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Scorpions' Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate
For the 50th anniversary of the Watergate The untold story of President Richard Nixon, CIA Director Richard Helms, and their volatile shared secrets that ended a presidency.
Scorpions' Dance by intelligence expert and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley reveals the Watergate scandal in a completely new as the culmination of a concealed, deadly power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms.
Nixon and Helms went back decades; both were 1950s Cold Warriors, and both knew secrets about the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba as well as off-the-books American government and CIA plots to remove Fidel Castro and other leaders in Latin America. Both had enough information on each other to ruin their careers.
After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI's investigation. He sought Helms' support and asked that the CIA intervene―knowing that most of the Watergate burglars were retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets with deep knowledge of the Agency's most sensitive secrets. The two now circled each other like scorpions, defending themselves with the threat of lethal attack. The loser would resign his office in disgrace; the winner, however, would face consequences for the secrets he had kept.
Rigorously researched and dramatically told, Scorpions' Dance uses long-neglected evidence to reveal a new perspective on one of America's most notorious presidential scandals.
Scorpions' Dance by intelligence expert and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley reveals the Watergate scandal in a completely new as the culmination of a concealed, deadly power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms.
Nixon and Helms went back decades; both were 1950s Cold Warriors, and both knew secrets about the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba as well as off-the-books American government and CIA plots to remove Fidel Castro and other leaders in Latin America. Both had enough information on each other to ruin their careers.
After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI's investigation. He sought Helms' support and asked that the CIA intervene―knowing that most of the Watergate burglars were retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets with deep knowledge of the Agency's most sensitive secrets. The two now circled each other like scorpions, defending themselves with the threat of lethal attack. The loser would resign his office in disgrace; the winner, however, would face consequences for the secrets he had kept.
Rigorously researched and dramatically told, Scorpions' Dance uses long-neglected evidence to reveal a new perspective on one of America's most notorious presidential scandals.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published June 7, 2022
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4146 people want to read
About the author
Jefferson Morley
10 books108 followersJEFFERSON MORLEY is a journalist and editor who has worked in Washington journalism for over thirty years, fifteen of which were spent as an editor and reporter at The Washington Post. The author of The Ghost, a biography of CIA spymaster James Jesus Angleton, and Our Man in Mexico, a biography of the CIA’s Mexico City station chief Winston Scott, Morley has written about intelligence, military, and political subjects for Salon, The Atlantic, and The Intercept, among others. He is the editor of JFK Facts, a blog. He lives in Washington, DC.
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May 13, 2022
June 17, 1972. For me, it was the day of my wedding. By my first anniversary, it was the day of the Watergate break-in. We watched the Senate hearings amazed to realize the significance of that day in history, personal and national.
As I well know, its been fifty years since that day. It was time to revisit those events (Watergate, that is!) and discover new insights.
Scorpions’ Dance is about what Helms and Nixon had on each other, the secrets they kept and the secrets they shared.
from Scorpions’ Dance by Jefferson Morley
I was hooked from the Introduction. Morley argues that Watergate was the culmination of the relationship between Dick Helms, respected director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and President Richard M. Nixon. He narrates a history of CIA involvement in a plot to kill Fidel Castro and the murder of a nonpolitical general in Chile that Helms covered up. He connects CIA men and hired assassins and criminals to the Watergate break-in. He paints a picture of a uncontrite president and a CIA director who bent laws, and even lied, convinced it was for national security.
The story arc goes back to the assassination of President Kennedy and the order that the Warren Commission conclude that Oswald was a lone assassin, which Robert Kennedy never believed. Oswald said he was “a patsy”, then was (conveniently) killed by a man connected to the Mafia. Everyone wanted to wrap it up and move on. No one wanted the public to connect the dots, leading back to the plot to kill Castro. And, the CIA didn’t want anyone to realize that they had been tracking Oswald for years and had failed to protect the president.
