The Watergate scandal began with a break-in at the office of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1971, and ended when President Gerald Ford granted Richard M. Nixon a pardon on September 8, 1974, one month after Nixon resigned from office in disgrace. Effectively removed from the reach of prosecutors, Nixon returned to California, uncontrite and unconvicted, convinced that time would exonerate him of any wrongdoing and certain that history would remember his great accomplishments—the opening of China and the winding down of the Vietnam War—and forget his “mistake,” the “pipsqueak thing” called Watergate.

In 1977, three years after his resignation, Nixon agreed to a series of interviews with television personality David Frost. Conducted over twelve days, they resulted in twenty-eight hours of taped material, which were aired on prime-time television and watched by more than 50 million people worldwide. Nixon, a skilled lawyer by training, was paid $1 million for the interviews, confident that this exposure would launch him back into public life. Instead, they sealed his fate as a political pariah.

James Reston, Jr., was David Frost’s Watergate advisor for the interiews, and The Conviction of Richard Nixon is his intimate, behind-the-scenes account of his involvement. Originally written in 1977 and published now for the first time, this book helped inspire Peter Morgan’s hit play Frost/Nixon. Reston doggedly researched the voluminous Watergate record and worked closely with Frost to develop the interrogation strategy. Even at the time, Reston recognized the historical importance of the Frost/Nixon interviews; they would result either in Nixon’s de facto conviction and vindication for the American people, or in his exoneration and public rehabilitation in the hands of a lightweight. Focused, driven, and committed to exposing the truth, Reston worked tirelessly to arm Frost with the information he needed to force Nixon to admit his culpability.

In The Conviction of Richard Nixon, Reston provides a fascinating, fly-on-the-wall account of his involvement in the Nixon interviews as David Frost’s Watergate adviser. Written in 1977 immediately following these celebrated television interviews and published now for the first time, The Conviction of Richard Nixon explains how a British journalist of waning consequence drove the famously wily and formidable Richard Nixon to say, in an apparent personal epiphany, “I have impeached myself.”

"In 1977, three years after his resignation, Richard Nixon returned to the public eye in a series of interviews with British television journalist David Frost, for which Nixon received $1 million. Figuring his political and lawyerly skills were more than a match for Frost's interrogation, Nixon instead found himself doing exactly what his successor Gerald Ford had tried to prevent with a Presidential pardon: publicly admitting that he had broken the law. Reston, Jr. was one of the aides Frost hired to help him plan his line of attack; this book, written at the time of the interviews, is being published for the first time now (Reston has supplied a foreword and afterword), but it hardly reads like history. Instead, watching the comeuppance of a highly unpopular and divisive president will provide gratifying thrills for the politically disenchanted. Some references may fly by a modern audience's radar ('Ralph Abernathy pissing on the presidency'?), but Reston's passion for finding the chinks in Nixon's armor makes for fascinating reading." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"In 1976, former President Richard Nixon made an arrangement with the British celebrity David Frost: Frost would interview Nixon for more than 20 hours on camera and pay him $1 million. Nixon would make money, possibly build a reputation as a statesman and remind the American people of his presidential achievements. The stakes were just as high for Frost, who wanted to prove himself as a serious interviewer... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) and burnish his celebrity credentials.

James Reston Jr. was teaching creative writing at the University of North Carolina when he was asked to join Frost's team as a Watergate adviser. Reston had served in the Army from 1965-68, but by 1976 he was a self-described 'radical.' He had waged a campaign to win amnesty for Americans who had avoided being drafted into the military. He abhorred Nixon's Vietnam War policy and viewed Nixon as a contemptible figure who, despite his 1974 resignation, 'remained ... uncontrite and unconvicted.'

'The Conviction of Richard Nixon' is Reston's chronicle of his involvement in Frost's efforts to wrest an apology and an admission of wrongdoing from Nixon on national television. Written in 1977, the book was not published until this year. The unfinished manuscript helped inspire Peter Morgan's award-winning Broadway play, 'Frost/Nixon.'

