Fresh Air Interview: How Richard Nixon Became 'One Man Against The World'

Richard Nixon’s presidency has always been one surrounded by questions and controversy: Why did he wiretap his own aides and diplomats? Why did he escalate the war in Vietnam? Why did he lie about his war plans to his secretary of defense and secretary of state? What were the Watergate burglars searching for, and why did Nixon tape conversations that included incriminating evidence?

Nixon was consumed by fear, Weiner tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. That fear “turned into anger and that anger turned into self-destruction