Product Description

Featuring a new afterword for the paperback edition, a fast-paced, clear, comprehensive account of Watergate contains new information about the scandal and probes the deep flaws of character that led to it. Reprint. 17,500 first printing. NYT.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #441866 in Books
• Published on: 1995-09-01
• Released on: 1995-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780684813233
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
Anyone who needs to be reminded that Watergate was more than a "third-rate burglary" should read Emery's retelling of the scandal that drove Nixon from office. Drawing on the memoirs of many of the Watergate figures as well as an examination of the most recently released Nixon tapes, Emery, former Washington bureau chief of the London Times , relates an engrossing story of how the Watergate break-in came to pass, and how the coverup spread like wildfire throughout Nixon's re-election committee and the White House. Describing one criminal act after another, beginning with the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, Emery makes it clear that, in the words of special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, the Oval Office had been transformed by Nixon "into a mean den where perjury and low schemes became a way of life." Given the illegal activities Nixon condoned and/or conducted, as related by Emery, most readers will find it hard to feel much sympathy for him even as the author relates the agony of the late president and his family during his final days in the White House as resignation became inevitable. This devastating account of presidential disgrace will give pause especially to those feeling bereaved by Nixon's death.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As the 20th anniversary of Richard Nixon's fall and tarnishing of the presidential image approaches, Emery provides an intricate, meticulously researched narrative that draws heavily on interviews with the principals to explain how and why the Watergate break-in occurred. A former Washington correspondent of The Times of London who is now with the BBC, Emery is also the author of a five-part TV series on Watergate to be aired this August on the Discovery Channel. In addition to an introductory section on the cast of characters involved, Emery provides a detailed examination of the Committee To Re-elect the President (CRP) and its dirty tricks: wiretapping, money laundering campaigns, and the infamous burglary of Democratic National Committee headquarters. Unlike much of the psychopersonal material that has come out on Nixon, Emery's book focuses on the tough political problems, documenting the need for impeachment and ultimately endorsing it. Riveting reading that is based on an unprecedented combing of the primary sources, this work will be especially helpful to the generations for whom Watergate is a nebulous historical event and will provide an excellent corrective to the whitewashing that ocurred on Nixon's recent death. [See also Jonathan Aitken's Nixon: A Life, LJ 5/1/94.-Ed.]-Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Josep.
--Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The infamous tapes that sank Nixon are only 60 hours' worth of deleted expletives and cover-up conspiring; with more than 5,000 hours still secret, the cascade of books about his presidency will not soon run dry. However, given Emery's spare, meticulously fair, and thoroughly engrossing account, it will be a long time before the bugging scandal is better told. Far from dance-on-the-grave vindictiveness (though Nixon looks worse than ever), the ex-president at least receives from Emery, a British journalist, a worldly appreciation of his dilemmas in trying to escape the tightening political and criminal net. Each fateful event in the saga--the setup of Gordon Liddy's spy unit, his men's arrest at the Democratic Party offices, the panicky destruction of documents that began the cover-up, Judge "Maximum John" Sirica's draconian sentences of the burglars, and thence the accelerating slide toward impeachment, with each revelation more astonishing than the last--has since become part of the national folklore. Emery takes us back with forensic caution and a signal lack of hyperbole and proves once more that facts are stranger than fiction. The other Watergate books, by principals or scalp-waving journalists, repose in libraries; count this as a fascinating, objective synthesis of them that also plumbs news archives (such as that of the late H. R. Haldeman). Popularity is certain. Gilbert Taylor

Customer Reviews

Great Book
This is a great book that became the basis for the Discovery Channel's 5-part documentary on Watergate. It is an extensive examination of the entire Watergate episode based on interviews with the relevant participants (excluding Nixon and Mitchell). In fact, Emery was one of the last people to interview Bob Haldeman before he died in 1993. If you don't believe what Emery writes or what Nixon's men said, I'd suggest viewing the Discovery Channel's documentary and you can see Haldeman, Erlichman, Colson, Magruder, LaRue, Dean, Liddy, etc... admit to what was going on in and around the White House.

If you're looking for a very readable and historically accurate account of Watergate, this is an excellent choice. No preposterous theories are advanced here, such as those in presented in Silent Coup. Instead, this book is based on interviews with the participants, the actual Watergate tapes, and tedious documentation of White House memos from the Nixon years. Emery also points out and attempts to resolve the many contradictions that exist among the published accounts of many of the Watergate players. While those that know all the secrets of Watergate are becoming fewer and fewer each year, this account is fairly difficult to dispute.

Finally, ignore the review written by True_Blue. Every one of his/her points are addressed in the first 100 pages of Emery's book. Based on the criticisms in that review, it is obvious that he/she never read this book.

Good. Very, very good.
I lived Watergate. I was a teen in McLean, Virginia when Nixon resigned. One of my classmates was a son of Robert Bork. Yet, after many years, I had to admit I didn't know much of what the fuss was about. This fine, objective book changed all that. Emery has consolidated the facts, identified the sources, and presented the alternate views that, within his sense of reason, deserve consideration. This is journalism as it should always be and, sadly, was not in the early '70s.

As you choose books about Watergate, consider this: When I started to read this one, in the Fall of 2000, I got only a few pages into it when I realized I was doing something important. I got out of my chair, locked my study door, turned off the phone, and sat back down to read. Only Shirer's book about the Third Reich has also induced such a feeling of moment.

An excellent comprehensive account of Watergate
This is a great book. It covers all aspects of Watergate from beginning to end. If you want to know how Watergate happened and who all of the players are, this is the book. The author also explained quite well all of the contradictory statements by those involved. An excellent definative account.