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After the Fall
A former white house speechwriter reveals what really happened after the watergate scandal.
"I feel very strongly that the president could pull a real coup by formally offering at a summit meeting to mutually share with the Soviet Union the results of our research in our defensive outer space programs. This would undercut the position of the critics who claim that we want a shield so that we can use the sword of our offensive capability.”
-Richard Nixon to Reagan National Security Advisor Bud McFarlane, March 1984
The Astonishing Comeback of Richard Nixon
Only a decade after fleeing the White House in disgrace, Richard Nixon became a trusted advisor to presidents, dispensing wisdom on campaign strategy and foreign policy, shaping the course of U.S.-Soviet summit meetings, and representing the United States at state funerals—the very model of an elder statesman.
How did he do it? Nixon leveraged his still sharp mind, his peerless political instincts, his deep connections with foreign leaders—but, above all, his stubborn refusal to accept defeat—to achieve a political restoration as astonishing as the fall that preceded it.
Kasey S. Pipes, advisor to President George W. Bush, tells the fascinating story of Nixon’s comeback. From his unprecedented access to the private post-presidential documents at the Nixon Library and groundbreaking interviews of aides and family members, Pipes reveals inside information that has never been reported about Nixon’s successful campaign to repair his reputation and resuscitate his career:
- The true story behind the supposed medical “hoax” to get Nixon out of testifying at the Watergate trials of his aides in Washington
- The strategy behind Nixon’s apparently accidental on-air “confession” on the Watergate coverup to interviewer David Frost
- How Nixon’s advice on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) shaped Ronald Reagan’s negotiations with Gorbachev—and changed history
- How, after the Tiananmen Square violence, Nixon traveled to China to help prevent an international incident and helped to preserve the U.S.-Chinese relations that he opened up years earlier
- The Saturday morning presidential radio address: a Nixon idea
- Nixon’s surprising friendship with Bill Clinton
After the Fall is the gripping and never-before-told story of the most remarkable reversal of fortune in American political history.
KASEY S. PIPES served as an advisor to President George W. Bush and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is co-founder of the issues management firm Corley Pipes, partner at the public affairs firm High Water Strategies, and the Norris Fellow at the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College. His writings have appeared in USA Today and Politico, and he is the author of Ike’s Final Battle: The Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality.
