24 June, 2002
All the President's Men
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
1974
349 pp (TPB)
Occasionally, when I write something up for the book log, I feel that nothing I can write will be able to do justice to the book. This is most definitely one of those times. All the President's Men isn't just good, or interesting, or entertaining (although it is all of those things); it's important.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, or whose grasp of modern American history is very weak, All the President's Men is about the Watergate scandal, and the far-reaching, systematic abuse of power by the Nixon administration of which the Watergate break-in was just a small part. It's a first-hand account of the investigation which uncovered how Nixon and his cronies used the resources and power of the federal government to spy on and sabotage his political opponents, and then to cover it all up. As such, it's a fascinating historical record.
I was born right in the middle of Watergate, which makes me old enough to have absorbed a lot of the basics of the affair from the environment, but too old to have had it taught as "history" in school. (Actually, none of my school classes in American history made it past Reconstruction, but Watergate was barely mentioned in the chapters of the book that we didn't get to, if it was there at all.) So, reading this book gave me a lot of insight into event which had such a huge effect on the political climate of this country over the last 30 years. Having grown up with the idea that Nixon was the Worst President Ever[1], it's almost inconceivable that he was extremely popular at the time, and yet that was the case.
However, this book isn't a political analysis of Watergate. If anything, it's something of a detective story. Woodward is assigned to cover an unexciting breaking-and-entering story which turns out to be a bit more interesting than initially suspected. Another reporter, Bernstein, horns in on the story. The two work long and hard to follow one lead after another, collecting scraps of information here and there, and slowly uncover layer upon layer of perfidity. It's neat to see how the reporters pieced together all the bits of evidence they found to come up with the truth. One particularly striking thing is how people in the FBI were absolutely convinced that Woodward and Bernstein had access to confidential FBI files about the case, because the articles which appeared in the Washington Post were so accurate, and mentioned things which the FBI did not officially release for public consumption. However, the reporters did not have it so easy. Rather, they had dozens of sources at various levels in the government and in Nixon's campaign, who would give them tiny bits of data, or only confirm guesses the reporters made.
All the newspaper stuff is really interesting, too: the reader gets to see how a newspaper puts stories together, how it deals with sources, legal issues, and political attacks, how stories are put together, the pressure to come up with something new every day, in order to keep a story fresh.
After almost thirty years, this book has long since moved from "current affairs" to "history." As such, I think it could do with a few upgrades and a new edition. In particular, it could use some additionnal end-notes to provide context for some of the references in the book to then-current events. For example, young folks these days probably have no clue what the Pentagon Papers were, or why they were important, and they'd certainly not know about the more trivial scandals of the day, such as Ted Kennedy's lousy driving record. (I don't know, or care, about that last one, I'm goiing on what I picked up from context.) Also, the book as it stands ends with the status of Nixon's presidency in doubt, and the impending likelihood of his impeachment and removal from office. It would be nice to have an afterword to fill in the end of the story: Nixon's resignation, Ford's pardon, the inception of the Independent Counsel Act, and the long-term effects on the American political landscape. I'm sure that, eventually, such an edition will be forthcoming. Something the edition I have (Touchstone/Simon and Schuster PB) does do right is include a "Cast of Characters" list at the start of the book; it was a handy reference when it came to remembering which of the middle-aged white guys was which.
[1] Which is really kind of a shame. If Nixon hadn't been such a paranoid control freak, he might be remembered for some of his accomplishments, such as opening relations with the People's Republic of China, or improving relations with the Soviet Union. As it is, his legacy is Watergate.