HR-ML's Reviews > The Final Days

Kindle edition. 5 well-deserved stars.

This was written by highly respected Washington Post
investigative reporters, Woodward and Bernstein and
covered the last 6 mos. of Richard Nixon's Presidency.
They classified their interviews as "deep cover." They
followed the Watergate break-in which lead the
reporters to Nixon's abuse of power, obstruction of
justice, money laundering of $ donated to Nixon's re-
election & so on.

Nixon had a strained Presidency to start, between he
& Kissinger, Kissinger and Haig & Ziegler and nearly
everyone. Kissinger served as Secretary of State &
National Security Advisor, General Haig as Chief of
Staff (last 15 mos. only) & Ziegler as taciturn Press
Secretary. Diane Sawyer, future ABC-TV journalist,
served under Ziegler. Kissinger expressed to a select
few his being unimpressed with Nixon's intellectual
rigor.

House Judiciary Committee (HJC) & the Senate Select
Committee each independently investigated the events
of Watergate (the 6/17/72 break-in of Democratic
Party HQ). They learned Nixon had an automatic tape
recording system of his Oval Office convos. The Secret
Service had authorization to remove these tapes from
the safe. Nixon refused to release the tapes or trans-
scripts of same to Judge Sirica, using the smoke-screen
of "national security." The 'smoking gun' tape dated
6/23/72, proved that Nixon lead a cover-up of crimes
related to Watergate. He told the CIA to obstruct or
slow down the FBI's Watergate investigation!

Special Prosecutor Jaworski took the case to the Supreme
Court (by-passing the lower court) & the SCOTUS forced
Nixon by a vote of 8-0 (with 1 Justice abstaining) to hand
over the subpoenaed tapes.

During this aforementioned 6 month time period, staff,
members of Congress, son-in-laws and friends described
Nixon in whole or in part as "a liar," "a madman," "nutty,"
"unstable," "unraveled." and in a "dream world." Also
staff, legislators, family reported Nixon drank more heavily
from June 1972 to the date of his resignation.

THE HJC handed down 3 articles of impeachment against
Nixon, then if the House as a whole had a majority vote
against Nixon, the Senate would possibly have a hearing
to convict and remove Nixon from office. If it landed in
the Senate (the upper House), 34 of 100 Senators voting
on Nixon's side would prevent Nixon's conviction/ removal.
The Democrats held a majority in the House + Senate.

The authors did a good job of probing Nixon's state of
mind. Nixon claimed being innocent of the charges &
persecuted (his words). Nixon vascilated back and forth
between fighting for his job or resigning. Nixon resigned
8/9/74, in favor of new President Gerald Ford (Nixon's
Vice President.)

Richard & Pat Nixon had their 34th wedding anniversary
in 1974. We learned Pat threatened to divorce him in
1962 because she felt unprepared to live in the spotlight.
Reportedly from 1962 onward, these 2 led separate lives.

Trained attorney Nixon knew better than to obstruct justice.
He had 3 attorneys who worked on the Watergate case on his
behalf, and by design, he kept them in the dark. He lied to
his attorneys, Cabinet members, supporters on 'both sides
of the aisle.' Also to friends and family.

What a riveting book for history buffs and policy wonks! So
much detail, I took some notes.

Edited: to add.