“The unraveling of Richard Nixon’s presidency plays out in intimate detail in this vivid recreation of a key period in the Watergate scandal…. Dobbs skillfully quotes from the tapes to paint colorful, nuanced portraits of White House yes-men, a manipulative Henry Kissinger, and a Nixon who is vulnerable, melancholy, paranoid and vengeful…The result is an indelible study of a political antihero.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
Just Finished King Richard. Nixon and Watergate, an American Tragedy by Michael Dobbs. Non-Fiction.
This absorbing retelling of the Watergate scandal concentrates on the first 100 days from when the scandal began.
This book is a terrific review of the many events that slowly unraveled Nixon’s presidency.
Much of the information gleamed from the tape recordings in the White House gives us a vivid picture of the events which slowly destroyed a presidency. So many of the mistakes made by Nixon and his trusted aides, which easily could have been avoided by simply avoiding the coverup, probably would have caused embassment at the least, but could have saved a presidency.
Nixon himself knew that the coverup so often was worse than the crime.
The problem of whether to destroy the tapes or not is told in detail, explaining the back and forth discussions, the changing attitudes towards destruction, before Nixon finally decides not to destroy them.
Dobbs writes a terrific narrative. The events flow easily and quickly to the reader.
If
Whether you are familiar with the events written about here or not, it is a very interesting and informative read.
Highly recommended.
Reviewed by:
Richard Franco
Added 26th August 2021
