An American Life One Man's Road To Watergate

by Jeb Stuart Magruder

Acknowledgments
Prologue
Starting out
The corporate ladder
Inside the oval office
Learning the ropes
The office of communications
Carswell, Cambodia & the 1970 campaign
Moving on
The committee to re-elect
The Liddy plan
Break-in
Cover-up
The campaign
The cover-up fails
Waiting
Index

Genres: History, Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, Memoir

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Michael Linton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the most personal Watergate book I read. What I mean by that is, Jeb expressed how his pending legal actions affected himself and his family. This book was written before he was sentenced to prison and as he explains in the book, he was trying to find other income. He sounds very contrite and tries to explain (justify?) why he went along with the plan.

From a Watergate perspective, this is the first book I've read (this is my 10th book I've read on Watergate) where it was actually explained who and when the Watergate break-in was approved. He himself admitted he in the meetings but ultimately it was Mitchell who approved it.

Finally, here are some quotes I thought was interesting in light of today's events: "Yet he [Nixon] had a fatal flaw, too, an inability to tolerate criticism, an instinct to overreact in political combat."

From Fred LaRue during the cover up period: 'No Administration can withstand the kind of investigation we're going to be put through-there'll be Congress, the grand jury, the civil suits, the newspapers, investigations going on for years. There are just too many bodies buried, too many problems, too many problems, too many loose ends. We may make it, but I doubt it.'

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jill Volner (now Wine-Banks) (one of the Watergate prosecutors) is mentioned once near the end. She also said in her book that she had to approve the manuscript to make sure he didn’t give anything from the case away and he lied a lot. She said in later years he changed his story several times as well. Take it all with a grain of salt or a few dozen.

Details! Every detail of his life in The White House is in here. I had to skip a lot that would have been interesting 30 or almost 40 years ago. But boy this must have been shocking in 1973 when people still expected the WH to function with dignity and efficiency. And the details about Watergate are sure here, if you can believe anything he says. So many details! It’s astonishing how criminal these people were in such a casual way. Even after Trump I’m still astonished. I know White Houses (Kennedy, Johnson) tapped rivals’ phone lines and used the FBI for personal and political reasons before new rules were written after Watergate, but it’s still depressing to see it all laid out.

I’ll give it 4★ for historical interest (I read it in 2020), but it’s really 3 at best.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANOTHER FAMOUS WATERGATE MEMOIR

Jeb Stuart Magruder (born 1934) was Special Assistant to President Nixon, then Deputy Director of the Committee to Re-elect the President, and a participant in the Watergate coverup, and pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, and served seven months in prison. In addition to this 1974 book, he also wrote a Christian autobiography, From power to peace.

He was approached for a job by Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman, and thought, "I had decided early in life that simply to make money was not enough. I saw that the really important people in America aren't those who are merely rich, but those who have political influence as well." (Pg. 5) Once in the White House, he observed, "The rest of us would joke about (Charles/Chuck) Colson's ever-expanding empire--the Department of Dirty Tricks, we called it--and about the fact that none of us knew exactly what Colson was up to. The joke would in time be on us." (Pg. 77) Later, he wrote, "At least the dirty tricks had been out in the open in 1970; in 1971 they went underground." (Pg. 156)

He notes sadly, "It was all but impossible not to get caught up in the 'enemies' mentality... We were wrong, of course, and our decision to approve the Liddy plan was inexcusable. It can only be said in explanation that it was made... by men who believed that their actions were necessary and their cause was just... perhaps if there had been no Liddy we would have created one..." (Pg. 232-233)

Ultimately, he concludes, "I think, too, that if we consider how many people broke the law in the Watergate affair... we must ask if our failures do not somehow reflect larger failures in the values of our society." (Pg. 378)

Magruder's book is one of the key books for anyone studying Watergate.

[morgan]

Written in '74 just before his prison sentence, Magruder's memory of watergate events is still pretty fresh. Largely well written, though he does repeat some words, phrases like 'being chewed out'. i.e. 'Haldemann then chewed me out for this memo', etc. It's not until 160 or so pages in that you get to CRP era and 200 pages until the break-in, but I enjoyed reading his life story, and prior experiences in private corporations before working at WH Communications office. I've seen Magruder referred to in other watergate books, and I had watched his testimony, but reading this helped give me an insight into who he was exactly.

[Bette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear outline of watergate unfolding. Apparently a few lies included. He was an ambitious, driven man.