The colorful cast of characters includes Howard Hunt, both a CIA spy and a novelist of spy novels. His CIA-produced film Animal Farm was a box office success; he had “tweaked” its anti-Communist message. Hunt was recruited to help overthrow the government of Guatemala whose plans upset the United Fruit Company. Along with Chuck Colson and G. Gordon Liddy, he became one of “The Plumbers” who were ordered to discover who a journalist obtained confidential information. There are the CIA’s “assassination program” hit men. Nixon’s faithful secretary and gatekeeper Rose Mary Woods who. oops, erased eighteen minutes of tape.
I want the break-in, Nixon stormed. Hell, they do that. You’re to break into that place, rifle the riles, and bring them in. Just go in and take it, period…
Richard Nixon quoted in Scorpions’ Dance by Jefferson Morley
Morley calls his book “a biography of power.” The personal power of two men, but also the power of the CIA which spied on Americans, including those involved with antiwar protests and civil rights activists. President Harry S. Truman was appalled by the CIA’s expansion into “peacetime cloak and dagger operations,” and pushed to end the organization he started. And the power of President Nixon, empowered by his landslide victory, who wanted dirt on his political foes.
The Watergate investigation did result in more oversight of the CIA. But the revelations in this book are disconcerting, and one has to wonder what else has been swept under the carpet.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
As I well know, its been fifty years since that day. It was time to revisit those events (Watergate, that is!) and discover new insights.
Scorpions’ Dance is about what Helms and Nixon had on each other, the secrets they kept and the secrets they shared.
from Scorpions’ Dance by Jefferson Morley
I was hooked from the Introduction. Morley argues that Watergate was the culmination of the relationship between Dick Helms, respected director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and President Richard M. Nixon. He narrates a history of CIA involvement in a plot to kill Fidel Castro and the murder of a nonpolitical general in Chile that Helms covered up. He connects CIA men and hired assassins and criminals to the Watergate break-in. He paints a picture of a uncontrite president and a CIA director who bent laws, and even lied, convinced it was for national security.
The story arc goes back to the assassination of President Kennedy and the order that the Warren Commission conclude that Oswald was a lone assassin, which Robert Kennedy never believed. Oswald said he was “a patsy”, then was (conveniently) killed by a man connected to the Mafia. Everyone wanted to wrap it up and move on. No one wanted the public to connect the dots, leading back to the plot to kill Castro. And, the CIA didn’t want anyone to realize that they had been tracking Oswald for years and had failed to protect the president.
The colorful cast of characters includes Howard Hunt, both a CIA spy and a novelist of spy novels. His CIA-produced film Animal Farm was a box office success; he had “tweaked” its anti-Communist message. Hunt was recruited to help overthrow the government of Guatemala whose plans upset the United Fruit Company. Along with Chuck Colson and G. Gordon Liddy, he became one of “The Plumbers” who were ordered to discover who a journalist obtained confidential information. There are the CIA’s “assassination program” hit men. Nixon’s faithful secretary and gatekeeper Rose Mary Woods who. oops, erased eighteen minutes of tape.
I want the break-in, Nixon stormed. Hell, they do that. You’re to break into that place, rifle the riles, and bring them in. Just go in and take it, period…
Richard Nixon quoted in Scorpions’ Dance by Jefferson Morley
Morley calls his book “a biography of power.” The personal power of two men, but also the power of the CIA which spied on Americans, including those involved with antiwar protests and civil rights activists. President Harry S. Truman was appalled by the CIA’s expansion into “peacetime cloak and dagger operations,” and pushed to end the organization he started. And the power of President Nixon, empowered by his landslide victory, who wanted dirt on his political foes.
The Watergate investigation did result in more oversight of the CIA. But the revelations in this book are disconcerting, and one has to wonder what else has been swept under the carpet.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
August 24, 2022
The Watergate burglary’s fiftieth anniversary has passed, and Jefferson Morley, a longtime journalist and political biographer, has written a history of that event; the focus is Richard Helms, the man that ran the CIA and had to walk a tightrope between the demands of President Richard Nixon, and what best served the CIA. This book is for sale now.
If you are searching for just one book to read about the Watergate debacle and/or Nixon, this isn’t it. However, if you are a hardcore Nixon buff, as I am, or if you are a researcher, looking for specific information for academic study, you can hardly do better.
My thanks go to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the invitation to read and review.
