The Real Watergate Scandal

I have been a follower of the America's Untold Stories You Tube Channel. The channel hosts recently interviewed Geoff Shepard who wrote this book on the Watergate scandal. Shepard worked in the Nixon White House and has an intriguing viewpoint on the scandal. This book was published in 2015.

The publisher's summary:

“The system worked’—Carl Bernstein’s famous assessment of Watergate—turns out to be completely wrong. Powerful new evidence reveals that in the prosecution of the most consequential scandal in American history, virtually nothing in the justice system worked as it should.

The roles of heroes and villains in Watergate were assigned before Marine One carried Richard Nixon into exile on August 9, 1974. But Geoff Shepard’s patient and persistent research has uncovered shocking violations of ethical and legal standards by the "good guys”—including Judge John Sirica, Archibald Cox, and Leon Jaworski.

The Watergate prosecutors’ own files reveal their collusion with the federal judges who tried their cases and heard their appeals—professional misconduct so extensive that the pretense of a fair trial is now impossible to maintain.

Shepard documents that the Watergate Special Prosecution Force was an avenging army drawn from the ranks of Nixon’s most ardent partisan foes. They had the good fortune to work with judges who shared their animus or who quickly developed a taste for the media adulation showered on those who lent their power to the anti-Nixon cause.

In the end, Nixon’s fall was the result of the “smoking gun” tape recording in which he appeared to order a cover-up of the Watergate burglary. Yet in a stunning revision of the historical record, Shepard shows that that conversation, which he himself was the first to transcribe, was taken out of context and completely misunderstood—an interpretation with which Nixon’s nemesis John Dean concurs.

Crimes were committed, and an attempt was made to cover them up. But by trampling on the defendants’ right to due process, the Watergate prosecutors and judges denied the American people the assurance that justice was done and destroyed the historical reputation of an exceptionally accomplished president and administration. This book will challenge everything you think you know about the Watergate scandal.

Author Geoff Shepard believes that the Nixon resignation was a coup d'etat and that Nixon should not have had to resign the presidency. Normally I would reject such a notion as a conspiracy theory. Having lived through Watergate I believe that I know everything about it because I read many newspapers around the time that it occurred. However, since Shepard worked in the White House as a lawyer at the time of the scandal, I believe that his opinion matters. Shepard's main argument is that the judges hearing separate Watergate cases met together several times with prosecutors and colluded to bring down a president that they opposed politically. This reasoning does not ring true for me. 

Leon Jaworski and John Sirica were at the juxtaposition of the case. Leon Jaworski served as the second special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. John Sirica,  as a D.C. District Court judge, was responsible for hearing a request by Jaworski to force Nixon to turn over evidence. Jaworski had issued a subpoena for the tapes of 64 presidential conversations to use as evidence in the criminal cases against indicted former Nixon administration officials. Sirica issued an order granting the request. Nixon refused and Jaworski followed up with an appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court and won the appeal. Nixon, with his back to the wall and having been impeached by the House of Representatives, chose to leave office.

Years later the author obtained full copies of the judicial record of each case. Inside those boxes of documents he uncovered contact between the prosecution and the Judiciary that the defendants were not aware of. It is true that if one party in a lawsuit contacts a judge, that a copy of the request to see the judge must be given to all parties and all the parties must be present together with the judge in any meeting. Also, there is alot of case law overturning convictions based on this type of due process violation. However, it happens all the time in the U. S. and usually to people no one will ever know or care about.

My question for the author is "who cares" if this happened to Nixon. Shepard acknowledges in the book that crimes were committed and that Nixon was "flawed." OK. He admits Nixon is guilty. So what if there was a technical violation of the law. It happens every day in this country and to people who are not guilty of a crime. It is hard to feel any pity for Nixon who was guilty. Not only was he guilty of several crimes but he tarnished the office of the presidency. I feel no compassion for him and reject the author’s premise that the resignation was a coup d'etat. 

