Watergate Once Again

Like so many of the young men who came of age in the late 1960s and early 1979s, Thomas Mallon believes that Richard Nixon was the dominant political figure of his time. .

Mallon, an author of historical fiction and head of the Creative Writing Program at George Washington University, says his fascination with Nixon began when he was in the 4th grade. "I was a 9-year-old with a Nixon-Lodge button running around telling people not to vote for Kennedy because he did not have enough experience," Mallon now says with a laugh..

Later, Mallon actually met both Nixon and his wife Pat as the couple was riding in a Long Island motorcade and shook their hands. "It was an open-air car and Mrs. Nixon was sitting on top of the seats. She had these spiky high heels that were digging into the red leather (of the seats). Now I was 16 and hardly knew what pornography was, but that image stayed with me," Mallon said.

During his college years, there was Nixon behind the Vietnam War, the shootings at Kent State, the political unrest, the ending of the military draft, the end of the Vietnam War, and finally the end of the Nixon era itself with the Watergate scandal and Nixon's resignation in disgrace as President of the United States.

And it is that Watergate scandal period which provides the setting for Mallon's latest work Watergate: A Novel. Tonight he appeared at Politics and Prose to read from the novel and discuss the background behind the book, which obviously included many hours spent with the Watergate tapes.

For his reading, Mallon chose the chapter where Nixon's secretary Rosemary Woods is introduced to readers. Mallon said Woods, who feels rejected by Nixon's reliance on his aide Robert Haldeman, is one of about 6 major characters in the work.

Mallon told the audience his main purpose in writing the book was "not to write about the skulluggery, but the emotional toll that made this story intimate." 

When asked what he considered Nixon's key flaw, Mallon replied: "I think the saddest and his real undoing was his worship of toughness."  He added that he believes that is why Nixon used so much obscene language on tapes and made so many crude ethnic remarks. "Nixon called it 'our gangster language.' It was their locker room talk," Mallon said.

The author also dismissed the idea that Nixon, while guilty of ordering a cover-up of the Watergate break-in, actually ordered the bungled burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices. "It is inconceivable to me to believe that he knew in advance. Listening to the tapes, he would have had to have been a phenomenal actor. Actually, it often seems that he is trying to pretend he knew more than he did," Mallon contended.

Nixon was, and remains, a pivotal figure in 20th Century American history. "It's never difficult to start a conversation about Richard Nixon," Mallon noted.

Mallon's book has been receiving critical praise and is already on the best-seller list in Washington. The author said that while he appreciates positive comments from readers, as a writer of historical fiction, those comments can sometimes be troublesome.  "I worry when people say 'I learned so much history from your book.' It's historical fiction, not history. The adjective trumps the noun," Mallon said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
I am a contemporary of Mallon, graduating from high school in 1969 and Villanova University in 1973, so I share aspects of his Nixonian fixation. I was an active protester against the war, twice being tear-gassed in Washington during demonstrations. I worked against Nixon's re-election in 1972, getting spit on and dejected for my efforts. I was a cub newspaper reporter the week that Nixon resigned. The Washington Post team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and Rolling Stone gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson, who demonstrated a legendary loathing for all things Nixon, were my heroes; the disgraced Nixon was evil personified, a vile leader who had soiled the presidential office forever. But as I aged, I became more understanding of the complex man who was Richard Milhouse Nixon. I no longer had to, as an American patriot, give him a 1-finger salute every time I saw his image. I reassessed his record - relatively strong in domestic affairs, outstanding in most foreign matters. But there was always Vietnam, and Watergate, and those damning tapes. Today, my assessment of Nixon is that he was essentially a tragically flawed figure, his insecurities and rises and downfalls almost Shakespearean in scope. Mallon, who admits to being conflicted about his current opinion of Nixon, alluded to those horrible insecurities when he delivered this true background tidbit during his talk. As a young man, Nixon was smitten with Pat. She didn't return the love. He had a car. She didn't. He offered to drive her around on her dates with other men. She accepted and he did just that, an almost cringe-producing action much more pathetic than presidential. But as this ugly, endless.GOP presidential season filled with fear and loathing lurches on, it's almost enough to make you long for the Nixon days again. But before we get to0 carried away by the past, there is always Vietnam and Watergate and those damning tapes.