Helms was a slick operator, walking a tightrope as he sought to protect the reputation of the agency while maintaining cordial relations with Nixon and those around him. For some of this, there’s a heavy irony involved here; how can anybody ever make the CIA look less than sleazy? But of course, leftists like me are not the ones Helms wanted to impress in the first place.
As the administration sought to damage political enemies that might prevent Nixon’s reelection for a second term, its shady dealings—hiring thugs to ransack a psychiatrist’s office in search for dirt on an opponent, and planting bugs in the office of the Democratic Party in the Watergate Hotel—proved to be the president’s undoing.
Two of the ugly characters in service to Nixon were in charge, for example, of interviewing candidates for a “riot squad” of counterdemonstrators to oppose the anticipated throngs of antiwar demonstrators that were anticipated in Washington. “One of them was Frank Sturgis, whose reputation for violence preceded him. ‘The men were exactly what I was looking for,’ Liddy rumbled in Will, his best-selling memoir. ‘Tough, experienced and loyal. Hunt and I interviewed about a dozen men. Afterward Howard told me that between them they had killed twenty-two men, including two hanged from a beam in the garage.’”
The burglaries had too many moving parts to be kept completely under wraps, and consequently, the president and his top advisors were soon looking for scapegoats below themselves, men that could be packed off to prison while the country regained confidence in the administration that had supposedly brought them to justice. At one point, they had Helms in their sights as a possible fall guy, and the former CIA director, McCord, who was retired, caught wind of this and was having none of it. In a letter, he said, “If Helms goes and the Watergate operation is laid at the feet of the CIA where it does not belong, every tree in the forest will fall. It will be a scorched desert. The whole matter is at the precipice now.”
There are moments when I wonder if the ghost of Richard Nixon haunts the White House, cackling with glee to see a former president in far more trouble today than he himself experienced when he was there. Who knows what the old dog would have thought about the political machinations unfurling today?
Morley has a conversational narrative tone that works wonders. Because I had fallen behind, I checked out the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons, and narrator John Pruden does a fine job bringing it to life. But the most impressive aspect of this book is the research behind it, with treasure troves of primary documents and brilliant integration of data from multitudinous places. The endnotes are impeccable, enabling other researchers to trace back the facts to their original sources if they need or desire it.
For a niche readership of researchers, this is a five star work, but I suspect most interested parties will be of a more widespread readership; for them, this is still a fine read at four stars. Most satisfying.
If you are searching for just one book to read about the Watergate debacle and/or Nixon, this isn’t it. However, if you are a hardcore Nixon buff, as I am, or if you are a researcher, looking for specific information for academic study, you can hardly do better.
My thanks go to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the invitation to read and review.
Helms was a slick operator, walking a tightrope as he sought to protect the reputation of the agency while maintaining cordial relations with Nixon and those around him. For some of this, there’s a heavy irony involved here; how can anybody ever make the CIA look less than sleazy? But of course, leftists like me are not the ones Helms wanted to impress in the first place.
As the administration sought to damage political enemies that might prevent Nixon’s reelection for a second term, its shady dealings—hiring thugs to ransack a psychiatrist’s office in search for dirt on an opponent, and planting bugs in the office of the Democratic Party in the Watergate Hotel—proved to be the president’s undoing.
Two of the ugly characters in service to Nixon were in charge, for example, of interviewing candidates for a “riot squad” of counterdemonstrators to oppose the anticipated throngs of antiwar demonstrators that were anticipated in Washington. “One of them was Frank Sturgis, whose reputation for violence preceded him. ‘The men were exactly what I was looking for,’ Liddy rumbled in Will, his best-selling memoir. ‘Tough, experienced and loyal. Hunt and I interviewed about a dozen men. Afterward Howard told me that between them they had killed twenty-two men, including two hanged from a beam in the garage.’”
The burglaries had too many moving parts to be kept completely under wraps, and consequently, the president and his top advisors were soon looking for scapegoats below themselves, men that could be packed off to prison while the country regained confidence in the administration that had supposedly brought them to justice. At one point, they had Helms in their sights as a possible fall guy, and the former CIA director, McCord, who was retired, caught wind of this and was having none of it. In a letter, he said, “If Helms goes and the Watergate operation is laid at the feet of the CIA where it does not belong, every tree in the forest will fall. It will be a scorched desert. The whole matter is at the precipice now.”
