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A groundbreaking narrative of the relationship between Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon—from the politics that divided them to the marriage that united their families.
Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon had a political and private relationship that lasted nearly twenty years, a tie that survived hurtful slights, tense misunderstandings, and the distance between them in age and temperament. Yet the two men brought out the best and worst in each other, and their association had important consequences for their respective presidencies.
In Ike and Dick, Jeffrey Frank rediscovers these two compelling figures with the sensitivity of a novelist and the discipline of a historian. He offers a fresh view of the younger Nixon as a striving tactician, as well as the ever more perplexing person that he became. He portrays Eisenhower, the legendary soldier, as a cold, even vain man with a warm smile whose sound instincts about war and peace far outpaced his understanding of the changes occurring in his own country.
Eisenhower and Nixon shared striking characteristics: high intelligence, cunning, and an aversion to confrontation, especially with each other. Ike and Dick, informed by dozens of interviews and deep archival research, traces the path of their relationship in a dangerous world of recurring crises as Nixon’s ambitions grew and Eisenhower was struck by a series of debilitating illnesses. And, as the 1968 election cycle approached and the war in Vietnam roiled the country, it shows why Eisenhower, mortally ill and despite his doubts, supported Nixon’s final attempt to win the White House, a change influenced by a family matter: his grandson David’s courtship of Nixon’s daughter Julie—teenagers in love who understood the political stakes of their union.
- Sales Rank: #950655 in Books
- Published on: 2013-02-05
- Released on: 2013-02-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x 1.40" w x 6.12" l, 1.55 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 448 pages
From Booklist
Given that Eisenhower did not want Richard Nixon as his vice president––Ike tried to jettison him in 1952 and in 1956––a host of mutually conflicted feelings must have surrounded their lengthy association. Exploring their interactions in episode after episode, in settings ranging from Republican Party conventions to the White House to golf courses, Frank constructs a marvelous account of political history as well as astute portraits of the two men. Nixon emerges from Frank’s narrative with his oft-chronicled quirks intact but also as a more sympathetic character who, craving approval from the general who won WWII, emotionally suffered from Eisenhower’s diffident thoughtlessness. On the other hand, the ambitious and crafty Nixon capitalized on an Eisenhower weakness––his distaste for personally firing anyone––to outfox Ike, as with his famously maudlin Checkers speech. Pithily describing their relationship as having “a filial aspect, though one without much filial affection,” Frank chronicles it through Ike’s presidency and Nixon’s presidential campaigns with the rich, inside-politics mix of rumor and maneuver in which connoisseurs of political history love to marinate. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Best Books of 2013: Slate Staff Picks
One of Jay Strafford’s 10 favorite books of 2013: Richmond Times-Dispatch
Best Books of 2013: Kansas City Star
Books of the Year: The Spectator (Australia)
One of the Eight Best Books for Potus Geeks in 2013
“Perhaps the most intriguing—and dysfunctional—political marriage in history was the one between the subjects of Jeffrey Frank's meticulously researched Ike and Dick….a highly engrossing political narrative that skillfully takes the reader through the twisted development of a strange relationship that would help shape America’s foreign and domestic agenda for much of the 20th century.” (The New York Times Book Review, cover)
“One of the best books ever written about Richard Nixon…. Ike and Dick shows how much life remains in artfully straightforward narrative history.” (Thomas Mallon, The New Yorker)
"Ike and Dick is an elegant example of how pleasurable political history can be when written by a skilled teller of fictional tales who has a careful reporter’s respect for facts. It is top-drawer as political history, unusually well written, and stuffed with forty pages of notes providing sources for an extraordinary variety of information. It is also an entertaining human tale of generational conflict, filled with the elements that enliven popular novels and soap operas." (Russell Baker, The New York Review of Books)
“Engrossing…worthwhile…. At the heart of Ike and Dick are marvelously cringe-inducing anecdotes that capture an awkward relationship that improved over time without ever truly blooming.” (The Wall Street Journal)
“[A] rare and understatedly important book that suggests a subtle rethink, offering both the casual reader and the student of history a surprisingly candid and humane look at the national villain-in-chief, Richard Nixon. And just as significant, Frank helps to round out our portrait of Nixon’s venerable political mentor, the equally wily and fickle President Dwight D. Eisenhower….[A] carefully argued and nuanced book.” (Charleston Post and Courier)
