The mysterious Mrs. Nixon The life and times of Washington's most private first lady

Heath Hardage Lee

Book - 2024

"A new, revolutionary look into the brilliant life of Pat Nixon. In America's collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted "Most Admired Woman in the World" in 1972 and made Gallup Poll's top ten list of most admired women fourteen times. She survived the turmoil of the Watergate scandal with her popularity and dignity intact. And yet, the media often portrayed Mrs. Nixon as elusive and mysterious. The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described in the press. Pat married California lawyer Richard Nixon in June of 1940, becoming a wife, mother, and her husband's trusted political partner in short order. As the couple rose to prominen...ce, Pat became Second Lady from 1953-1961 and then First Lady from 1969-1974, forging her own graceful path between the protocols of the strait-laced mid-century and the bra-burning Sixties and Seventies. Pat was a highly traveled First Lady, visiting eighty-three countries during her tenure. After a devastating earthquake in Peru in 1970, she personally flew in medical supplies and food to hard-hit areas, meeting one-on-one with victims of the tragedy. The First Lady's 1972 trips with her husband to China and to Russia were critical to the détente that resulted. President Nixon frequently sent her to represent him at significant events in South America and Africa solo. Pat greatly expanded upon previous preservation efforts in the White House, obtaining more art and antique objects than any other First Lady. She was progressive on women's issues, favoring the Equal Rights Amendment and backing a targeted effort to get more women into high level government jobs. Pat strongly supported nominating a woman for the Supreme Court. She was pro-choice, supporting women's reproductive rights publicly even before the landmark Roe v. Wade case in 1973. When asked to define her "signature" First Lady agenda, she defied being put into a box, often saying: "People are my project." There was nothing Pat Nixon enjoyed more than working one-on-one directly with ordinary human beings, especially with women, children, and those in need. In The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon, Heath Hardage Lee presents readers with the essential nature of this First Lady, an empathetic, adventurous, self-made woman who wanted no power or influence, but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered world-wide"--

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Informational works
Published
New York, NY : St. Martin's Press, an imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Heath Hardage Lee (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
viii, 405 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-397) and index.
ISBN
9781250274342
  • Prologue: The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon
  • Part I. A Farmer's Daughter
  • 1. The Loneliest Road in America
  • 2. Something More Than Just an Ordinary Country Girl
  • 3. A Magic Little City
  • 4. Miss Vagabond
  • 5. Full and Equal Partners
  • 6. The Winds of War
  • 7. Never Just a Wife
  • 8. The Pat and Dick Team
  • Part II. Washington Wife
  • 9. The Green Book
  • 10. Happy Days Are Here Again
  • 11. Taking the Veil
  • 12. The Financial Striptease
  • 13. The Cinderella Girl of the GOP
  • 14. Lady of Fashion
  • 15. Grace Under Fire
  • 16. 1960 Election: Jeweled Jackie vs. Drip-Dry Pat
  • 17. People Are Not Cattle
  • 18. A New Life on the Upper East Side
  • 19. A Together Couple but Not Together at Times
  • Part III. Leading Lady
  • 20. The Hardest Unpaid Job in the World
  • 21. West Wing vs. East Wing: Battle of the Sexes
  • 22. A Wartime White House
  • 23. What Makes Pat Nixon Tick?
  • 24. A Few Good Women
  • 25. Not Even a Lion Could Break Lt
  • 26. Elegant but Not Aloof
  • 27. Good Afternoon, Mrs. Ford's Office
  • 28. True Grit
  • Epilogue: The Road Goes On
  • Acknowledgments
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

There are many adjectives that come to mind when describing Pat Nixon--poised, private, devoted, traditional. Mysterious doesn't make the list, yet Lee maintains that Nixon was misunderstood and underestimated throughout her life and especially as first lady, and it is this mischaracterization that contributes to the aura of mystery. From her hardscrabble roots in small-town California to her breakthrough international travels during her husband's presidential administrations, Nixon stayed true to the values inculcated in her youth--loyalty, empathy, commitment, and determination. Contrary to the belief that Nixon was the epitome of a 1950s conservative woman, Lee illustrates Nixon's steadfast belief in feminist principles and showcases her advocacy for expanding women's equal participation throughout government and society. Sadly, many of Nixon's contributions to foreign relations and domestic programs are overlooked due to the surrounding chaos of her husband's contentious political career, particularly during the Watergate crisis. Drawing on her extensive interviews with family, former White House staff, longtime friends, and historians, Lee offers a clarifying portrait of this elusive and enigmatic woman.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Biographer Lee (The League of Wives) paints an intriguingly sympathetic portrait of first lady Pat Nixon (1912--1993), framing her as an unfairly maligned figure (she was famously nicknamed "Plastic Pat" for her apparent aloofness) who deserves credit for having "moved the needle substantially forward for women's issues." It was during Nixon's stint as second lady that the press first tagged her as "too perfect" (she had "a doll's terrifying poise," according to one journalist). Though such perceptions were "partially a problem of Pat's making" because of her reticence with the press, Lee argues that Nixon was still greatly misinterpreted and contends that "cold and calculating" presidential aide H.R. Haldeman worked insidiously to build her negative reputation. Haldeman, incensed by Nixon's pro-woman political agenda (including her support for abortion rights), attempted to isolate the first lady politically and socially; he covertly took over East Wing operations with his own aides, advised others not to socialize with her, and packaged her for the media "like a 1960s Barbie doll." Lee's fine-grained biography, though elegantly written, really only pops when the villainous Haldeman enters the scene ("One former staff person claims Haldeman told them directly that the president should... put in a mental institution"). Still, readers in search of a new perspective on the Watergate era will find it here. (Aug.)

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