Blind Ambition: The White House Years

by John W. Dean

A six-month New York Times “Not only the best Watergate book, but a very good book indeed” ( The Sunday Times ).

As White House counsel to Richard Nixon, a young John W. Dean was one of the primary players in the Watergate scandal—and ultimately became the government’s key witness in the investigations that ended the Nixon presidency. After the scandal subsided, Dean rebuilt his career, first in business and then as a bestselling author and lecturer. But while the events were still fresh in his mind, he wrote this remarkable memoir about the operations of the Nixon White House and the crisis that led to the president’s resignation.
 
Called “fascinating” by Commentary , which noted that “there can be little doubt of [Dean's] memory or his candor,” Blind Ambition offers an insider’s view of the deceptions and machinations that brought down an administration and changed the American people’s view of politics and power. It also contains Dean’s own unsparing reflections on the personal demons that drove him to participate in the sordid affair. Upon its original publication, Kirkus Reviews hailed it “the flip side of All the President’s Men —a document, a minefield, and prime entertainment.”
 
Today, Dean is a respected and outspoken advocate for transparency and ethics in government, and the bestselling author of such books as The Nixon Defense , Worse Than Watergate , and Conservatives Without Conscience . Here, in Blind Ambition , he “paints a candid picture of the sickening moral bankruptcy which permeated the White House and to which he contributed. His memory of who said what and to whom is astounding” ( Foreign Affairs ).

 

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, American History, Presidents

504 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 8, 1976

About the author

John W. Dean served as White House Counsel for United States President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. In this position, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent Watergate scandal cover-up. He was referred to as the "master manipulator of the cover-up" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He pleaded guilty to a single felony count, in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution. This ultimately resulted in a reduced prison sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland.

Dean is currently an author, columnist, and commentator on contemporary politics, strongly critical of conservatism and the Republican Party, and is a registered Independent who supported the efforts to impeach President George W. Bush.

Reviews

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blind Ambition: The White House Years is a detailed memoir by John Dean of the time he served as White House counsel to President Richard Nixon. He tries to make some sense of the cascade of events resulting from the break-in at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C., and the subsequent cover-up leading ultimately to the resignation of the President of the United States during his second term in office. Having been glued to the television each day beginning in May, 1973, as Senator Sam Ervin opened the first public hearings on Capitol Hill of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, where John W. Dean later testified as the star witness for the special prosecutor's office in these proceedings, I found this book riveting because of all of the new information and taken in context. One thing that struck me was how rapidly the cover-up snowballed, involving more and more people at deeper and deeper levels of involvement and criminal activity, including obstruction of justice. Needless to say, this resulted in chaos in the West Wing, as all of the principles continued to behave as everything was normal and the country's business was being tended to. I have had this book for a while, but I decided that now would be the time to read it, since Mr. Dean will be testifying before Congress this week about his role as counsel to the president during the time of Watergate break-in and cover-up. As he famously told Richard Nixon that "We have a cancer within--close to the Presidency--that's growing. It's growing daily. It's compounding. . ."

"Mr. Chairman, I strongly believe that the truth always emerges. I don't know if it will be during these hearings. I don't know if it will be as a result of further activities of the Special Prosecutor. I do not know if it will be through the processes of history. But the truth will out someday." -- John W. Dean, June 1973

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Watergate Scandal is one The most infamous political scandals of all time. During the Trump administration Watergate was name dropped nonstop. President Richard Nixon use to be considered the most corrupt modern President until Trump said hold my beer. Blind Ambition is John Dean's account of his time as counsel to the President and his role in the events of the Watergate scandal.

On June 17th 1972 a group of people broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate apartment complex. At first it appeared to be a nothing little story but over the next few months the true level of this scandal and who masterminded it would be uncovered. Despite being reelected by a large margin in 1972. Nixon would be forced to resign in 1974 and John Dean would go to jail.

I'm giving this book 3 stars but I must admit that I thought this book was boring. It dragged for long periods and I considered not finishing it. But I decided to finish it and I'm glad I did because I did learn alot about Watergate. Going into this book I knew the basics but this book gave me a more detailed explanation. I have to say I'm not sure I believe everything Mr Dean wrote. He often came off as some who was just following orders and was just kinda caught up in something out of his control. I don't believe that is completely true but ultimately everybody shades the truth a little bit.

As I read this book I couldn't help but notice how differently the Republicans handled Nixon back then as opposed to current day Republicans with Trump. The Republicans did try to hang on and support Nixon for a long time because Nixon was super popular and not just with Republicans. But they ultimately realized that what Nixon did was wrong and forced him to resign. Trump's Republican party would never in a million years do that. It was wild to compare how the party has changed in the last nearly 50 years.

