Seize the Moment: America’s Challenge in a One-Superpower World.

NIXON, Richard.

Item Number: 103263

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

First edition of Nixon’s critically praised assessment of American foreign policy. Octavo, original half cloth. Association copy, signed by Richard Nixon on the flyleaf and from the personal library of his former speechwriter William Safire with a photocopy of the original letter in which Nixon presents a page of proofs to Safire dated 11-11-91 which reads in full, “Dear Bill, I am enclosing the page proofs of my new book which will come out in the last week of December. In view of recent developments in the international front you may find the chapters in The Former Evil Empire and the Muslim World particularly interesting – Regards – RMN.” William Safire was an important American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign for the 1960 Presidential race, and again in 1968. After Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and Spiro Agnew until joining the New York Times as a political commentator in 1973. Soon after joining the times, Safire learned that he was the target of wiretaps authorized by Nixon, which he wrote about with “restrained fury” in his August 9, 1973 column, “The Suspicious 17.” Fine in a fine dust jacket. With Nixon’s card business card paper-clipped to the front free endpaper. Jacket design by Robert Anthony. An exceptional association copy.

In Seize the Moment President Nixon makes “short work of ‘three myths’ about the future of American foreign policy: the myths of the end of history, of the irrelevance of military power and of the decline of the United States. Rejecting both isolationism and a ‘global democratic crusade,’ Nixon comes down squarely on the side of what he calls ‘practical idealism… Building on his own formidable experience, Nixon analyzes, in successive chapters, the Soviet Union (‘the former evil empire’), Europe, the Pacific, the Middle East and the third world. It takes a former President—and not just any former President—to write a book as broad and as deep as this one” (New York Times)