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4 books match the query 'Watergate Affair, 1972-1974'

cover of Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years

Nightmare

The Underside of the Nixon Years

J. Anthony Lukas

Ohio University Press, 1999

In July 1973, for the first time in its history, the New York Times Magazine devoted a full issue to a single article: Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist J. Anthony Lukas’s account of the Watergate story to date. Six months later, a second installment ran in another full issue. Later the Times asked him to write a third issue, on the impeachment, which never appeared because of Nixon’s intervening resignation. But all of Lukas’s painstaking reporting on Nixon’s last months in office appears here, along with added information on every aspect of Watergate.

Widely acclaimed as a major text of the Watergate saga, J. Anthony Lukas’s Nightmare is a masterwork of investigation, highlighted by in-depth character sketches of the key players. For students of history coming to these events for the first time, this book reveals in depth the particular trauma of a nation in turmoil; for those who remember, the upheaval and what was at stake are once more brought to life.

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cover of Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History

Time and Chance

Gerald Ford's Appointment with History

James Cannon

University of Michigan Press, 1998

Gerald Ford came to the presidency at the time of one of our nation's greatest constitutional crises, the downfall of President Richard M. Nixon in the aftermath of the Watergate affair. His service as president concluded a distinguished career in the House of Representatives during which he served as leader of the Republican Party in the House. With unrestricted access to Gerald Ford's papers, James M. Cannon tells the story of Ford's rise and Nixon's ruin, providing new insights into this troubling period of our history and Ford's role in guiding the nation through it. Cannon tells the story of Ford's difficult early life and the beginnings of his career in politics in the period immediately after World War II. He tells the story of Ford's rise to prominence in the House of Representatives during the 1950s and 1960s, giving us a fascinating picture of the Congress. In addition, in telling us about the personal life of Gerald Ford, he gives us a sense of the price Ford paid for his success.
"James Cannon, formerly national affairs editor at Newsweek and Ford's domestic policy advisor, has written a superbly provocative and arresting biography that traces Ford's life from his July 4, 1913, birth in Omaha, Nebraska, to his September 8,1974, decision to pardon Nixon of the Watergate conspiracy." --Washington Post Book World
James M. Cannon is a journalist and was Domestic Policy Adviser to President Ford and Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker.
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cover of Watergate Prosecutor

Watergate Prosecutor

William H. Merrill

Michigan State University Press, 2008

This is the inside story of the Watergate trials.
     Written by the ultimate insider who helped change the course of history: William Merrill was the Special Prosecutor who sent the "plumbers" to jail. Not just any plumbers, but the "Nixon plumbers," hired by the White House to "stop leaks" by any means necessary. Officially, they were the Special Investigation Unit. Unofficially, they were the "dirty tricks squad," whose illegal actions eventually caused the President to resign his office. Bill Merrill prosecuted the plumbers. Here, more than thirty years later, he reveals how he did it.
     On September 4, 1971, two burglars — later identified as E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy — broke into the office of Lewis Fielding, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist, among whose patients was Daniel Ellsberg, a prominent antiwar activist who had recently released to the press the formerly top-secret "Pentagon Papers." On June 13, 1972, five burglars entered the offices of the Democratic National Committee, which were located in the Watergate complex in Washington,
DC. Both of these crimes were eventually traced back to the "plumbers unit," which was directed by John Ehrlichman, President Nixon's top domestic aide. As he convincingly recounts, Merrill sought the job as Assistant Special Prosecutor for one reason: to bring these criminals to justice. In addition, as this revelatory account makes clear, he pursued that goal tenaciously.
     Merrill wrote this book in 1978, but never published it. Today, at the age of 83, he is confined to a VA hospital in Michigan, the victim of a debilitating stroke.
     In 1974, Merrill was mentioned in the media almost every day during the Watergate trials. Directing a team of attorneys and assistants, he constructed cases against all of the plumbers—and he won every case. "Watergate" continues to reverberate in the American consciousness today. Revelations that the White House had planned and carried out illegal acts fundamentally rocked the nation. In his response to these unprecedented crimes, William Merrill literally changed the course of history. This is his story.
 
 
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cover of Watergate's Legacy and the Press: The Investigative Impulse

Watergate's Legacy and the Press

The Investigative Impulse

Jon Marshall

Northwestern University Press, 2011

Did two reporters really change the course of history? And what impact did they actually have on American journalism and government? Jon Marshall explores different answers to those questions by charting the past and the possible future of the critical public service provided by investigative reporters.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein symbolize an era when investigative reporters were seen as courageous fighters of corruption and injustice. Although many mainstream news outlets no longer have the resources to support expensive investigative reporters on staff, journalists have found other ways to support themselves Marshall’s discussion of the opportunities they have found in blogs, crowd-sourcing, and nonprofit institutions offers hope for the future of investigative journalism.

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