Overall I probably wouldn't recommend this book and I'm hoping to read some more books about Watergate in the future. This book just wasn't that engaging. I think John Dean has since written more books and I'll probably give one of those a try.

[Jay Pruitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"there's a cancer on the presidency and if the cancer is not removed it will kill the president himself"



This amazingly detailed account of the behind-the-doors activities of a corrupt presidency, now 40 years old, is still both shocking and relevant to today's world. Written by John Dean, the whistle-blower who started the chain of events that ended the Nixon presidency, Blind Ambition describes in first person how a 30-year old attorney fresh out of law school is himself seduced by power ambitions and the desire to be part of the inner circle. To do so, he must cozy up to Nixon and his henchmen, Ehrlichman and Haldeman, and turn a blind eye to what he knows is both legally and ethically wrong.

Jumping straight into the fire, Dean tells how the White House brought him on board as "Counsel to the President" with the likely intent of using him as a foil, or even a patsy if their shenanigans were discovered, for the illicit directives of "All The President's Men". Not long after being introduced to Nixon, he's told about the break-in to the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist in search of dirt on the man who leaked the so-called Pentagon Papers, about wire-taps on Democratic presidential candidate Edwin Muskie, and eventually the break-in of the DNC headquarters at Watergate. From there on Dean is immersed in all discussions with staff members responsible for implementing dirty politics. When the house of cards would start to collapse, due in part to investigative journalists from the Washington Post and leaks by Deep Throat (Mark Felt of FBI), the president and his men could claim that Dean orchestrated these corrupt activities and cloaked the extent of the problem from Ehrlichman and Haldeman with his position as in-house legal counsel.

Unethical (even illegal) use of presidential power is and was nothing new. Kennedy, Johnson and others relied on unscrupulous folks such as J. Edgar Hoover (FBI) and Richard Helms (CIA) to wiretap political foes. Presidents have also directed the IRS to target people or groups. Nixon loved to do this, but he was not alone. Remember the IRS's targeting of Republican PACs under Obama? Reportedly, Obama also wiretapped Trump Tower. My guess is that they all did it. What set Nixon apart is that he was not sparing in his use of power. He attacked everyone, because he felt everyone was out to get him, and was petty about it as well. Eventually, he made too many enemies and the leaks started springing all over the place. That's when he brought in what was known internally as "The Plumbers" to plug the leaks. Nixon also did a very poor job of covering his tracks - if you're going to tape every conversation in the Oval Office, don't you think you should watch what you say?

Keep in mind, when Dean went before the grand jury and the Senate, Nixon was still a very popular president. He'd just been re-elected by a landslide. Nixon had ended US involvement in the unpopular war in Vietnam. And in a bold and unprecedented move, he and Kissinger flew to China and began having discussions with the "unrecognized" communist nation, which in today's world would be like a president flying to the DMZ to meet with the president/dictator of North Korea. By doing so, he forced Russia to the bargaining table as well. So when John Dean decided to take "immunity" and testify against Nixon, he was considered by many in this country to be a traitor. And let's face it, by his own admission Dean blew the whistle not for ethical reasons, but to save his own butt. In reading his account, one is both empathetic (somewhat) to his plight, but scornful of his careless decisions made until he's finally forced to spill the beans.

I enjoyed Dean's account more than I expected. It fascinated me to read what I probably already knew and suspected, that our political leaders generally do not get to their position by being nice guys. Sad, but true. If you're not big on detail, Blind Ambition is probably not for you. But if you can stomach the minutiae and the relentless dirt, you'll like this one.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watergate memoirs are a dime-a-dozen; most of them are marginally readable exercises in self-exculpation, adding little or nothing to what was already revealed by reporters and investigators. John Dean's Blind Ambition is one of the best, as dubious a title as that might seem. Dean recounts his time as Richard Nixon's White House Counsel from 1970 through 1973; how, almost immediately, this young, idealistic but ambitious lawyer became ensnared in the White House's dirty tricks operations, from the Huston Plan and efforts to discredit protesters and progressive groups, his involvement (initially peripheral) with the Plumbers and CREEP's sabotage campaigns which culminated, of course, in that "third-rate burglary." Dean presents his case in forthright prose (reportedly ghostwritten by historian-journalist Taylor Branch): the paranoia of the Nixon White House bleeds off the page, along with the colorful sketches of Watergate's usual suspects (the stern, ruthless Bob Haldeman; the fatherly but amoral John Mitchell; the squirrely, spineless Jeb Magruder; the grave Howard Hunt and psychotic Gordon Liddy). Dean's account is undoubtedly self-serving, framing events to seem that Nixon painted him as the scapegoat from the start; one also suspects that he's harsher to some figures (particularly Magruder) and kinder to others (namely Mitchell, who seems amazingly benign for crooked Attorney General) based on his personal relationships with them. At the same time, though, he's at least honest enough to recount his own complicity in the "White House horrors" and unwillingness to confront the President until it was too late. Recent presidential scandals have ensured Dean renewed status as a political celebrity; this, the present writer frankly finds more than a bit distasteful. (Will Michael Cohen be on MSNBC in fifty years, opining how a future president is Worse Than Trump?) At the very least, though, Dean's self-portrait retains value as a cautionary tale: how easily an idealist can be corrupted, how quickly routine political activities can become criminal, and how difficult it is for even a sincerely repentant conspirator to extricate themselves from a trap of their own making.

