Toward Connally there was none of that ambivalent sense of competition and insecurity that marked Nixon's relations with the other Cabinet members. Unlike Rogers and Laird, Connally had not had any contact with Nixon during previous crises in Nixon's life. Nixon therefore did not have with Connally the same fear of not being taken sufficiently seriously. Connally's swaggering self-assurance was Nixon's Walter Mitty image of himself. He was one person whom Nixon never denigrated behind his back.
And Connally was indeed the most formidable personality in the Cabinet. Highly intelligent, superbly endowed physically, he looked and acted as if he were born...
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