By John W. Dean, Viking, 746 pages, $35.
Reviewed by Jules Wagman
To mark the 40th anniversary of the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, John W. Dean, counsel to Nixon and author of Blind Ambition, which describes his own role in Watergate, thought he ought to write another Watergate book.
He ought to have thought twice about that.
Dean’s book may be worthwhile to a new generation unfamiliar with Watergate.
Dean went to the infamous Nixon tapes and uses them to fashion the story of the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972 and subsequent events, culminating in the downfall of the Nixon presidency and his resignation on Aug. 9, 1974.
The tapes provide practically all of the narrative and Dean adds only bare-bones connective sentences, except for the portion that comes after the taping system was uncovered. The result is that the book is a monochrome, the operative tone being dull. I never thought I would find the Nixon tapes dull.
There is an entire library of titles which deal with every aspect of Watergate, leaving nothing of real importance for Dean to put into this book.
Perhaps I’m the problem. During the 1970s I was one of two book reviewers at The Cleveland (Ohio) Press who read practically everything published on Watergate. I also interviewed many of the guilty as they came through Cleveland, flogging their mea culpa books.
Those interviews included Chuck Colson, John Ehrlichman, Dean himself and other miscreants whose names escape me. Also on a publicity tour was Judge John Sirica, who held the burglars’ feet to the fire until one of them broke.
In 1979, I asked Judge Sirica how, if a judge is supposed to be impartial, he could pressure the Watergate defendants into talking. He replied that the court always seeks justice and he felt justice had been denied in the trial. He offered leniency in sentencing to those who would talk. James W. McCord sent a letter to Sirica describing perjury and cover-up. That blew up the Watergate scandal and the rush downhill to resignation set in for Nixon.
The tapes reveal that Nixon regularly declares that he was not involved in the break-in. There are also unexpected expletives by Nixon and others which dot Dean’s manuscript. When I first learned of them in 1974, I confess that I was shocked that public officials were using such language in the Oval Office, a place I revered. Silly me!
Colson went to jail where he found religion and wrote Born Again. When I interviewed him after his book was published in 1976, I asked how he could use such language in the Oval Office. Nixon’s former hatchet man shrugged and offered a weak grin. I had trouble believing his profession of faith.
Dean’s book has provided one worthwhile thing. His footnotes frequently mark passages from the tapes that have not previously seen the light of day. And so, my best advice is to read the footnotes first, the relevant passages second and then tackle the rest of the book.
Jules Wagman has been reviewing books since 1966.
©2014 by Jules L. Wagman
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