There are moments when I wonder if the ghost of Richard Nixon haunts the White House, cackling with glee to see a former president in far more trouble today than he himself experienced when he was there. Who knows what the old dog would have thought about the political machinations unfurling today?
Morley has a conversational narrative tone that works wonders. Because I had fallen behind, I checked out the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons, and narrator John Pruden does a fine job bringing it to life. But the most impressive aspect of this book is the research behind it, with treasure troves of primary documents and brilliant integration of data from multitudinous places. The endnotes are impeccable, enabling other researchers to trace back the facts to their original sources if they need or desire it.
For a niche readership of researchers, this is a five star work, but I suspect most interested parties will be of a more widespread readership; for them, this is still a fine read at four stars. Most satisfying.
October 27, 2022
Jefferson Morley's Scorpions' Dance relates the fateful relationship between Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms. Morley's book reads for much of its length as a dual biography, comparing and contrasting the well-heeled Helms, a frustrated journalist-turned-spymaster, with Nixon, the poor Californian made good as a politician. Both possessed a capacity for secrets and long-held grudges, both driven by unyielding anticommunism and a willingness to bend both the letter and spirit of the law in pursuit of same. Their relationship, which stretched back to Nixon's Vice Presidency in the '50s, unsurprisingly was one of public flattery and mutual suspicion. Helms and Nixon first worked together on covert operations against Fidel Castro and Cuba, which continued into the Kennedy Administration and beyond. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Morley dabbles in conspiracy theorizing about Kennedy's Assassination, suggesting (though never outright saying) that elements within the CIA murdered the President as revenge for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. A common enough theory, which Morley mostly presents in half-heard whispers. What matters for this book's account isn't the hard truth of such claims (which the present writer finds unpersuasive), but that both men suspected it might be the case. And that became a Sword of Damocles hanging over their relationship.
Morley shows that by the time Nixon became President, he was already disillusioned with the CIA whom he denounced as idiots and clowns. Helms, an apolitical striver who'd been appointed Director by Lyndon Johnson, crossed swords with Nixon over Vietnam intelligence gathering and his reluctance to cooperate with Nixon's domestic intelligence plans (even though the Agency already had programs in place, like their long-running Operation CHAOS). Helms grudgingly signed off on Nixon's Huston Plan to consolidate intelligence agencies in the White House, then breathing a sigh of relief when J. Edgar Hoover veto ed it. Frustrated with his intelligence heads (and not terribly persuaded by Helms' ingratiating letters claiming to support his policies), Nixon turned to outsiders to subvert demonstrators, spies and political enemies. The result, of course, were the Plumbers, a privately-run intelligent apparatus. But they weren't as independent as Nixon hoped: several of their members, including Howard Hunt and James McCord, were former CIA employees and still in contact with the Company (Hunt was personal friends with Helms and regularly dined with him). Thus as Hunt, Gordon Liddy and others engaged on their campaign of spying and sabotage, Hunt sent files back to the CIA - creating a ticking time bomb against the White House.
Wisely, Morley eschews revisionist accounts of Watergate that blame the scandal on the CIA or a Trumpian "Deep State" out to get Nixon. There's no evidence of the apocryphal "call girl rings" or the dubious assertions of Helms setting up the burglary to fail that writers like Jim Hougan and Len Colodny spent decades promoting; the break-in is the work of an amoral president's over-enthusiastic henchmen. But this portrait of the Agency's complicity in the scandal is damning enough. Helms immediately went into cover-up mode, knowing that Hunt and McCord's Agency connections could be very damaging to them, destroying documents and lying to investigators. And Nixon, desperate to save his presidency, spied an opening. In the notorious Smoking Gun tape, the President told Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman to threaten Helms with blowing open "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" if he didn't cooperate in squelching investigations into Watergate. Nixon, from his longtime connection with Helms, had over a decade of embarrassing secrets he could leak to reporters or spill to prosecutors. The threat didn't work; Helms refused to play ball, and Nixon exiled him to an Ambassadorship to Iran, replacing him at Langley with the loyal James Schlesinger, who purged the Agency of veteran analysts and insufficiently loyal bureaucrats in revenge.