[Aaron Million · Rating 4 out of 5]

One would think that, to become Counsel to the President, one would need to have extensive legal experience and expertise. In turn, that would mean someone who is at the top of the legal profession. And to be at that level, it stands to reason that the person would be at least middle-aged - someone with decades of training under their belt. But no. John Dean was named Counsel before he turned 32. At the time, he was thrilled to attain such a high position at such a young age. But before long it turned into a nightmare.

All memoirs, to an extent, are going to be self-serving. You are telling your story, not someone else's. Think about whenever you tell a story involving yourself: there is a human tendency to inflate your own contributions, minimize your mistakes, and generally make yourself look great. Dean does do this. Yet, he (I think knowingly) makes himself look bad too. And that is where the title of the book comes from: he was blinded by his immense ambition for power and success.

The reader does not get any details about Dean's childhood or background when the book begins. Only later on does he mention having worked for the House Judiciary Committee in the 1960s, and those mentions are fleeting. Dean jumps right into it: being flown out to San Clemente, CA in 1970 to meet with Richard Nixon's domineering Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman. Dean, who was working at the Department of Justice under Attorney General John Mitchell, is unexpectedly offered the job of Counsel to the President, despite his age and also him having never met Nixon. This is one area where Dean does not really explain why he was chosen. Did Haldeman and John Ehrlichman (Nixon's chief domestic affairs advisor and previous Counsel) think he was ambitious and pliant enough to just do whatever they wanted? If that was the guess, then they guessed right.

Throughout the rest of 1970 and 1971, Dean slowly works on expanding his influence with the White House inner circle, continually attempting to curry favor with Nixon through Haldeman and Ehrlichman. Dean writes how he was enamored with the status that came with his elevation in influence: a White House limousine and driver available at his call, invitations to staff meetings, etc... Dean repeatedly demonstrates instances of himself being a bootlicker, doing whatever Haldeman and Ehrlichman wanted, no matter the legality or ethics of the matter. Rarely though did he actually interact with Nixon. Up to Watergate, the two had only a couple of brief meetings.

That changed after Watergate occurred in June 1972. Because of his known pliability at wanting to be useful to Nixon, Dean allowed himself to get drawn into the wretched cover-up concerning the botched burglary. Because Ehrlichman and Mitchell disliked each other, they used Dean as an intermediary for most of their dealings. Dean became embroiled in the cover-up, meeting with G. Gordon Liddy, Jeb Magruder, Charles Colson, Herbert Kalmbach (all names familiar to anyone who has read extensively on Watergate) and others. Dean knows that becoming involved in matters such as attempts to facilitate the providing of blackmail money to E. Howard Hunt are crimes and are ethically wrong. Yet he does them anyways. Whatever moral quandaries that he has about what he is doing, are brushed aside.

Until they aren't. Dean's conscience begins to gnaw at him more and more. So does the growing concern that the Nixon White House is setting him up to be one of the fall guys for the entire operation, even though Dean had no role in the actual break-in or planning of it. His private discussions with Nixon become bizarre and painful. At one time, Dean viewed going into the Oval Office to meet with Nixon as an extreme high, a huge privilege that very few people can ever say that they have done. Slowly though, he comes to dread the meetings as he realizes that Nixon both knows more about the cover-up than Dean initially thought, and that Nixon was lying to him. Dean struggles with reconciling his still-reverent view of Nixon as the President and a great man with the reality of the scheming, at times dangerously unfocused individual whom he actually sees in Nixon.

Dean goes through the process of him ultimately realizing two things: 1) that he could not continue to live with himself by continuing the cover-up, and 2) that he wouldn't get away with it if he kept trying. Deans hires respected lawyer Charlie Shaffer and begins a tedious dance with both the prosecutors and the Senate Watergate investigation about testifying. Ultimately, Dean does testify against pretty much everyone else, his testimony is vindicated when Nixon's secret tape recordings are discovered and many are published, and he serves a relatively brief prison sentence. The story ends on the day of his release from prison.

