The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon [Paperback]

Stanley I. Kutler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1992

"The definitive account of Watergate." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Editorial Reviews

Review

Kutler's book is a watershed event—the beginning of the passage of Watergate from the stuff of journalism and instant history to real history. (Thomas Oliphant - Boston Globe )

A big powerhouse of a book, one crackling with suspense and filled with insight into the origins, the unfolding, and the consequences of perhaps the gravest political and constitutional crisis in our history. (Michael E. Parrish - San Diego Union )

It is balance, breadth of vision, documentary research, historical context, and insight that Kutler provides—lucidly, gracefully, and far better than anyone before him. . . . This book should be regarded as the definitive reply to Nixon's attempts at rehabilitation. . . . [It] is about ethics, ends and means, and the dangers of an imperial presidency. . . . The republic owes Kutler a reward. It need not be elaborate: Americans need only to read him—and take his book seriously. (Leonard Bushkoff - Christian Science Monitor )

A scholarly and thoughtful account. . . . [Kutler's] serious book is frequently as tense as a thriller. (The New Yorker )

Stanley I Kutler's ambitious synthesis details the complexities of political sabotage and conspiracies to obstruct justice in evocative contexts including Vietnam and the growth of the imperial presidency. . . . Overall this study is, and will remain, the standard book on the 'underside' of the Nixon presidency for the foreseeable future. (American Historical Review )

About the Author

Stanley I. Kutler is E. Gordon Fox Professor of American Institutions at the University of Wisconsin and author of several books on American constitutional history.

Product Details

• Paperback: 776 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (March 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393308278
• ISBN-13: 978-0393308273
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One spring, one well, November 12, 2005

By 

Steven Hellerstedt "SH" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon (Paperback)

If your goal is to understand the depth of Richard Nixon's involvement in the Watergate scandal, Stanley Kutler's `The Wars of Watergate' is the book for it. It's a great introduction to Watergate without that qualifying caveat, of course, but Kutler perches his narrative squarely on Nixon's shoulder. This book doesn't take extended side trips to the creation of the Plumbers, to that dirty trickster Donald Segretti, or the back desks in the Special Prosecutor's offices. The wars of Watergate, Kutler writes, are "rooted in the lifelong political personality of Richard Nixon," a personality that is marked by political paranoia, a determination to wreak vengeance on his enemies, and an overweening concern with winning his own elections. For those who dismiss Watergate as a third-rate burglary, or a vague `everyone else does it,' Kutler provides a substantial "discussion of the abuses of power that precede the burglary and the obstruction of justice that followed it."

Kutler sets the stage with brief chapters on the LBJ Administration, Vietnam, and a biographical sketch of Richard Nixon prior to the presidential election of 1968. We're taken closer to our subject with Kutler's next few chapters on Nixon's first term as president, where Nixon's relationship with the media (antagonistic,) and congress (disdainful,) as well as his executive style (obsessive micro-management) are surveyed. Providing as they do a context for the crimes of Richard Nixon, these prelude-to-war sections properly prepare us for the battles of Watergate.

An American constitutional historian, Stanley Kutler is well qualified to guide us through the battleground that was the second term of Richard Nixon. The war analogy is apt. For Nixon the Wars of Watergate officially begins with the immediate Administration response to the break-in at the DNC headquarters by the Watergate burglars. The first phase may be called "The War of the Burglars' Silence," a phase that is marked by Nixon's active participation in those acts that would lead to his resignation less that two years later.

One gets the strong impression that `The Wars of Watergate' is Kutler's response to future revisionist historians. The revisionist template was already being hammered out by Nixon, and others, when this book was published in 1990. If Kutler is forestalling an alternate interpretation, he does so with a well-coordinate, thoughtful, balanced, and overwhelmingly convincing presentation of facts. His interpretation - that Nixon was at the center of the Watergate cover-up from the beginning - is, with the evidence he provides to back it up, irrefutable.

Although `The Wars of Watergate' is not a complete history of the scandal, it's a good chunk of it - the heart of it, if you will. It would make a good introduction for the uninitiated. Even for Watergate wonks its expanded chapters on the Rodino chaired House Judiciary Committee, which considered impeachment, will provide fresh insights and a more complete story of an under-reported Watergate subject. This may not be the best single volume on Watergate, but if it isn't I haven't read its rival. Highest recommendation.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The most comprehensive Watergate compilation, May 8, 2003

By 

Christopher M. MacNeil "Chris M" (Fort Wayne, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon (Paperback)

The Watergate break-in and coverup scandal that toppled the presidential administration of Richard Nixon is, maybe arguably, one of American history's watershed events. Why is clearly explained by Richard Kutler in his historically rich book that is very probably the most comprehensive and easily understood publication on the subject. Kutler begins with the approval by the president's men of the break-in at the headquarters in the Watergate complex of the National Democratic Committee and, after the plot's five burglars are nabbed, the conspiracy to cover up the involvement of the White House in the break-in. Kutler is rightly clear in pressing the point that there has never been any evidence that Nixon himself approved the break-in (that was OKed by the president's operatives). But, just six days after the June 17, 1972, break-in, Nixon ordered the coverup in the now infamous smoking gun taped conversation with chief of staff H.R. Haldeman. From the apprehension of the break-in's participants, Kutler takes us to the Senate investigative committee that gradually chipped away to lead to the articles of impeachment that were being advanced but not forwarded to the House because of Nixon's resignation. The number of participants in the Watergate affair is sheer numbing, but Kutler does a tremendous job in not getting his reader too bogged down in trying to keep the cast straight. In the end, though, the historical value of Kutler's contribution is why Watergate essentially redefined the presidency, how it altered the American public's perception of the nation's highest office and why and how the built-in safeguards against a tyrannical presidency worked. As for Nixon, it goes without saying he was a truly tragic figures whose pettiness sabotaged what could likely have been one of the most effective presidential administrations in history. Kutler concludes with a tantalizing question: assuming that Nixon did, to some extent, rehabilitate his public image in the years before his death, was that rehabilitation due to the fallen president's changing his character's fatal flaws, or was it because he simply out-lived most of what he called his "enemies?" All this and more in one of the most compelling documents in the Watergate fiasco.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watergate as a Historical Event, May 25, 2005

By 

Michael J. Raymond (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon (Paperback)

Finally, a book with an analysis of Watergate as a historical event. The problem with previous books about Watergate is that they were all written from the perspective of the author and his/her view of reality. Kutler writes as a historian. Attempting to set the stage for the event and detailing the issues with careful analysis. It is an amazing work really. Sunday historians or "picture-book" readers will lose patience with the work due to the painstaking detail of the book. Kutler starts with a careful analysis of Nixon's political past then moves on to the reasons (or lack thereof) for the arrogrant presumption that whatever the President does is OK (except perhaps for getting a BJ in the White House). Since the President is basically in charge of National Security issues, he cannot break the law in protecting those interests. Until reading Kutler's brilliant book, I was confused as to where this concept originated and how Nixon and his staff could be so stupid to justify the actions surrounding Watergate. Kutler puts it all into perspective. It can be a tough read, however, since Kutler assumes that the reader knows something about 20th Century American History as well as posessing a basic understanding of the american political system. If you are looking for a "light" read, pass this one by. If you are prepared to be engrossed in the Watergate saga through a well-written, intelligent, and researched book, then buy this one. You will be happy you did.