Much of Morley's book is familiar ground - how could it not be after fifty years of Watergate books and documentaries? - but the perspectives and details he offers are refreshing. His pen portraits of the Plumbers are well-drawn, showing them to be even stranger and less appealing that we suspected. Not only was Hunt a writer of potboiler novels, we learn, but he spent decades trying to persuade movie studios to adapt them into an "American James Bond" franchise. James McCord, the shadowiest of the Plumbers (his death in 2017 wasn't reported for nearly two years afterwards), is revealed as a nasty piece of work: he covered up the death of MKULTRA victim Frank Olson, and was caught in flagrante in a love nest with a teenage girl a few years prior to Watergate. The two men, and their comrades possessed few redeeming features except an obsessive loyalty to the Agency which their employment by the White House strained, but did not break. Indeed, McCord's fears that Nixon would blame the break-in on the CIA led him to release his March 1973 letter outlining the cover-up to Judge John Siricia, which more than anything opened the floodgates that caused Nixon's resignation.
Ultimately, both men were destroyed by Watergate. Nixon was driven from office in disgrace, only regaining a measure of respect as an elder statesman in later years, while many of his henchmen went to prison. Helms rode out the worst of the scandal from Tehran, but when Watergate helped trigger a congressional investigation of intelligence abuses (the Church Committee), the former Director found himself and his Agency back in the cross-hairs. He was convicted of lying under oath about the CIA's role in overthrowing Chile's Salvador Allende (receiving a suspended sentence) and forced to watch as the Senate laid bare his employer's long history of assassinations, subversion and dirty tricks which exceeded Watergate by an order of magnitude. Helms never served a prison sentence, living out his life in relative obscurity until he died in 2002. By that time, his name had become a synecdoche for the worst abuses of the Cold War. As Morley's taut, well-rendered narrative shows, Helms and the equally devious, self-destructive Richard Nixon fully deserved each other.
Morley shows that by the time Nixon became President, he was already disillusioned with the CIA whom he denounced as idiots and clowns. Helms, an apolitical striver who'd been appointed Director by Lyndon Johnson, crossed swords with Nixon over Vietnam intelligence gathering and his reluctance to cooperate with Nixon's domestic intelligence plans (even though the Agency already had programs in place, like their long-running Operation CHAOS). Helms grudgingly signed off on Nixon's Huston Plan to consolidate intelligence agencies in the White House, then breathing a sigh of relief when J. Edgar Hoover veto ed it. Frustrated with his intelligence heads (and not terribly persuaded by Helms' ingratiating letters claiming to support his policies), Nixon turned to outsiders to subvert demonstrators, spies and political enemies. The result, of course, were the Plumbers, a privately-run intelligent apparatus. But they weren't as independent as Nixon hoped: several of their members, including Howard Hunt and James McCord, were former CIA employees and still in contact with the Company (Hunt was personal friends with Helms and regularly dined with him). Thus as Hunt, Gordon Liddy and others engaged on their campaign of spying and sabotage, Hunt sent files back to the CIA - creating a ticking time bomb against the White House.
Wisely, Morley eschews revisionist accounts of Watergate that blame the scandal on the CIA or a Trumpian "Deep State" out to get Nixon. There's no evidence of the apocryphal "call girl rings" or the dubious assertions of Helms setting up the burglary to fail that writers like Jim Hougan and Len Colodny spent decades promoting; the break-in is the work of an amoral president's over-enthusiastic henchmen. But this portrait of the Agency's complicity in the scandal is damning enough. Helms immediately went into cover-up mode, knowing that Hunt and McCord's Agency connections could be very damaging to them, destroying documents and lying to investigators. And Nixon, desperate to save his presidency, spied an opening. In the notorious Smoking Gun tape, the President told Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman to threaten Helms with blowing open "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" if he didn't cooperate in squelching investigations into Watergate. Nixon, from his longtime connection with Helms, had over a decade of embarrassing secrets he could leak to reporters or spill to prosecutors. The threat didn't work; Helms refused to play ball, and Nixon exiled him to an Ambassadorship to Iran, replacing him at Langley with the loyal James Schlesinger, who purged the Agency of veteran analysts and insufficiently loyal bureaucrats in revenge.
