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Summary
Summary
Bestselling author Tom Brokaw brings readers inside the White House press corps in this up-close and personal account of the fall of an American president.
In August 1974, after his involvement in the Watergate scandal could no longer be denied, Richard Nixon became the first and only president to resign from office in anticipation of certain impeachment. The year preceding that moment was filled with shocking revelations and bizarre events, full of power politics, legal jujitsu, and high-stakes showdowns, and with head-shaking surprises every day. As the country's top reporters worked to discover the truth, the public was overwhelmed by the confusing and almost unbelievable stories about activities in the Oval Office.
Tom Brokaw, who was then the young NBC News White House correspondent, gives us a nuanced and thoughtful chronicle, recalling the players, the strategies, and the scandal that brought down a president. He takes readers from crowds of shouting protesters to shocking press conferences, from meetings with Attorney General Elliot Richardson and White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, to overseas missions alongside Henry Kissinger. He recounts Nixon's claims of executive privilege to withhold White House tape recordings of Oval Office conversations; the bribery scandal that led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and his replacement by Gerald Ford; the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; how in the midst of Watergate Nixon organized emergency military relief for Israel during the Yom Kippur War; the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court that required Nixon to turn over the tapes; and other insider moments from this important and dramatic period.
The Fall of Richard Nixon allows readers to experience this American epic from the perspective of a journalist on the ground and at the center of it all.
Praise for The Fall of Richard Nixon
"A divided nation. A deeply controversial president. Powerful passions. No, it's not what you're thinking, but Tom Brokaw knows that the past can be prologue, and he's given us an absorbing and illuminating firsthand account of how Richard Nixon fell from power. Part history, part memoir, Brokaw's book reminds us of the importance of journalism, the significance of facts, and the inherent complexity of power in America." --Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America
Author Notes
Tom Brokaw, a native of South Dakota, graduated from the University of South Dakota with a degree in political science. He began his journalism career in Omaha & Atlanta before joining NBC News in 1966. Brokaw was the White House correspondent for NBC News during Watergate, and from 1976 to 1981 he anchored Today on NBC. He's been the sole anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw since 1983. Brokaw has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including two DuPonts, a Peabody Award, and several Emmys. He is the author of the bestselling books "The Greatest Generation" and "The Greatest Generation Speaks". He lives in New York and Montana.
(Publisher Provided)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Former White House correspondent Brokaw (A Lucky Life Interrupted) presents a brisk account of his "reporter's experience of Watergate, the final act," in this affable memoir. Brokaw joined the White House press corps in the summer of 1973 after serving as nightly news anchor for L.A.'s KNBC. Some of his new colleagues wrote to the president of NBC News that Brokaw wasn't qualified for the role, but future rival Dan Rather, Brokaw notes, was "immediately cordial." By August, Watergate and its related scandals had reached Nixon's inner circle; Brokaw recalls an awkward encounter in a Washington, D.C., burger joint with John Ehrlichman and his 10-year-old son shortly after the ex--White House adviser had been indicted for planning to steal whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg's psychological profile. Chronicling the 12 months leading up to Nixon's resignation in August 1974, Brokaw describes major milestones--the "I'm not a crook" press conference; the revelation that 18-and-a-half minutes were missing from a key tape recording--and pays tribute to his fellow journalists who covered the historical events. Though he makes a handful of references to Donald Trump and the current "chaotic time in the American presidency," the theme isn't developed in detail. Watergate completists will appreciate Brokaw's clubby reminiscences; those seeking a substantive analysis, however, should look elsewhere. (Nov.)
