Pat and Dick: The Nixons, an Intimate Portrait of a Marriage

Swift's book begs the question: Could Richard M. Nixon have become president if not for his wife, Pat? Relying on newly released materials housed at the Nixon Presidential Library, including the couple's earliest correspondence and other of Pat's archives there, Swift (The Kennedys Amidst the Gathering Storm), a psychologist, begins with the Nixons' courtship, when the Quaker lawyer Richard, unrelenting in his attentions, convinced his independent and beautiful girlfriend to marry him, making what was arguably the most astute decision of his life. As he progressed in politics, so, too, did Pat sustain him and seek to create an enviably happy home life to present to the media to overcome the impression that the two were cold and distant. An introverted, deeply insecure man by nature, Richard evidently found that the steadfast and loyal presence of his wife made it possible for him to further his political ambitions, until the time when his native insecurity took him a step too far. Swift covers the aftermath of Watergate as experienced by the Nixons and their daughters, through the death of Pat in 1993, followed closely by the end of her husband's life in 1994. Overall, he gives us among the most nuanced portraits of these two complex individuals that we have yet seen.