The book reads like fiction, with much of it being dialogue from meetings. While I don't question the overall gist of the dialogue that Dean quotes verbatim from, I do question how accurate could he be on a given meeting with a specific person, given that there were countless meetings; or how he can remember exactly what was said on a particular phone call. Did he makes copious notes immediately after all of these meetings and calls? At the beginning of the book, he does address this by explaining he did have notes, checked with the others involved in the conversations when he could, and relied on his memory. So, I assume that the conversations reproduced are in general accurate but specific quotes might not be.

Also, very late in the book, he references for the first time that he has a son. That was odd to run across given that there had not even been the hint of him being a father up until that point. Also late in the book, he switches abruptly from a normal narrative format to a series of journal entries. I don't mind journal entries, but it was an odd changeover so late. Overall this will appeal to those who are interested in Watergate or the dissolution of the Nixon presidency, or if you just enjoy a good story about people abusing positions of trust and power.

Grade: B+

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A pencil is always a more fascinating topic for conversation than John Dean".---G. Gordon Liddy

"Gordon liked to think of himself as James Bond but he'd have to work up to become Maxwell Smart".---John Dean

First, I am going to make a confession on behalf of John Dean. Dean, who made millions off this memoir and the television mini-series adaptation, did not write BLIND AMBITION. The book was ghost-written for him by future Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch (the AMERICA IN THE KING YEARS trilogy). This fact gives BLIND AMBITION an eery feel. Dean uses the word "I" so many times the reader is left wondering whether it's Dean or Branch who felt and thought about any and all matter covered in the book. What does a thirty-year old lawyer newly appointed Counsel to the President do out of his office? Why, take part in the greatest criminal conspiracy in U.S. history, that's all. Dean has plugged into probably the most profitable trope in American literature: "I was a sinner, blinded by my own lust for power, but now I am saved". However self-serving these memoirs may be, they confirm a theory of the Watergate coverup that Nixon's Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman phrased, "No Viet Nam War, no Watergate". (New Left honcho Tom Hayden once called Watergate "Ho Chi Minh's revenge".) Dean's first assignment at the White House, at the behest of Nixon and his co-conspirators, was to illegally gather intelligence on anti-war protestors, which segued into bugging and disrupting the presidential campaign of the Democrats in 1972, which in turn birthed the Watergate break-in and the inevitable cover-up. What followed was worthy of the mafia. Nixon tried to make Dean the fall guy, including writing a report on Watergate with Dean's signature on it, and Dean ran scared to the U.S. Prosecutor's office, offering evidence of Nixon's guilt in the cover-up. Dean would have been forgotten, or even dismissed as a disgruntled nut, except that another White House aide, Alexander Butterfield, who oddly is the only other Watergate principal besides Dean who still lives, revealed the existence of Nixon's White House tapes. Nixon could only stall for time until the inevitable impeachment or resignation. Is Dean a patriot or "Judas Iscariot", as Liddy called him? Either way, this book makes for fascinating reading on what powerful, devious men can do when not relaxing with a good war.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Watergate is something I knew nothing about so I enjoyed the learning, but also it was such a thrilling story that I hated putting it down. One difficulty was keeping up with all the men and their positions especially at the beginning as new people were continually being brought into the story.

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Dean was counsel to the president during the Nixon administration, and was the first to testify against all of the Watergate conspirators, including Nixon and including himself, a bold but necessary decision that led to Nixon’s resignation—done to avoid imminent impeachment—and Dean’s imprisonment. Dean’s story is a real page turner, and Nixon-Watergate buffs as well as those that are curious about this time period should read this book. I read the hard copy version, for which I paid full jacket price, shortly after its release, and when I saw that my friends at Open Road Media and Net Galley were re-releasing it digitally and was invited to review, I climbed on board right away. This title is available for sale today, December 20, 2016.

Dean was a young lawyer whose career rose rapidly. When Nixon found out that men employed by the Committee to Re-Elect the President had been arrested for the burglary of the Democratic Party National Headquarters, which was housed in the Watergate Hotel, he quickly became enmeshed in a plan to bury the whole thing. Once he realized (belatedly) that he and his closest advisors had made themselves vulnerable to criminal charges, he had Haldeman, his right hand man, reach into the White House legal staff to find an attorney that could serve as an intermediary so that none of them would need to have illegal conversations with each other. Dean was sometimes called upon as a problem solver, but more often he was essentially the messenger between the president and his closest advisors. Nixon’s thinking here was that everything that passed through Dean would be covered by client-attorney privilege. When this turned out to have no legal basis and heads were going to roll, Dean learned that his own head would be among those served up on a platter by the administration in its effort to save itself. He chose to strike first by testifying against everyone involved in the conspiracy to obstruct justice, and eventually this included President Richard Nixon.
Those old enough to recall having watched Dean testify on television will be interested in the back story here. Dean has a phalanx of his own attorneys, but he decides to appear at the microphone without them; they are among the faces in the back on the TV footage. He also chose to speak in a dead monotone, because the information he was transmitting was itself very dramatic, and he had already been represented as a squealer in some media sources. Instead, he chose to portray himself as a small man, slightly balding, with his horn rimmed glasses and his notes, sitting alone in front of a microphone in order to bravely announce the truth to the Senate and the world. And it’s effective. See what you think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOIO3...

