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Journalist Hunter S. Thompson has been shadowing Richard Nixon with his particular brand of subjective "gonzo" writing since the 1960s. Unlike many of Nixon's detractors who later acknowledged his rehabilitation, such as Bob Dole and many of Thompson's colleagues in the media, the gonzo journalist has been remarkably consistent in his negative appraisal of Richard Nixon. 

On the eve of Nixon's victory in 1968, Thompson wrote that: "Richard Nixon has never been one of my favourite people, anyway. For years I've regarded his very existence as a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream; he was a foul caricature of himself, a man with no soul, no inner convictions, with the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad." [1] At the time of Nixon's death in 1994, Thompson similarly wrote: "It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character ... At the stroke of midnight in Washington, a drooling red-eyed beast with the legs of a man and head of a giant hyena crawls out of its bedroom in the South Wing of the White House and leaps 50 feet down to the lawn."

Yet for all Thompson's apocalyptic rhetoric, he retains a keen appreciation, almost admiration, for the political longevity and constant reincarnation of Richard Nixon through more than six decades: "Richard Nixon is gone now and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing - a political monster straight out of Grendel..." Thompson may criticise other commentators on Nixon's death as "revisionist historians" seeking to create "an American caesar", but in his admission that Nixon was "a giant in his way" he is similarly glorifying the influence and longevity of Richard Nixon.

More than the "revisionist historians" however, Thompson displays a keen understanding of the controversial early successes and missteps that were such significant moments in Richard Nixon's life. Although they were glossed over at his funeral, Thompson revives "Nixon's meteoric rise from the unemployment line to the vice presidency" and "his sleazy 'my dog Checkers' speech in 1952" as periods worthy of analysis.

Against those who wish to gloss over Nixon's initial successes and failures and view his "total" life - in other words, his later rehabilitation - Thompson makes the early reinventions of Nixon just as important as his post-Watergate life in understanding Richard Nixon. 

Even in his initial assessment of Nixon in 1968, Thompson was astutely cataloguing the differences between the "old Nixon" that endured two disastrous defeats in 1960 and 1962 and the "new Nixon" that won the presidential election in '68: "The 'new Nixon' is a very careful man when it comes to publicity; he smiles constantly for the cameras, talks always in friendly platitudes ... and if anyone mentions that 'final press conference' he held in 1962, Nixon just smiles and changes the subject." [2]
 
 
 
 

[1] Hunter S. Thompson, 'Presenting: The Richard Nixon Doll (Overhauled 1968 Model)', Pageant Magazine, July 1968, in The Great Shark Hunt, Picador, London, 1980, 197
[2] Ibid., 200
 
 
 
 

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