RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon

Summary

This book is not a memoir by Richard Nixon but rather a collection of passages from the 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica, including entries on wartime economic controls and the Aga Khan's diplomatic role. The central argument in the economic passages is that government price and distribution controls during World War I were a necessary but imperfect improvisation, preventing an "intolerable state of war between consumers and producers" while inevitably increasing margins between producer and consumer costs. The text argues that such controls succeeded largely due to public perception of fairness and the absence of severe scarcity, but notes that agricultural communities resisted external control and required internal organization to cooperate with the state. A reader takes away a detailed critique of wartime economic management, including the practical necessity of fixing prices at multiple levels and the failure of governments to negotiate favorable terms with producers and middlemen. The passages on the Aga Khan describe his secret diplomatic missions and influence on Allied policy regarding Turkey and India.

Key concepts

• Price-fixing at multiple levels — The practice of setting both consumer and producer prices, plus middlemen commissions, which increased the gap between prime cost and final price.
• Agricultural individualism — The temperamental and habitual resistance of farmers to external control, requiring internal organization rather than compulsion.
• Public sense of fairness — The key factor in public acceptance of wartime controls, dependent on perceived impartial administration and absence of severe scarcity.
• Middlemen's commission claim — The tendency of all intermediaries between producer and consumer to demand a fixed percentage when government controls replace competitive market forces.
• Secret diplomatic missions — Confidential assignments of great diplomatic importance entrusted to the Aga Khan in Egypt, Switzerland, and elsewhere during World War I.

From the book

Title: RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon by Richard Nixon

Title: RN, the memoirs of Richard Nixon by Nixon, Richard M.

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