The Greatest Comeback

By: Patrick J. Buchanan

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

Patrick J. Buchanan, best-selling author and senior advisor to Richard Nixon, tells the definitive story of Nixon's resurrection from the political graveyard and his rise to the presidency.

After suffering stinging defeats in the 1960 presidential election against John F. Kennedy, and in the 1962 California gubernatorial election, Nixon's career was declared dead by Washington press and politicians alike. Yet on January 20, 1969, just six years after he had said his political life was over, Nixon would stand taking the oath of office as 37th President of the United States. How did Richard Nixon resurrect a ruined career and reunite a shattered and fractured Republican Party to capture the White House?

In The Greatest Comeback, Patrick J. Buchanan - who, beginning in January 1966, served as one of two staff members to Nixon, and would become a senior advisor in the White House after 1968 - gives a firsthand account of those crucial years in which Nixon reversed his political fortunes during a decade marked by civil rights protests, social revolution, The Vietnam War, the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, urban riots, campus anarchy, and the rise of the New Left. Using over 1,000 of his own personal memos to Nixon, with Nixon's scribbled replies back, Buchanan gives listeners an insider's view as Nixon gathers the warring factions of the Republican party - from the conservative base of Barry Goldwater to the liberal wing of Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney, to the New Right legions of an ascendant Ronald Reagan - into the victorious coalition that won him the White House. How Richard Nixon united the party behind him may offer insights into how the Republican Party today can bring together its warring factions.

The Greatest Comeback is an intimate portrayal of the 37th President and a fascinating fly-on-the-wall account of one of the most remarkable American political stories of the 20th century.

©2014 Patrick J. Buchanan (P)2014 Random House Audio

Great history of Nixon in the wildernest

Would you consider the audio edition of The Greatest Comeback to be better than the print version?

The narration was excellent. The only person who could do it better is Buchanon himself. I think the print version would be cool to see the pictures of these men during that era, but otherwise I don't think anything is lost in the audio.

What other book might you compare The Greatest Comeback to and why?

1. The tempo of the book is much like that of "Jack, We Hardley Knew Ye" - by Kenny oddonell and Dave Powers. However, while Buchanon seems to admire Nixon as a politician, he does not worship Nixon personally in the way the Kennedy men did JFK.2. The subject matter overlaps closely with "Nixon Land," and other of Ron Perlsteins books. But these books are quite complimentary.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Riding shotgun across the Repunlican Right during the heart of 1960s with a Tricky Dick and a young Pat Buchanan.

Any additional comments?

Worth the credit

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

The comeback kid

When I saw the author was Patrick Buchanan, I remembered him as an aide to Richard Nixon, so I understood from the beginning the book would have a favorable bias. The book covers the time frame from the defeat by JFK for the presidency in 1960 and the lost to Pat Brown for governor of California in 1962 to his winning the presidency in 1968. This time frame to borrow from Winston Churchill was his “wilderness years”.

The GOP was split between the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater hard-liners and the more moderate Republicans represented by Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney. Nixon started courting the conservative press and laying down strategy for helping the GOP recoup losses in the mid-term election of 1966. This strategy included reassuring law and order, endorsing Rockefeller for Governor of New York, fashioning a new Republican Party of the South that rested on human rights not bigotry.

Buchanan provides an insider’s account of how Nixon made his comeback. Buchanan bolsters his tale with copious evidence, not just his first hand memoires as a major participant but also abundant new clips and archival material. The book is thoughtful, well-written and entertaining full of intrigue and gamesmanship of politics. I did note the book revealed time and again that Nixon chose to attack opponents rather than develop solutions for problems facing the country at the time. As we are at the fortieth anniversary of Nixon resignation I assume more books about Nixon will be forthcoming. Arthur Morey narrated the book.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT, REMARKABLY TOLD

Whether you hold editorial viewpoints of a similar nature (either historically or currently) to the author, one things is undeniable: this insider, coming-of-age story told within the context of permanent political change that Nixon's 1968 presidential race had on American Politics is nothing short of breathtaking.

Recommended for any and all political junkie hungry for new information and broader, detailed perspective on well known topics.

IMPORTANT NOTE: by and large, the editorial positions of Mr. Buchanan so rarely influence his telling of the story inside this book. Buchanan instead uses the work as a forum to share with the public thousands of pieces of correspondence and various personal notes that he, as a young and largely inexperienced political operative at the time, learned on the campaign trail.

Like any Buchanan book there is SOME soapboxing -- yet not only far less than in most of Patrick's other works, but far less in fact than most ideologically driven authors would use when approaching such a tale to begin with.

It is clear that Buchanan takes his loyalty to the former President, as well as providing accurate information in a book of political history, as obligations which far outweigh most interest in using the 68' election as a backdrop to spout out like a fountain on the strong conceptual points of view Patrick has has become well known for ever since his first campaign for President back in 1992.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Interesting Political History

This insider's view of Nixon's political comeback gives us a glimpse of an era when successful politicians (both Democratic and Republicans) tried to build coalitions around the center rather than appeal to the extremes of their respective parties.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Big fan of both Buchanan and Nixon

This is an excellent account of the successful 1968 presidential race by Nixon, and the years that lead up to it. It is well-written by an insider who was not tainted by Watergate so had no axe to grind. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in history, the presidency and politics.

A wealth of information

Wonderful telling of the way Nixon fought back from political purgatory to win the presidency.

Avoid. Very partisan.

Firstly let me say faultless performance from the production team, very well produced.

However avoid this book. As a story of Nixon's rise... Okay so being one sided is FINE but to go through almost this entire story with no criticism of the man? No juicy revelations on character or the political operation that led to Watergate. No insights on Mitchell, Haldeman or Erlichman who were on staff at the time. Failed to tell the story of Nixon's pre-inaugural appointments. No mention of Kissinger who he met after the election, nor Iran which Nixon did visit during the period this book supposedly covers. I think the only value I got from this was 1)understanding Pat Buchanan's domestic policy ideology, and, 2) I did enjoy hearing his thoughts on the '68 Democratic convention.

Pat Buchanan' book serves better as a view on the Southern Strategy and ideological battles in the Republican party of the 60s than what the title suggests.

Mr Buchanan if you ever read this please edit the book to include foreshadowing of the crises and personalities, that will make the Nixon presidency so interesting to study. Why no mention of Iran? Hiding something?

In conclusion - this is the 8th Nixon book I've listened to on Audible and the last I would recommend. It's utterly partisan I could hardly believe a word of this although it did contain some fresh anecdotes I haven't heard elsewhere. Rather than this book, I would recommend Dalek's 'Nixon and Kissinger' or even John Dean's 'The Nixon Defense' both available on Audible.