The featuring of will in history: A rhetorical exploration of Richard Nixon’s post-presidential writings

The post-presidential writings of Richard Nixon are a symptom of the ailing health of public morality in liberal society. Using the venue of foreign policy commentary, Nixon constructed a series of histories featuring an overarching concern for the "will. " The emphasis on "will" permitted Nixon to work out the tension between the theoretical man and the man of action, transforming the standards of higher moral principle into the politics of expediency.