Synopses & Reviews
This anthology places the student in the midst of one of the most dramatic events in American political history. Watergate was a constitutional crisis, and its resolution is a story of how the American system can be made to work in time of stress. The documents in this volume capture the emotions of the moment, the partisan politics that were at play, and the extraordinary efforts of the participants to bring the episode to an end without damage to the Constitution. The readings are accompanied with an introduction and headnotes. The anthology teaches how American law and politics work and gives some indication of the ways the system may handle future strains.
Selections include a chronology of events related to Watergate along with a cast of characters; texts of relevant federal legal codes; and excerpts from speeches, news conferences, newspapers testimony, memos, letters, court rulings, and tapes involving the White House staff, the President, members of Congress, the CIA and FBI, and other involved parties.
About the Author
Stanley I. Kutler is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin. He was the founding editor of Reviews in American History and is editor of “The American Moment” series at Johns Hopkins University Press. Among his many books are The American Inquisition: Justice and Injustice in the Cold War (1982), Privilege and Creative Destruction: The Charles River Bridge Case (1989), and The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon (1990). In 1996, along with the advocacy group Public Citizen, he won a landmark decision to release the suppressed secret Watergate tapes, which led to his book Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes (1997).
Table of Contents
Introduction.
1. Richard Nixon.
2. The White House Horrors.
3. The Watergate Break-In.
4. Cover-Up! The White House Responds.
5. The Conspiracy Unravels: Judge Sirica, the Ellsberg Case, the Senate, and the Special Prosecutor.
6. The Tapes and the Saturday Night Massacre.
7. The Final Agony: Impeachment, Resignation, Pardon.
Appendix.
Bibliographies.