Nixon resigned in order to receive a pension. If he stayed in office and was removed after a trial in the Senate, then he would lose his pension based on official misconduct. Nixon did not want to risk losing his pension. That was his decision to make. It was not forced upon him. It was not scandalous for him to choose this path and was not the "real" scandal in this matter. Therefore, I reject the author’s premise that the resignation was a scandal and a coup d'etat.

I am rating the book 3 out of 5 stars mainly because the material was not presented in chronological order. I understand what Shepard is saying because I lived through Watergate. Younger generations may not understand and will need to have the facts laid out in order.

Global: One Fragile World

Publisher:  Sourcebooks Young Readers

Publication Date:  April 11, 2023

Reading Age:  10 - 14

Pages:  144

ISBN:  1728262194

Global: One Fragile World is told from two alternating perspectives. One is a child living in the Arctic and one living in the Bay of Bengal. Both kids are dealing with the destruction of their homes and lifestyles from weather related events. Sami and his grandfather live in a village along the Indian Ocean. They earn their living by fishing. But the ocean is rising and each day they work harder but bring back fewer fish. Yuki lives in the Canadian North where warming temperatures are melting the ice. Polar bears have less food to hunt and are wandering into town looking for something to eat. Yuki is determined to do something to help the bears.

Both climate change subplots are suspenseful and are told with alot of emotion. The reader doesn't know how these two kids will survive. Sami and Yuki have terrifying experiences that they must endure but they are able to get through them with the aplomb only a child can exhibit. We also get a short account of Myanmar immigrants to the Bay of Bengal.

The reason I picked up this middle grade book was due to the richly saturated colors that illustrator Giovanni Rigano used. The drawings have been done in the traditional comic strip format and show detailed expressions on the characters faces. At the end of the story the author gives information about global warming. 

5 out of 5 stars.

Peril

I knew that Bob Woodward's Peril would be a great read even though there have already been several excerpts in the media. It was. I had two profound thoughts after finishing the book but let me first state that the time period covered was the last six months of Trump's presidency and the first six months of Biden's presidency.

What struck me the most was how long the military had been controlling Trump's ability to begin a war. Military officers got together before scheduled meetings in the Oval Office to decide beforehand who would say what in the meetings. One person would be selected to take the heat from Trump, i.e., tell him the truth. Telling Trump the truth always resulted in him screaming obscenities at them. This was true from Trump's initial days in Office until he left Office. When the 2020 election was nearing, military officials were even more hands on because Trump was saying privately that he wanted military action against several other nations. It has been reported in the news that the Chinese were worried that the U.S. would attack them. This worry was true for the entire 2020 calendar year not just near the election date. In fact, the Chinese military was on high alert for an attack all year as were the Russians and Iranians. The American military had several discussions with the Chinese to advise that the U S. would not attack them and in so many words say they were in control of the nuclear weapons, not Trump. 

With such extraordinary efforts being made to avert wars why did no one remove Trump from Office? The military took some measures that were illegal. While I am glad they did so the fact remains that their actions were illegal. My latest reading of the U.S. Constitution shows that the vice president is the only person who can call a cabinet meeting to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump.  In my mind Pence is just as guilty of illegal acts by failing to do his job. I guess the military did what they could given that Pence refused to do his duty. Former Joint Chief's Chairman General Milley was quoted in the book as saying that the military only has an obligation to the Constitution, not the Commander in Chief.  He upheld his duty to the Constitution by preventing Trump from starting a war, one that would also be illegal under the Constitution. We have former Vice President Pence to thank for the mess. I was not aware how much he contributed to it before reading the book. The only reason that this mess occurred is because he failed to uphold his own constitutional duties. Note, though, that the authors did not discuss Pence. These are my thoughts.

