Nixon vs. Trump?
Brokaw’s book recalls a president’s fall. Review,
Whatever its flaws, Tom Brokaw’s eighth book can’t be faulted for timing. It conjures the impeachment drama, 45 years ago, surrounding a U.S. president. Brokaw’s subject used nefarious means to undermine his opponents, lied promiscuously in his own defense and excoriated the press as the font of his self-inflicted woes.
Who does this sound like? “I have never heard or seen such outrageous, vicious, distorted reporting in 27 years of public life.”
In “The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate” (Random House, 240 pp., ★★★☆), the author doesn’t overplay the parallels between now and then. He doesn’t need to.
Brokaw had a front-row seat to the Watergate scandal when, at 33, he was named NBC’s White House correspondent in the summer of 1973. The infamous break-in had occurred in June of 1972, and Nixon would resign the presidency on Aug. 9, 1974.
The author, formerly the anchor of “NBC Nightly News” for more than two decades, has written an engaging account of a nation in turmoil. It is a breezy, often gossipy and at times surprising memoir that encompasses more than Watergate.
For example, Brokaw was walking behind Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, during the first of two attempts on that president’s life, both in September 1975.
The author takes the reader not only inside a beleaguered White House, but also into tony Georgetown salons where the political and cultural glitterati mingled with journalists and ruminated on the scandal du jour.
This book also reminds the reader of how far Nixon fell because of high and foolhardy crimes and misdemeanors. When Watergate’s Keystone criminals struck on June 17, 1972, Nixon’s likely reelection opponent was a little-known senator from South Dakota, George McGovern. The incumbent would trounce his hapless challenger in November, winning 49 of 50 states and more than 60% of the popular vote. Landslide isn’t a strong enough word for it.
Yet less than two years later, Nixon would be forced to resign when impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate became a foregone conclusion.
Among the delicious tidbits herein is that in 1969, future felon Bob Halderman offered Brokaw the job of being Nixon’s press secretary.
Here’s another intriguing factoid: It was only two months before Nixon’s resignation that polls showed for the first time that a majority of American favored impeachment. That popular milestone has nearly been reached with regard to our current president: A 55% majority of registered voters said they approved of the impeachment inquiry, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.
In addition to chronicling Nixon’s misdeeds, Brokaw also touches on his accomplishments, which often were overshadowed by Watergate, among them his swift and steadfast support of a beleaguered Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
A note of caution is warranted. While this slim book leaves the reader wanting more pages, it also suffers from choppy prose and lax editing in places. Often dates and pertinent details are left out, such as the year and month when the Arab oil embargo began.
Still, this book should be required reading inside the Beltway, and beyond.