When I first read this book I was not long out of high school, and I met the text with snarky disapproval, based more on the very idea that a man as young as Dean could choose to affiliate himself with the Republican Party during the time the Vietnam War raged than on the skill with which the book was written. This time I come to it as an adult with a lot more experience related to writing, and my reaction is completely different. Dean writes his story like a legal thriller. It’s fascinating and enormously compelling. I find that what I think of Dean morally and politically is irrelevant when I rate this text; the writing is first rate. Most interesting of all is the way he is able to inject wry humor into the series of events that ended his legal career and sent him to jail. His sentence is not long, though, and much of it is spent in a relatively gentle confinement. He becomes a college professor and writer later in life, which he still is today.

Those that have real depth of interest will also be interested in a later book, The Nixon Defense, written once all the Nixon tapes were released to the public:

The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It, by John Dean *****

Both are riveting, and highly recommended.

[Glen Stott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t read this when it first came out in the 1970’s because I figured it would be a self-justification for John Dean. And it probably is to some extent. However, I found it interesting and worth the read. It gives a great deal of detail about the behind the scenes actions of a very corrupt government. The corruption started early with Nixon – long before Watergate. In fact, Watergate was just one corrupt act that was exposed.

Dean was ambitious and involved himself without second thoughts. That involvement opened opportunities which allowed him to advance his position and influence with uncharacteristic speed. In the book, Dean is hard on himself and the compromise of his integrity for the power.

Dean was maneuvered into a position where he was going to have to take all the blame, in addition, Nixon abandoned him. Facing a potential lengthy prison term, he agreed to testify. His testimony played a significant role in the downfall of the Nixon Administration, however, the bulk of the blame goes to Nixon and the decisions he made from the beginning of his first term.

The book provided an insider’s view of how government can go wrong. I thought Dean was hard on himself, though, in the end the reader can almost feel sorry for him and maybe that was what he was going for.

[Sspitzer]

Just heard him speak at the Nixon library in Yorba Linda - has a new version out of this with a new introduction responding to viscious attacks against him and his wife by right wing zealot defenders of Nixon. Fascinating to revisit the watergate period, since so much of our current distrust and cynicsm about government started then.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched this guy testify during the Nixon impeachment hearings ... I lived and ate this stuff up. His book was a page turner for me. Many have said he was painting himself in a rosy portrait and I get that. But still I think he understood better than the other 3 (Nixon, Brush, Ehrlichman) that they had sullied the office of president.

[Steve Garriott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, wouldn't it be nice to go back to those halcyon days when the worst you had to deal with was a President who lied about authorizing the bugging of a Democratic National Committee office and authorizing hush money? And that the perpetrators were so inept that Mafia hit men called them amateurs? This is far from being the first incident in U.S. history where we had to deal with executive malfeasance. However, it is one of the first where the media was able to bring real-time updates to the scandal. Dean's memoir of his involvement in Watergate is riveting even today. His style (and that of his ghostwriter) flows, drawing you in and keeps you there throughout. I found myself pulled back and forth between understanding Dean as a perpetrator and as a whistle-blower, intent on bringing the truth to light. Still, he was a part of things, one of the "bad guys." As one person is quoted, there were a lot of lawyers on the list of participants. That says something. Dean pulls no punches and never lets himself off the hook in a day when there was actually a hook. America, you have changed. But we are strong and will weather our current circumstances. I believe that with my whole heart.

[Karis North · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. Meh. Given the current occupant of the White House, and all that's going on, I thought it made sense to pick up this book. I had to take breaks reading it, because there are so many similarities between what happened with Watergate, the cover-up, and what's happening today. Mostly, I just felt disgust, and like I needed a shower after reading it. Dean is self-serving, and I don't think entirely honest. Worth it for the historical context,but it was still painful.

[Tim Petersik · Rating 4 out of 5]

tremendous review of the most corrupt White House prior to GW

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a popular form of political persona that is a version of the Paul on the road to Damascus conversion story. An ideologue of some kind is a political operator who comes to his or her senses and changes sides, and pens a tell-all memoir revealing the depths of their perfidy and lengths to which their previous political side will go to achieve their ends or crush their political enemies.