Kirkus Review
The veteran newscaster turns in a swift-flowing narrative of the decline and collapse of the Nixon administration."As we experience another chaotic time in the American presidency, it is worth remembering what we went through before." So writes Brokaw (A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope, 2015, etc.), recalling a time in which chaos reigned in the White House, where he served as NBC's correspondent during Nixon's final months in office. The facts of the matter are fairly well understood, thanks to books such as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's All the President's Men and The Final Days, but Brokaw brings a more searching, controlling question to the enterprise: "Who was Richard Nixon?" That's a question to which answers are both tentative and still forthcoming. The author's narrative spans several years of Nixon's life, taking in such critical moments as his appointment of Henry Kissinger as his secretary of state. Brokaw focuses closely on the last six weeks of his presidency, a period marked by a Supreme Court decision ruling that Nixon did not have the legal right to shield tape recordings from a Congress that was in full-tilt investigatory mode, a decision that would "amount to a political death sentence to a sitting president." The author illuminates such turning points as Nixon's explaining away the missing 18-odd minutes of tape that so excited Watergate investigators, concluding that he wished he hadn't recorded in the first place, and the soon-to-follow declaration, infamous to this day, that "I'm not a crook." The mood in the White House turned ever more erratic thereafter, with Nixon becoming oddly aggressiveunderstandably, because, as Brokaw observes, "the best defense for Nixon was always a strong offense." The book is understated and even-tempered, without the fire of Woodward and Bernstein, Timothy Crouse, Hunter S. Thompson, and other chroniclers of the Nixon era; the calmness is welcome, though, for a narrative that seeks clarity in that time of torment.Not the first book to turn to when reading about Watergate but still a useful overview of long-ago events. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
As the newly minted White House correspondent for NBC News, Brokaw witnessed all the drama, scandal, and subterfuge surrounding Watergate that occasioned the end of Richard Nixon's presidency. Nixon's campaign violations, emoluments abuses, tax evasion, and political overreach are familiar turf in the Trump era but seem sadly quaint by comparison. In his reflective memoir of what it meant to be a journalist at that time, Brokaw's succinct retelling of events is bolstered by his fly-on-the-wall insider revelations. He had, quite literally at times, a catbird's seat to history, as when he accompanied Nixon to Paris for the funeral of George Pompidou and found himself in the rafters of Notre Dame, watching as the president blatantly used a state visit as a personal and national distraction from the controversy shrouding him at home. A lion in the field of broadcast journalism and a best-selling author, Brokaw (A Lucky Life Interrupted, 2013) remains one of the few remaining news professionals who experienced this defining moment in presidential history, a valued vantage point given the current political upheaval.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Brokaw's deep experience, keen perspective, and warm and lucid writing make him a trusted and adored author, while the relevance of this impeachment chronicle will stoke added interest.--Carol Haggas Copyright 2019 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Brokaw (A Life Interrupted) became NBC News White House Correspondent in 1973, as the Watergate affair captivated the nation. From his ringside seat, Brokaw documents President Richard Nixon's inevitable fall, despite unprecedented diplomatic breakthroughs with China and the USSR. Stories of Nixon's insecurities that led him to approve the break-in of Democratic Party headquarters, and comparisons between Presidents Nixon and Trump in claiming executive privilege and blaming the media, provide much to ponder. As the Nixon presidency descends to its ultimate collapse in 1974, Brokaw portrays Nixon as a self-deluded, broken man who would not acknowledge guilt, even when the Supreme Court ruled that he must turn over all papers and tapes. Humorous anecdotes about traveling with the president and life among Washington's political elite lighten the mood. The author reveals that Nixon wanted him to serve as press secretary, a position Brokaw turned down because he disliked party politics. VERDICT This fast-paced account nicely captures the spirit of the times and will appeal to political junkies and scholars. See Patrick Buchanan's Nixon's White House Wars and Keith Olson's updated Watergate for in-depth investigations.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter 1 For all of 1973 and most of 1974, America and the world watched as the fate of the most powerful nation on earth and its familiar president played out on the screen of history and daily journalism. By all expectations, 1973 should have been the beginning of a glorious conclusion to the public life of Richard Milhous Nixon, the poor boy from Southern California who fought his way into the highest offices in America with a brilliant mind, a deep dark streak, and a personality constantly in conflict with the demands of his calling. He began the year triumphantly, starting to wind down the unpopular Vietnam War as he launched a second term as president with nearly 61 percent of the American electorate having voted for him, a victory for this durable, familiar, and yet enigmatic son of Quaker parents. He had crushed the liberal establishment. What could go wrong? It had already gone wrong back in the summer of 1972, when a bumbling gang of burglars working for the Nixon reelection campaign were caught in a clumsy attempt to rifle through files at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. Two gifted rookie reporters from The Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, were assigned to look into the burglary, and as they began to unravel the details, it became clear that this was no ordinary breaking and entering. Piece by piece, they constructed a case that traced the break-in from low-level Nixon acolytes to the highest levels of President Nixon's staff. Nixon's closest advisers, cabinet members, and fundraisers were already enmeshed in a spreading scandal that went beyond that botched burglary. It would forever be known simply as Watergate: the web of lies, payoffs, and toxic tape recordings, followed, finally, by the first resignation of an American president. All of it demanded closer examination. To this day, the essential question defies a rational answer: Why did the president's men organize a nighttime invasion of the Democratic Party headquarters when they were so far ahead of George McGovern in all the polls? Later we learned that during his first term, Nixon had made a shady deal with milk producers, supporting higher prices in exchange