The Fall of Richard Nixon

Author: Tom Brokaw
Genre: Non-fiction / Memoir
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2019
Pages: 240
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In August 1974, after his involvement in the Watergate scandal could no longer be denied, Richard Nixon became the first and only president to resign from office in anticipation of certain impeachment. The year preceding that moment was filled with shocking revelations and bizarre events, full of power politics, legal jujitsu, and high-stakes showdowns, and with head-shaking surprises every day. As the country's top reporters worked to discover the truth, the public was overwhelmed by the confusing and almost unbelievable stories about activities in the Oval Office.

Tom Brokaw, the young NBC News White House correspondent at the time, gives us a nuanced and thoughtful chronicle, recalling the players, the strategies, and the highs and lows of the scandal that brought down a president. He takes readers from crowds of shouting protesters to shocking press conferences, from meeting with Attorney General Eliot Richardson and White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, to overseas missions along side Henry Kissinger. He recounts Nixon's claims of executive privilege to withhold White House tape recordings of Oval Office conversations; the bribery scandal that led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and the choice of Gerald Ford as VP; the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; how in the midst of Watergate Nixon organized emergency military relief for Israel during the Yom Kippur war; the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court that required Nixon to turn over the tapes; and other insider moments from this important and dramatic period and event.

The Fall of Richard Nixon allows readers to experience this American epic from the perspective of a journalist on the ground and at the center of it all during this historic time.

Review: This book waffled between memoir and biography, at times in a way that was confusing. I went into it wanting to learn more about Watergate, but ultimately came away with knowing something of the time and of Richard Nixon. It was interesting.