The book begins with Biden's inaugural address where he mentions that we are in a winter of peril. The book ends with the author's statement "peril remains." I agree with their assessment but most of the time I push that thought from my mind. It's just too upsetting. Peril should be required reading. I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Rage

"I bring rage out.  I do bring rage out.  I always have.  I don't know if that's an asset or a liability, but whatever it is, I do."  Donald Trump, March 31, 2016.

Rage is the second book Bob Woodward has written about Donald Trump's presidency.  It is a sequel to Woodward's 2018 book Fear and covers Trump's entire first term in office. I was thrilled to get one of the first copies of the book.  While reading I sensed that much of the information presented in the book I already knew about, but it seemed new. Trump fatigue has affected my ability to remember. 

The first third of the book concerns all of the scandals, foreign policy problems, impeachment and all of the discord among staffers. Woodward then begins to talk about COVID-19.  Since I am a news junkie I will only mention information that is new to me that I feel is noteworthy. The timeline of events was one of those things new to me. Two U. S. government offices, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH), received notice about the coronavirus on December 31, 2019. Robert Redfield immediately began working on a memo.  On January 1, 2020 he distributed the first internal report regarding the virus within the CDC.  On January 3, 2020 the U. S. was aware that it spread from human to human contact by deciphering the lies it was told by a Chinese representative over the phone. On January 5 Chinese social media sites were using #WuhanReportedMysteriousPneumonia and the posts indicated community spread of the virus.  By January 10, 2020 when the Chinese posted online the virus's genome, a vaccine began being worked on by Dr. Anthony Fauci at the NIH. This timeline is vastly different from what the media has reported. Essentially, the U. S. government knew everything it needed to know to act by the end of the first week of January. The problem with acting swiftly was that Trump was not on board. He did not want to act. Trump did not declare a national emergency until March 13.

Another interesting piece of information is how Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner behaved in his role as senior advisor to the president. He stated that the Administration's communication strategy was called "intentional wrongness persuasion."  He was quoting the Dilbert cartoon.  Kushner also told Woodward that "controversy elevates message."  He was further quoted saying "Trump would say that he is going to respect the One China policy, that is wasn't that big if a give because you can always say you wouldn't respect it a day later." Whew!  Is Kushner just as nuts as Trump or is this something he came up with to explain why Trump behaved as he did?

The timing of the publication of Rage is perfect for reminding voters of all we have been through with Trump. Whether you like Trump or not, Rage is the reminder we need in order to determine how to cast our ballots. After all, all of us have Trump fatigue.

5 out of 5 stars.

Too Much and Never Enough

Donald Trump's niece Mary Trump wrote this fabulous revenge book that was just published this morning. Mary Trump is a licensed psychologist who covered the life of the family from its beginnings with Fred Trump marrying his Scottish wife Mary Anne MacLeod.  It ends in 2020 at the end of Donald Trump's first term in the White House.  Within the book's pages, niece Mary Trump portrays her famous uncle as never having emotionally attached to his parents, his mother in particular, due to parental neglect that began when he was two years old.  She writes that the behavior of infants and toddlers is a form of attachment behavior, which seeks a positive, comforting response from caregivers. Uncle Donald and his younger brother Robert did not obtain any positive responses from their parents.  The author calls this child abuse.  By the time he was four, Donald Trump had learned all of the behaviors that he continues to exhibit today.

Uncle Donald was the fourth of five children.  When he was two years old his mother was found on the floor of a bathroom bleeding.  She had an emergency hysterectomy and two additional surgeries for medical problems that stemmed from the hysterectomy.  In essence, she was not available to raise her children until Uncle Donald was four.  During those two years of his life, he learned from his father that it was better to not be needy and began acting as if nothing ever bothered him.  Fred was proud of his brashness because it showed that he was tough.  He learned to bully, lie, cheat and steal from his siblings as way to becoming successful.  In the Trump family success was defined as not being humiliated by Fred.  Mother Mary Anne was never able to develop an attachment with her second son Donald after she recovered from her surgeries.  The author does not speculate why other than Mary Anne was constantly breaking bones due to osteoporosis that set in after the hysterectomy. 

