President Richard Nixon
All the President’s Men (2006) This has recently released in a two-disc special edition, on the occasion of its thirtieth birthday and on the heels of the unexpected unmasking of Deep Throat, the shadowy, even mythical figure who played a crucial role in bringing down the Nixon Presidency. The film, which was a critical and commercial success at the time, holds up extraordinarily well – as both history and entertainment – which is remarkable considering how easily it might have become a faded period piece.
The movie is the marriage of two artistic visions: those of Robert Redford and Alan Pakula. Redford, eager to take on serious political themes (evident in 1972’s The Candidate), pursued the project even before the book upon which it was based was written. The Hollywood star first pitched his idea to the wary, skeptical Woodward and Bernstein in the unlikely days of April 1973; ultimately Redford purchased the rights to the book and his production company matched Warner Brother’s stake in the film. In 1974, he hired Pakula to direct.
All the President’s Men would become known as the capstone in Pakula’s “paranoid trilogy”, following Klute (1971) and The Parallax View (1974). The films share more than paranoia, although pervasive surveillance is an important motif in all three films. The ubiquitous rotating wheels of tape recorders in Kluteanticipate the White House tapes that would provide the “smoking gun” of Nixon’s crimes. The three movies also reflect a basic suspicion about bedrock American institutions, subtly, in the form of small town values and corporate ethics in Klute; more explicitly in Parallax, a nightmarish inversion of the Watergate story, where the crusading reporter is defeated in his attempts to expose the vast conspiracy and government cover-ups.
All three films were shot by seventies virtuoso Gordon Willis, who had draped the first two entries in his signature darkness. In All the President’s Men, that darkness, most famously in the garage scenes featuring Hal Holbrook’s inimitable incarnation of Deep Throat, are contrasted by the piercing brightness of the Washington Post’s newsroom. In the newsroom, truth reigns, a clarity of vision subtly emphasized by the innovative use of a diopter (bifocal) lens, portraying both foreground and background in crystal clear focus. Under the watchful eye of Editor Ben Bradlee (via Jason Robards’ Oscar-winning portrayal) the plain truths of the newsroom are contrasted with the shadowy, corrupt politics of the Nixon Administration.
In that sense the film, with its underdog heroes doggedly pursuing the bad guys until finally, by dint of their efforts and resourcefulness, good triumphs over evil, might suggest the comfort of a classic Hollywood tale. But All the President’s Men was very much a “seventies film”, a product of the times, and thus stepped in the inescapable moral ambiguities favored by the artists of the period. The crackerjack script by William Goldman (revised modestly or in whole cloth, depending on which account you believe, by Redford and Pakula) is more shaded than it first appears. With each viewing, Dustin Hoffman’s Carl Bernstein and Redford’s Woodward seem increasingly ambitious, manipulative, and even ruthless in their pursuit of the story. At the same time, Nixon Campaign treasurer Hugh Sloan, and even dirty-tricks maestro Don Segretti are portrayed as casualties of circumstance – collateral damage of the larger investigation. The real bad guys like Ziegler, Agnew, Nixon, are not hauled in front of the audience, but held a dispassionate distance away, seen only on TV.
Thirty years later, All the President’s Men is still a treat to watch, but now comes across not as a triumph of the good, but as a bittersweet counter-culture story. What distinguished Woodward and Bernstein at the time, and in the movie, was that they were young, raw, and occasionally clueless (early on, Woodward doesn't even know "how high up" one of his White House sources is). But that inexperience led them to pursue a story that more polished professionals would not touch. “A dangerous story for this paper”, the Post’surbane foreign editor warns Bradlee at one point. Dangerous in part because high-powered journalists become enmeshed in the Washington establishment, their reputations and stories dependent on privileged access to power-brokers. Woodward and Bernstein, the ultimate outsiders (“remember when you were hungry?”) with nothing, had nothing to lose. In 1976 that was a great story. In 2006 it’s still a great story, but with the passage of time, a story with a different ending. Deep Throat isn’t Hal Holbrook, pin spotlights on his eyes, able to disappear at the first sound of a squealing tire; he’s ninety year old Mark Felt, one time embittered number two man at the FBI. And Bob Woodward is the ultimate insider.
