Rating: 
Summary: The eternal question
Review: This book asks the eternal question: Are we too paranoid or not paranoid enough? It is a highly entertaining alternative history of Watergate. This book raises some serious questions that simple minded Nixon hatred cannot dispel. Considering that we continue to learn secrets of WWII and that Watergate is thirty years more recent and considering that most of the prinicipals are still living, I find it highly likely that more revelations lie in wait. I recommend reading this with Watergate by Fred Emery which gives a conventional history of the topic. Both books make clear that unanswered questions remain.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining...but fiction always is!
Review: This book really has the Nixon fans salivating revenge against the conventional (and well-proven) theory of Watergate.Admittedly the book is written in a breathless and entertaining style with piles of interesting history thrown in...but does it refute the "conventional" Watergate story? Before you jump on this so-called "revisionist" bandwagon, crying "foul" against the prosecutors, democrats and the press, be advised that: 1) The White House tapes are direct evidence against a lot of what's in this book. 2) Errors were made in gathering evidence (i.e. a Haldeman claim to a certain phone call on a certain date that's out of whack with the White House phone log.) 3) It's a subjective opinion, but many of the interview subjects don't sound very credible. I don't like "He Said, She Said" footnotes. 4) 60 MINUTES WOULDN'T DO THE STORY! So what! An independent production company in England (Brian Lapping Associates) wouldn't touch this story either because they just could not make the story stick (in it's view of Watergate, other elements have some merit.) England, known for having much more of a penchant for scandal than the US certainly wouldn't suffer for doing a new expose, but they didn't because the facts couldn't be supported. Lapping Associates ended up filming a terrific 5-part documentary called Watergate which ran on the Discovery Channel in 1994, watch that instead. 5) MIKE WALLACE WOULDN'T DO IT? Mike Wallace filmed an 2-hour special a few years after this book came out on his OWN where several of his subjects claim the whole John Dean-call girl ring was a crock. Please, if you have to make up history to sell books, get the right publisher: Marvel Comics.
Rating: 
Summary: *****
Review: This is a clearly written book with everything solidly documented, and should be read by anyone interested in U.S. history. Further points along this matter are in G. Gordon Liddy's recent book WHEN I WAS A KID, THIS WAS A FREE COUNTRY. Most of the book is his opinions on life, which admittedly is of dubious worth. But in the appendices Liddy includes court transcripts (so, to any Liddy haters, this section is NOT in Liddy's words) involving John Dean's suit against the SILENT COUP authors and Liddy. That section of Liddy's book is a worthwhile reading that augments SILENT COUP.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent research, well written
Review: This is a real page turner (it caused me to miss a couple of nights sleep). It's well written and exceptionally well researched. In conjunction with the works by Liddy, it rewrites Watergate and the fall of the Nixon Presidency. The shocking thing for me, comparing this with the depth of the corruption in the Clinton White House, was how "small time" the scandals in Nixon's era were. A couple of bad apples (Dean, Haig and Woodward), in an administration led by a man with a mix of political and world power genius, with some character flaws that hampered his ability to lead a large organization, and an eager media and Democrat party, and down he came. This book really puts the pieces together, with a wealth of convincing detail that rewrites history.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent research, well written
Review: This is a real page turner (it caused me to miss a couple of nights sleep). It's well written and exceptionally well researched. In conjunction with the works by Liddy, it rewrites Watergate and the fall of the Nixon Presidency. The shocking thing for me, comparing this with the depth of the corruption in the Clinton White House, was how "small time" the scandals in Nixon's era were. A couple of bad apples (Dean, Haig and Woodward), in an administration led by a man with a mix of political and world power genius, with some character flaws that hampered his ability to lead a large organization, and an eager media and Democrat party, and down he came. This book really puts the pieces together, with a wealth of convincing detail that rewrites history.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This is an eye-opening, page-turning book. John Dean sued both Colodny and Liddy regarding this book ... Also, if you doubt the facts in this book (like the previous reviewer), check out the data Len Colodny gave to the University of South Florida's library: exclusive documents and tape-recorded interviews that were used to write the 1991 best seller, including hundreds of hours of interviews with top players in Nixon's administration, along with nearly 4,200 pages of affidavits, transcripts and correspondence. And the idea that only Nixon-lovers would believe this book: I detest Nixon, and I still believed this book. And I don't see how anyone could NOT believe this book. Read it, read it, read it!!! ...
Rating:
Summary: Precious worth opera
Review: This is one of the best and enlightning book I ever read, it shows how what people come to know about a certain fact ( in this case a fact of historical proportions ) is only a distorted and childish version of the truth : why childish ? Because the caracters are too clearly cut, the good men on one side, the evils ones on the other. Then, when in the moment of deep passions and hatred the history is written and this get sealed, several books and lectures are given in the intent of sealing it more and more. Detailed studies are produced , that are detailed only in their conformism, what a courage to kick a mortally wounded and bleeding man ( Nixon ) straining on the ground ! Then comes a book like this, that in a well searched way, details every different thread that helps us to build the complex and true web of Watergate and things you had always accepted and took for granted begin to fall down. And you see then the real cover-up and real obstruction of justice coming into action ; from whom ? Well, just those who pretended to act against it, a part of the press, the Democrats and that strange and mysterious figure going under the name of Bob Woodward.
A book for those interested in the truth that want to know about the so-called Watergate scandal without prejudice.
Last but not least, THIS is a very courageous book !!
Rating:
Summary: Precious worth opera
Review: This is one of the best and enlightning book I ever read, it shows how what people come to know about a certain fact ( in this case a fact of historical proportions ) is only a distorted and childish version of the truth : why childish ? Because the caracters are too clearly cut, the good men on one side, the evils ones on the other. Then, when in the moment of deep passions and hatred the history is written and this get sealed, several books and lectures are given in the intent of sealing it more and more. Detailed studies are produced , that are detailed only in their conformism, what a courage to kick a mortally wounded and bleeding man ( Nixon ) straining on the ground ! Then comes a book like this, that in a well searched way, details every different thread that helps us to build the complex and true web of Watergate and things you had always accepted and took for granted begin to fall down. And you see then the real cover-up and real obstruction of justice coming into action ; from whom ? Well, just those who pretended to act against it, a part of the press, the Democrats and that strange and mysterious figure going under the name of Bob Woodward.
A book for those interested in the truth that want to know about the so-called Watergate scandal without prejudice.
Last but not least, THIS is a very courageous book !!
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