The Fall of Richard Nixon

September 30, 2019
Former White House correspondent Brokaw (A Lucky Life Interrupted) presents a brisk account of his “reporter’s experience of Watergate, the final act,” in this affable memoir. Brokaw joined the White House press corps in the summer of 1973 after serving as nightly news anchor for L.A.’s KNBC. Some of his new colleagues wrote to the president of NBC News that Brokaw wasn’t qualified for the role, but future rival Dan Rather, Brokaw notes, was “immediately cordial.” By August, Watergate and its related scandals had reached Nixon’s inner circle; Brokaw recalls an awkward encounter in a Washington, D.C., burger joint with John Ehrlichman and his 10-year-old son shortly after the ex–White House adviser had been indicted for planning to steal whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg’s psychological profile. Chronicling the 12 months leading up to Nixon’s resignation in August 1974, Brokaw describes major milestones—the “I’m not a crook” press conference; the revelation that 18-and-a-half minutes were missing from a key tape recording—and pays tribute to his fellow journalists who covered the historical events. Though he makes a handful of references to Donald Trump and the current “chaotic time in the American presidency,” the theme isn’t developed in detail. Watergate completists will appreciate Brokaw’s clubby reminiscences; those seeking a substantive analysis, however, should look elsewhere.

October 1, 2019
The veteran newscaster turns in a swift-flowing narrative of the decline and collapse of the Nixon administration. "As we experience another chaotic time in the American presidency, it is worth remembering what we went through before." So writes Brokaw (A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope, 2015, etc.), recalling a time in which chaos reigned in the White House, where he served as NBC's correspondent during Nixon's final months in office. The facts of the matter are fairly well understood, thanks to books such as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's All the President's Men and The Final Days, but Brokaw brings a more searching, controlling question to the enterprise: "Who was Richard Nixon?" That's a question to which answers are both tentative and still forthcoming. The author's narrative spans several years of Nixon's life, taking in such critical moments as his appointment of Henry Kissinger as his secretary of state. Brokaw focuses closely on the last six weeks of his presidency, a period marked by a Supreme Court decision ruling that Nixon did not have the legal right to shield tape recordings from a Congress that was in full-tilt investigatory mode, a decision that would "amount to a political death sentence to a sitting president." The author illuminates such turning points as Nixon's explaining away the missing 18-odd minutes of tape that so excited Watergate investigators, concluding that he wished he hadn't recorded in the first place, and the soon-to-follow declaration, infamous to this day, that "I'm not a crook." The mood in the White House turned ever more erratic thereafter, with Nixon becoming oddly aggressive--understandably, because, as Brokaw observes, "the best defense for Nixon was always a strong offense." The book is understated and even-tempered, without the fire of Woodward and Bernstein, Timothy Crouse, Hunter S. Thompson, and other chroniclers of the Nixon era; the calmness is welcome, though, for a narrative that seeks clarity in that time of torment. Not the first book to turn to when reading about Watergate but still a useful overview of long-ago events.

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November 1, 2019

Brokaw (A Life Interrupted) became NBC News White House Correspondent in 1973, as the Watergate affair captivated the nation. From his ringside seat, Brokaw documents President Richard Nixon's inevitable fall, despite unprecedented diplomatic breakthroughs with China and the USSR. Stories of Nixon's insecurities that led him to approve the break-in of Democratic Party headquarters, and comparisons between Presidents Nixon and Trump in claiming executive privilege and blaming the media, provide much to ponder. As the Nixon presidency descends to its ultimate collapse in 1974, Brokaw portrays Nixon as a self-deluded, broken man who would not acknowledge guilt, even when the Supreme Court ruled that he must turn over all papers and tapes. Humorous anecdotes about traveling with the president and life among Washington's political elite lighten the mood. The author reveals that Nixon wanted him to serve as press secretary, a position Brokaw turned down because he disliked party politics. VERDICT This fast-paced account nicely captures the spirit of the times and will appeal to political junkies and scholars. See Patrick Buchanan's Nixon's White House Wars and Keith Olson's updated Watergate for in-depth investigations.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2019
As the newly minted White House correspondent for NBC News, Brokaw witnessed all the drama, scandal, and subterfuge surrounding Watergate that occasioned the end of Richard Nixon's presidency. Nixon's campaign violations, emoluments abuses, tax evasion, and political overreach are familiar turf in the Trump era but seem sadly quaint by comparison. In his reflective memoir of what it meant to be a journalist at that time, Brokaw's succinct retelling of events is bolstered by his fly-on-the-wall insider revelations. He had, quite literally at times, a catbird's seat to history, as when he accompanied Nixon to Paris for the funeral of George Pompidou and found himself in the rafters of Notre Dame, watching as the president blatantly used a state visit as a personal and national distraction from the controversy shrouding him at home. A lion in the field of broadcast journalism and a best-selling author, Brokaw (A Lucky Life Interrupted, 2013) remains one of the few remaining news professionals who experienced this defining moment in presidential history, a valued vantage point given the current political upheaval.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Brokaw's deep experience, keen perspective, and warm and lucid writing make him a trusted and adored author, while the relevance of this impeachment chronicle will stoke added interest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)