On the 40th Anniversary of Watergate

Look back at the only presidential resignation in American history, the scandal that brought him down, and the less well remembered ways in which he changed our country:

 

Frost Nixon: The Original Watergate Interviews
DVD [2008]

In-depth interviews originally of U.S. President Richard Nixon by Sir David Frost in May, 1977 regarding the infamous Watergate scandal. Also includes footage from 2007 of Frost discussing the interviews, Nixon’s advisers, setting ground rules, and the final meeting he had with Nixon at San Clemente.

 

 

 

Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon’s Downfall
by Elizabeth Drew

A rerelease of the 1975 account detailing the extraordinary upheaval of the Watergate months exposes the corruption, ethics and humanity of period Washington and is updated with a new introduction that places the scandal in a present-day context. Drew will speak about her book and work on Tuesday, Aug. 12 2014, at Central Library.

 

 

 

The Nixon Tapes, 1971-1972
edited and annotated by Douglas Brinkley and Luke A. Nichter

President Nixon’s voice-activated taping system captured every word spoken in the Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and other key locations in the White House, and at Camp David – 3,700 hours of recordings between 1971 and 1973. Includes fascinating scenes from the year Nixon opened relations with China, negotiated the SALT I arms agreement with the Soviet Union, and won a landslide reelection victory.

 

 

 

Watergate, The Hidden History: Nixon, the Mafia and the CIA
by Lamar Waldron

What were the Watergate burglars after? And why was Nixon willing to risk his Presidency to get it? This book reexamines the historical record, including new material only available in recent years, including thousands of recently declassified CIA and FBI files, newly released Nixon tapes, and exclusive interviews with those involved in the events surrounding Watergate, and more.

 

 

 

The White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President
compiled and with commentary by John Prados

A multi-CD compilation and accompanying transcript volume of taped conversations from Presidents Roosevelt through Reagan, including include Roosevelt defending his use of black soldiers in menial positions to black leaders, and Kennedy cajoling Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett to maintain law and order so James Meredith can integrate the University of Mississippi.

 

 

 

Nixon in China
libretto by Alice Goodman, music by John Adams

Adams’ first opera, inspired by President Nixon’s 1972 visit to China.

 

 

Nixon and Mao: The Week that Changed the World
by Margaret MacMillan

In February 1972, President Nixon met Chairman Mao in Beijing. The meeting was itself anticlimactic, but the preceding diplomacy and the negotiations that followed changed the world by ending two decades of vitriolic hostility between the U.S and China, leading to a new alignment of political and military power in East Asia, and dramatically influencing American relations with the Soviet Union.

 

 

Nixon
by Stephen E. Ambrose

In this 3 volume biography, Ambrose reconsiders Nixon’s career objectively in light of the passage of time and puts him into a useful historical context. He charts how, as a young lawyer, Nixon created a national political base out of the Hiss case and the Korean War, then became for nearly three decades the most distrusted, even hated, politician in the U.S. because he “seemed utterly insincere.”