Jonathan Kirshner Cornell University kirshner@Princeton.EDU
Nixon(1990) This three-hour American Experience biography lacks the scope and depth of other documentaries in this distinguished presidency series. The Quest (Part I) captures those aspects of the Nixon character that marked his political career: toughness, lack of trust, suspicion, vindictiveness, extraordinary strategic focus, opportunism, a keen political sense, distain for traditional morality, solitude, and intelligence. Nixon was a street fighter, and expected the same from his opponents. He had the guts to recover from political defeats, such as his loss of the 1962 California gubernatorial election, that would have destroyed a lesser person.
The Triumph, the second part of this trilogy, provides surprisingly shallow coverage of his complex presidency. No mention is made of his domestic programs. In foreign affairs, his dealings in the Middle East, Latin America, and elsewhere are ignored. The focus is primarily on visits to China andthe Soviet Union, as well as the war in Vietnam. In all three cases, a less sympathetic account of Nixon’s role would seem more historically appropriate.
The Fall, the concluding part of this trilogy, is a one-dimensional account of President Nixon’s final two years in office. The focus is on Watergate to the exclusion of all else that occurred during the twilight of his presidency. The Watergate drama is accurately presented, though a far richer account is available in the Discovery Channel’s three-video Watergate (1994).
What is most lacking in Nixon is an assessment of the person. Those same characteristics that permitted him notable political successes and substantive accomplishments also were the seeds for his ultimate resignation to avoid impeachment. That he felt compelled to create the Plumber’s Operation, then later to acquiesce to, then cover up, the Watergate break in, reflect the dark side of an individual of uncommon competence.
Richard Nixon-"Old Glory," "Checkers," and "Resignation" (1957, 1952, 1974) TV kinescopes of some Nixon high/low lights. The full Checkers broadcast, in retrospect, sounds credible, even politically brilliant.
Nixon: A Presidency Revealed (directed by David Taylor, The History Channel, 2007)
“So many deep-seeded hatreds”
This is an authoritative and chilling assessment of Nixon the man. Those who spoke frankly about Nixon’s personal traits include Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Emil Kroegh, Charles Colson, Alexander Butterfield, Ray Price, John Dean, Robert Dole, Ben Bradlee, Robert Dallak, Richard Reeves, and Walter Isaacson.
Perhaps the most charitable assessment was Henry Kissinger’s “The fine aspects of his presidency were overshadowed by his demons.” From others came staccato examples of Nixon’s sense of inferiority, his deep resentments, his self pity, his penchant for secrecy, and his instinct to lash out and destroy those he viewed as enemies.
Some acknowledge his brilliance in opening up China and improving relations with the Soviet Union. Even there, Robert Dallak comments that his secrecy (Secretary of State William Rogers was only informed of the China trip an hour before Nixon made a public announcement) diminished the long-term impact of such initiatives. Some kudos are accorded several of his domestic initiatives. Former Senator Robert Dole observes that today Nixon would be rejected by the Republican Party for being ‘too liberal.’
Overwhelmingly, the commentators focused on Nixon’s personal traits. Shyness and a desire to be isolated were hallmarks of his presidential administration. He named Robert Halderman and John Ehrlichman to construct a Berlin Wall to protect him from both friends and enemies.
Early in his first administration Nixon informed his cabinet that “We are going to be out of Vietnam within a year.” Nixon was a person who required massive amounts of time alone. He retreated to Camp David, at times for weeks, over 100 times during his truncated presidency.
There is a tragic tone in the many descriptions of how Nixon sought to lash back at his “enemies.” Following his ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia, he made a night visit to protesting students at the Lincoln Memorial. Subsequently, he concluded that these students were being manipulated by ‘outside forces.’ This led to an illegal surveillance of thousands of students.
Nixon’s fear of disloyalty or betrayal prompted him, in early 1971, to have microphones installed in his office (six in the desk and two in the mantle) and on his phones. According to Alexander Butterfield, at times he voiced his ‘dark side’ for effect.
The publication of the Pentagon Papers is a defining moment in the Nixon presidency. He, with Kissinger’s encouragement, initiated a major campaign to stop these ‘security leaks.’ The entry into the office of Daniel Ellberg’s psychiatrist, Dr. Fielding, proved disastrous. Still, the Plumbers Operation, with Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy, continued their dirty tricks.
Though there are a few new insights into Watergate, this episode is more fully covered in The Discovery Channel’s three video Watergate (1994) and The American Experience’s Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History (2003). The American Experience’s three-hour Nixon (2000) is a fine historical account of Richard Nixon’s life. None of these provide the insights into Nixon’s ‘dark side’ that are catalogued in Nixon: A Presidency Revealed.
Portions of this documentary would be excellent classroom supplements in both high schools and in a college modern American history survey course.
