San Clemente, California, in 1978 was the Elba of America. I went there fresh out of college for a job working as a researcher for David Eisenhower, which quickly became a job as an editorial assistant to former president Richard M. Nixon, who had finished his memoirs and moved on to the two books I worked on, "The Real War" and "Leaders."
Early in 1980, Nixon moved to New York City, and I went with him, leaving in the fall for law school. I went back to California in 1989 at his request to oversee construction of his library in Yorba Linda, a second two-year stint with one of history's remarkable figures.