Out of the events in American History that have occurred throughout the period, one of the ones that interests me the most is the Watergate Scandal. With that in mind, the book I chose to read is called Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon by Fred Emery. Although I had a basic knowledge of the scandal, I learned much by reading this book including those behind it and the coverup itself, in greater detail than I had known before.
The book starts off by giving some background information including events that were transpiring during the Nixon administration. Many of these consist with Nixon’s handling of Vietnam and other events such as the Kent State Shootings and then the Pentagon Papers. Through this …show more content…
Before reading the book, I had at best, a vague understanding of the Watergate scandal, so I thought that the author did a fine job at detailing the many events that led up to it, finally culminating with Nixon’s resignation from office. Emery, through his detailed writing, helps to gain an understanding of the political unrest due to events in Vietnam, and dives into the thoughts of Nixon himself and even into his own insecurities and his devious nature both of which are important elements to Watergate and following events. An example of how the author helps to understand the main situations and characters can be seen when he describes Nixon, “Nixon turned his attention to securing a scapegoat- a big name fall guy” (Emery 242). This for me, shed some light on Nixon’s often cunning and deceiving actions that had earned him the nickname “Tricky Dick.” Also, later in the book when also speaking about Nixon’s ego and his televised resignation speech Emery writes, “It might have been impossible for a man of Nixon’s pride and Complexity to explain what he had done to bring it to this pass” (Emery 478). The quotes and descriptions in the book helped me personally to understand what was going on better, and I thought that this aspect of the book was