Why Was President Nixon So Paranoid?

the president is going to go on National Television he regrets doing it because of his great personal affection for you but he's going to have to say this scare the [ __ ] out of him now I want you do that cuz it no I don't mind doing it at all I'll be he was one of America's most successful presidents on the international stage lorded as a world Statesman who thored the Cold War he was reelected in one of the biggest landslides in American history capturing 49 out of 50 states yet Richard Nixon was also

the only President to resign from office forced out of the White House in abject disgrace people have got to know whether or not their president's a crook well I'm not a crook who was the real Nixon the Visionary Statesman or the sworded crook I believe that's a false distinction Nixon was both Jackal and hide a bizarre mixture of near greatness and incorrigible pettiness that left an enduring mark on history and makes him such an intriguing [Music] figure this is the story of a man who remained a Perpetual Outsider even though he rose to the very

peak of power as president of the United States with the help of rare behind the scenes footage and his taped conversations this film explores Nixon's tragedy how the traits of Personality that propelled him to the top also destroyed his administration Nixon's presidency more than any other shows us how the demands of the most powerful most public job in the world strip bare the character of a human being here in a space evocative of Nixon's Den his Hideaway office is an intimate portrait of a most untimate leader a president alone with his visions and his demons

on the night of the 30th of July 1974 Richard Nixon could not sleep Meed in Scandal his presidency was in terminal crisis in the early hours of the morning he took out his notepad and methodically listed the reasons why he should resign for the good of his Republican party and his country yet Nixon kept returning to his gut instinct that he had had never been a quitter and resignation would be taken as a confession of guilt as Dawn came up Nixon had been scribbling for 3 hours finally he turned over his sheath of papers and

wrote on the back end career as fighter Richard Nixon had always been a fighter to understand how this man became the most embattled president in history we need to go back to the struggles of his early life the struggles that shaped him his father Frank a small town grer in California was a violent bully his mother Hannah was a devoted Quaker and Homemaker yet the young Richard Drew no real warmth from her there were few hugs or kisses much of Hannah's energy was expended on his sickly Brothers Arthur and Harold who died of tuberculosis Richard

grew up insecure withdrawn and emotionally bottled up yet these trials of Youth spurred a fierce ambition at school Nixon was an ace student and strove for fame on the football field but popularity eluded him dick seemed tense and solitary always desperate for fulfillment never able to enjoy his success some presidents exalt in the trappings of power Lyndon Johnson Nixon's predecessor started Life as a school teacher in dirt poor Eastern Texas and he loved to flaunt his status as president on one occasion he walked across the White House lawn to the wrong helicopter and an aid

rushed forward Mr President Mr President that's your helicopter sir over there Johnson turned around some all of them are my [Music] helicopters unlike Johnson when Nixon became president he didn't set up court in the grand Oval Office of the White House images like these were mainly for show on TV and in the Press Nixon liked to work in a far less ostentatious Hideway in the old executive office building a few hundred yards from the White House the den was Nixon's natural me year socially awkward he shunned cocktail parties and business breakfasts the den also shielded

him from debate and discussion Nixon liked to take decisions in private after reviewing memos and documents rather than through the cut and thrust of face-to-face argument this was a president who wanted to rule the world on [Music] paper but a detached loner president who secluded himself so much from bureaucrats and politicians press and public was particularly reliant on a few key intermediaries to do his will his right-hand men were domestic adviser John erckman and Chief of Staff Bob halderman known una affectionately as the prussians in foreign affairs Nixon's main interest the man who mattered was

the National Security adviser Henry Kissinger up close Kissinger caught something of the essence of his boss he didn't enjoy people what I never understood was why he went into politics isolation had become almost a spiritual necessity to this withdrawn tormented man Nixon himself admitted I'm an introvert in an extrovert profession not enjoying human company is a bit of a handicap for a politician but Nixon had always compensated for his lack of personal skills by a formidable capacity for hard [Music] work hard work had been Nixon's way out of his impoverished small town background from his

