Or was it? Nixon had to worry about his own scandal before he even became president in 1969. It was clear from the excerpts in The New York Times and The Washington Post that Ellsberg’s tale was going to stop short of the Nixon years. involvement in Vietnam only through the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Why the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist? The Pentagon Papers covered U.S. It was in 1971 when Nixon operatives broke into the office of Lewis Fielding, the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg (the source of the Pentagon Papers).īut this raises the second question. Moreover, as stated, the scandal pre-dates the Watergate break-in itself. Nor does the Watergate break-in represent the earliest roots of the scandal By itself, the Watergate break-in represented a culture of corruption stemming from the Nixon White House ranging from obstruction of justice to blackmail. People are prone to think Watergate is all summed up in the break-in and that Nixon and his agents merely covered up the burglary as the essence of the scandal.Īs Graff shows, Watergate was much more than an incompetent burglary and cover-up. Take the break-in itself, which took place at the Watergate building in Washington, a collection of condos, hotel rooms, and offices.

electorate (whom Nixon once criticized as an adolescent he had tried to treat as an adult), “Watergate: A New History” will be very much an informative read. And considering the attitudes of much of the U.S. Graff’s book is not exactly a new history, as it does not uncover anything we didn’t already know.īut Graff’s book is to date the most thorough history published. Graff is the author of the current book “Watergate: A New History.” The title of the book is somewhat refutable. Graff as a commentator on television and/or radio.

It was a simple and stupid burglary which would lead to the downfall of President Richard Nixon (who resigned from office in 1974).ĭon’t be surprised to see or hear writer Garrett M. It was on the evening of June 17, 1972, that Nixon aides broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, only to be nabbed in the middle of the caper. You can bet there will be retrospectives marking the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in.

Watergate by Garrett M. Graff