Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage

464 Pages·2013·28.881 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Frank

JEFFREY FRANK
Portrait of a Strange
Political
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D
wight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon
had a political and private relationship that
lasted nearly twenty years, a tie that survived hurtful
slights, tense misunderstandings, and the distance
between them in age and temperament. Yet the two
men brought out the best and worst in each other, and
their association had important consequences for their
respective presidencies.
In Ike and Dick, Jeffrey Frank rediscovers these two
compelling figures with the sensitivity of a novelist
and the discipline of a historian. He offers a fresh view
of the younger Nixon as a striving tactician, as well as
the ever more perplexing person that he became. He
portrays Eisenhower, the legendary soldier, as a cold,
even vain man with a warm smile whose sound
instincts about war and peace far outpaced his under¬
standing of the changes occurring in his own country.
Eisenhower and Nixon shared striking characteris¬
tics: high intelligence, cunning, and an aversion to
confrontation, especially with each other. Ike and Dick,
informed by dozens of interviews and deep archival
research, traces the path of their relationship in a
dangerous world of recurring crises as Nixons ambi¬
tions grew and Eisenhower was struck by a series of
debilitating illnesses. And, as the 1968 election cycle
approached and the war in Vietnam roiled the coun¬
try, it shows why Eisenhower, mortally ill and despite
his doubts, supported Nixon s final attempt to win the
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White House, a change influenced by a family matter:
his grandson Davids courtship of Nixons daughter
Julie—teenagers in love who understood the political
stakes of their union.
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ALSO BY JEFFREY FRANK
The Columnist
Bud Publicity
Trudy Hopedale
The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen
(translator, with Diana Crone Frank)
DICK
Portrait of a Strange
Political Marriage
Jeffrey Frank
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Copyright © 2013 by Jeffrey Frank
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frank, Jeffrey
Ike and dick : portrait of a strange political marriage / Jeffrey Frank,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Miitut ma-mf' 3' MlcDavid)’A90-'969- 2- N,xon-RkWd M- (Richard
3- United States—Politics and government—1945-1989.
4. Presidents—United States—Biography. I Title
E836.F73 2013 7 *
973.921092—dc23
[B]
2012015138
ISBN 978-1-4165-8701-9
ISBN 978-1-4165-8820-7 (ebook)
For Vibeke Elise Frank,
her parents, and, as always, Diana