Presidency of Richard Nixon

In this installment of the University Press of Kansas's American Presidency series, Small joins the ranks of the many scholars who have attempted to know and understand Richard Nixon. He gently inverts the conventional wisdom that the Nixon presidency was more notable for its foreign policy than for its domestic achievements. As he tackles his subject with a topical rather than chronological approach, beginning with the Vietnam War, Small takes pains to present all of the domestic and global issues demanding the attention and affecting the decisions of Nixon and his staff at the time. While acknowledging the success of Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in China and the Soviet Union, Small damns the administration for its less-publicized forays in foreign policy, including American involvement in Pakistan, Chile and the Middle East. On the domestic front, however, Small argues that Nixon was the author of unheralded successes. Nixon was the first president to call for welfare reform, and his administration was responsible for enforcing much of the progressive social legislation of the 1960s. Thus, Small credits Nixon with the desegregation of Southern schools, achievements in women's rights and following through on environmental initiatives. Devoted more to the intricacies of policy than to either the dramas of electoral politics or Nixon's tragic character, Small's book is engaging enough to serve as a good introduction for readers who are as interested in the Nixon presidency as they are in Nixon's personality. (Sept.)