Stanley I. KutlerReseñas

Absolutely superb. Well acted audiobook.

A very complete account of an important case and the legal, political and societal tensions associated with the case.

There is no scholar better versed in the matters of Watergate than Stanley Kutler, and this is his definitive account of the subject. In it he lays out in painstaking detail the course the crisis took, from its origins in the Nixon presidency to its legacy today. I expected such an account to be dull; instead, I found it impossible to put down. No reader can walk away from this book -- with its extensive evidence and clearly-reasoned arguments -- and not have a deeper understanding of what Watergate was and how it effected the nation, both then and now.

The Korean War, Russia's successful A-bomb test, and the "Fall of China" precipitated an atmosphere of paranoia and fear during the 1950's, aggravated by self-aggrandizing politicians and a sycophantic media. Anxiety over espionage and subversion from within provided justification to suppress anything "un-American," and created a craving for patriotic conformity.

The legal process was manipulated to legitimize legislators' own ends. The so-called McCarran Rider (1947) granted authority to the Secretary of State to summarily dismiss any employee, in the interests of national security, without regard to existing laws or regulations (or the Constitution, for that matter). Truman's Executive Order 9835 (1947) prescribed procedures for a comprehensive loyalty oath program. This was expanded by Eisenhower's Executive Order 10450 (1953) which provided for suspension from work if the employee was simply deemed unreliable; the burden of proof rested on the accused. Wholesale dismissals followed, but no communists or sympathizers were ever identified. A climate of fear existed among government workers, independence was stifled and replaced by a "bland orthodoxy."

Stanley Kutler has documented these fearful times in The American Inquisition: Justice and Injustice in the Cold War He examines 12 cases of individuals who, quite frankly, got screwed for their personal beliefs, or in the case of Beatrice Baude, even by accident.

Baude had been rated a superior and loyal employee of the United States Information Agency. An ephemeral association with an organization of intellectuals later considered to be left-wing during the 40s (when Russia was our ally, no less) resulted in her being blacklisted even though a Loyalty Board investigation had ruled there was no evidence of disloyalty, quite the contrary. But the mere hint of an investigation in those days was enough justification for termination. She was not told of the blacklist and was even encouraged to apply for other jobs with the USIA.

Despite scores of 100% on Civil Service Exams, she was still unable to get a job as late as 1974 because of the blacklist. She only discovered the existence of the blacklist when her lawyer filed a request for information under the Privacy Act of 1974. They discovered that the real reason for her dismissal - that she had been interrogated (even though cleared) - had been camouflaged in her files.
Her case was fraught with "Catch-22s" and continued even in 1981 as the book was being written. Her case illustrates one of Kutler's themes: that the nameless bureaucracy will often continue the policies of a discredited leader even though the political context has changed. Often the indians have more power than the chiefs.

Tricky Dicky

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I give this 4 stars because the author had to sue Nixon to get these tapes. Professor Kutler, and the advocacy group Public Citizen, took the suit all the way to the Supreme Court. Kutler was already an accomplished historian when he sued Nixon for the release of the tapes. This very topical selection of actual transcripts is true history. These are actual word "facts" of Nixon himself, revealed. History as reality. The text is not the opinions and the spin of the ideologues--enemies or friends. These are transcripts of the secret taping machines set up to record Nixon's conversations in the Oval Office.

I myself have some personal knowledge of the veracity of these facts, having worked for Nixon's counsel's office.

Sadly, but conclusively, the transcripts reveal not only the criminality of the man, but his obsession with destroying other people. Day by day, there is a complete absence of ideas, of policy debate, or historicity or interest in truth. Nixon is revealed as obscene, petty, tyrannical,racist [20], and sacrilegious. He is at one with the instincts of his close life-long friend, the gangster, Bebe Rebozo, whose wealth was accumulated directly from criminal syndications.

Granted, this work is still incomplete. Only 3,000 hours of tapes have been brought to light. (Nixon himself only released 60 hours, and only involuntarily.)

The two-term leader of the Republican Party destroyed the Party from the inside. His own words are monuments of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. The "immoral tone", in Billy Graham's words, infected the entire White House and administration. [xv]

The selections in this book chronicle the year after the Watergate break-in. Many of the remarks infer many miscreant deeds of which little is known. [Nixon remarks that E. Howard Hunt, should disappear since he had "done a lot of things". xv]. These transcripts ignite a large battery of smoking guns.

Having pointed out that the transcripts reveal the truth that the Presidency and much of America had fallen into the hands of a political thug, it is also important to see how heroic those were who struggled to keep the concept of "public service" intact. Although indirectly -- none of the righteous were invited into the sanctum -- the transcripts also show us the courageous of people who stood up for the Constitution and resisted the infectious crook and his party henchmen revealed here.

Ironically, Nixon was a man of many dark secrets, but the tapes he had installed behind his own burning chair, provide a record of his unguarded moments. This is unprecedented in history.

Having read the stenographic recordings of Hitler's negotiations and phone calls, and having worked with Nixon's attorney in Newport Beach, the record of Nixon's daily business has a personal dimension for me.

Nixon acknowledges "we are the party of the rich and the fact that the prices are high" [136, "our businessmen" 137]. Every day he and the staff devote themselves to cynical plays, often snickering and boasting of "fucking" the Democrats and the public.

We knew then, in the early 1970s, that our political institutions were riddled with corruption. Here, the irrefragable proof. Sadly, even Gerald Ford, the pre-arranged successor to Nixon, is complicit in at least four conspiracies alluded to by the staff and Nixon himself. [22, 150 ff, 243, 285, 552 ff, 582, 638].

Will we ever be able to forgive ourselves for failing to clean up the house he turned into a latrine? The biggest criminal investigation in the country was stalled by his Party allies for years, and only after being finally abandoned by the entire Republican caucus in August 1974 did Nixon himself choose resignation over impeachment.

Will we forgive our generation for permitting the present generation to forget?

A remarkable recouting of the scandal and the last days of the Administration. Watergate-philes will enjoy it, but I would encourage people who didn't follow it, or were too young to follow it, to pick up this volume and read the remarkable tale. Power, tragically flawed people, paranoia, the list goes on.

Really detailed. Enough for enyone who likes the retelling of the nuances. Might be a bit too much detail for the peripherally itnerested, but you can always move on to the next chapter.

Tricky Dicky½

Now in its third edition, this is the Gold Standard among American History reference books. Comprising ten volumes, one would be hard pressed not to find the answer to just about any question concerning our nation's past. Simply put, no public library should be without it.

Winner of the ABA Silver Gavel in 1983: “a brilliantly researched book telling of the terrible injustice perpetrated on a handful of Americans during the Cold War.”

At least for those us who cut their political teeth during the 1960's and 1970's, Watergate and Vietnam were the watershed events. There was life before Watergate and Vietnam and life after. Stanley Kutler's work is one of the first to bring an historian's perspective to the Watergate story. As the saying goes, if you read one book about Watergate, this is the one.

Kutler is by no means neutral on Richard Nixon, but one of the unique things about Watergate was that Nixon's own taping system provided the record to hang himself. If nothing else the tapes proved Nixon was a habitual and flagrant liar. Kutler, whose regular job is as a professor at the University of Wisconsin, was drawn into a lifetime of work by his expertise on the sprawling scandal that was Watergate. His work has continued as he battled first Nixon, Nixon's estate, and then the National Archivists for full access to the White House tapes. Nixon kept up his lies and deception to his last days, with far more success than one would have hoped. In the long run, history's judgment of Nixon will be harsh and will start with Kutler's work.

This is a really good book which provides insights into the Nixon White House.