modest local College in Whittier Southern California top grades won him a scholarship at Duke University one of the best law schools in the country this should have in a huge boost to his self-confidence but Nixon never let up his Grim determination earned him the nickname gloomy Gus one fellow student recalled a very studious individual almost almost fearfully so I can see him in the law library hunched over a book seldom even looking up he never smiled even on Saturday nights he was in the library studying but there was a loftier side to Nixon's workaholic personality

he devoured history books and was deeply moved by the lives of world leaders such as woodro Wilson and Winston Churchill one of his cherish possessions was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln a present on his 13th birthday from his grandma under which she had inscribed lines from the poet Longfellow lives of Great Men all remind us we can make our lives Sublime and departing leave behind us footprints on the sands of time Nixon was determined to leave his footprints on the sands of time he saw himself as almost a philosopher president envisioning the grand strategy while

his min sorted out the details and in 1969 he came to office with a genuinely Grand aim to thw the Cold War and reshape World politics since the second world war the superpow standoff between Democratic West and communist East created the constant threat of allout nuclear war tensions PE peak in 1962 in the Cuban Missile Crisis which left Americans with a new sense of vulnerability and the whole world teetering on the brink of Armageddon Nixon developed a plan to end the global standoff to do this required day tant a relaxation of tension with Russia but

more than that Nixon believed it essential to forge a new relationship with communist China since the Communist Takeover in 1949 the United States had refused to recognize red China in the 1960s the xenophobic frenzy of mil's cultural revolution gave further reason to shun the Asian giant but although a right-wing Republican Nixon swam against the tide he believed that an opening to China was now vital we simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of Nations there to nurture its fantasies cherish its hates and threaten its neighbors Nixon's goal was to pull China back

into the International Community because he argued the world cannot be safe until China changes the boldness of Nixon's scheme shouldn't be underestimated China was a total Pariah the equivalent today would be a western leader calling for direct talks with Al-Qaeda Nixon would act on this idea during his very first 24 hours in the White House scribbling Chinese Communists short range no change long range we do not want 800 million living in angry isolation we want contact here was the Visionary side of Nixon an American Outsider reaching out to the world's Outsiders and what makes his

initiative even more striking is that so far Nixon had forged his whole political identity as a veh anti-communist capitalizing as a young politician on the Cold War Panic of the 1940s Nixon relentlessly depicted his opponents as crypto Communists running for the senate in 1950 he smeared his rival Helen gagen Douglas as pink right down to her underwear when in a political fight Nixon showed little sense of restraint he simply went for the [Music] jugula Nixon had leared the value of dirty tactics he won by a landslide but Douglas's parting Barb stuck she coined the nickname

tricky Dicky seething resentment drove Nixon's political ruthlessness his impoverished youth had left him with a deep grudge against America's privileged [Music] Elite what starts the process really are laughs and slights and snobs when you were a kid but if you are reasonably intelligent and if your anger is deep enough and strong enough you learn that you can change those Attitudes by Excellence personal gut performance while those those who have everything are sitting on their fat [Music] butts Nixon's loathing was reserved particularly for the East Coast establishment the diffusion within the United States of subversive and

unamerican propaganda in fact he made his political name in the hearings that fingered top state department Diplomat aler his as a probable Soviet agent Nixon's hatred of elite figures came from the gut his told Nixon grandly I graduated from Harford I heard your school was Wittier snubs like that made Nixon determined to nail his Nixon's combination of commi bashing and populist politics catapulted him into the vice presidency after 8 years playing under study to Eisenhower Nixon then ran for the presidency itself in 1960 but his opponent was another product of Harvard John F Kennedy whose

father had the money and the determination to get his son into the White House Nixon then stood for the governorship of California Was Defeated again and conceded with a bitter speech aimed at the liberal media that he believed had shafted him but as I leave you I want you to know just think how much you're going to be missing you don't have Nixon to kick around anymore because gentlemen this is my last press conference nothing could have been further from the truth Nixon was simply regrouping for a new assault on the inner circle of power

