s/t: Submission of Recorded Presidential Conversations to the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives by President Richard Nixon Originally published under title: The Presidential Transcripts.
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1974. During the Second World War, he served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific, before being elected to the Congress, and then serving as the 36th Vice President of the United States in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. After an unsuccessful presidential run in 1960, Nixon was elected in 1968, and re-elected to a second term in 1972. Under President Nixon, the United States followed a foreign policy marked by détente with the Soviet Union and by the opening of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. Nixon successfully negotiated a ceasefire with North Vietnam, effectively ending the longest war in American history. Domestically, his administration faced resistance to the Vietnam War. In the face of likely impeachment by the United States House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate for the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a controversial pardon for any federal crimes Nixon may have committed while in office. Nixon is the only person to be elected twice to the office of the presidency and the vice presidency, and is the only president to have resigned the office.
Nixon suffered a stroke on April 18, 1994 and died four days later at the age of 81. ' to 'Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1974. During the Second World War, he served as a Navy lieutenant commander in the Pacific, before being elected to the Congress, and then serving as the 36th Vice President of the United States in the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961.
After an unsuccessful presidential run in 1960, Nixon was elected in 1968, and re-elected to a second term in 1972. Under President Nixon, the United States followed a foreign policy marked by détente with the Soviet Union and by the opening of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. Nixon successfully negotiated a ceasefire with North Vietnam, effectively ending the longest war in American history.
Domestically, his administration faced resistance to the Vietnam War. In the face of likely impeachment by the United States House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate for the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a controversial pardon for any federal crimes Nixon may have committed while in office. Nixon is the only person to be elected twice to the office of the presidency and the vice presidency, and is the only president to have resigned the office. Nixon suffered a stroke on April 18, 1994 and died four days later at the age of 81.
I currently own the Viking hardcover edition of these transcripts, but read this paperback edition originally.
The whole Watergate affair started with the break-in to Daniel Ellsberg's (the former RAND Corporation employee who leaked the Pentagon Papers) psychiatrist's office by the White House 'Plumbers' (they fixed leaks). This occurred, as I recall, during the 1972 election campaign, but, being but the tip of an iceberg, it had no real effect on the outcome, Richard M. Nixon's reelection.
More came out, however, in dribbles mostly, during 1973/74, but it was probably Nixon's overt obstructions of justice that did him in--that and the enemies he'd made in the Establishment. In any case, the revelations of 'dirty tricks' apparently engineered by the White House made for exciting reading for months and months. I became, for the first and only time in my life, a regular reader of both Time and Newsweek magazines.
After impeachment proceedings began and Nixon, anticipating eventual conviction, resigned, these transcripts made by hidden recorders in the Oval Office, central to the case against the President, came out. One is not impressed by the President. He seems so ordinary--and not as an ordinary, nice guy, but as a vindictive, scheming son-of-a-bitch.
Really I’m not sure why I sat down and read this. If you’re interested in an outdated introduction to the Watergate scandal, then just read the intro. Many of the names mentioned in the transcript won’t mean much to a modern reader, and it was hard for me to finish this book even with the ‘who’s who’ page near the front. At the time, obviously these transcripts were pivotal to the case itself, but there are better firsthand accounts that aren’t 800 pages long for a reader in 202x.