Sunday, November 26, 2017

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Mafia’s President: Nixon and the Mob – Don Fulsom – (Thomas Dunne Books)

Former United Press International (UPI) Washington Bureau chief and current American University adjunct professor Don Fulsom is more than a little bit of a Nixon-phile, having penned countless articles and now three books on the disgraced former President.

The latest, The Mafia’s President: Nixon and the Mob, is a comprehensive, compendium of Richard Nixon rumors, innuendo, hints, lies and allegations; with a focus on Nixon’s alleged connections to the Mob. Fulsom runs down a seemingly endless list of these connections and treats them as dead lock facts.


The problem, is that facts are often sticky things and while Fulsom tries to cite unimpeachable sources to back up is claims, they often walk the fine that could get very dicey and very quickly falls off into National Enquirer or Oliver Stone territory. Throughout the book he often takes inductive leaps or trust falls, without much in the way of a net.


Many of the claims are at the very least entertaining and if true they are downright damning to the former President’s already sullied reputation. There are certain claims Fulsom makes that don’t seem to bare up under scrutiny, while others certainly strike like a dagger. The thing that offers a shadow of doubt seems to be Fulsom’s personal bias that seeps into this storyline.

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