Books, Arts & Manners: A Duel between Blind Men

The fourth in Theodore White’s Making of the President series, while falling short of its predecessors as a dramatic narrative and as a showcase for revelations, is his most masterly analysis of the political scene. He is simply devastating in his calmly documented autopsy of the McGovern campaign—its ideological base, its built-in certainty of defeat, its absolutely unbelievable candidate. Caught short by the Watergate scandal breaking open this spring, Mr. White has recovered with skill and wisdom to interpret the affair in terms of the style and the very nature of Richard M. Nixon’s Presidency.

Mr. White has come a long way since the first book in this series, The Making of the President 1960, an idyllic and adoring account of how John F. Kennedy became President (“written in a romantic style,” the author now says), which won the Pulitzer Prize following extravagant praise from the liberal political community. As his books have grown in sophistication and balance, they have been devalued by liberal critics. Making 1968, in particular, distressed Mr. White’s former admirers for its condemnation of the New Left. Nor will they care for his present refusal either to gloss over the absurdities of the McGovern campaign or to condemn President Nixon as an unrelieved villain.

RD

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Robert D. Novak

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Richard Nixon

Watergate

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The fourth in Theodore White’s Making of the President series, while falling short of its predecessors as a dramatic narrative and as a showcase for revelations, is his most masterly analysis of the political scene. He is simply devastating in his calmly documented autopsy of the McGovern campaign—its ideological base, its built-in certainty of defeat, its absolutely unbelievable candidate. Caught short by the Watergate scandal breaking open this spring, Mr. White has recovered with skill and wisdom to interpret the affair in terms of the style and the very nature of Richard M. Nixon’s Presidency.

Mr. White has come a long way since the first book in this series, The Making of the President 1960, an idyllic and adoring account of how John F. Kennedy became President (“written in a romantic style,” the author now says), which won the Pulitzer Prize following extravagant praise from the liberal political community. As his books have grown in sophistication and balance, they have been devalued by liberal critics. Making 1968, in particular, distressed Mr. White’s former admirers for its condemnation of the New Left. Nor will they care for his present refusal either to gloss over the absurdities of the McGovern campaign or to condemn President Nixon as an unrelieved villain.