Nixon's Gamble

After taking the Oath of Office, Richard Nixon announced that “government will listen. ... Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in” and signed National Security Decision Memorandum 2. Using years of research and newly released NSC and administration documents, Ray Locker upends conventional wisdom about the Nixon presidency and shows how the creation of this secret, unprecedented, extra-constitutional government undermined U.S. policy and values; and sowed the seeds of his own destruction by creating a climate of secrecy, paranoia, and reprisal that still affects Washington today.