I have two items for my write-up today on Richard Nixon's 1962 book, Six Crises.
1.
Something that stood out to me in Nixon's analysis of the Alger Hiss
case was Nixon's criticism of elements of the political right. For one,
Nixon states that the recklessness of certain accusations from the
political right about people's alleged Communist affiliations only
advanced the cause of Communism. Nixon did not explicitly mention
Senator Joseph McCarthy, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of
the right-wingers Nixon had in mind. Second, on page 70, Nixon states:
"Because I have consistently supported what some of them consider to be
'liberal' international policies----like foreign aid, reciprocal trade,
collective security pacts, and adequate appropriations for our
information and foreign service programs----the credentials I had gained
as an anti-Communist because of my work in the Hiss case became
somewhat tainted with a tinge of 'pink!'" This was somewhat surprising
to me because my impression is that Nixon prior to 1962 (when he had to
fight off John Birchers in his race for Governor of California) was
actually popular with the political right, notwithstanding his
disagreement with it on foreign aid. I base this on Stephen Ambrose's Nixon: The Education of a Politician. Maybe there was more to the story than Ambrose portrays and Nixon had critics who considered him pink, or Nixon in Six Crises
was merely saying that he had such critics in order to distance himself
from the right-wing anti-Communists whom he considered to be
irresponsible.
2. In my reading of Six Crises so far,
Nixon displays a sense of humor. In talking about the unpopularity he
gained for his role in the Alger Hiss case, Nixon refers to one elderly
lady who said she didn't like Nixon because "he was mixed up with that
awful Alger Hiss!", when Nixon actually challenged Alger Hiss and made a
case against him! When Nixon discussed the 1952 Presidential election
and referred to a poll at the time that indicated that he wasn't well
known, Nixon said that "This might have dampened my high spirits except
that the same poll disclosed that only 32 per cent could identify the
Democratic nominee" (page 76). Then there was a story Nixon told about
when he was campaigning for Eisenhower on a train and the train took off
before he could finish his speech! Nixon was upset, until he learned
that it had a dramatic effect: when Nixon asked the crowd to "come along
and join this crusade" while the train was moving away, and people were
following it, that created "a sense of participation and excitement"
with the audience (page 82). Nixon relates that he learned from this
experience to take his job, but not himself, too seriously!