It Didn't Start with Watergate

by Victor Lasky

Book Overview

New reprint of book by best selling author of JFK: The Man and the Myth. This carefully documented book highlights the hypocracy that has gripped both the beltway and the entire nation. Details... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440144000
• ISBN13: 9780440144007
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
• Length: 478 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining And Good - A Fun Read

What we always knew was true, Victor Lasky reveals: political corruption didn't start with Watergate. In the wake of the Lewinsky scandal, I thought this a fitting book to review. Lasky points out the crimes of prior Presidents FDR, JFK, and LBJ. Just a sampling include: 1. LBJ's wiretapping of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 campaign - and Martin Luther King, too (wasn't this what got Nixon in trouble?) 2. LBJ's stolen Texas election with help from later Texas Governor John Connally (yes, the same one shot when JFK was killed) that propelled him to power. 3. The Kennedy's misuse of the IRS against opponents, the FBI against King, and the patriotism issue against Hubert Humphrey (proof that it isn't just the Swift Boat vets that do it) 4. The fact that McGovern was dead in the water even without Watergate. He mentions the Eagleton affair and Humphrey's notion that McGovern had his own dirty baggage as far as politics went. You'll enjoy this - short and easy to read and understand - and bring it to the next debate over corruption.

Enlightning till the last word

This is a very well written book, well researched and very useful in uncovering the double-standard, the biased of the media, that is the biggest newspapers ,the TV channels. I cannot do otherwise but recommend it very strongly. This book shows clearly how an orchestrated attack form the press and the Democrats ( who did the same things ascribed to Nixon but before him and in a very worse way - and not least, while blatantly pretending to be virgin in such tricks )could create in the mind of the citizen the image of a devil - often not substained by facts - in so a foul play that is NOT accorded with the freedom traditions of America, but more likely with the Soviet propaganda. The weird of this phenomenon is its lasting effect, so I am entitled to say that the Watergate-saga is worse than McCarthysm. Anything else to add ? Read this book folks, read it.

Coup De Grace

This is Lasky's finest hour. He turns up the heat and scorches everyone who thought Nixon was guilty of Watergate. First reading off the jaw-dropping crimes of FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, and LBJ. He successfully points out that Watergate was a tea party compared to what they did. Also, he shows how their mistakes trickled down to the next president and then to Nixon. Next, he shows how Watergate built up into a, to use one of Lasky's favorite terms, "pseudo-event" that a biased press and congress used to draw and quarter Nixon. After explaining their biases and why they had them, he exposes the fraudulence of the proceedings and the crushing verdict. Finally, he delivers the pies de resistance--The Watergate fallout. Following the charge and an ever-apparent conviction in the Senate, Nixon now has no choice but to resign. Even the liberals will have to feel the pain as he gives full accounts of the last hours in the office. Coming to the conclusion that everyone gained nothing from all that hullaballoo, he ends very simply : "Then he was gone."

Corruption Trumps Integrity

The claim that "a good, fair impartial investigation" was to be held during the Watergate hearings on Nixon's role in the break-in and subsequent cover-up never materialized. Instead, the Senatorial committee provided TV melodrama. This well documented book permits comparisons of past political behavior with the tricky manuevering of todays D.C. Elite. Only the names change. In Washington one is not permitted to be above the fray. The techniques and methods of yesteryear are still with us.Lasky describes the shoddy journalism of clearly biased news sources. The same agenda reporting is obvious in todays major media. The press has been, and still is, more likely to cover the failings of their ideological opponents. As Lasky continually illustrates, media favorites were seldom scrutinized and never were these miscreants taken to task.Documented throughout with private testimony, Commitee testimony, news accounts and some government agency reports, Lasky's reportage dips far back into the vindictive actions of Franklin Roosevelt. We are led through the Truman administration into both the unethical and illegal acts of the Kennedys. Finally capping this accounting of dirty tricks with a near out of control LBJ. Many of the lesser participants are studied.Vote fraud and wiretapping have always been with us. Illegal abuse of Presidential power has been exercised since at least as early as FDR's administration. N.Y. Congressman Hamilton Fish, an opponent of FDR's New Deal and a leader of the antiwar movement, was on FDR's enemies list. As such he had his telephones tapped and suffered five years of IRS audits that Fish contended cost him at least $50,000 to respond to and resulted in a refund of $80.Lasky's intent was to show how Nixon's enemies, consumed with intense hatred, destroyed the presidency without ever proving the charges. The Watergate committee even said that they had no impeachable evidence. Nixon was tried by the press in the court of public opinion. In the proccess of developement this book paints a picture of abuse of power through the use of government agencies. Not excluded are known illegal contributions that went unpunished. And, of course, dirty tricks abound. Carefully watch current media coverage of politics. It may be happening again.Although Lasky defends Nixon and several Republican players (including Bebe Rebozo) in these high stakes games, this book is not truly partisan. Lasky describes a meek, confused Republican Party that believes P to Q4 is an agressive move. Meanwhile Democrats kick, scratch and bite off ears in going after their prize of power.Concientious Liberals will be shocked with the contents of this book. Republicans will say: "We always knew it." and return to contemplation of their navels. The publisher is to be commended for this reprint of a genuine classic on political behavior and corrupt practices in the seat of government.