Much of Morley's book is familiar ground - how could it not be after fifty years of Watergate books and documentaries? - but the perspectives and details he offers are refreshing. His pen portraits of the Plumbers are well-drawn, showing them to be even stranger and less appealing that we suspected. Not only was Hunt a writer of potboiler novels, we learn, but he spent decades trying to persuade movie studios to adapt them into an "American James Bond" franchise. James McCord, the shadowiest of the Plumbers (his death in 2017 wasn't reported for nearly two years afterwards), is revealed as a nasty piece of work: he covered up the death of MKULTRA victim Frank Olson, and was caught in flagrante in a love nest with a teenage girl a few years prior to Watergate. The two men, and their comrades possessed few redeeming features except an obsessive loyalty to the Agency which their employment by the White House strained, but did not break. Indeed, McCord's fears that Nixon would blame the break-in on the CIA led him to release his March 1973 letter outlining the cover-up to Judge John Siricia, which more than anything opened the floodgates that caused Nixon's resignation.
Ultimately, both men were destroyed by Watergate. Nixon was driven from office in disgrace, only regaining a measure of respect as an elder statesman in later years, while many of his henchmen went to prison. Helms rode out the worst of the scandal from Tehran, but when Watergate helped trigger a congressional investigation of intelligence abuses (the Church Committee), the former Director found himself and his Agency back in the cross-hairs. He was convicted of lying under oath about the CIA's role in overthrowing Chile's Salvador Allende (receiving a suspended sentence) and forced to watch as the Senate laid bare his employer's long history of assassinations, subversion and dirty tricks which exceeded Watergate by an order of magnitude. Helms never served a prison sentence, living out his life in relative obscurity until he died in 2002. By that time, his name had become a synecdoche for the worst abuses of the Cold War. As Morley's taut, well-rendered narrative shows, Helms and the equally devious, self-destructive Richard Nixon fully deserved each other.
April 9, 2022
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this new history on Watergate and the people involved.
The cover- up is usually worse than the the crime. Well when the crime was the Watergate scandal and the cover- up involved CIA assassinations against world leaders, and other people who were considered enemies to freedom well what is worse comes down to morality. And who can control both the narrative and the history. If the President does it, than it is not a crime, and is Senators in closed door meetings don't ask the right questions, or follow up their questions well is that a crime. Jefferson Morley in his book Scorpions' Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate is another book investigating the scandal and the players, soon to be celebrating its 50th anniversary. The book details the relationship between President Richard Nixon and his CIA Director Richard Helms and how both needed each other to stop their respective rocks from being flipped over and exposing secrets better kept hidden from sight.
Richard Helms was known as the "Man who Kept the Secrets" as a book about him was titled. Blue blood, with the ivy league background so necessary for intelligence work at the time, Helms was a CIA mainstay, rising from the early OSS days as an operator, to planning and finally Director of CIA. Helms used a combination of style, guile and a keen bureaucratic sense to get to the top of his world. Richard Nixon the man from Whittier was everything Helms was not. From humble stock, without the opportunities given to other wealthier stock, Nixon hated the blue blood ivy leaguers, though he longed to be accepted by them. A man of many contradictions, fears, and self loathing, Nixon promised to be a uniter, while running a very divisive campaign, and his run at the presidency looked like it was going to be even worse. Watergate was a small crime, almost quaint in our days of coups, but Nixon hoped to use Helms to keep the problem under control, as most of the members were CIA employees one way or the other.
Another look at a political scandal about presidential overreach and what a sitting president can do and not do. Maybe a few politicians will read this and go, hmm we should do something, but humans never seem to learn from history. The book is very well written and sourced, with a lot of interesting points raised and addressed. I've read a lot of books on Watergate, and found this one to be quite different and eye opening. Helms had his secrets, assassination of political leaders one of them, and I love the tie in to the death of President Kennedy, along with the long litany of real crimes the CIA and the US military would have loved to have done. The writing is very good, never hyperbolic, but reported straight. An interesting new look at Watergate, and it is amazing at how little changes in government.
