“All the President’s Men”
This book is by Woodward and Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters who doggedly investigated the issue of the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s.
I read it in the mid-70s and at that time I was fascinated by the wild events that occurred in Washington, DC, the city where everybody talks endlessly but few ever say anything.
Maybe because I am less naive, rereading it had a totally different effect. Each of the many many characters in this huge puzzle had their own reasons for their involvement, good or bad. The leaks of information vary from plain sloppiness to Machiavellian reasoning.
Just now I am finishing The Final Days (same authors), which is concerned with the process which led to Richard Nixon resignation (or abdication) from the Presidency.
At no time was there any serious consideration about the people for whom all these elected officials “worked”.
They worried first about themselves and their personal ambitions, then about their political party, and finally about the President, who was exhibiting deteriorating mental health.
Gosh, that sounds familiar.
Both books can be tedious, due to the nature of the subject. But I consider them not only fascinating but educational.
We need to understand how our government works, not only the mechanical details of government, but how it ACTUALLY works.
I read it in the mid-70s and at that time I was fascinated by the wild events that occurred in Washington, DC, the city where everybody talks endlessly but few ever say anything.
Maybe because I am less naive, rereading it had a totally different effect. Each of the many many characters in this huge puzzle had their own reasons for their involvement, good or bad. The leaks of information vary from plain sloppiness to Machiavellian reasoning.
Just now I am finishing The Final Days (same authors), which is concerned with the process which led to Richard Nixon resignation (or abdication) from the Presidency.
At no time was there any serious consideration about the people for whom all these elected officials “worked”.
They worried first about themselves and their personal ambitions, then about their political party, and finally about the President, who was exhibiting deteriorating mental health.
Gosh, that sounds familiar.
Both books can be tedious, due to the nature of the subject. But I consider them not only fascinating but educational.
We need to understand how our government works, not only the mechanical details of government, but how it ACTUALLY works.