John Dean is this type of figure, as are others like David Brock, Kevin Phillips, and David Horowitz. Dean, of course, was White House Council during the second half of the Nixon administration, and played a central role in the Watergate cover-up, though he was not part of the planning for the burglary. This memoir recounts the slow tightening of the noose around the administration's neck that they themselves had put there. Dean does not spare himself in the story, though no doubt he may soft pedal some of his own actions.

I read this in conjunction with All the President's Men and the two books combined did help me get a better grasp on what actually happened with Watergate. I will say that the famous saying that arose out of the affair "the cover-up is worse than the crime" is not necessarily true. The crime itself is quite bad and a serious undermining of the democratic process in the U.S.

Blind Ambition does a good job to outlining the parallel tracks that dominated White House activities in the post-Watergate timeframe, where on the one hand they were expressing nothing but confidence externally, promising exonerating reports and suggesting it was the work of a few kooks, while on the hand internally becoming more and more paranoid and searching for a scapegoat that could be blamed. For a time it seemed that scapegoat could be Dean himself, or possibly moving on up to the President's top advisors, and finally it became clear that the President himself would be implicated. There are many, many conversations detailed in the book about ass-covering between political operatives who wished to create some kind of paper trail showing their own lack of involvement.

Dean's presents himself as a young and idealistic lawyer who is slowly pulled into a situation where he finds himself becoming more and more implicated in illegal activities in spite of his own judgment. Eventually he must make a clean break or face the possibility of taking the brunt of the blame for Watergate. After that choice is made, the last section of the book details his conversations with his own lawyer, DOJ prosecutors, and former White House colleagues as they all jockey to make deals and avoid punishment to the extent they can.

One of the details from the book that really stays with me is Nixon making a comment during a press conference that John Dean was authoring an internal report on Watergate that would be a thorough and official accounting of Watergate. Dean himself was entirely unaware that he was supposedly authoring such a report and it came as quite a shock to hear the President say it on live television. The so-called Dean Report would never come to exist, though he was many times pressured to write such a report in a way that would exonerate the President and his advisors. So we know that Trump is not the first President at least to simply throw out whatever statement pops into his head and see where it leads.

For folks that wish to learn more about the ur-scandal of modern American politics, this book is a good starting place and is not as self-serving as I was afraid it could be. In his later years, Dean would remain a critic of conservative politics and fully cross over to write anti-GWB books during that administration. I think his conversion is genuine though I don't know if I can say he has atoned for his sins.

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and Open Road Integrated Media, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book because I am interested in american history and lived through the Watergate years. I have read a number of other books on the subject, but not this one.

This is a re-release of the original with a new preface by the author. To say that John Dean is a self absorbed and arrogant would be an understatement. This was the first of the Watergate books and has been used as a litmus test for the others that followed (in most cases to their detriment). While nothing can conclusively be proven false in this book, it does make one wonder about the near perfect image projected by a person intimately involved in dubious ethical and outright criminal activities.

It will be an interesting read for someone who has not read nothing or much about the Nixon Administration. I would recommend that you read some of the other books by people within the Nixon Administration to get a more balanced, less biased view on the events.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a re-release of John Dean's first book and definitely worth the read either as a first-time look or as a review. He has added new material including a new foreword and afterword plus new notes based on additional information uncovered during the nine-year litigation that he was involved in after the official Watergate period had ended.

At times, it can be difficult to keep track of the various names and positions of the people involved in the myriad activities that we now place under the umbrella of "Watergate," but once that's overcome, the book becomes a page-turner.

Dean offers a great history lesson of the Nixon administration and as well as a look into the human character and what motivates people to undertake less-than-scrupulous behavior.

In my estimation, and as a fan of John Dean, he will go down as a man who overcame his more base instincts and rose to the occasion to make hard choices and lay naked the truth before the country--a grueling task that took a personal and professional toll. Compare this to the jaw-dropping lack of repentance broadcast by many of the other (Liddy, Colson) Watergate characters.

[Germany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find books by John W. Dean quite fascinating, especially his books on Watergate

[Neal Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was only 2 years old at the time of the Watergate break-in and with the Trump impeachment trial around the corner, I was curious to read an account of another president who believed he was above the law. John Dean's book is very fast-paced, reads like a novel. I had no idea that the guy I see on CNN so often was so involved in Watergate, particularly the cover-up. He spent 4 1/2 months in jail during the trial while serving as the chief witness (his original sentence was 4 years). After the trial the judge commuted his sentence to time served.

