RICHARD NIXON: MAN AND PRESIDENT, Arts & Entertainment Television Networks, $29.95
Few modern presidents have divided American public opinion more than Richard M. Nixon, whose life is examined in this video presentation. The in-depth documentary, which features interviews with Ben Bradlee, former editor of The Washington Post; Nixon biographer Stephen Ambrose; Nixon’s younger brother Ed; and daughter Julie Nixon Eisenhower, traces the 37th president’s career from his youth in Yorba Linda, California, to his 1974 White House resignation. Nixon, who turned down a Harvard scholarship because of family finances, made his first foray into politics in 1946. While in Congress, he served on the House Committee on Un-American Activities, gaining national attention for his part in the Alger Hiss spy case. Picked by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as his running mate in the 1952 and 1956 election campaigns, he lost his own bid for the presidency in 1960. Finally reaching the White House after the 1968 election, Nixon was reelected in a landslide victory four years later, only to become the first president to resign from office, due to his administration’s involvement in what became known as the Watergate scandal.
