Book Review: The Greatest Comeback, How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority

By Patrick J. Buchanan

“Just think how much you´re going to be missing. You don´t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” 

A pale and dejected Richard Nixon greeted the press after having lost the 1962 California gubernatorial race to the incumbent democrat, Pat Brown. Two years earlier he had lost the presidential election to John F Kennedy. A once promising political career had now seen the final nail been hammered into its coffin when Nixon indulged in his public display of self-pity. The former congressman and Vice-President under Eisenhower had now been expelled to the political wilderness. Yet, against all the odds, a great many factors and upheavals would, only seven years later, see Richard Nixon become the 37^th president of the United States. Although the popular opinion seem to be that Nixon´s life and presidency was about as interesting as watching paint dry and as bland as a speech by Mitt Romney, The Greatest Comeback is at times written like a fast paced thriller with plenty of drama.  

Patrick J. Buchanan was born in Washington D.C in 1938, and the quintessential component of that state, politics, seems to have been imprinted into his bone marrow from day one. As a young man he became a part of a conservative movement that was on the ascendant in the Republican Party and threatened the liberal East Cost Establishment. He briefly worked as an editorial writer for the Saint Louis Globe-Democrat. Having seen which way the wind was going to blow before even the meteorologists had, Buchanan joined Richard Nixon´s presidential campaign in January 1966. His delight at having landed the job is obvious to any reader, and Buchanan quickly distinguished himself through his hard work and keen political mind. Having aligned himself with Nixon when his stock was still not quite what it had once been, Buchanan became part of his inner circle from that day one until the Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign in 1974. His journalistic roots are still evident however, as his writing is effortlessly readable, entertaining and insightful.

The Sixties was an era of major social and cultural upheaval in the United States. The battles being waged at the time would come to shape the country, and indeed the world as we know it today. When Buchanan joined the Nixon campaign in its very early stages, the war in Vietnam was raging in parallel with the Culture war. Lyndon B. Johnson, having stepped in after JFK was shot, was challenged in the 1964 presidential election by Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. Buchanan, being a pragmatist as well as a devout conservative, wasn´t surprised by how badly Goldwater was thrashed by LBJ in the national election. A more extreme version of Ron Paul, Goldwater once said that “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice”. He was the kind of guy who would never compromise about anything, and barely succeeded in uniting his own party. The ensuing democratic landslide ushered in a program of domestic legislation known as The Great Society, under which the number of people living under the poverty line was reduced from 22.2 percent in 1963 to 12.6 percent in 1970. True to his conservative roots, Buchanan writes at length about his dislike of government programs in general and the Great Society in particular, and didn´t quote the abovementioned statistic. But I digress. After Goldwater’s humiliating defeat, hardline conservatives such as Buchanan were left reeling. The only way for the Republican Party to regain the White House, was to nominate a candidate who could speak to Middle America without sounding like a lunatic and who could forge a new majority coalition of voters.

After LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, the pro segregationists in the South, who had been solidly democratic for a great many years, were suddenly left disillusioned with the party of their fathers and grandfathers. Today we think of Texas and Alabama as red states, but at the time they were solidly blue. During the sixties, the old political map of the United States was re-drawn, old certainties were turned upside down and what emerged was the political map and the political climate that we know today. When Buchanan joined the Nixon campaign, however, these events were still unfolding, or waiting to unfold, and everything looked uncertain.

Opposing Nixon´s nomination were three formidable rivals from within his own party, the Liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller, Mitt Romney´s father Gorge Romney, and the Gipper himself, Ronald Reagan. Emerging victorious from a melee with such formidable opponents, who straddled the full spectrum within the party, from the ultra-conservative Reagan to the liberal Rockefeller, would clearly require a formidable politician. Luckily for Buchanan, Richard Nixon was a consummate politician married to a robust work ethic. Perhaps equally important were Nixon´s own political convictions. I was going to write about them, but that might be hard as, and I hope Mr. Buchanan can forgive me, but I´m not sure what they were or if they ever existed. Richard Nixon´s heartfelt beliefs seems to have been dependent upon what polled well and what people wanted to hear. He styled himself as a “progressive conservative”, whatever that means.  Had Nixon made a campaign stop at an ice cream parlor and someone asked him what his favorite flavor was, I´m sure he would have replied that it was strawberry. But also that he loved chocolate chip ice cream in equal measure. And let´s not forget butterscotch, which he has always cared for. And pistachio is gaining popularity, so Nixon likes pistachio just as much as he likes strawberry and chocolate, although he has not forgotten butterscotch, which he loves as much as strawberry.       

