Reopening Watergate: An Insider's Account of Why Nixon Lost

by David M. Dorsen, John W. Dean (Foreword by)

Overview

A bold new look at Watergate from a member of the Senate Watergate Committee who argues that the received wisdom about Nixon’s resignation is inaccurate.

Written by assistant chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee, Reopening Watergate is an eye-opening reassessment of the Watergate scandal and an essential text for understanding this infamous political moment.

With painstaking attention to detail and an intimate knowledge of the legal machinations behind the scenes, David M. Dorsen focuses on important aspects of the story of Watergate that have not received substantial—or, in some cases, any—publicity. The evidence amassed by Dorsen demonstrates that some of the most prominent people involved in pursuing Watergate had inappropriate ex parte contacts with Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, including Judge John J. Sirica, who presided over both the trial of the burglars and the trial of the leaders of the cover-up (John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman). Dorsen further uncovers that Jaworski made inappropriate transfers of information to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino and counsel John Doar. Dorsen lays out compelling evidence for the inept legal representation given to President Richard M. Nixon, especially by his special Watergate Counsel, James D. St. Clair.

Reopening Watergate draws on overlooked and ignored sources, including interviews by the Nixon Presidential Library, a number of which have not been previously published, and the notes of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein housed at the University of Texas at Austin. Dorsen shows that with competent and conscientious lawyers and advisors in the last year of his presidency, Nixon might have been able to survive his full term as president, instead of resigning, mired in shame and scandal.

With a foreword by John W. Dean, Nixon’s White House counsel and the most pivotal (and knowledgeable) person in the Watergate scandal, Reopening Watergate will be the standard resource on this historic moment in American politics for decades to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700639984
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	11/04/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

David M. Dorsen was Assistant Chief Counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee under Sen. Sam Ervin and Chief Counsel Samuel Dash. In addition to an esteemed career in private practice, he is the author of the award-winning Henry Friendly, Greatest Judge of His Era and The Unexpected Scalia: A Conservative Justice's Liberal Opinions

Table of Contents

Foreword by John W. Dean

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Part I: 1972—The First Year of Watergate

1. Before the Scandal

2. Burglars Arrested, Cover-up Starts

3. The “Smoking Gun” Conversations

4. Simmering below the Surface

Part II: 1973—From Back Burner to Headlines

5. Watergate Burglars Convicted, Judge Sirica Stirs the Pot

6. Senate Watergate Committee Hearings

7. The Watergate Special Prosecutor and the Fight for Nixon’s Tapes

Part III: 1974—Days of Reckoning

8. The House Impeachment Committee Gears Up

9. Cover-up Indictment and Transmission of a “Road Map”

10. Impeachment Proceedings Begin

11. The Supreme Court Rules and Nixon Resigns

12. A Missed Opportunity: Representing Nixon

The Cover-Up Trial

Part IV: The Aftermath

14. Thoughts on Prosecuting Nixon

15. Fifty Years of Misunderstanding

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Appendix A. List of Participants

Appendix B. Reconstructed Transcript of Dean-Haldeman Conversation, June 23, 1972

Appendix C. Haldeman’s Notes of Conversation with Dean

Appendix D. Transcript of Three Nixon-Haldeman Conversations, June 23, 1972

Appendix E. Jaworski’s Letter to Sirica, December 27, 1973

Appendix F. Jaworski’s Memorandum to Confidential Watergate File Regarding Meeting with Sirica, February 12, 1974

Appendix G. Jaworski’s Memorandum to Confidential Watergate File Regarding Events on or about March 1, 1974

Appendix H. Jaworski’s Letter to Rodino, June 28, 1974

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

“David Dorsen’s Reopening Watergate: An Insider’s Account of Why Nixon Lost is no rehashing of the scandal and its aftermath. . . . Dorsen’s book [corrects] the historical record. . . . He has gathered important new information about many matters about which I have no knowledge. . . . He has strengthened the record assembled over the past half-century. While this account does not alter the basic history, it certainly adds to our understanding.”—from the foreword by John W. Dean

“In Reopening Watergate, David Dorsen offers a unique and compelling account of the final year of the Nixon presidency in a succinct yet substantive discussion that offers new perspectives and arguments based on archival material. Dorsen does so based on interpretation of facts, not mere opinion, and from having firsthand knowledge of aspects of this consequential episode in American history. As such, this is an important contribution to the literature on the Nixon presidency and the politics of the era.”—Lori Cox Han, author of Advising Nixon: The White House Memos of Patrick J. Buchanan

“David Dorsen was one of the stars of the Senate Watergate Committee staff. He performed his multiple assignments with intelligence, tenacity, good judgment, and decency. In this well- researched and documented book, Dorsen, a serious scholar, brings to the fore little known facts and offers trenchant, often critical analysis of the roles of both those who defended and pursued Nixon, and thus causes his readers to see the Watergate saga in a different light.”—James Hamilton, author of Advocate: On History’s Front Lines from Watergate to the Keating Five, Clinton Impeachment, and Benghazi

From the Publisher