Reston's memoir is a compact and gripping behind-the-scenes narrative focused on Frost's struggles to prepare for his encounter with the formidable Nixon. Reston captures Nixon's inner turmoil and myriad moods during the tapings. Nixon wiped his brow, touched his eye, and 'his jawline seemed to elongate.' He told anecdotes about lessons learned in politics that skated unevenly around Frost's questions. Vindictive and bewildered, angered and bemused, Nixon came across as an angst-ridden ex-president. Reston's portrait of Frost suggests an uninformed show business personality, who Reston initially felt was too lazy to confront a politician of Nixon's caliber.

Reston also conveys his own sense of himself as a partisan eager to impeach the president. Reston recounts how he scoured the archives in search of incriminating evidence and repeatedly urged Frost to go for the jugular. At one point during the taping, Reston yelled at the monitor on which he was watching the interview that Frost should take Nixon 'back onto the coals!'

Above all, the book sheds important light on Nixon's failure to rehabilitate his reputation after his 1974 resignation. In the course of his research, Reston discovered undisclosed transcripts of conversations between Nixon and Charles Colson — one of the Watergate conspirators — that revealed Nixon's role in the cover-up. Frost asked Nixon why he told Colson that 'the President's losses got to be cut' and why he ordered his aides to 'turn over any cash we got' to buy the Watergate burglars' silence. At another point, Frost tossed his clipboard onto the coffee table and asked whether Nixon was ready to admit his 'wrongdoing,' acknowledge that 'the power of the presidency (had been) abused' and 'apologize' to the American people for having dragged them 'through two years of agony.'

Under this barrage, Nixon finally was forced to admit that he had skirted the law, participated in a cover-up, misled the country and 'let the American people down.' 'For all those things' he said he felt 'a very deep regret.'

Frost used what Reston calls a showman's sense of pitch-perfect timing to ambush Nixon — causing Reston to conclude that Frost wasn't a lightweight at all but rather a model of journalistic excellence. Frost 'knew how to read his lines' and understood that the camera would show Nixon evading Frost's questions. Reston also credits Frost with aggressively using Reston's research; Frost had the kind of 'courage' that 'no journalist in America' had because he went 'far beyond the narrow American definition of "objective journalism"' to serve as an advocate in zealous pursuit of Nixon. Although Frost later took a job interviewing celebrities on his own talk show, his place in history had been secured.

Even if these interviews had never taken place, it's likely that Nixon's reputation would have remained in poor shape. But as it happened, these sessions wrung from Nixon an admission of wrongdoing and the apology sought by Reston; 45 million viewers got a ringside seat at the spectacle of Nixon impeaching himself. Reston's intelligent, passionate memoir shows how 'the most-watched public affairs program' in television history helped prevent a Nixon comeback, as he had most famously achieved in his 1952 Checkers speech. After the interviews aired in 1977, there would be no more comebacks.

Matthew Dallek is an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow.

" Reviewed by Lily KingRon CharlesBruce SchoenfeldSusan WareJudy BudnitzBryan BurroughKaren DeYoungJonathan YardleyDarryl Lorenzo WellingtonRobert PinskyMatthew Dallek, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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While Richard Nixon avoided conviction on impeachment charges by resigning from the White House, the 1977 televised interviews conducted with Nixon by David Frost convicted Nixon as a political pariah in the minds of many viewers. The author of this book served as the Watergate advisor to Frost for the interviews and here recounts his insider's view of the interviews. The text was written contemporaneously but is being published now for the first time. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

“A treasure trove of invaluable insights from an unimpeachable source. I couldn’t put it down.”

—Frank Langella, Tony Award nominee for Frost/Nixon

“Political history that reads like a thriller. Passionate, intelligent, entertaining, and human.”

—Michael Sheen, Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Award nominee for Frost/Nixon

“A riveting account.”

—Richard Ben-Veniste, former chief of the Watergate Task Force

"Reston's memoir is a compact and gripping behind-the-scenes narrative focused on Frost's struggles to prepare for his encounter with the formidable Nixon. Reston captures Nixon's inner turmoil and myriad moods during the tapings.

Above all, the book sheds important light on Nixon's failure to rehabilitate his reputation after his 1974 resignation."

—Matthew Dallek, Washington Post

James Reston, Jr., is a critically acclaimed writer and historian whose books include Warriors of God, Dogs of God, The Last Apocalypse, Galileo: A Life, and the memoir Fragile Innocence. He lives with his family in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.