Within a few months, an unsteady line of political dominoes are positioned, from the creation of a series of covert operations code-named GEMSTONE to campaign-trail dirty tricks, possible hostage situations, and questionable fundraising efforts-much of it caught on the White House’s own taping system.

Nixon gathers his closest advisors and gives them implicit instructions: Win by any means necessary. Furious that the leak might expose his administration’s own duplicity during a crucial reelection season, President Richard M. The story begins in 1971, with the publication of thousands of military and government documents known as the Pentagon Papers, which reveal dishonesty about the decades-long American presence in Vietnam and spark public outrage. Graff explores the full scope of this unprecedented moment from start to finish, in the first comprehensive, single-volume account in decades. Now, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Garrett M. Watergate, as the event is called, becomes a shorthand for corruption, deceit, and unanswered questions. The subsequent arrests of five men seeking to bug and burgle the Democratic National Committee offices-three of them Cuban exiles, two of them former intelligence operatives-quickly unravels a web of scandal that ultimately ends a presidency and forever alters views of moral authority and leadership. In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills enters six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that will change the course of history: 1:47 AM Found tape on doors call police. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * “Do we need still another Watergate book? The answer turns out to be yes-this one.” - The Washington Post * “Dazzling.” - The New York Times Book Reviewįrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, comes the first definitive narrative history of Watergate-“the best and fullest account of the crisis, one unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review)-exploring the full scope of the scandal through the politicians, investigators, journalists, and informants who made it the most influential political event of the modern era.

Watergate by Garrett M. Graff