Watergate

Stanley I. Kutler is the E. Gordon Fox Professor Emeritus of American Institutions, History, and Law at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of several books on American history, including Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes (1997), which resulted from his successful lawsuit against the National Archives and Nixon that forced the release of the long-suppressed Watergate tapes. He is also the author of The Wars of Watergate (1990).

• Acknowledgments viiThe Cast of Characters viiiIntroduction 1Watergate: A Brief History 5I Richard Nixon: At Work and in His Own Words 9Acceptance Speech: 1968 9The Personality of the President 10The Man on Top 12II The White House Horrors 19Plumbers and Enemies 19III The Watergate Break-In 31The Burglary 31The Role of the President’s Campaign Committee 34What Did the White House Know? 36The White House Reacts: Private and Public Comment 37IV Cover-Up! The White House Responds 41The “Smoking Gun”: Using the CIA 41The Money Trail 47“Stonewalling” and Perjury 59V The Conspiracy Unravels: Judge Sirica, the Ellsberg Case, the Senate, and the Special Prosecutor 75Fatal White House Leaks 75Sirica and McCord 76Defections: Dean and Magruder 79The Ellsberg Case 82Nixon Responds 87The President and His Men: Taped Conversations, February–April 1973 90Haldeman and Ehrlichman Resign 109The Special Prosecutor 111The Special Prosecutor: Nixon’s Reaction 114The Special Prosecutor Takes Over 117Senate Select Committee: John Dean 117Senate Select Committee: Ehrlichman and Haldeman 122Senate Select Committee: Revelation of the Tapes 131VI The Tapes and the Saturday Night Massacre 135The Battle for the Tapes 135The President Retreats 145October: The Cruelest Month 148The Saturday Night Massacre 155The President Succumbs 156The New Special Prosecutor 158The 18½-Minute Tape Gap 163VII The Final Agony: Impeachment, Resignation, Pardon 167Nixon Embattled 167The Impeachment Inquiry 176U.S. v. Nixon 190Resignation 198The Pardon 203Appendix 207Watergate Special Prosecution Force Criminal Actions Final Report, 1975 207Bibliographical Note 219