All in all I highly enjoyed Dean's writing. I have renewed respect for the man. He spoke truth to power without regard for saving his own skin and for that we should all be thankful.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, so much to say. Yes, John Dean is a pompous ass in many ways, but he seems to acknowledge that as he describes his rise to close-to-power. Overall this is the most thoughtful, forthright and revealing account of the Watergate years, and the best of the participant memoirs. I have read most of them. (Avoid Jeb Stuart Magruder's book as it is self serving and extremely tedious.)

For a student of Watergate this is a must read.

[Mboconnor31 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, about the infamous scandal called “Watergate,” the most seminal series of criminal events in modern democracy, which directly lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974. One of the many facets that makes the book amazing is the unique narration that unfolds from the eyes of the author, Nixon’s in-house counsel. It begins after the break-in is reported to have occurred at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972, the location of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the time. It was part of Nixon’s attempt to gain advantage in the politically contentious election of 1972.

Another connected event was the break-in into the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in California. Mr. Ellsberg was under fire for revealing internal private memorandums called the “Pentagon Papers,” undermining the government’s stance on the war in Vietnam which was subsequently published in the New York Times.

Frankly, I had a hard time understanding or even relate to a man like John Dean, III, so lacking in any form of fairness, ethics or morality. Ultimately, he did the right thing but you are left wondering if that would ever have happened if he did not think he was being set up as the “fall guy.” And the answer is probably not. Hence, the title “Blind Ambition.” Another void for me was the passing reference toward the end of the book that he had a son from his first marriage. There was just no facts or feelings relayed about such an important relationship, which I thought was particularly peculiar.

Even though I grew up during the times of the public and televised Senate Watergate hearings, and was familiar with the facts, I found after all these years later, I benefitted from Wikipedia as I researched the myriad of players inside and outside the White House, which I must say was just as fascinating. The hard copy of the book has many photos, which assists. Half way through, I switched to an electronic or e-book from the public library and these are wonderful as they include instant access to Wikipedia and a dictionary, just place the cursor on the word. Voila!

I highly recommend this book, especially now as we approach the 2020 elections. Trump’s confidante Roger Stone was a low level Nixon campaign staffer, famous for having a tattoo of Nixon on his chest. It seems Stone was a good student as he learned a lot about Nixon’s “dirty tricks” because many of the same tactics and strategies employed then are akin to the ones being used today.

Only thing is I cannot believe it took me this long to read this book. ... Maybe because Wikipedia did not exist when I tried int he past. To understand where we are going and the present is to know the past.

[Brent Forkner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't finish. The hardback, which did not appear to have been opened by anyone before me, had to be ordered ILL from Ohoopee Regional Library in Vidalia Georgia, and they somehow didn't manage to get it to my library until a week before they wanted it back. Bartow County managed to extend the borrowing period 2 more weeks, but I'm a slow reader, and the beginning of the book is not exciting. I had just gotten to the chapter "Containment" and it was heating up! When I watched the movie "Mark Felt: the man who brought down the White House," I did not realize that the Nixon-appointed head of the FBI, Patrick Gray, was actually passing original, unedited copies of the FBI agents findings (Airtel's and 302s) directly to John Dean and on to President Nixon, in violation of about a jillion laws right there. wowee. I read Gordon Liddy's book, "Will" decades ago, and he seemed pretty weird; but Dean's assessment makes him look far less competent and even less sane. Never knew that Haldeman was an ad man (McCann Erickson), not a lawyer like so many of the rest of them. Didn't realize that Liddy's crazy illegal plans were presented in detail, in advance, to Attorney General John Mitchell before he resigned that post to become campaign manager of CREEP (Dean prissily calls it "CRP") . Dean's frankness makes all the lawyers involved, including himself, seem far less competent and clear-headed than one would want at this level of government, alas. I get the feeling that this catastrophic scandal laid the foundation for the current president's administration. Does anything matter anymore?

[Lynn Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Relevant Than Ever

I was in high school during Watergate, and I was a complete Watergate junkie. I read this book when it first came out, and this seemed like a good time to read it again. It's even more compelling than I remember, and an important book for our current political mess.

The most obvious message of the book is that it reminds us how easy it is for well-meaning people to slide down the slope from dutiful service into corruption, in the service of the President of the United States. Dean was a smart, young, very ambitious lawyer, who describes his awe at meeting Nixon for the first time in delicious detail. Each step he took seemed to make sense at the time, because he was loyal to the President he trusted. In the end he discovered he was serving a crook who used him and then called him a liar.

But perhaps the most important thing I took from reading the book again was a reminder that the unraveling of a conspiracy like Watergate does not happen overnight, or even in weeks, but over many months. Right now we have a person in the Oval Office who makes Nixon look like Mother Theresa, and the investigations into his corrupt practices and wrongdoings have just begun.

