of Camelot, Robert Kennedy. Only RFK's assassination assured Nixon's eventual presidential victory in 1968. And yet, election did not remove his fear that the prize he had worked for all his life would be seized away by John Kennedy: if not in person, by his heirs, notably Teddy Kennedy, by revisionist history, by liberal intellectuals, and most certainly by media group-think that would always look back to Camelot as the high water mark of the postwar era. The Watergate debacle became the deadliest fruit of the poisoned tree.