the Underdog was still determined to come out on top the comeback was a typical mix of ruthlessness underhand Maneuvers and hard work Nixon won vital political allies campaigning for Republican candidates for Congress and as America became polarized between right and left in the angry 60s he positioned himself as a spokesman for what he called the silent majority of law abiding Americans so Nixon was ideally placed to exploit the country's deepening crisis in Vietnam launched by President Kennedy and fired up into a costly full-scale Conflict by Lynden Johnson the Vietnam War had gone disastrously wrong Americans

were dying at the rate of 200 a week with his political opponents on their knees Nixon seized his opportunity when the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in war in Vietnam without the end in sight when a nation with the greatest tradition of rule of law is torn apart by unprecedented lawlessness it's time for new leadership in the United States of [Applause] [Music] America running for the presidency once again in 1968 Nixon projected a new image a dignified Statesman the unifier of his country no doubt this was the kind

of leader that Nixon aspired to be but behind the scenes the reality was rather different ever the anxious political Outsider Nixon instructed his staff to treat the campaign as what he called All Out war in this war no blow was too low publicly Nixon talked peace in Vietnam but behind the scenes he arm Twisted South Vietnam to withdraw from President Johnson's peace talks to win the election he was prepared to undermine his opponent's bid to end the war this time his makavelian tactics [Applause] [Music] worked Nixon won The Outsider became the ultimate Insider now Nixon

had the chance to craft world peace on his own terms leaving indelible footprints on the sands of time the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of Peacemaker this honor now beckons America the chance to help lead the world at last out of the valley of turmoil as President Nixon's Grand strategy was a new set of relations with Russia and China but first he had to resolve Vietnam he was determined not to let his presidency like Johnson's be crippled by the war so Nixon and his National Security adviser Henry Kissinger plotted America's exit strategy

the president's double Act with Kissinger became one of the most extraordinary political relationships of the 20th century it would fuel Nixon's rise but also his fall Nixon and Kissinger were sure that secrecy was the key to success in negotiating an end to the Vietnam War to avoid leaks and press comment that could smother their depl Acy before it had time to flourish so kisinger created a confidential back channel to the Kremlin and engineered secret talks with the Vietnamese while kisinger talked Nixon acted with the same ruthlessness that had won him the presidency now he could

do so with the full might of America's power he aimed to blow budgeon the Communists to the negotiating table by round the-clock bombing of Viet Kong sanctuaries in Cambodia he wanted to shake Hano let them know he didn't play by normal rules he told his chief of staff I call it the madman Theory Bob I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war we'll just slip the word to them that for for God's sake you know Nixon is obsessed about communism we can't restrain him

when he's angry and he has his hand on the nuclear button and hoi men will be in Paris in two days begging for [Music] peace but the Quick Fix didn't work madman tactics failed to to end the war as Nixon had hoped in fact his saturation bombing provoked a backlash at home fueling mounting public protest and press [Music] criticism Nixon saw enemies on every side encircling him but I think he almost needed to be hated that way he knew he was right there was a kind of self-righteous masochism here as well as paranoia as the

Vietnam War dragged on Nixon's paranoia about his enemies at home intensified raging about newspaper exposes of government policy he even created a breaking and entering team to catch the perpetrators and plug the leaks they were known as the plumbers [Music] Nixon's Den which he'd conceived of as a command post was beginning to feel like a bunker the president was exhausted and drinking heavily in May 1970 thousands of anti-war demonstrators converged on Washington Nixon felt besieged unable to sleep he put on a record of rachmaninov's second piano conto yet over the music all he could hear

were the protesters gathering on the [Music] mall Nixon suddenly flipped desperate to break out of the den he summoned his driver they drove down to the Lincoln Memorial where in the early light he confronted some of the protesters they were utterly astonished to encounter the president and to hear rambling Recollections about his own idealism at their age he talked of Neville chamberling coming back from Munich proclaiming peace for our time I said I thought at that time that Chamberlain was the greatest man alive and when I read Churchill's allout criticism of Chamberlain I thought Churchill

