The Nixon Defense, John W. Dean
The Nixon Defense, John W. Dean
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The Nixon Defense
What He Knew and When He Knew It

Author: John W. Dean

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 26 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 07/29/2014

Synopsis

Based on Nixon’s overlooked recordings, New York Times bestselling author John W. Dean connects the dots between what we’ve come to believe about Watergate and what actually happened
 
Watergate forever changed American politics, and in light of the revelations about the NSA’s widespread surveillance program, the scandal has taken on new significance. Yet remarkably, four decades after Nixon was forced to resign, no one has told the full story of his involvement in Watergate.
 
In The Nixon Defense, former White House Counsel John W. Dean, one of the last major surviving figures of Watergate, draws on his own transcripts of almost a thousand conversations, a wealth of Nixon’s secretly recorded information, and more than 150,000 pages of documents in the National Archives and the Nixon Library to provide the definitive answer to the question: What did President
Nixon know and when did he know it?
 
Through narrative and contemporaneous dialogue, Dean connects dots that have never been connected, including revealing how and why the Watergate break-in occurred, what was on the mysterious 18 1/2 minute gap in Nixon’s recorded conversations, and more.
 
In what will stand as the most authoritative account of one of America’s worst political scandals, The Nixon Defense shows how the disastrous mistakes of Watergate could have been avoided and offers a cautionary tale for our own time.

About The Author

John W. Dean was legal counsel to president Nixon during the Watergate scandal, and his Senate testimony helped lead to Nixon’s resignation. In 2006, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating George W. Bush’s NSA warrantless wiretap program. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Blind Ambition, Broken Government, Conservatives Without Conscience, and Worse Than Watergate.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Christopher on July 24, 2022

It's only natural that John Dean, one of history's greatest rat finks, would continue profiting off his experience as Richard Nixon's repentant consigliere for decades after the fact. Published right after the 40th anniversary of Nixon's resignation, The Nixon Defense meticulous recounts every step......more

Goodreads review by Donna on December 07, 2017

John Dean is a man with a mission, one that has lasted him most of his adult life. This comprehensive tome is the sort of documented, primary evidence that is only done by someone who's got a large stake in setting the historical record straight. Dean is that man. It goes to show that even though th......more

Goodreads review by Sara on April 16, 2017

Although somewhat tedious and not edited very effectively in a few spots, this is probably going to be considered the definitive book on Watergate. If you like the Oliver Stone film "Nixon", you will most likely enjoy reading Dean's perspective. Amazing how nobody in politics today has fully learned......more

Goodreads review by Marylyn on January 09, 2015

This book was exactly what I expected - long, tedious, and full of information. Watergate is my first political memory, and I went through a Watergate fixation in junior high school. I remember learning the meaning of the word scapegoat and the idea of a snowball effect. Reading this book reminded m......more

Goodreads review by Germany on July 10, 2021

Loved it. I opted for the audiobook which was not only entertaining but informative. I was 11 when he finally resigned, but I didn't grasp what had happened. It was a fascinating time in history, and appalling behavior by the president.......more

Quotes

“Mr. Dean’s book will remind people of why Nixon deserves so unflattering a historical reputation . . . It should also serve as a renewed cautionary tale about elevating politicians with questionable character to high office . . . Dean’s resolve to reconstruct this dismal tale of high crimes and misdemeanors is commendable . . . . In addition to creating a definitive historical record of how the Watergate scandal unfolded, The Nixon Defense resolves some major unsettled questions.” —Robert Dallek, The New York Times  
“Dean, as always the model of precision and doggedness, has performed yeoman service . . . even for someone who has covered Watergate for 42 years, from the morning of the burglary through the investigations, confessions, denials, hearings, trials, books and attempts at historical revisionism, Dean’s book has an authoritative ring.” —Bob Woodward, The Washington Post  
“A prodiguous effort.” —New York Daily News  
“Dean shapes those conversations into a readable, dense narrative.” —Los Angeles Times  
“The most intimate, detailed, complex and nuanced portrait of a President and his courtiers that we have ever seen in print . . . Dean is scrupulously fair, but Nixon is undone by his own words. To read them is to be a fly on the wall in the palace court of the Nixon White House, to observe history close up as we have never seen it before . . . the closest we will ever come to knowing the real Richard Nixon. It is a fascinating and very important piece of history, and the stuff of great drama.”—Huffington Post 

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