New York - A new biography of the late president Richard Nixon says he medicated himself with a mood-altering drug in the White House and also beat his wife, according to yesterday's New York Times. The book says Nixon was depressed by hostile public reaction to the bombing of Cambodia in 1970 and consulted a psychotherapist who considered him "neurotic".
The book, The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon by Anthony Summers, an Irish journalist, is published today. Another charge made in the book is that Nixon - who died in 1994 - beat his wife, Pat. The Times observes that the author relies on second-hand accounts.