By John W. Dean
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Published to coincide withthe August 9, 2014 fortieth anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation from office, John Dean, a key player in the Nixon administration, has uncovered the full and complete story of the Watergate break-in and cover-up, and discloses Nixon's part in it. Based on previously ignored White House tapes, The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It connects the dots between the received understanding of Watergate and what actually happened.
As widely reported and analyzed as the Watergate break-in and its aftermath have been, controversies still remain-from the notorious 18 ½-minute gap in the Nixon recordings to the fundamental question of what Nixon really knew and when he knew it. Surprisingly, the primary source material for the true story of Nixon's role in Watergate-his secret recordings-have never been fully examined. In writing The Nixon Defense, John Dean found over 600 conversations no one outside the National Archives had listened to, and he prepared his own transcripts of all the Watergate conversations (approximately 1,000) to reconstruct the full history of the scandal in a dramatic narrative, with dialogue drawn directly from all the recorded conversations. Before now, no one has attempted to examine and reconstruct this history based on this remarkable primary source material. Rather, historians and other students of the Nixon presidency have chosen to ignore the full collection of secretly recorded White House conversations relating to Watergate, which slowly but surely have become almost fully available over the past four decades.
Dean presents a day-to-day record of the Nixon White House confronting the revelation of the break-in, strategizing its defense, and ultimately facing its downfall because of its lies. The Nixon Defenseis not only a compelling and historic account of Watergate itself, but a stunning portrait of Nixon and his aides, along with the cynicism, paranoia, and vindictiveness that were so often the driving forces of the president and his inner circle.
The narrative account is framed by a list of principal characters, a stage-setting prologue and an epilogue chronologically summarizing the events that occurred after the plug was pulled on the secret recording equipment that brought the Nixon presidency to an end. In addition, the author includes an appendix reporting that what the tapes reveal was the reason for the Watergate break-in. A second appendix, based on an expert investigation, shows that it was mechanically impossible for Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Wood, to have erased the portion of the tape that created the 18 ½-minute gap. The recorded conversations make clear what, in fact, was erased. The Nixon Defense is an unprecedented examination of what brought down a president, and will stand as the authoritative account of Watergate.
JOHN W. DEAN was legal counsel to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and his Senate testimony lead to Nixon's resignation. In 2006, Dean testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating George W. Bush's NSA warrantless wiretap program. He teaches a continuing legal education program throughout the country, drawing on the lessons of Watergate, and his political/legal commentary at Justia.com is widely read. He is the New York Timesbestselling author of Blind Ambition, Broken Government, Conservatives Without Conscience and Worse Than Watergate.
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