“Jeffrey Frank is a nimble writer with a clear-eyed understanding of power….[Ike and Dick] reveals the nuances of the complex relationship between Nixon and the man under whom he served as vice president, Dwight Eisenhower, nuances that should resonate with Republicans who are waging an internecine struggle over the future of their party.” (The Miami Herald)
“Jeffrey Frank knows a good story when he sees one, or sees two….Ambition and hesitation, intrigue and indifference, scheming and serenity, infuse 31 chapters. His saga evokes the seamy underside of the sunny 1950s…..[A] detailed and charming history.” (Martin F. Nolan, The San Francisco Chronicle)
“This is superlative, compelling, can’t-put-it-down history. Jeffrey Frank is an elegant writer, with a novelist’s eye; the relationship between Eisenhower and Nixon, in all its complexity and weirdness, is a treasure chest that he unpacks brilliantly. This is the perfect time for us to reconsider the trajectory of the Republican Party in the late twentieth century, and this book is a perfect way to do it.” (Joe Klein, Time columnist)
“To read this book is to be reminded of Richard Nixon’s singularly tortured character in all its cussedness and genius—and to learn anew of Dwight Eisenhower’s capacity for shrewd political cunning and often insouciant human coldness. Ike and Dick deeply textures our understanding of two outsized American personalities and the complex layers of their long and consequential relationship—and it’s full of delicious gossip, too.” (David M. Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Freedom from Fear)
“The mating of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon was one of the strangest and most fateful in all of American political history. With psychological acuity and perfect pitch for the not-so-distant past, Jeffrey Frank has captured the story beautifully. Ike and Dick will surprise and greatly entertain as well as enlighten you.” (Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy)
“Anyone interested in U.S. politics will enjoy Jeffrey Frank’s absorbing tale of two very different men and their turbulent relationship.” (Bookpage)
“Fascinating.” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
“Ike and Dick is enthralling, innovative, and judicious. It rivets the reader. Jeffrey Frank knows Washington and national politics inside and out. He employs numerous interviews and recently declassified information superbly. In critical respects, and by using their own words with meticulous care, he peels away layers of disingenuousness from both men. The cast of characters, including indiscreet aides, ranges from bright red to shady gray.” (Michael Kammen Pulitzer Prize-winning author and past president of the Organization of American Historians)
“The author does a fine job delineating the complex personalities of both men, and he provides novelistic touches befitting his background….A well-researched and -written history that will satisfy both Eisenhower and Nixon aficionados.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Frank constructs a marvelous account of political history as well as astute portraits of the two men….the rich, inside-politics mix of rumor and maneuver in which connoisseurs of political history love to marinate.” (Booklist)
About the Author
Jeffrey Frank was a senior editor at The New Yorker and the deputy editor of the Washington Post’s Outlook section. He is the author of four novels, including the Washington Trilogy—The Columnist, Bad Publicity, and Trudy Hopedale. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Diana. They have one son.
Most helpful customer reviews
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful.
Good cop/bad cop
By Jill Meyer
Jeffrey Frank's new book, "Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage", is one of those great books that examines the personalities and events that can make a small part of history so important. Frank does an excellent job at looking at Eisenhower and Nixon - the "good copy/bad cop" of the 1950's and their tangled relationship.
If Dwight Eisenhower was the popular choice of the Republican Party, and then the country's voters in 1952, his running mate, Richard Nixon, was not. Eisenhower, drafted into public life through his war record, was not of a political bent. In fact, his allegiance to one of the two parties was in doubt until he declared he was a Republican in the early 1950's. He didn't care for politicians and never quite trusted them. And Richard Nixon, former congressman elected to the US Senate in 1950 in a particularly dirty race against Helen Gahagan Douglas, was a consummate politician. A 20th century Machievelli, so to speak, without any personal charm. Nixon was well aware of his own limitations. In 1952, various Republican advisers pitched Nixon to Eisenhower as his best choice of a running mate; Nixon was brought on to shore up the right side of the Republican ticket. But Eisenhower and Nixon had a difficult relationship from the campaign on through to their eight years in office. When scandal threatened Nixon's place on the ticket in 1952, Eisenhower stepped back and let Nixon face the public with his famous "Checkers" speech. In 1956, Eisenhower let Nixon dangle before welcoming him back on the ticket. The two men were not personally close and the Nixons, for instance, were never invited to the Eisenhowers' personal residence at the White House.
