New Book Claims That Richard Nixon Was Gay

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Was Nixon's Homophobic Stance Just An Act?

Richard Nixon had more than his fair share of secrets, mistakes, and skeletons. His time in office was memorable to say the least, but despite all of his very public blunders, according to some, there are a lot of things we didn't know about Tricky Dick.

A new biography by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, suggests the 37th U.S. President had a serious drinking problem, beat his wife, had links with the Mafia, and even more surprisingly, was gay.

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Although he was known as a homophobe, Fulsom suggests that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia-connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo. In support of his claim, Fulsom presents recently revealed documents and eyewitness interviews to shed light on long-standing suspicions among White House insiders that Nixon may have been more than just good buddies with Rebozo.

Referencing Nixon's relationship with his wife, Pat, Fulsom claims that the pair slept in separate bedrooms, and when they vacationed in Miami, she would sleep in a separate building; all the while Rebozo was in the house next door. When Nixon became President, Rebozo got his own office and bedroom at the White House, coveted security clearance, and regularly flew aboard Air Force One.

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What's more, Fulsom quotes a former Time magazine reporter who, at a Washington dinner, bent down to pick up a fork and saw Nixon and Rebozo holding hands under the table. Another journalist related how he once saw Nixon put his arm around Rebozo "the way you'd cuddle your senior prom date. Something was fishy there."

But Nixon biographer Anthony Summers questions the evidence used by Fulsom: "They held hands on occasion, and both men had problems with consummating physical relationships with women, but we found no evidence that Nixon was actively homosexual," Summers told the Daily Mail.

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Fulsom's book, Nixon's Darkest Secrets, will be out on January 31, 2012. What do you think of the claims that Nixon was gay? Do you think it's an attempt to sell more books, or do you see truth in the suggestion?