Watergate

Rating:
Summary: The best, most balanced book on Nixon and Watergate
Review: A gripping and informative book. Whatever your views on Nixon and Watergate, this should enhance your understanding of events. Emery is extremely balanced and fair. His ability to take complex events and make them readable is nothing short of outstanding.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing grasp of the complex...
Review: After reading Emery's book, I must say he has an amazing grasp of the complex. It is rare that one author can provide such a gripping account of an event that is itself full of contradictory accounts. As the participants run for cover and attempt to discount each others testimony, Emery maintains one voice and keeps the reader on track.
This should be read by anyone who's knowledge of Watergate is limited to a viewing of "All the President's Men". Emery has done us a great service by producing such a readable account of THE American scandal.

Rating:
Summary: Great up to date account of the worst US scandal
Review: As a Watergate junkie, I long had been frustrated that no one had written a comprehensive, chronological exposition of the scandal. I have read many of the personal accounts, and Woodstein, but, until this book, there was no single, all-encompassing narrative of Watergate. Emery's book is excellent, although it gets bogged down at times in the welter of minutiae that his exhaustive research, and the tapes, and all of the other books, provide. What this book exposes most starkly is the incredible arrogance and disdain for the law that President Nixon and his cohorts, including the Attorney General, exhibited with barely any second thoughts. The book also succeeds in telling the story of one of the greatest triumphs of American constitutional history -- the peaceful removal of a corrupt President and the orderly transfer of power. To my mind, the Watergate saga is a highlight of American democracy, and Emery's book reveals that.

Rating:
Summary: The best start-to-finish acount of Watergate.
Review: As a Watergate junkie, I long had been frustrated that no one had written a comprehensive, chronological exposition of the scandal. I have read many of the personal accounts, and Woodstein, but, until this book, there was no single, all-encompassing narrative of Watergate. Emery's book is excellent, although it gets bogged down at times in the welter of minutiae that his exhaustive research, and the tapes, and all of the other books, provide. What this book exposes most starkly is the incredible arrogance and disdain for the law that President Nixon and his cohorts, including the Attorney General, exhibited with barely any second thoughts. The book also succeeds in telling the story of one of the greatest triumphs of American constitutional history -- the peaceful removal of a corrupt President and the orderly transfer of power. To my mind, the Watergate saga is a highlight of American democracy, and Emery's book reveals that.

Rating:
Summary: Good. Very, very good.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The "official" view
Review: I never cease to be amazed at the People's willingness to accept information at face value. This book avoids and does not even discuss other views of the Watergate break-in -- some of them quite credible or at least worthy of discussion. Read "Secret Agenda" by Jim Houghan and "Silent Coup." Whether you agree with these sources or not ("Secret Agenda," in particular, is thoroughly researched and totally credible) it is Fred Emery's job as author of a supposedly up-to-date treatise on Watergate to either concur with or refute these established sources. The bottom line is this: there is much more to the Watergate story than is presented in this book. John Dean has never come clean on a number of important details, and the reson for the break in is still shrouded in mystery -- a mystery that this book does absolutely nothing to dispel.

Rating:
Summary: Great up to date account of the worst US scandal
Review: If you want an up-to-date account of the worst abuse of political power in the history of the United States, you have found your book - go ahead and place your order. As far as the "Silent Coup" book is sometimes referred to is sold at Klu Klux Klan rallies and appeals the extremists on the right. They would have you believe that Nixon, Liddy, Halderman, etc. were not the real criminals but that John Dean was(! ). John Dean has successfully sued the authors of the discredited (and, not surprisingly, out-of-print) "Silent Coup."

Rating:
Summary: Where's Vietnam?
Review: It's unfortunate that most people don't remember what Watergate was but is even more unfortunate when historians forget what it was! First off, there is no evidence that the whitehouse approved the Watergate break-in! I have listened to over 500 hours of the tapes and not once does anyone approve the break-in. Again, it is a conclusion made by the author with no documentations (mainly because it does not exist.)

That being said, the author also forgets to place Watergate into the proper perspective, meaning Vietnam. After Daniel Ellesberg stole classified government documents, the President created the Plumbers to help plug the leaks. This led to the Fielding break-in, which Nixon ordered for National Security because he believed that the documents put U.S. soldiers at risk, and a plan by Chuch Colson to retrieve stolen documents from the Brookings institution.

Also, the public did not know that Nixon was secretly meeting with the Chinese, the Soviets, and Le Duc Tho. Mainly because the public debates, begun under LBJ, were unproductive and Nixon believed that leaks would discourage the Chinese, Soviets, and North Vietnamese from further negotiations.

AS for Watergate, after the Plumbers were disbanded, many of them were rehired by the Committee to Re-elect the President or CRP. Note to author, the press renamed CRP CREEP...it was not called CREEP! From here, what happens is up to speculation but what is certain is that the CRP broke into Watergate and not the White House. Nixon, of course, began covering up at this point, claiming political containment, and approving hush money for the "burglars (they never stole anything)."

Nixon admitted to his misjudgement and did the honorable thing and resigned. It is baffling that so many historical erros could be made because there is over 5,000 hours of tapes at the National Archives and they provide enough sources to produce a far bettter book. Also, he relies heavily on John Dean's Blind ambition which Dean recently admitted to not writing under oath. Also, Haldeman announced even before his book, Ends of Power, was published that it was sensationalized and entirely written by Joseph Diamona. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!

In my opinion, there has not been a well-researched and definitive work on Watergate. Most of them are simplistic, neglect the Vietnam War, and look at Watergate in mere political context. Emery's Watergate is one of those.

Rating:
Summary: Clear, convincing, good
Review: THis books presents clear and convincing evidence about the Watergate break-in. The analysis is first-rate and the author does an excellent job of showing the whos and whys behind Watergate. Read this if you only read one book.

Rating:
Summary: Clear, convincing, good
Review: THis books presents clear and convincing evidence about the Watergate break-in. The analysis is first-rate and the author does an excellent job of showing the whos and whys behind Watergate. Read this if you only read one book.