“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” – Matthew 5:9
“I don’t think any president has been more wrongly persecuted than Nixon, ever. I just think he was a saint.” – Ben Stein
From Ben Stein, New York Times bestselling author, humorist and former speech writer for both Nixon and Ford administrations – a powerful (and humorous) thinker on economics, politics, education and history and motivation – a personal memoir of his friend Richard Nixon: The man, patriot, president, peacemaker and visionary.
The Richard Nixon Stein remembers and lovingly describes has almost nothing to do with the Richard Nixon as portrayed in most media. In Stein’s view, Richard Nixon was a born peacemaker, a saint. Stein believes Nixon was tortured, abused, beat up by the Beautiful People, but through it all, above all, he was a peacemaker, a trait he inherited from his Quaker mother.
Nixon’s goal, as he often explained to Stein and others on his staff, was to create “a generation of peace.” And Stein argues he did it; Nixon gave the United States the longest sustained period of peace since World War II. In Stein’s view, if we no longer have to fear Russian ICBMs screaming out of hell to start nuclear war, we can thank the shade of Richard Nixon.
Why did the media hate him so much? Stein argues it was because Nixon was vulnerable and showed it when attacked. He did not have the tough hide of a Reagan or an Obama. Like the schoolyard bullies they are, the media went after Nixon for his vulnerability.
An insider’s account of Nixon the man, president and peacemaker, The Peacemaker: Nixon: The Man, President and My Friend will make you reconsider the life and legacy of 37th President of the United States.
"Stein presents Nixon as not just a politician and president--in triumph and disgrace, gaining, wielding and losing power--but as a human being, a down-to-earth family man and friend to Ben Stein and his family. Stein presents an argument that Nixon was not only one of the most capable presidents the United States has ever seen, but one who was focused on and manifestly successful in his self-described role as peacemaker in the world. And on the journey of getting to know real Nixon, Stein reveals the real Ben Stein: his parents, upbringing, and comin gof age in the 50's and 60's, his work in the White House, and eventual move to California and evolution as a writer"--
