Greg Garrett

The complex character of Tricky Dick

Michael Dobbs gives us Richard Nixon the flawed hero — paranoid and ruthless, but also tender, compassionate and strangely vulnerable

Richard Nixon at his desk in the Oval Office proclaiming his innocence during his televised Watergate address: Getty Images 
issue 07 August 2021

In this Age of Trump, as we cast about for some moment in American history that might help us make sense of the present, the name Richard M. Nixon keeps resurfacing. Nixon, who resigned the presidency in 1974 after being swept up in investigations into the crimes and cover-ups known collectively as Watergate, offers easy comparisons with Donald J.

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