No American history, government, or journalism collection is
complete without this new edition of The Great Coverup: Nixon and
the Scandal of Watergate, by Barry Sussman, the best account of
the fall of Richard Nixon. It is a dramatic case study of
tenacious reporting and suspenseful twists and turns in the
political crime of the century.
John Dean, Nixonâs White House counsel, said ten years after
the break-in, âWhen people ask me which book they should read
to understand Watergate, I recommend this one⦠Serious
Watergate students report this is the best overview of the
subject. I heartily agree. Anyone who wants to understand
Watergate, and not make a career of it, should read The Great
Coverup." (Reviews and excerpts are here:
http://www.watergate.info/sussman/.)
A key Nixon goal was to limit the Watergate investigation to the
break-in alone, making it appear to be little more than politics
as usual. But by September, 1973, as Sussman, who was the
Washington Postâs special Watergate editor, spells out,
Watergate was
clearly the ultimate in political crimesâ¦Under Nixon the CIA
had been dragged into domestic affairs; the investigation and
findings of the FBI had been subverted; the Justice Department
had engaged in malicious prosecutions of some people and failed
to act in instances where it should have; the Internal Revenue
Service had been used to punish the Presidentâs alleged enemies
while ignoring transgressions by his friends and by the President
himself; the purity of the court system had been violated;
congressmen had been seduced to prevent an inquiry into campaign
activities before the election; extortion on a massive scale had
been practiced in the soliciting of illegal contributions from
the nationâs great corporations; the President had secretly
engaged in acts of war against a foreign country⦠and agents of
the President were known to have engaged in continued illegal
activities for base political ends. Soon afterward Nixon fired
the special prosecutor investigating him, the first act in the
Saturday Night Massacre, and a few days after that Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger, in an ominous cold war message, announced
that American armed forces had been put on alert because of
Soviet troop and equipment movement. It was to some the
most serious incident since the Cuban missile crisis, but to
others a ruse, a crude attempt to get support for a President in
a time of crisis.
The Great Coverup was named one of the best books of the year by
the New York Times when first published. Wrote David Halberstam
of Sussman: "From the start, the Post was thus unusually lucky.
It had the perfect working editor at exactly the right level." In
their book, Woodward and Bernstein noted that Sussman was
âgiven prime responsibility for directing the Post's Watergate
coverage,â and added:
Sussman had the ability to seize facts and lock them in his
memory, where they remained poised for instant recall. More than
any other editor at the Post, or Bernstein and Woodward, Sussman
became a walking compendium of Watergate knowledge, a reference
source to be summoned when even the library failed. On deadline
he would pump these facts into a story in a constant infusion,
working up a body of significant facts to support what otherwise
seemed like the weakest of revelations. In Sussmanâs mind,
everything fitted. Watergate was a puzzle and he was a collector
of the pieces. If there was a âpolitics as usualâ aspect to
Watergate, Sussman writes, it was in the help Nixon got from
members of both political parties. Therein lies one of the
bookâs many lessons: Watergate would have been brought to a
close much sooner except âfor the help powerful men on Capitol
Hill extended to their President.â
- ISBN13: 9780983114000.
- Condition: New.
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