Recommended for students of history, politics and Nixon of which I am a fan. The more I read about Nixon the more I wonder if he will ever truly be understood. This book takes a long look at a difficult time in America. One that seems more and more familiar today.
The cover- up is usually worse than the the crime. Well when the crime was the Watergate scandal and the cover- up involved CIA assassinations against world leaders, and other people who were considered enemies to freedom well what is worse comes down to morality. And who can control both the narrative and the history. If the President does it, than it is not a crime, and is Senators in closed door meetings don't ask the right questions, or follow up their questions well is that a crime. Jefferson Morley in his book Scorpions' Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate is another book investigating the scandal and the players, soon to be celebrating its 50th anniversary. The book details the relationship between President Richard Nixon and his CIA Director Richard Helms and how both needed each other to stop their respective rocks from being flipped over and exposing secrets better kept hidden from sight.
Richard Helms was known as the "Man who Kept the Secrets" as a book about him was titled. Blue blood, with the ivy league background so necessary for intelligence work at the time, Helms was a CIA mainstay, rising from the early OSS days as an operator, to planning and finally Director of CIA. Helms used a combination of style, guile and a keen bureaucratic sense to get to the top of his world. Richard Nixon the man from Whittier was everything Helms was not. From humble stock, without the opportunities given to other wealthier stock, Nixon hated the blue blood ivy leaguers, though he longed to be accepted by them. A man of many contradictions, fears, and self loathing, Nixon promised to be a uniter, while running a very divisive campaign, and his run at the presidency looked like it was going to be even worse. Watergate was a small crime, almost quaint in our days of coups, but Nixon hoped to use Helms to keep the problem under control, as most of the members were CIA employees one way or the other.
Another look at a political scandal about presidential overreach and what a sitting president can do and not do. Maybe a few politicians will read this and go, hmm we should do something, but humans never seem to learn from history. The book is very well written and sourced, with a lot of interesting points raised and addressed. I've read a lot of books on Watergate, and found this one to be quite different and eye opening. Helms had his secrets, assassination of political leaders one of them, and I love the tie in to the death of President Kennedy, along with the long litany of real crimes the CIA and the US military would have loved to have done. The writing is very good, never hyperbolic, but reported straight. An interesting new look at Watergate, and it is amazing at how little changes in government.
Recommended for students of history, politics and Nixon of which I am a fan. The more I read about Nixon the more I wonder if he will ever truly be understood. This book takes a long look at a difficult time in America. One that seems more and more familiar today.
March 20, 2023
I didn't know it was possible to make Watergate, the Vietnam War, lying to Congress, and a plot to assassinate the president of Chile boring
This book proved me wrong
This book proved me wrong
August 9, 2022
The Scorpions' Dance worked as a biography of sorts on CIA Director Richard Helms, who ran the agency from 1966-1973. We get a behind the scenes look at the relationship between Helms and the Nixon White House throughout Watergate. The book is basically the story of Watergate but from the perspective of the CIA. All of the Watergate burglars were CIA employees and the agency didn't want to take the fall for the Watergate break-in, since it was ordered by Nixon. It was actually pretty funny seeing all of these powerful guilty men squirm, panic, and blame others for Watergate. Absolutely nobody wanted to be the fall guy. My favorite moment was when Nixon wanted to use the CIA and FBI to help him cover up Watergate so he blackmailed Helms with "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" and it worked! Nixon strong-armed the CIA by threatening to publicize agency secrets and the agency complied.
The book makes clear to me that Watergate marked the end of a certain level of CIA impunity. Throughout the 50s and 60s the CIA overthrew leftist governments, assassinated leftist political leaders, and engaged in domestic espionage on the anti-war left in America. These secrets that the agency had kept hidden from Democrats and the American public were used by Nixon to blackmail the CIA and FBI into helping him cover up Watergate. Decades of CIA dirty tricks carried out without any oversight or transparency were finally coming back to bite the CIA and certainly weakened their covert power over the other branches of government. The CIA was compromised to protect their secrets, and Nixon took advantage of that. Even though the CIA did not instigate the Watergate break-in, the investigation into Watergate brought to light other CIA activities that changed the public perception of the CIA and the agency's role in government by revealing the extent of their operations to the American public. While the agency does not lose their impunity long term in any meaningful way, the cat is out the bag in terms of public perception and the complete loss of plausible deniability. There is also somewhat of a changing of the old guard- the CIA establishment of the 50s and 60s that did all of that wild shit no longer held onto power by the mid 70s.