was was a Madman in retrospect I now realize Chamberlain was a good man but the Churchill was a wiser [Music] man May 1970 was Nixon at his worst lurching drunkenly between Defiance and self-pity a foraste of things to come but this man was a fighter out of the Wilderness like Churchill he crafted a Triumph finally accomplishing his Grand Design military might alone was clearly not going to end the war in Vietnam so Nixon resorted to cold calculating diplomacy better relations with Russia and China were his long-term goal but now he also seized on this as

a way to put the screws on North Vietnam by persuading Moscow and Beijing to cut off weapons and [Music] supplies his tactic was to make use of the growing Rift between North Vietnam's two communist patrons the Soviets were obsessed by China's growing military strength and soaring population already triple that of r rers Russian fears about the Chinese threat were captured in one Moscow joke which imagined a phone conversation between Nixon and the Soviet leader Leonid bnv I hear you have new super computer with massive predictive power that's right yes indeed so Mr President please ask

your super computer to to predict names of Soviet polit Bureau in year 2000 a long silence ensues finally bref crows down the phone so Mr President your super computer not so super after all oh no Mr General Secretary the uh the names came up all right it's just that I can't read Chinese [Music] how best to exploit the split between the two communist Giants appealed to the Grand strategist in Nixon if Washington forward relations with Beijing he reckoned that would alarm Moscow and make it cozy up to America and the price he would exact for

these new improved relationships would be an end to both Moscow and beijing's support for North Vietnam Nixon saw all this as a kind of global chess game which move by move would get him the peace settlement he wanted and needed to gain reelection in 1972 he told Kissinger we're doing the China thing to screw the Russians and help us in Vietnam and maybe down the road to have some relation relationss with China Nixon saw Kissinger as his most powerful piece his Queen if you like in this game of chess after covert contacts via Pakistan in

July 1971 Kissinger flew in secrecy over the Himalayas and into the Forbidden City of Beijing Nixon could only wait impatiently but on the 11th of July he received the message he wanted kisinger had secured China's agreement in principle that the president would visit Beijing for Nixon this would put pressure on North vetnam and Advance his great goal of global deant Nixon was beside himself with delight he scribbled a message of congratulation to Kissinger when you return I plan to give you a day off in compensation for your superb service to the nation reading this nowadays

you think it was a joke but Nixon didn't do irony just hard work Premier Cho and Li on behalf of the government of the People's Republic of China has extended an invitation to President Nixon to visit China at an appropriate date before May 1972 President Nixon has accepted the invitation with pleasure the opening to China was a stunning public relations coup which took the World by storm the problem for Nixon was that kisinger gained much of the credit turning him almost overnight into an International Celebrity depicted as the shrewd Helmsman who was piloting Nixon on

a dramatic Voyage into the [Music] unknown Nixon needed Kissinger as the backro dealmaker but he hated letting his advisor into the [Music] Limelight Nixon's pioneering visit to China eventually took place in February 1972 carefully scheduled for prime time TV back home just to be sure that Kissinger did not muscle in on the photo opportunity of Nixon's Grand arrival Burly Secret Service AIDS blocked the aisle of Air Force One as the president and his wife walked down the steps and into history [Music] the visit was a Triumph of public relations and it could only have been

achieved by a notorious right- Winger who couldn't be criticized for being soft on communism just as Nixon had hoped his China visit loosened the Cold War deadlock with Moscow the soviet's great fear was being isolated if their old enemy America and their new foe China started becoming friendly so Moscow hurriedly invited kisinger to discussions in the Kremlin Nixon wanted concessions on Vietnam before he would meet with bref but kisinger regarded a summit between the two leaders as the priority and forged ahead on his own back in Washington Nixon fumed impotently that Henry was simply breastfeeding