What did Eisenhower get from having Nixon as his vice-president for eight years? Loyalty and a bull-dogged allegiance to the president and his agenda. Eisenhower could "stand above the fray" when dealing with such troublesome issues and personalities like Senator Joseph McCarthy and his obsession with "communists in the government" and let Nixon do his dirty work for him.Nixon did a very delicate balancing act when filling in for Eisenhower during his health crises while in office. But what did Nixon receive in return to his allegiance? Certainly little personal interaction with the president, and very little loyalty in return, particularly when Nixon was looking to succeed Eisenhower in office in 1960.
Jeffrey Frank's book is a balanced and nuanced look at two very different individuals who danced a minuet of power for eight years in office, and then in the 10 years after. This book is well worth reading by the armchair historians it has been aimed at.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Hard to put down this tour de force
By Michael York
Jeff Frank's examination of this remarkable political pairing is brilliant. He tells the story of their relationship, and he does it with such detail and skill that you think you're actually there. It's not meant to be a comprehensive treatise of the two presidencies, but in a way it's much more. Frank takes you inside the Nixon and Eisenhower homes, inside the real smoke-filled rooms (Ike peaked out at almost three packs a day) and even inside the hospital rooms. There's a ton of new detail and vignettes, including an indelible image of Ike recovering from his stroke and slamming his fists into the bed as he tried to reach for the word "thermostat.'" And there's a lot more. Be sure to watch out, near the end, where Frank challenges the one-dimensional view of Nixon with surprising evidence of his human side. I hated for it to end.
40 of 48 people found the following review helpful.
Not a complete story
By Kenneth
Richard Nixon was first elected to Congress in 1948. By 1952, he'd made a name for himself as a hard-working, well-prepared, anti-Communist member of the House Unamerican Activities Committee; and been elected to the U.S. Senate after a vicious campaign that earned him the moniker "Tricky Dick", with which he would be associated for the rest of his life. Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower had recently returned from World War II where, as Supreme Allied Commander, he became a war hero to the American people. Both political parties had recruited him to run for President, but he chose to run as a Republican. Ike and Dick had met each other a couple of times, but did not know each other well, and Ike apparently selected Nixon to be his running mate on the recommendation of his advisors. "Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage" addresses the relationship between the two men from 1952, until Eisenhower's death in 1969. Most of the book focuses on the years from 1952 to 1960, when Ike left office and John Kennedy defeated Nixon for President. Author Jeffry Frank attempts to represent a dynamic in which an insecure, but bright, Richard Nixon continually seeks to win the approval of a powerful, but distant, older man (Ike) who consistently fails to give him the approval he craves. I think the premise is interesting, and certainly anyone who followed Watergate a few years later can accept that Richard Nixon had significant insecurity issues. It is Eisenhower's role I had trouble buying.
This book is really about Richard Nixon. Eisenhower is never developed as a character beyond the extent Frank needs to support his point that he was "cold, aloof, and secretive". We learn, for example, that Ike was suspicious of "politicians", but never learn of the significant political skills it took for a mediocre student at West Point to become a 5-Star general leading the allied war effort. Instead, we get excerpted letters between Eisenhower and Nixon which Frank characterizes as "cold" when all I see in them is a CEO being careful not to say more than he means to a subordinate. Frank mentions that both Ike and Dick came from deeply religious backgrounds, as if that somehow ties them together, but never develops either person's character to the point where I felt I understood them. I also take issue with the cursory attention Frank pays to the significant policy issues facing the country during the Eisenhower years. Significant players appear and disappear without adequate development beyond whether the liked Dick Nixon or not. This book could have been far better than it was.
If you have read few books about Nixon or Eisenhower, or this period in American history, then I recommend you start with another book. There isn't much here. But, if you enjoy reading about these two men, each fascinating in his own right, then this book may be a pleasant read.
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