David Gergen Presents President Nixon

David Gergen presents President Nixon as he was, and the side of him people did not know. He does not seek to make more of Nixon than he was; his presentation is as unbiased as he can make it.  Gergen boldly displays the strengths of Nixon and bluntly points out his weaknesses. Nixon can was best described as being a man of layers. Gergen (31) used the example from Bill Safire in which he said;

“Think of Nixon as a layered cake,” he [Safire] wrote. “The public face or crust is conservative, stern, dignified, proper.” The first layer underneath is the “progressive politician” seeking to become another Disraeli; underneath, “an unnecessarily pugnacious man” who is self-made, self-pitying, but not self-centered; the next layer down is the poker player; underneath, “the hater, the impugner of motives”; another layer down, the realist; then “the observer-participant” who sees himself as a third person; beneath, “the man of extraordinary courage”; and finally, the loner. People tend only to see the layer they want to see. “But the whole cake is the ‘real’ Nixon, including some layers I have not mentioned because I do not know. When you take a bite of the cake that is Nixon, you must get a mouthful of all the layers; nibbling along one level is not permitted.”

When viewing Nixon in this light, his strengths and weaknesses appear interchangeable. His so-called weaknesses could in turn become assets depending on the crisis at hand. The same could be said of his strengths. To determine what his strengths and weaknesses are is solely determined by the perspective of the individual analyzing him. In this case, it is Gergen, who worked alongside Nixon whose perspective will be used to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Nixon.

As far as strengths are concerned, Nixon was prepared for the presidency through his defeats along the way of becoming president. Losing elections did not defeat him but made him stronger in his pursuit of politics. He wrote about his life for self-reflection and spent time alone to reflect on who he was and who he wanted to be. “He visited four continents, investigating conditions, examining the interests and motivations of other nations, an expanding his storehouse of contacts.” (Gergnen, 37).

According to Gergen, Nixon was viewed as progressive in his time. He had a diverse staff working with him to provide different perspectives on political and social issues. Nixon being well-traveled and educated on the interests and motives of other nation, he had a good grasp of foreign affairs.  With this knowledge, Nixon did not simply speak of peace, rather, he genuinely worked to achieve peace.  Not only was Nixon proactive in his time as president, but he remained a serious student of power and leadership. He was not done being a learner and sought to further his knowledge to make himself better as a president. Aside from his positive strengths as president, Nixon was a family-man. His daughters meant the world to him and he loved his wife. To them, he was a faithful man.