The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It - Softcover

Dean, John W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143127381 ISBN 13: 9780143127383

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2015

Synopsis

Watergate forever changed American politics, and in light of the revelations about the NSA's widespread surveillance program, the scandal has taken on new significance. Yet remarkably, four decades after Nixon was forced to resign, no one has told the full story of his involvement in Watergate. Former White House Counsel John W Dean, one of the last major surviving figures of Watergate, draws on his own transcripts of almost a thousand conversations, a wealth of Nixon's secret recorded information, and more than 150,000 pages of documents in the National Archives.

About this title

Review:

"Mr. Dean's book will remind people of why Nixon deserves so unflattering a historical reputation . . . It should also serve as a renewed cautionary tale about elevating politicians with questionable character to high office . . . Dean's resolve to reconstruct this dismal tale of high crimes and misdemeanors is commendable . . . . In addition to creating a definitive historical record of how the Watergate scandal unfolded, The Nixon Defense resolves some major unsettled questions."

--Robert Dallek, The New York Times

"Dean, as always the model of precision and doggedness, has performed yeoman service . . . even for someone who has covered Watergate for 42 years, from the morning of the burglary through the investigations, confessions, denials, hearings, trials, books and attempts at historical revisionism, Dean's book has an authoritative ring."

--Bob Woodward, The Washington Post

"A prodiguous effort."

--New York Daily News

"Dean shapes those conversations into a readable, dense narrative."

--Los Angeles Times

"The most intimate, detailed, complex and nuanced portrait of a President and his courtiers that we have ever seen in print . . . Dean is scrupulously fair, but Nixon is undone by his own words. To read them is to be a fly on the wall in the palace court of the Nixon White House, to observe history close up as we have never seen it before . . . the closest we will ever come to knowing the real Richard Nixon. It is a fascinating and very important piece of history, and the stuff of great drama."

--Huffington Post

About the Author:

John W. Dean was legal counsel to president Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and his Senate testimony helped lead to Nixon's resignation. In 2006, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating George W. Bush's NSA warrantless wiretap program. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Blind Ambition, Broken Government, Conservatives Without Conscience, and Worse Than Watergate.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0143127381
• ISBN 13: 9780143127383
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 784