NIXON

Foreign policy master, political brawler, family man, loner, tragic hero, criminal, elder statesman, eternal conniver—Richard Nixon plays all of these roles in the final installment of Ambrose's fascinating three-volume biography (1987, 1989) of the ex-President. Ambrose (History/Univ. of New Orleans) meticulously traces how Nixon—flush with triumph from his landslide reelection victory over George McGovern—spoiled, through his mishandling of Watergate, his best-laid plans for reorganizing the executive branch of the government and for achieving a durable peace in Vietnam and with the Soviet Union. There aren't many surprises here about this extensively documented portion of Nixon's life, but Ambrose compensates with an excellent assessment of his subject's character and record. The author underscores what America lost, as a result of Nixon's Icarus-like fall, in such areas as arms control, energy policy, the Mideast, and national health insurance (though, dubiously, he bemoans the Reagan Revolution without acknowledging how much it owed to Nixon's polarizing campaigns). Admiring Nixon's perseverance, Ambrose draws a sympathetic portrait of the beleaguered politician's attempts to handle a vain Henry Kissinger, military top brass contemptuous of dÉtente, even politicians and lawyers unnerved by Nixon's blatant disregard for the Constitution. In the end, despite appreciating Nixon's intelligence and ability, Ambrose scores the President for a lack of domestic achievements and an even more demonstrable lack of virtue. An adroit retelling of how Nixon plunged into his political black hole—and why, like Lady Macbeth's "damned spot," and despite his carefully orchestrated comeback, his role in the Watergate cover-up can never be obliterated.