The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate

The book is about 500 pages. Usually it takes me 3 weeks to read 500 pages, I don't read fast anymore. This book took me one week to read, enough said.

I hadn't read a Watergate book in a long time because I got tired of the same old themes: Mitchell:bad; Nixon:bad; Dean: hero; end of story, no need to read anything else. Whenever a historical opinion is unanimous, especially from American media, my skeptical antennae raise up.

It took 35 years, but finally an author, James Rosen has shed new light on the Watergate scandal. Take note, John Dean, you have been exposed as the fraud that you are. How dare you make money on writing books about government corruption these days. The author James Rosen has exposed you as
1. Probably the prime authorizer of the Watergate break-in itself, and if not, certainly the final "pusher" that motivated Magruder, Liddy to order/execute the final June 17th break-in.
2. Definitely the head honcho and motivator of the coverup, and all phases of it, including hush money, rehearsal of perjured testimony, clemency. Dean, you were not just the "messenger" as you have desperately portrayed yourself as. You were the arhitect.
3. You railroaded John Mitchell, you disloyal coward.

Well, John Dean, because of this book, finally, we're all onto you. You are not a hero. You, not John Mitchell, are a major criminal in history, who was just shrewd enough to turn stool-pigeon at the right time, before anyone else did, and got off scot-free. You are living proof that justice is not perfect.

As a teen, I remember watching the Watergate hearings. When it came to Mitchell's testimony, I was surprised. Here was not the mean, obnoxious, power-driven, angry man that the media had "built". I saw a calm, humorous-at-times, apparently decent man. I remember thinking to myself, either this guy is the greatest actor of all-time, or somebody has the story wrong. Well, James Rosen has substantiated my hunch. Please note that he doesn't exonerate John Mitchell from all wrongdoings. But he does a complete job of setting the record straight. Mitchell wasn't guilty of a heckuva lot of what they said he was, but he was guilty of a couple of things.

One cannot know Watergate without reading this book.

Besides Watergate, the sad story of his marriage to Martha Mitchell is given in great detail, along with earlier aspects of John Mitchell's life.

I heartily recommend this book if you have any kind of open-mind towards history, and are willing to read something other than the "official" conclusions that have been blasted in our faces till now. Well done book.

reads like a novel. Also, a great lesson, pay attention to current events. Things are never what they seem to be at the moment. Should be in every classroom. Why isn't history taught this way? It would be much easier for individuals to make adult political decisions.The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate

I was 22 when Watergate broke. I thought I knew a lot, I was wrong. No matter how much you think you may know about the Nixon era, until you read this book, you have no idea. Well researched, using unpublished material, you will enter the world of the Joint Chiefs spying on Kennedy and Johnson to things Liddy proposed you would never believe. Read it, you'll learn a lot.
William R. Bagwell

This is a very accessible book to anyone interested in the workings of government, and the bizarre power relationships between those who worked for an administration. Without skimping on details, James Rosen weaves the reader though the confusing paths of Mitchell's story, and the stories of Nixon's inner circle.

Outside of his better balancing my opinion of the man I and 98% of the country saw as evil incarnate in 1973 (myself at the tender age of 16), I think Rosen's biggest contribution here is the clear descriptions of the the Watergate scandal itself and its cousins the ITT/Dita Beard, and Robert Vesco scandals. Good historic information, not really covered as well by other authors.