The Ends of Power: An explosive insider's account of Watergate by H. R. Haldeman-Book Review

Book Review - Five Stars

The Ends of Power: An explosive insider's account of Watergate by H. R. Haldeman

Nixon, a complicated man who somehow rode into power from California to a two-term vice president under Eisenhower. His radical ultra right wing beliefs fit perfectly with Eisenhower, Earl Butts and Josef McCarthy. His stubborn one minded persistence finally pushed aside LBJ to gain a two-term presidency. 

You must read this book for the rest of this intriguing story.

EXCERPTS:

It was a chilling thought. If Charles Colson was involved, he could very well have been on one of his projects for the President of the United States.

Colson had signed up an ex-C.I.A. agent named Howard Hunt to work for him and thereafter became very secretive about his exploits in the name of Nixon. Years later I heard of such wild schemes as the proposed fire bombing of a politically liberal foundation (Brookings) in order to retrieve a document Nixon wanted; feeding LSD to an anti-Nixon commentator (Jack Anderson) before he went on television; and breaking into the offices of a newspaperman (Hank Greenspun) who was supposed to have documents from Howard Hughes that revealed certain secrets about Nixon.

I believed Nixon could accomplish almost anything. In fact, this was Nixon’s year. In the past six months he had not only begun the disarmament talks with the Soviet Union, he had dramatically reopened relations with China and — finally — he was about to end the crippling, suicidal Vietnam War. On June 17, 1972, Richard Nixon was at the peak of his powers, a certain winner in the November election. Nothing could hurt him now.\Anticommunism was in my blood. And Nixon, at the time, was one of the most aggressive anti-Communists in the land.

What attracted me to Nixon? As I’ve said I wasn’t a rabid conservative. (And, of course, neither was Nixon, as the real conservatives discovered when Nixon became President and introduced economic proposals that made them shudder, and a reopening of relations with China that inspired absolute fury.)

Nixon rarely spared the rod or the knife in his speeches and, to put it mildly, he wasn’t averse to using all possible means to try to defeat his opponents.

If I took no action, I would pay for it. The President never let up. He’d be on the intercom buzzing me ten minutes after such an order. ‘What have you done about Sidey?’ I’d say, ‘I’m working on it,’ and delay and delay until Nixon would one day comment, with a sort of half-smile on his face, ‘I guess you never took action on that, did you?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, I guess it was the best thing.’’Americans seemed to react more violently to the belief that their President had lied to them than that he had actually participated in a cover-up. Both he and I thought at the time that he was telling the truth. We were wrong.

Americans seemed to react more violently to the belief that their President had lied to them than that he had actually participated in a cover-up. Both he and I thought at the time that he was telling the truth. We were wrong.

Link to my author's page