Nixon, A "Self-Confessed 'Paranoiac'"

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/09/george-shultz-reagan-nixon-reputation-467804

I've been meaning to post this POLITICO article about Nixon and George Shultz.  The article, titled "How George Shultz Escaped Two Scandal-Plagued Administrations Unscathed," reveals telling details about Nixon's White House.  Importantly, though, the article mentions Nixon's being a "self-confessed 'paranoiac'" and links a New York Times article from 1977 addressing that confession.  Nixon apparently once "defiantly" said that "'paranoia for peace isn't that bad.'"  His vindictive paranoia often manifested as covert intel-gathering missions about his enemies.  I wouldn't argue that paranoia is very presidential, but Nixon apparently thought otherwise (then again, this is a post-presidency confession).

Thus far, Matthews hasn't used the word "paranoid" to describe Nixon once.  Nixon did call himself "wary," though, writing that "'I had the wisdom and wariness of someone who had been burned by the power of the Kennedys and their money...'" (quoted in Matthews).  I wonder, then, whether Nixon reverted to such paranoid intel-gathering tactics because he felt at a disadvantage financially, and those tactics stuck.