The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: former attor ney general, former attorney gen eral, executive session testimony, The Strong Man, White House, John Mitchell (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Casting the 66th attorney general and Watergate felon as the most upright man in the Nixon administration is faint praise indeed, to judge by this biography. Fox News correspondent Rosen applauds Mitchell for his tough law-and-order policies, school-desegregation efforts and hard line against leftist radicals, and for enduring wife Martha's alcoholic breakdowns and raving late-night phone calls to reporters. The book's heart is Rosen's meticulous, exhaustively researched study of Mitchell's Watergate role, absolving him of ordering the break-in and most other charges leveled against him. Instead, Mitchell is painted as a force for propriety who was framed by others—especially White House counsel John Dean, who comes off as Watergate's evil genius. (Rosen also claims Watergate burglar James McCord was secretly working for the CIA and deliberately sabotaged the break-in.) Unfortunately, Rosen's salutes to Mitchell's integrity and reverence for the law clash with his accounts of the man's misdeeds: undermining the Paris peace talks, suborning and committing perjury, tolerating the criminal scheming in Nixon's White House and re-election campaign. Mitchell may have blanched at the Nixon administration's sleazy intrigues, as Rosen insists, but he seems not to have risen above them. (Feb. 19)
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From The New Yorker

After Richard Nixon lost the gubernatorial race in California, in 1962, he moved to New York to practice law and fell in with John Mitchell, a self-assured municipal-bond lawyer, who went on to run Nixon’s 1968 Presidential campaign and serve as Attorney General. Mitchell’s fame, such as it was, sprang from Watergate; in 1975, he went to prison for his role in the cover-up, and never broke his silence about the affair. Rosen, a correspondent for Fox News, believes that Mitchell’s story has not been properly told. He spent years researching his life and his downfall, and arrived at the fascinating—and disputed—theory that the White House counsel John Dean was the mastermind behind the Watergate break-in. Mitchell, with a public image of beady-eyed, pipe-smoking arrogance, was never a lovable figure, but he was in many ways a sad one. Particularly wrenching for him was the fate of his wife, Martha, who was regarded as a somewhat comical figure—a Southern Gracie Allen for the Nixon era—even as she was falling apart.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (May 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385508646
• ISBN-13: 978-0385508643
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #458,929 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review by one of Mitchell's lawyers, June 6, 2008

By	Plato Cacheris (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author, James Rosen, has written a painstaking reproduction of the events that occurred during the Watergate hearings and trial. This book is a meticulous and detailed recitation that Mr. Rosen has set forth in this very well-written book.

Mr. Mitchell is deserving of criticism for his role in Watergate and suffered the consequences of a conviction for his activities. The book is not a proclamation of Mr. Mitchell's innocence, but an exposition of his role and raises questions of the complicity of others who were also convicted.

Having served as one of Mr. Mitchell's defense counsel, I found the book to be an accurate recitation of the events of the Watergate affair.

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, May 26, 2008

By	S. Cohen (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The scenes where young Marty watches her psychotic, alcoholic mom self-destruct were devastating. I usually don't read nonfiction, but this has the cinematic flow that I associate with great novels. And it's pretty funny considering how heavy the material is.

44 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent political biography!, May 20, 2008

By	Jamie Malanowski "Jamie Malanowski" (NY NY) - See all my reviews

This is a very well-written book, scrupulously researched, and challenging in its conclusions. The Strong Man should change our understanding of the Watergate scandal.