The Fall of Nixon
Watergate and the Crisis of American Democracy, 1972-1974 James Prescott MarloweBy James Prescott Marlowe
Length6h 7m
About this audiobook
Shortly after midnight on June 17, 1972, a security guard found tape covering a door latch in the Watergate complex. He called the police. The five men arrested inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters were carrying surveillance equipment, sequentially numbered bills, and a direct connection to Nixon's re-election committee. What followed was the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War.
James Prescott Marlowe traces the full arc of Watergate across twenty-four chapters — from CREEP's sixty-million-dollar dirty tricks operation through the cover-up's mechanics, the hush-money pipelines, and John Dean's warning to Nixon of a "cancer on the presidency." W. Mark Felt, passed over for the FBI directorship, guided Woodward and Bernstein's Washington Post investigation from inside the bureau as Deep Throat. The Saturday Night Massacre — Nixon firing special prosecutor Archibald Cox, triggering the Attorney General's resignation — accelerated the collapse. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in United States v. Nixon that executive privilege is not absolute. Sixteen days later, Nixon resigned.
The book captures the end in full: the East Room farewell, the double V-sign on the South Lawn, Gerald Ford's "our long national nightmare is over," and the pardon that cost Ford the 1976 election. It closes with the reforms Watergate forced — campaign finance law, FISA, the Church Committee's intelligence oversight revolution — and the constitutional precedent on executive privilege that still governs American law.
Watergate proved democratic institutions can hold even the most powerful official accountable. It also proved that outcome is never guaranteed.
Audiobook details
GenreHistorical Fiction, Literary Classics, General Fiction
Length6 hrs 7 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
2Author’s Note
3Prologue: The Break-In
4PART ONE: THE CRIME (1972)
5Chapter 1: CREEP — Nixon's Committee and the Culture of Dirty Tricks
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 2: June 17, 1972 — The Watergate Burglary
7Chapter 3: The Cover-Up Begins — Hush Money, False Statements, and Obstruction
8Chapter 4: The 1972 Election — McGovern, Nixon's Landslide, and the Buried Story
9PART TWO: THE UNRAVELING (1973)
10Chapter 5: Woodward and Bernstein — The Washington Post and Deep Throat
11Chapter 6: The Senate Watergate Committee — Sam Ervin and the Public Hearings
12Chapter 7: The White House Tapes — The Saturday Night Massacre
13Chapter 8: The Enemies List — Nixon's America and the Politics of Paranoia
14PART THREE: THE END (1973-1974)
15Chapter 9: Articles of Impeachment — The House Judiciary Committee
16Chapter 10: The Supreme Court Decides — United States v. Nixon
17Chapter 11: The Smoking Gun Tape — The President Is Guilty
18Chapter 12: August 9, 1974 — Nixon Resigns
19PART FOUR: THE CAST OF CHARACTERS
20Chapter 13: Richard Nixon — The Man Who Did This
21Chapter 14: John Dean — The Counsel Who Turned
22Chapter 15: H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman — The Palace Guard
23Chapter 16: Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski — The Special Prosecutors
24PART FIVE: THE BROADER WATERGATE
25Chapter 17: The Plumbers — Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers, and White House Crime
26Chapter 18: The CIA, FBI, and the Abuse of Government Power
27Chapter 19: The Press — Journalism, Freedom, and the Watergate Story
28Chapter 20: Gerald Ford — The Accidental President and the Pardon
29PART SIX: LEGACIES
30Chapter 21: Congressional Reforms — Campaign Finance, Intelligence Oversight, and FISA
31Chapter 22: The Imperial Presidency — Executive Power After Watergate
32Chapter 23: The Cynicism Dividend — Watergate and American Trust in Government
33Chapter 24: Nixon Rehabilitated — The Complicated Legacy of a Disgraced President
34Epilogue: The Pardon
35Acknowledgments
36Selected Bibliography
37About the Author
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