ing the Soviets tell him no discussions of the summit before they settle Vietnam and that is an order kisinger got equally angry if the president does not trust me there is not much that can be done the struggle for the Limelight was becoming a struggle for power on kinga's return according to the Diary of Nixon's Chief of Staff Bob halderman the president was all primed to to really whack Henry but backed off when he actually got there this was typical Nixon although a tough talker in private he loathed face-to-face confrontation but the appeasement was costly

kinger had set up a summit in Moscow essentially on his terms the messenger was becoming the master [Applause] [Music] in May 1972 Nixon touched down in Moscow he had prepared for the summit by watching the James Bond classic From Russia with Love and he was welcome if not with love at least with champagne unlike Beijing there was substance here as well as symbolism he signed a series of agreements with the Soviets above all on arms control so in three dramatic months in 1972 Nixon had overturned a quarter Century of Cold War history becoming the first

US president to visit the two capitals of communism just 10 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis when nuclear war seemed inevitable Nixon's policy of dayon relaxing superpow tension offered hope for an end to the Vietnam War and the prospect of a new more peaceful [Music] world the global chess game paid off in 1972 won a landslide Victory being reelected with 60% of the popular vote but his obsessive suspicion was now corroding his judgment more and more the president's wary eye turned on his right-hand man Nixon was still angry that kisinger was getting the credit for

the Diplomatic triumphs of 1972 what's more his advisor it seemed was openly trumpeting his success I've always acted alone Americans admire that enormously Americans admire the cowboy entering a village or City all alone on his horse this romantic surprising character suits me because being alone has always been part of my style a wild west tale if you like [Music] the tuy bes spectacle Kissinger as a Lone Ranger style Wild West hero sounded Preposterous to most people but Nixon took it very seriously he liked to think of himself as a Lone Ranger figure with kinger playing

Tonto I don't stand on protocol if you'll just call me Excellency will be clearly his National Security advisor saw their roles as being reversed resentful Nixon started to tape their meetings and calls in due course it would prove a fatal mistake Mr President I have Dr Kissinger calling you now fine thank you hi Henry Mr President you and the arc or Washington no I'm here oh fine fine part of what irked Nixon was that Kissinger's jet setting diplomacy had still not delivered peace in Vietnam in December 1972 with the election won Nixon reverted to hard

ball once again to finally clinch the deal he Unleashed 12 days of savage bombing forcing the North Vietnamese into some final concessions and an agreement was signed North Vietnam acknowledged South Vietnam's right to exist at least for the moment Nixon had extricated America from the mess and got the boys home the president it seemed was starting his second term with a clean slate and could look ahead to expanding his China strategy and building on superpow daytont there was just one minor difficulty for Nixon the trial in a Washington Court of some rather unusual [Music] burkers

in June 1972 five men had been arrested trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate apartment complex the White House denied all knowledge and insisted that the Breakin was the work of a few out of control political Mavericks Nixon himself claimed what really hurts and matters of this sort is not the fact that they occur because overzealous people in campaigns do things that are wrong what really hurts is if you try to cover it up wise words if only Nixon had heeded them water gate wasn't a marginal event on The

Fringe of the Nixon presidency it was a product of the hardball paranoid politics that had got tricky Dicky to the top and would now bring him down te correct you think the New York Times is wored about all legal nion probably didn't know about Watergate in advance but he had sanctioned break-ins and wiretaps of opponents through his notorious plumbers he had fostered the climate of illegality that led to Watergate Nixon's Siege mentality assumed that they were all out to get him the Democrats the press the liberal establishment earlier in his presidency he' made a comment

to Kissinger and some AIDs that was frighteningly revealing what one day we will get them we'll get them on the ground where we want them and we'll stick our heels in step on them hard and twist right Henry knows what I mean get them on the floor and step on them crush them show no mercy following the Watergate arrests Nixon was right at the center of a cover up which he delegated to the White House law officer John Dean in June 1972 on the pretext of National Security Nixon told aids to order the FBI but