The author is the daughter of Fred Trump, Jr., the oldest son and expected heir to the Trump Companies.  Throughout the book she upholds her father as the only member of the family to ever support themselves financially.  Fred Jr. did not want to work for his father and pursued being a commercial pilot until the family coerced him to quit his job at TWA and return to working for Trump Companies.  None of his siblings ever supported themselves, preferring to take Fred's money instead.  Yet Fred Jr. was ridiculed by his siblings, especially Donald, as being a failure because he worked as a pilot.  He also served in the Air Force National Guard which the family thought was a waste of time. Fred Jr. died when the author was 16.

I have to be a spoiler her and say that Mary Trump wanted revenge against the family for what they did to her father and she gets her revenge.  On the last page of the book she accuses Uncle Donald of being a mass murderer as his inaction caused many deaths from COVID-19. She also writes that he knows that no one loves him and never will...and he killed her father.  

The book is a fast read and is a fascinating look at the psychology behind the dysfunctional first family. It is a must read. 

The Mueller Report

I was at Barnes and Noble earlier in the week and found The Mueller Report for sale in two formats.  One was published by the Washington Post newspaper and the other one was published by Skyhorse Publishing.

There are slight differences between the two books.  Both contain the full redacted version of the report. How that redaction is shown differs in each book.


The Washington Post version has articles in the beginning of the book as well as the indictments of the people who were indicted by the Mueller Team in the back of the book. The other version only has an article by attorney Alan Dershowitz in the front of the book. The redactions in the Skyhorse version are shown only with [redaction] in between sentences. The Post version has page after page of blackened out paragraphs for the redactions. This makes the redactions seem more sinister than what we have been told they are about, i.e., national security matters.

The Mueller Report has citations on each page showing where information came from. For example, information may have come from an interview with Donald Trump, Jr. on a particular date. In the Post version of the Report the citations are on each page. The Skyhorse version has them all at the back of the book. Clearly, the Post version is a better read because of the placement of these citations.  Both books have Attorney General William Barr's letter to Congress wherein he summarized the Report.

Which version should you choose?  I did not want to be influenced by any articles before reading the actual report itself so I didn't read them initially. I wanted to form my own beliefs. If you have watched cable news then you know that Alan Dershowitz loves Trump and the Washington Post doesn't. If you lean right or left politically you may want to make your choice that way. The Washington Post version is easier to understand because the citations from where information came from are on the same page where the information is stated. The Post version is much larger but is only $3 more expensive.

I am not going to state what I believe about the Report, Barr's summary or the articles. My only recommendation is that you read the Mueller Report itself before reading the Barr summary or any articles. Form your own conclusions before reading about someone else's conclusions. Whichever one you choose it will be a collector's item in decades to come. My copies are already on the bookshelf next to The Pentagon Papers.

Fear

Fear is veteran journalist Bob Woodward's 19th book.  It covers the final 4 months of the Trump campaign for the Presidency and the first 14 months of his administration.

Fear opens with a quote from Donald Trump that he made to the author and Robert Costa during an interview on March 31, 2016:

"Real power is - I don't even want to use the word - fear."

The book ends with the resignation of his attorney John Dowd who had been representing him in the Mueller investigation. Dowd had made the conclusion that his client could not testify before Mueller's team because as Dowd said to himself "You're a fucking liar."  Trump was unable to give the same answers to questions Dowd posed to him.  When Trump decided that he would testify in front of Mueller's team, Dowd withdrew as his attorney.

The book goes into great detail describing the events of each month of Trump's Presidency showing the chaos and efforts made by every aide of his to prevent him from harming the nation. Even though there were 2 warring factions in his employ, they seemed to agree basically on those things that were bad for the country. It seemed amazing to me that aides who I have listened to on TV supporting him from the time of his campaign knew that implementing the policies he advocated during the campaign were bad for the country and they tried to dissuade him from implementing them.

