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A review by socraticgadfly
Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage by Jeffrey Frank
4.0
Ike was indeed devious, for those unaware. Outside his relationship with Nixon, don't forget his refusal to protect Gen. Marshall during the 1952 election when McCarthy savaged him.
This book focuses on Ike's deviousness, and other issues re both Eisenhower and Nixon, not only in their eight years in office but in the eight years after, until Nixon's election as president and Ike's death soon thereafter.
It also portrays Ike as a politician of sorts (one has to be in the military to advance like he did) while yet being befuddled by civilian politicians in general and Dick Nixon in particular.
The biggest new thing I picked up is my inferences from the author. Ike seemed to want to believe he really wasn't devious and conniving etc., while perhaps inside, partially accepting the truth.
Frank portrays a Nixon as sensitive, complex, the Administration's most liberal person on civil rights and more. In short, a Nixon with shortcomings, which his presidency would magnify, but not a Nixon of pure evil.
Unfortunately, some of the shortcomings got magnified by interactions between the two.
This book focuses on Ike's deviousness, and other issues re both Eisenhower and Nixon, not only in their eight years in office but in the eight years after, until Nixon's election as president and Ike's death soon thereafter.
It also portrays Ike as a politician of sorts (one has to be in the military to advance like he did) while yet being befuddled by civilian politicians in general and Dick Nixon in particular.
The biggest new thing I picked up is my inferences from the author. Ike seemed to want to believe he really wasn't devious and conniving etc., while perhaps inside, partially accepting the truth.
Frank portrays a Nixon as sensitive, complex, the Administration's most liberal person on civil rights and more. In short, a Nixon with shortcomings, which his presidency would magnify, but not a Nixon of pure evil.
Unfortunately, some of the shortcomings got magnified by interactions between the two.