When I was following Watergate as a kid, there were times I thought the bad guys were gonna win, and that we would never get our country back. I hope our country's story now ends as well as it did then, but I hope it doesn't take as long.

The real question now is who will be the new John Dean whose testimony helps extract us from this particular presidential cancer?

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

The things people do for power.

I don't know what I expected when I sat down to read Blind Ambition but it certainly wasn't this. An insider's account of the Nixon White House during the worst of the coverup, as well as the resulting legal aftermath, it reads like a non-fiction version of The Firm. There were times when I literally could not put this book down.

John Dean might be full of crap. He is honest to a point about his own complicity and he suffuses his tale with enough paranoia and confusion to make it plausible that he did indeed get dragged down this rabbit hole somewhat unwittingly. He certainly seems like he was willing to sell his soul to a point and didn't like it when the check came due. I don't know how to parse his tale against the backdrop of what went on with and around him.

But how many accounts do we get like this about brutal corruption from the people who run our country? Dialogue of people playing cat-and-mouse with each other, seeing juuuuust how much they can get away with, all the way up to the President? This book must have roiled the populace when it came out. It scared me now to think that people this stupid can be at the levers of power in this or any country. We really are steps from chaos.

This book touched a primal nerve. Not as much because of Dean's story but the story that involved him. I need to catch my breath.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look back at the Nixon White House. If you've read The Firm by John Grisham, this is the real life non fiction version. Idealistic young guy gets his ideal job - taking it against the advice of some - in the White House and then slowly he loses his perspective and morality. Some of the information is shocking and although old news, it is probably never more relevant than in the week Mr DJ Trump takes occupation. John W Dean is an easy writer and the story flows like a novel. There are places where I chose to skip ahead and places where I had to reread to sort out the names and office roles but it is a fast, exciting read. Recommended for those interested in politics generally and for the Watergate/Nixon years in particular. And those who like a well written story of a good guy gone bad... I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

[Marianne Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the time of Watergate, I was working as a legal secretary in a law firm ... needless to say, every morning we would re-hash what was happening in D.C. and wonder who was going to be the fall guy ... most of us (avid Nixon supporters) thought blame was at the top of the heap and placed it right in Nixon's lap. So it has been quite interesting to look back and re-read John Dean's version of the account. There is a lot of detail in his book ... if you weren't following the story at the time it happened, all the names and people may be confusing to the reader today, particularly the younger generations. If you are interested in politics, law and history, I highly recommend this book ... I wonder how much is STILL being covered-up in D.C. since the Watergate era ... Guess the Beltway will never learn!

[Drew Zagorski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story and presents the perspective of the Watergate conspiracy from John Dean's position. It begins with his earliest days on the Nixon staff. Very quickly he becomes engaged in shady activities and while he questions things, he goes along because he is seduced by the position he is in and his proximity to the president. Dean pulls no punches or varnishes any part of his role in the cover up. A very interesting view from one of the actual players. Of course, that being the case and while this was a very good read, I did wonder throughout the book how much he wasn't telling or what aspects of the story were incomplete. All in all a solid addition to the reading available on this period of U.S. presidential history, and well worth the read.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Watergate book. Having read John Dean’s more recent book The Nixon Defense this book was interesting in that detailed not so much what happened but how John Dean got to be in the position that he rose to in the Whitehouse and how by following the lead of the higher ups got dragged into the mire that became Watergate. He is often criticised for painting himself as an innocent party but everyone was in culpable as soon as they were party to the secret.

I thought it was interesting that he was in the same prison unit with some of the other Whitehouse staff and they all seemed to get on well together.

A great insight into the Nixon Whitehouse and how a virtual nobody got propelled into infamy.

[Bob Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

I don’t think John Dean set out to be a criminal, he set out to be a great attorney. But ego, and access to power can be confounding to better angels. History records that he eventually did the right thing, but why? To save American democracy, to save his own neck … or both?
This book is a very interesting reminder of a bitter, angry time featuring a bitter, angry president. I was in grad school when it finally hit the fan.
Given our current climate, it is useful to remind ourselves of past failings and mistakes brought about by the dark side of great power.
This book may be self-serving for Dean but it should be a useful reminder to the rest of us.

[Bari Boswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating inside look at Watergate

It was obviously very difficult to cram such a complicated subject into a single book. I had a hard time keeping track of which characters did what. But the story was still riveting. I watched Watergate unfold when I was in high school and hence didn't really understand a lot of what it was happening. Now I have much better insight into what actually went down. I'm reminded of a quote that I read recently saying power does not corrupt it's simply attracts the corruptible. So true.