after the election in 19 1973 Congress appointed a special senate committee to inquire into Watergate the burglar who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at Watergate were in effect breaking into the home of every citizen of the United States the burglars and their immediate bosses were prosecuted the Press followed up every lead delighted to get back at the president the hatred was Mutual [Music] the pressure was really getting to Nixon his hands were shaking his breath smelt of liquor the den was becoming a bunker it was like May 1970 all over again

but this time there was no way back his presidency and his personality began to fall apart Nixon told halderman you know Bob there's something I've never told anybody before not even you every night since I've been president I have knelt down on my knees beside my bed and prayed to God for guidance and help in this job last night I knelt down and this time I prayed that I wouldn't wake up in the morning I just couldn't face going on Nixon was proned to melodrama and self-pity but even so these words probably came from the

heart the most powerful man in the world custodian of the nuclear codes that could exterminate millions could not stop the wheels of justice and democracy gradually grinding him down yet the Scandal dragged on for another 15 months because Nixon a fighter all his life would not give up it is my constitutional responsibility to defend the Integrity of this great office against false charges you know when Hunt's wife was flying in Chicago ironically though he sealed his own fate because this most secretive of presidents had documented his own crimes through his tapes we have a cancer

within close to the presidency it's growing it's growing daily for being blackmailed I would say these people are going to cost uh a million dollars over the next uh few years you can get it in c i I know where it can be got M I mean it's not easy but it could be done throughout 1973 Nixon kept battling on two fronts still aching to leave his own footprints on the sands of time he invited bnv to Washington hoping to keep up the momentum of his great diplomatic project deant but he was also fending off

efforts by the Senate inquiry to subpoena his tapes Watergate was now not only sapping his energy and health but also undermining his political credibility after reelection he'd hoped to dispense with Kissinger jealous of his cult status instead the discredited president found he needed his respected National Security advisor as never before even appointing him Secretary of State as well [Music] from now on it was almost a co-residency no more so than in late October 1973 at the height of the Arab Israeli yam kapore War the crisis escalated into a major Faceoff between the superpowers US forces

were put on deathcon 3 the highest level of Defense Readiness short of imminent attack [Music] yet the decision was taken not by the president but by Kissinger Nixon was asleep and kisinger took the decision not to wake him Chief of Staff alh asked if kisinger had talked to the president no I haven't kisinger replied he just start charging around I don't think we should bother the president whether Nixon was exhausted or drunk is unclear to save himself the president had had to sacrifice most of the key AIDS who'd been at his side since the beginning

halderman and erckman had been forced out and he was losing all authority constantly harried in press conferences about the tapes the coverup and even his personal finances people have got to know whether or not there president is a crook well I'm not a crook Now The Lone Ranger really was alone forced to release the self- incriminatory tapes and facing imminent impeachment Nixon finally resigned in August 1974 he told staff in a tearful rambling farewell never be Petty always remember Others May hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them and then

you destroy yourself the ultimate irony was that hate had become the adrenaline of the Nixon presidency the ambition and ruthlessness that had driven Nixon to the top had spiraled into a consuming rage and mistrust of others that had indeed destroyed him Nixon I think never really came to terms with himself with his unstable mixture of ability shyness and suspicion the presidency of the United States is an unforgiving role Nixon wasn't the first president nor will he be the last to end his tenure compromised and discredited the Relentless pressures of office drill down to the vulnerable

heart of the incumbent and expose it to the media's remorseless gaze since Nixon the political strip show has continued Carter honorable but hapless Reagan amiable but out of it Clinton a presidency unzipped Bush Jr a presidency in Terror and Obama Great Expectations that couldn't be delivered but Nixon stands as an exceptional case Watergate wasn't a strange aberration it was symptomatic of the back Channel backstabbing methods by which Nixon's whole presidency operated methods that generated his International triumphs as much as his domestic scandals here was a presidency of the paranoid and ultimately it was this very

paranoia that sank him in the form of his obsessively recorded tapes they're going to ask but what about this son of a [ __ ] [Music] now will you go away we're so TI the things that just [Music] say even though you never said a word that would help anyone but yourself tomorrow is such a bad [Music]