The glue that held together the diverse and diaphanous views of Nixon were his foreign policy clout. At a time when the Vietnam War was the number one issue of the day, that was highly fortunate for his campaign. Buchanan accompanied Nixon on lengthy trips abroad, ranging from Africa to Europe and the Middle East, where they met with many prominent world leaders. Nixon thereby managed to establish himself as the grown-up in the Republican Party. He played it carefully in regards to Vietnam, not wanting to be seen as an opportunist criticizing the Johnson Administration at every turn, yet he carefully articulated a willingness to pursue every option in order to bring US involvement in the war to a close. When a wide swath of white-middle class America tired of riots breaking out in the major cities on a regular basis, he promised this emerging “silent majority” law and order.

The term “silent majority” has since been accused of having had a subtle racist undertone, where the subsequent war on drugs has predominantly targeted the poor and minorities. On the issue of Nixon and race Buchanan ducks and dodges and weaves about like he is a bull in a china shop. He steadfastly denies that Nixon was racist in any way and lambasts the Democrats for having cynically relied on the Dixiecrat vote in the past. After doing that he promptly assists Nixon in scooping up that very same demographic, which might be considered a tad cynical.

The Nixon team, with Buchanan on board, were like a crack brigade of paratroopers moving into the Republican primary, while the three R: s: Romney, Rockefeller and Reagan, were always on the back foot. Nixon managed to outmaneuver his opponents with the skill of a master tactician and bring large parts of the south into his fold while all factions of the Republican Party could stomach his candidacy. Well, maybe except for the odd holdout clique of Goldwater loyalists, but nobody cared what they thought. This is when The Greatest Comeback is at its best. When Buchanan and the Nixon team battle it out against their opponents, reacting to new Gallup polls as they come in and with Buchanan rushing off to write new speeches for Nixon with his typewriter rattling like a machine gun. The pace is almost too breakneck, but I loved every minute of the unfolding drama, with all its twists and turns and colorful characters.

If Nixon managed to unite his party, the Democrats, on the other hand, were in dire straits. After LBJ decided not to run for a third term, the New Left was in disarray. Robert Kennedy could have been their savior, but he was assassinated just moments after winning the California primary. The 1968 Democratic convention was held in Chicago, during which the police violently clashed with protesters in what was to become known as the Battle of Chicago. Depending on who you ask the police were either defending themselves against the massed onslaught of marijuana crazed hippies (according to Buchanan) or the police dealt with the largely peaceful protesters with excessive force (according to everyone else). During the Battle of Chicago, Buchanan occupied a suite downtown and gleefully invited reporters and press to join him while he knocked back a scotch and watched the city burn. The New Deal, The Great Society, you could say that it all ended there, among the flames and smashed windows at that Chicago convention. The Left may have won the culture wars, but the Right have more or less dictated the economic agenda, the occasional democratic who have been in office since then a far cry from the party´s progressive roots. The Democratic nominee who emerged from that shell shocked convention, Hubert Humphrey, sounds like someone Winnie the Pooh runs into while playing in the forest. He never stood a chance against Nixon´s keen political calculations and second to none campaign staff. On January 20^th 1969, Nixon assumed office, after having pulled of perhaps the greatest comeback in political history. 

The chapter that remains unwritten, Buchanan concludes, is that of the Nixon presidency. He is no longer the young man he was back in 1968, but if his health remains he promises to finish the story. The next time I hold a drink in my hand I will toast to Mr. Buchanan’s continued wellbeing, for I sure enjoyed reading The Greatest Comeback and look forward to the sequel.