The long-lost truths of Richard Nixon are told as only someone with close and intimate connections to him and those around him could possibly write about. Roger Stone is uniquely qualified to write such an extensive insider's account of Nixon's long political history, including details of how the Kennedys and Johnson managed to steal the 1960 election, especially in the key states of Illinois and Texas. The book is filled with rich details of backroom deals and the vivid context -- the hows and whys -- of historic mistakes, such as Nixon's strategic error in promising to campaign in every state during the course of that election, instead of investing his time in the most critical states. The characters within these stories "come to life" with a vivaciousness that is rare in other books of this genre. For example, instead of thinking that vice presidential candidate Henry Cabot Lodge (later Kennedy's appointment as ambassador to South Vietnam) as just another sometimes-bumbling senator, we now know him to be "bright but obtuse, somewhat lazy, and [having an] aloof patrician manner." And, we find that Lodge insisted on having a two hour nap, in pajamas, every afternoon. Furthermore, we hear Barry Goldwater say about Lodge, "We can't beat the Democrats with a man who campaigns only an hour or two a day." And finally, Stone himself declares, "He [Lodge] brought nothing to the ticket" and we have a full and complete understanding of just why that was so. It provides a new prism from which to follow Lodge a few years later, when Kennedy selected him, not only to appease Republicans and war hawks in general, but how Kennedy wanted to get him sidelined in Vietnam as a way to keep him out of domestic politics for awhile.
There are many other great examples of these very instructive and enlightening vignettes within this book which, combined, make this a very enjoyable and informative read. Do not be put off by the reviews that complain of poor editing; there are a few redundancies and a misspelling or grammar error here and there but to state that these discredit the book is such overkill that it seems more like the kind of whining that one resorts to when there is nothing more substantive to say. In some of these cases, in fact, it is necessary to repeat, or refer to, a past reference maybe 50 pages back, in order to make another point and that should not be considered a "redundancy" as I think some have done. My only complaint is that it has no index, however even that is not sufficient to affect the overall rating.
All in all, this book certainly merits a five star, excellent review for the wealth of new information it contains. It certainly clears up a lot of remaining questions as to "what really happened" in the Watergate case, mostly caused by a lot of confusion and misdirection sowed into the story by Messrs. Woodward and Bernstein. Above all else, the book sets the record straight in relation to the prevarications of John Dean, as when he called Dean's book (misnamed "The Nixon Defense") "an all-out attack on President Nixon. It's far more accurate to see the book as Dean's defense, his last and best effort to paint a picture of how an innocent young lawyer suddenly and unexpectedly found himself in the midst of a cabal of evil-doers--and how he alone struggled to do the right thing."
This book, together with his first book "The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ," secures Roger Stone a place amongst the truth-tellers of real history (as contrasted to the faux and mythical "history" as told by so many other authors such as Bill O'Reilly).
The world needs more Stones! FIVE STARS, EXCELLENT BOOK!
Phillip F. Nelson, author of "LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination" and "LBJ: From Mastermind to The Colossus"
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Waste of time
I read this book when ironically the author himself (Roger Stone) was convicted for felony witness intimidation and illegal tampering and funneling of information from Wiki Leaks to the Trump campaign. In the jacket of the book, Stone claims "Learn the inside scoop on Watergate, the Ford pardon and the 18 1/2 minute gap. Know this. His claim to learning about this is his own personal opinion. He claims in the chapter "Pardon me" that the 18 1/2 minute gap is irrelevant. Nothing worth knowing. How would Stone or anybody else know this unless we heard it? In a nutshell you learn nothing. He also claims that an illegal cover up was nothing of an issue at all. This book is nothing more than a mini biography of his hero Nixon. Hardly anything new is revealed. He also takes plenty of shots at John Dean for writing his own book "Blind Ambition" claiming its all lies. Don't waste your time reading this garbage. I wish I could get the time back I used reading this book to read an actual book of substance. Total waste.
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