Another unusual thing that I noticed was the absence of the Vice President at all of these meetings at the White House.  Pence claims to spend 6 hours a day with Trump but the author's research does not place him near the action in the White House. He is only mentioned at 2 meetings where nothing particularly weird happened.  So, what does Pence do all day?

Fear is an eye opening view of the Trump Administration as well as Trump himself. While most of the juicy parts of the book were already discussed in the media before I could get it at my library, it was still an interesting read.  This obviously was a highly anticipated book as I waited two months on a waiting list at the Chicago Public Library to get it. When I put the book on hold I was number 597 in line!  I have never seen any book hold like this before. This is a new record.

Definately 5 out of 5 stars!  I think Fear will be read for generations to come as an insight to this most unusual period of American history.

The Soul of America

The Soul of America The Battle for our Better Angels is the first book by Jon Meacham that I have read.  Part of the title comes from a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln wherein he says that the memory of our bonds of affection will swell the Union when touched by the better angels of our nature.  I was inspired even before the Introduction by 3 quotes.  One from James Baldwin, another by Franklin Roosevelt and the third by Lyndon Johnson.

As I was reading I felt I inspired by the recitation of American history that I was quite familiar with but have not heard anyone talk about in decades. Citizens from my baby boomer generation are well familiar with the thoughts the author presented and believe them.  I am not so sure that young Americans do and I doubt that they would bother with a book written by someone from my generation.  I am 60 by the way.

The author's grasp of history is evident as he connects events from Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movement. He showed Lyndon Johnson's knowledge of the need to return to the events at Appotommax, where Gen. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant, in order to fix the civil right wrongs of the 1960s. He shows how politicians in our past and present have used fear to get elected and how that did not work out well for them or for the country either.

One fact that I was not aware of was that every President from Reconstruction to the beginning of the 20th century had to make deals with the KKK in order to get elected. Warren Harding, who did not like them, made a critical public remark about them and their response was to create a conspiracy theory that he had black blood.  This conspiracy theory was backed with false affidavits concerning his birth record. Sound familiar? Another new fact for me was that there was a national debate at the end of the Civil War whether emancipation meant equality. The South got organized and won that political debate.

While it seems that the Trumpian politics of today are a new low for the U. S., Meacham tells us a forgotten history that says otherwise. Our politics have always been nasty with brief interludes of peacefulness.  However, there have always been several voices in each generation speaking against the wrongs of the day, voices that succeeding generations followed.

While I have always believed that each generation has improved life in our nation and that this would always continue throughout history, I cannot be as optimistic about the future as the author.  The reason is that the young people I know do not acknowledge that there is a shared American past or even a shared creed. This is new. We have never had a generation so unconnected with the past. It's only what can I get for myself from so-and-so in the fastest way possible. What I think is discarded by them because I am old and responsible for all the things they think are wrong with the country. Many of these things are not wrong, it just prevents them from having to work to get ahead.

As I write this review, I have just watched the funeral of Sen. John McCain where the ideals presented in The Soul of America were talked about but only by those whose careers were either over or will be over soon due to their advancing age. Who will take up our American cause and show our true soul? I am anxious about this. I try to be hopeful but it is hard.

The author offers a salve for these feelings in the final chapter with a Harry Truman quote, "The next generation never learns anything from the previous one until its brought home with a hammer." The author ends with "The moral utility of the past should help us prepare to act in the present."

I did not have high expectations when I got this book even though it has had many great reviews and everyone told me I had to read it. I viewed it as a political book, a type of book that I try to avoid. However, I was surprised by how Meacham connected the past with the present. It is a fabulous trip down America's memory lane and Meacham shows all the good, the bad and the ugly parts as well as how it explains where we are now as a nation. I am thrilled that I read the book and highly recommend it.