for campaign contributions. Also, Nixon's fundraisers had blatantly violated new laws designed to provide transparency to campaign contributions. Other Nixon acolytes had written phony letters maligning the character of prominent Democrats. Nonetheless, Nixon had survived massive demonstrations against his Vietnam policies in his first term, polls showed strong support for the law-and-order tenor of his campaign, his opening to China was widely praised, and the United States and the Soviet Union were negotiating new limits on nuclear weapons. All the indicators showed Nixon was poised to crush McGovern. The most tantalizing questions, however, remained: What was President Nixon's role, if any, in the burglary? And were there other dirty tricks yet to be exposed? The reporting of Woodward and Bernstein continued to raise questions about the involvement of Nixon aides in the nefarious activities, and that went unnoticed by neither the feisty federal judge, John Sirica, who presided over the initial Watergate trials, nor the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate. Partly as a result of Sirica's warning that not all the facts had been revealed, the Senate voted unanimously on February 7, 1973, to establish a special committee to investigate Watergate. It was led by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, the very model of a folksy, shrewd, good ol' boy southern lawyer. His Senate Republican counterpart was another southerner, the equally shrewd and likable Howard Baker of Tennessee. In April 1973, Nixon reluctantly dismissed two of his closest aides, H. R. "Bob" Haldeman and John Ehrlichman; they would soon perjure themselves before the Senate committee by denying their roles in the break-in cover-up. White House counsel John Dean was fired as well, after describing to the Senate investigators what the president knew about the burglary, saying the president was in the room on thirty-five occasions when the Watergate break-in was discussed. The Senate committee hearings started in May 1973 and quickly became must-see TV for the nation as the cast of once-powerful White House aides struggled to explain how and why the White House, the very symbol of American strength and prestige, could have been involved in such a tawdry enterprise. Daytime television audiences watching the Senate Watergate Committee during the summer of 1973 were riveted by the country-judge charm of Chairman Sam Ervin and by Howard Baker, who asked, "What did the president know and when did he know it?" While the president was trying to wind down the Vietnam War, strike up a new relationship with the Soviet Union, and capitalize on his historic opening to China, his closest aides were being questioned on Capitol Hill by the Senate committee, igniting time bombs on his future. One presidential aide, Alexander Butterfield, was called to describe how the White House offices were organized, and he disclosed the unexpected news that an elaborate taping system had been installed to capture historic moments for future archives. It also recorded presidential conversations on subjects Nixon and his advisers presumably didn't expect to become whatever metaphor you like--smoking gun, noose, trapdoor. The recordings quickly became the prize in the investigation. Sam Ervin and his fellow senators were determined to get them. So were Attorney General Elliot Richardson and the special prosecutor Richardson had brought on board, Archibald Cox, both Harvard men, the kind Nixon privately detested. They had been appointed as the scandal was heating up. John Mitchell, Nixon's former law partner and original attorney general, portrayed himself as Mr. Law and Order, but when he moved over to chair the President's reelection campaign he became deeply involved in the Watergate cover-up. He knew about the burglaries and approved of efforts to get the CIA involved as a cover, claiming national security. Eventually Mitchell was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. Richard Kleindienst, Mitchell's successor at Justice, had failed to tell authorities about President Nixon's order to ignore an antitrust investigation of the manufacturing conglomerate ITT when Kleindienst was an assistant AG. Later, after Kleindienst had been elevated to attorney general, he refused a request from G. Gordon Liddy to intervene in the Watergate investigation to protect CREEP, the President's reelection campaign, which was deeply involved in the break-in. Kleindienst resigned as attorney general and returned to his home state of Arizona to resume his law practice. His replacement was Elliot Richardson, who would come to play a major role in the President's demise. By August 1973, several of Nixon's top advisers had lied their way into certain jail time. The bungled Watergate break-in was symptomatic of a larger criminal conspiracy run out of the White House, the aim of which was to crush political enemies. The fabric of the presidency was unraveling, and constitutional law was under assault. That we've known for some time. What is worth examining again, in light of today's political climate, are the day-to-day developments, decisions, and delusions, as well as the actions of the president, that led to the historic disgrace of the man who came so far and fell so hard. On August 15, 1973, the president took his case to the American people. He opened his speech with a note of contrition, saying that because the abuses had taken place in his administration he accepted "full responsibility" and the right of the Senate committee to investigate the charges. His most emphatic statement was in his defense: I state again to every one of you listening tonight these facts--I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in. I neither took part in nor knew about any of the subsequent cover-up activities. I neither authorized nor encouraged subordinates to engage in illegal or improper campaign tactics. That was and that is the simple truth. We now know that if there had been an electronic truth meter in the studio at the time, sirens would have been wailing, horns honking, lights flashing, and an offscreen voice bellowing, "Are you kidding?" The president went on to describe what he insisted were his many efforts to uncover the facts about the break-in, and then got to the heart of his speech: the right of a president to protect confidential conversations and memoranda. His speech was designed to advance the case for presidential authority and to proclaim his innocence, arguments that would be central to his defense for the next year. He argued on national television that the Oval Office tapes were "privileged." In doing so, he invoked, without using the term, the concept of executive privilege, which is reserved for the chief executive of the United States; the concept has evolved with the presidency, and is designed to protect the executive branch from raids, subpoenas, and other interventions by the legislative or judicial branch. Excerpted from The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate by Tom Brokaw All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
