About Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger once said, “Can you imagine what this man would have been like if somebody loved him? I don't think anybody ever did, not his parents, not his peers…. He would have been a great, great man had somebody loved him.” Would love have been sufficient to save Nixon from the excesses that defined his presidency? Or was its lack the motive for his many numerous accomplishments in spite of his limitations?

This chapter differs from those that come before because its subject revolves around a president whose infirmities were psychological and not physical in origin. Without the kind of consensual diagnosis of physical illness found in the earlier chapters, and the necessarily less precise nature of psychological impairments, this examination of Nixon may seem out of place. To examine psychological factors, analysts must examine psychological theories and motives. Despite the lack of agreement surrounding the source and manifestation of Nixon's psychological limitations, his mental health in office often seemed precarious and fragile. As Lasswell argued, leaders often project their personal needs and desires onto the public sphere, making an examination of leaders' motives both important and necessary. Nixon's presidency thus offers an opportunity to explore the ways in which psychological limitations can exert an impact on foreign policy.

Various presidents in American political history have undergone forms of historical renaissance despite fairly undistinguished terms in office.