"TO DOUGLAS MACARTHUR II, WITH WARM REGARDS": VERY SCARCE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY, LIMITED EDITION OF REAL PEACE, INSCRIBED BY RICHARD NIXON

NIXON, Richard. Real Peace: A Strategy for the West. New York: (1983). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.

Limited first edition, one of 1000 privately printed copies of Nixon’s fifth book, an exceptional presentation copy with a memorable association, inscribed by the President in blue ink on the half title to the nephew of General Douglas MacArthur, "To Douglas MacArthur II, With warm regards from Richard Nixon, 6-10-'85." Douglas MacArthur II’s distinguished diplomatic career, in which his tenure as ambassador to Japan earned him the cover on Time as “'the principal architect of present-day U.S. policy toward Japan,” culminated in his service as Nixon’s ambassador to Iran from 1969-72.

In Real Peace President Nixon identifies the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union as key to world peace, asserting the need for "a policy of hard-headed détente… based on a strength of arms and strength of will." This exceptional presentation/association copy is inscribed by Nixon to Douglas MacArthur II, the namesake and nephew of General Douglas MacArthur, who was Nixon's ambassador to Iran from 1969-72, culminating a distinguished diplomatic career in which he served as "Ambassador to Japan from 1957 to 1961, a period when relations between Tokyo and Washington were put on a new footing of equality after 15 years of Japanese subordination… MacArthur went on to become Ambassador to Belgium, Assistant Secretary of State for congressional relations [and] Ambassador to Austria… While he was Ambassador to Japan, he played a crucial role in prolonged negotiations during which Japanese grievances were addressed. Eventually, a new United States-Japanese mutual security treaty was signed and ratified by both Governments and went into effect in 1960. In that year, Time magazine called him 'the principal architect of present-day U.S. policy toward Japan.'" During WWII, MacArthur "was assigned, during the Nazi occupation of France, to Marshall Henri Philippe Petain's puppet capital at Vichy in central France. When the Vichy Government broke off relations with the United States in 1942, he was turned over to the Nazis and was interned for 16 months" (New York Times). As his death he was remembered as a leader "who never forgot his heritage. 'If you were a MacArthur,' he once remarked, "from the time you were in your cradle, the responsibilities of duty, honor, and country came with your mother's milk'… He lived and served his country through the most tumultuous and yet promising time of human history, from the rise of Nazi Germany through the post-Cold War era" ((Bo Hi Pak, Chairman, Washington Times). This copy one of a privately printed limited edition of only 1000 copies "for a select group of government officials and opinion leaders" (publicity material); a trade edition was issued by Little, Brown the following year. With "First Printing September 1983" on copyright page.

Book fine; lightest edge-wear, faint dampstaining to dust jacket. A very scarce about-fine inscribed presentation copy with an especially distinctive association.