Abuse of Power

If you grew up during the Vietnam era (or not), and cut your teeth on Watergate and the resignation of a president, listen to Abuse of Power as a book on tape. Hear the participants speak for themselves in the privacy of their offices. Kutler's Abuse of Power is based on tapes hitherto suppressed as Nixon, in his lifetime, vigorously sought to repaint his image. Also recommended to read alongside the tapes: Secrets, A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, and the Haldeman Diaries. Although flawed by grammatical and spelling errors, the Breaking of a President 1974, compiled by Marvin Miller, is also worth reading because it contains thumbnail personal histories of each of the players in the above volumes, and day-by-day breaking news of that era, with lots of pictures.

There is only one word to describe many of these conversations....chilling. Nixon's arrogance and ruthlessness were astounding! What a terrible shock it must have been for men like Haige and Kissinger to learn this was all on tape. That anyone could listen to these tapes and proclaim that Nixon was a good president is unbelievable! Clinton lied about his sex life. That was embarrassing, I agree. Nixon, however, lied about his plans for Vietnam, his tax returns, and that fifth-rate burglary known as Watergate, in other words, a felony! As for those of you complaining that these tapes don't contain a "smoking gun." He destroyed two of the tapes he made after he was ordered by the authorities to turn them over. We'll never know what those tapes contained.He did all this and Ronald Reagan made him a goodwill ambassador to China! It's terrifying.This book is a must for any student of American History or the Cold War.We should all be grateful to Nixon for leaving us this invaluable piece of history.

This is an incredible read, an essential addition to any Watergate buff's library. The bulk of the book consists of transcripts from conversations Nixon had with his advisors during the Watergate break-in and its aftermath. All of the material is recently released and there's no doubt why the Nixon daughters desperately want this stuff suppressed: it paints their father with a viscerally black brush. We all know Nixon was a paranoid loner, brilliant but erratic, and distrustful of everyone around him except Haldeman and Ehrlichman. These tapes show conclusively that Nixon also demanded total sycophancy from his inner circle, that he was a racist, an habitual liar and someone with a pathological need to deceive.Bob Haldeman and Alexander Haig come off as complete toadies; worthless "yes men." Ehrlichman comes across better, as does Magruder, but the worst abuse must be heaped on Henry Kissinger, who appears as a quasi-insane boot licker of the highest order. It's incredible to see these men constantly assure Nixon that he was always right, always clever and completely above the law. How wrong they all were. The most delicious parts are when Nixon speaks himself. He is unintentionally hilarious, as he plots to "get" various reporters, wiretap his enemies and harass anyone who gets in his way. His diatribes on Howard Baker and Sam Erwin are the stuff of classics, you'll be on the floor, laughing. "That senile old b------," Nixon growls about Erwin. "He's half in the bag every waking moment, the miserable a------." This is a grand book, highly entertaining!

A critic of Kutler claimed that he was "dean-for-life of the Nixon haters" and that Nixon's words had been distorted in this book. Even if there are some transciption errors, this book is essential for anyone interested in Nixon. Short of going to the archives at College Park, MD, this is the only source currently available for this material.

It doesn't seem possible that one could still find conversations that shock and appall coming out of the Nixon White House. Maybe the Nixon Estate should have dumped all the tapes at once and we'd all be over our astonishment at the arrogance and criminality of the Nixon Administration. Kutler has done an excellent job of editing. On a larger scale, he has done a service to the reading public. M. Carlota Baca, Santa Fe