Pat Buchanan Writes Book About His Years With Nixon

Columnist and political commentator Pat Buchanan will release a book about his time working for President Richard Nixon to coincide with this summer's 40th anniversary of the late world leader's resignation.

Buchanan is a former aide and senior adviser to Nixon. His book, "The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From the Dead to Create America's New Majority," chronicles his work with Nixon from 1966 to 1968 as an adviser and speechwriter.

It's scheduled to go on sale in print and digital formats on July 8, publisher Crown Forum announced.

After suffering defeats in the 1960 presidential election against John F. Kennedy and in the 1962 California gubernatorial race, Nixon faced predictions that his political career was over. But on Jan. 20, 1969, just six years later, Nixon became the 37th president of the United States, after resurrecting his political career and rebuilding the Republican party.

In January 1966, Buchanan became Nixon's first full-time staff member, and became a senior adviser in the White House after 1968.

His book gives a first-hand account of the critical years that Nixon reversed his political fortune in a decade "marked by civil rights protests, social revolution, riots, campus uprisings, the Vietnam War, the rise of a New Left and a New Right, as well as the assassinations of JFK, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King."

The book pulls from excerpts from more than 1,000 personal memos between Buchanan and Nixon to show how Nixon was able to pull together his party.

"We’re thrilled to be publishing Patrick Buchanan and are especially excited to share his insider’s account of one of the 20th century’s most remarkable political stories and victories,” said Tina Constable, Crown Forum senior vice president and publisher.

"Aug. 9, 2014, will mark the 40th anniversary of Richard M. Nixon’s resignation. And while there will be many retrospectives on his career, Buchanan had a front-row seat for nine years to Nixon, the man, the politician, and the president.”

“Richard Nixon’s comeback ...  is a story of determination, perseverance, and political brilliance almost unseen in U.S. politics,” said Buchanan. “Nixon not only survived and recovered, but went out to revive, unite, and led to victory a Republican party which in 1965 and 1966 had been outnumbered two-to-one in both houses of Congress. His 1968 victory, which began a string of five Republican triumphs in six straight presidential elections, was little short of miraculous. How Nixon did it is the story of this book.”

Buchanan was a senior adviser to three American presidents, sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996, and was the Reform Party’s presidential candidate in 2000.

He is author of 11 other books, including the bestselling "Churchill, Hitler, and  the Unnecessary War,” and six other New York Times bestsellers.  Buchanan also is a syndicated columnist and was a founding member of three public affairs television shows: NBC’s "The McLaughlin Group" and CNN’s "The Capital Gang" and "Crossfire."