Synopses & Reviews
Watergate: A Brief History with Documents places the reader at the epicenter of one of the most significant political scandals in American history. Watergate represented a constitutional crisis on a scale not experienced since the Civil War, and the documents included in this volume capture the powerful emotions of this crucial moment, revealing the partisan politics that were at play and the extraordinary efforts of participants to bring the episode to a conclusion without causing permanent damage to the Constitution.
The documents include excerpts from speeches, news conferences, congressional testimony, memos, and court rulings. Transcripts of tapes involving the White House staff, President Richard Nixon, members of Congress, the CIA, and FBI, and others are supplemented with transcripts of recently released tapes that reveal Nixon's innermost thoughts and reactions to events as they unfolded, including his awareness of the identity of the anonymous source known as “Deep Throat.” This book serves as a powerful lesson in how American law and politics work and will resonate deeply with all readers, especially a new generation unfamiliar with the constitutional crisis that shook our nation and ultimately toppled a presidency.
Review
“With his judicious selection of documents and his insightful and clear narrative, Stanley Kutler, the dean of Watergate historians, provides the best brief treatment of the greatest political scandal in American history.”
Melvin Small, Wayne State University, author of The Presidency of Richard Nixon
“Professor Kutler is the indispensable historian of Watergate, and this is the indispensable sourcebook -- the key documents, placed in the deep context that only an expert can provide.”
Stanley N. Katz, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, editor-in-chief of The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History
“A fair-minded and accessible collection of key documents on the most important political/ constitutional scandal of the twentieth century, with succinct introductory essays by the acknowledged expert on the history of Watergate.”
Jeffrey P. Kimball, Miami University, author of Nixon’s Vietnam War
“Four decades after Nixon’s election, Watergate remains the greatest constitutional crisis of our times, and any scholar, student, or citizen wishing to understand its enormity – and why it rocked the nation like no act of executive wrongdoing before or since – should peruse the documents in this indispensable volume.”
David Greenberg, Rutgers University, author of Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image
Synopsis
The second edition of
Watergate: A Brief History with Documents presents a collection of relevant historic documents from Nixon's acceptance speech at the 1968 Republican National Convention to his 1974 pardon.
- Includes transcripts of recently-released Watergate tapes that reveal Nixon’s thoughts and reactions to events as they unfolded, and that deal with the identity of the anonymous source known as ‘Deep Throat’.
- Uses the crisis to explain how American politics and law work and provides an indication of the way the country may handle future crises
- Provides brief summaries of what happened to various Watergate participants
- Covers the entire span of time from Nixon's 1968 acceptance speech at the RNC until his pardon in 1974
About the Author
Stanley I. Kutler is the E. Gordon Fox Professor Emeritus of American Institutions, History, and Law at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of several books on American history, including Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes (1997), which resulted from his successful lawsuit against the National Archives and Nixon that forced the release of the long-suppressed Watergate tapes. He is also the author of The Wars of Watergate (1990).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
The Cast of Characters
Introduction
Watergate: A Brief History
1. Richard Nixon: At Work and in His Own Words
Acceptance Speech: 1968
The Personality of the President
The Man on Top
2. The White House Horrors
Plumbers and Enemies
3. The Watergate Break-In
The Burglary
The Role of the President's Campaign Committee
What Did the White House Know?
The White House Reacts: Private and Public Comment
4. Cover-Up! The White House Responds
The "Smoking Gun": Using the CIA
The Money Trail
"Stonewalling" and Perjury
5. The Conspiracy Unravels: Judge Sirica, the Ellsberg Case, the Senate, and the Special Prosecutor
Fatal White House Leaks
Sirica and McCord
Defections: Dean and Magruder
The Ellsberg Case
Nixon Responds
The President and His Men: Taped Conversations, February–April 1973
Haldeman and Ehrlichman Resign
The Special Prosecutor
The Special Prosecutor: Nixon's Reaction
The Special Prosecutor Takes Over
Senate Select Committee: John Dean
Senate Select Committee: Ehrlichman and Haldeman
Senate Select Committee: Revelation of the Tapes
6. The Tapes and the Saturday Night Massacre
The Battle for the Tapes
The President Retreats
October: The Cruelest Month
The Saturday Night Massacre
The President Succumbs
The New Special Prosecutor
The 18½-Minute Tape Gap
7. The Final Agony: Impeachment, Resignation, Pardon
Nixon Embattled
The Impeachment Inquiry
U.S. v. Nixon
Resignation
The Pardon
Appendix
Watergate Special Prosecution Force Criminal Actions Final Report, 1975
Bibliographical Note