In my latest reading of Jonathan Aitken's Nixon: A Life,
Aitken's narration of Richard Nixon's controversial 1950 Senate campaign
was, well, interesting. I have read things that try to defend Nixon's
activity during that time, or at least to portray Nixon as
not-so-horrible. Irwin Gellman's The Contender is one
example. So is Richard Nixon's narration of the event in his memoirs.
And Julie Nixon Eisenhower states that both Nixon and his Democratic
opponent, Helen Douglas, were harsh to one another, probably against the
narrative that focuses largely on her father's attacks on Douglas.
But
Aitken took this sort of pro-Nixon or Nixon sympathizing narrative to a
whole new level. He says that Douglas was worse than Nixon in terms of
attacks. Aitken also seems to imply that the infamous Pink Sheet----in
which Nixon compared Douglas' voting record with that of far left
Congressman Vito Marcantonio----came after Douglas' Yellow Sheet
attacking Nixon and comparing his voting record with that of
Marcantonio. Aitken also departs from the typical narrative that
Nixon's controversial take-no-prisoners campaign aide, Murray Chotiner,
was encouraging Nixon to run a brutal Red-baiting campaign against
Douglas. According to Aitken, Chotiner was encouraging Nixon to focus
on domestic issues, rather than his role in the Alger Hiss case. But
Nixon did not take Chotiner's advice, Aitken narrates. And, against the
charge that Nixon exploited anti-Semitism in his campaign (since
Douglas' husband was Jewish), Aitken points out that Nixon repudiated
anti-Semitism in a manner that drew praise from the Anti-Defamation
League, and also that Murray Chotiner himself was Jewish. Aitken is not
completely defensive of Nixon, however, for he argues (like many
biographers) that the Pink Sheet was rather misleading.
I think
that Aitken raised some valid points in his discussion of the 1950
campaign, or at least points that are worthy of discussion. Most narrations that I have read about the event appear to
presume that Nixon brought up Marcantonio first, and that Douglas only
compared Nixon with Marcantonio after Nixon's Pink Sheet. But many of
the narrations that I have read----even those that depict Nixon as the
bad guy and Douglas as a victim----point out examples of Douglas'
name-calling and attacks on her political opponents. I doubt that she
was above reproach. Aitken does well to highlight that, and he does so
in more detail than anything else I have read up to this point. I do
believe that Aitken's narrative was incomplete, however, or failed to
take into account certain considerations. Aitken, for example, notes
examples of Nixon criticizing and repudiating Joseph McCarthy, but some
of the other books I have read suggest that Nixon praised McCarthy in
pro-McCarthy areas of California, while criticizing him in the more
moderate areas of the state.
Other interesting items in my latest reading include stories about
Nixon's kindnesses to others (such as his secretaries and constituents
who visited him in Washington, D.C.); the account of Nixon's long-time
secretary, Rose Mary Woods, that Nixon in interviewing her did not probe
into her religious or political affiliations, and Woods' narration of
her Catholic family's victimization at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan
when she was growing up (the Klan burned crosses on her lawn); and
Nixon's reliance on his religious faith in getting through the 1952 Fund
controversy. These are things that I have not found in other books by
and about Nixon. Nixon himself probably recognized the need to appear
modest, so he does not harp on his kind deeds in his writings. Nixon
also expressed aversion towards wearing religion on one's sleeve, and
that may explain why he does not talk much about his faith in Six Crises
and his memoirs. Regarding Rose Mary Woods' accounts, Aitken's
discussion of that shows how his book is a reservoir of interviews with
key people whom many did not get to interview.
Also noteworthy
is Aitken's narration of Nixon's work for Dwight Eisenhower at the 1952
Republican Convention. Like many biographers, except for Gellman,
Aitken depicts Nixon as supporting Eisenhower at the convention and
seeking to undermine Earl Warren's hold on the California delegates, and
Aitken does so with more clarity than other narrations I have read. In
his clarity, however, Aitken does leave some things out, such as Roger
Morris' claim that Nixon at the convention was pretending to support
arch-conservative candidate Robert Taft to the Taftites.