The most interesting part of the book is what it reveals about the true nature of "checks and balances" and infighting amongst different branches of government. Whether it was the Nixon administration, the CIA, or the FBI, all of these political factions had to toe the line between not wanting to take the blame themselves while also being coerced into protecting other branches of government. Like you have Helms protecting Nixon while Nixon is trying to blame Helms and Helms is forced to navigate that insane line of trying to not take the blame himself while also not blaming Nixon. It's all extremely funny and you could def turn Watergate into a comedy.
I think its pretty badass that Nixon blackmailed the CIA, but it also reveals the role intelligence gathering has in the American hegemony and political establishment. Like all of these politicians were casually blackmailing each other to gain leverage and power. I think we underestimate how much power is fermented in government simply by leveraging damaging information against others. Nixon earned a reputation for being paranoid but I think that paranoia is the normal and justified response to the secretive nature of the CIA hegemony that had way too much power over the US political establishment at the time.
Overall, the book was a fascinating hidden history of Watergate and the Cold War through the lens of CIA Director Richard Helms and President Nixon. I didn't know much about Watergate going in other than vaguely knowing it was a botched intelligence gathering mission that was orchestrated by Nixon. The book doesn't really delve into the "why" too much, although it seems like Nixon wanted to know how much the Democrats knew about certain covert foreign policies. To me, the actual Watergate break-in and burglary was not nearly as interesting as the cover-up afterwards and response by the various branches of government to Watergate itself.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the CIA, the Cold War, or the inter-workings of the US government.
The book makes clear to me that Watergate marked the end of a certain level of CIA impunity. Throughout the 50s and 60s the CIA overthrew leftist governments, assassinated leftist political leaders, and engaged in domestic espionage on the anti-war left in America. These secrets that the agency had kept hidden from Democrats and the American public were used by Nixon to blackmail the CIA and FBI into helping him cover up Watergate. Decades of CIA dirty tricks carried out without any oversight or transparency were finally coming back to bite the CIA and certainly weakened their covert power over the other branches of government. The CIA was compromised to protect their secrets, and Nixon took advantage of that. Even though the CIA did not instigate the Watergate break-in, the investigation into Watergate brought to light other CIA activities that changed the public perception of the CIA and the agency's role in government by revealing the extent of their operations to the American public. While the agency does not lose their impunity long term in any meaningful way, the cat is out the bag in terms of public perception and the complete loss of plausible deniability. There is also somewhat of a changing of the old guard- the CIA establishment of the 50s and 60s that did all of that wild shit no longer held onto power by the mid 70s.
The most interesting part of the book is what it reveals about the true nature of "checks and balances" and infighting amongst different branches of government. Whether it was the Nixon administration, the CIA, or the FBI, all of these political factions had to toe the line between not wanting to take the blame themselves while also being coerced into protecting other branches of government. Like you have Helms protecting Nixon while Nixon is trying to blame Helms and Helms is forced to navigate that insane line of trying to not take the blame himself while also not blaming Nixon. It's all extremely funny and you could def turn Watergate into a comedy.
I think its pretty badass that Nixon blackmailed the CIA, but it also reveals the role intelligence gathering has in the American hegemony and political establishment. Like all of these politicians were casually blackmailing each other to gain leverage and power. I think we underestimate how much power is fermented in government simply by leveraging damaging information against others. Nixon earned a reputation for being paranoid but I think that paranoia is the normal and justified response to the secretive nature of the CIA hegemony that had way too much power over the US political establishment at the time.
Overall, the book was a fascinating hidden history of Watergate and the Cold War through the lens of CIA Director Richard Helms and President Nixon. I didn't know much about Watergate going in other than vaguely knowing it was a botched intelligence gathering mission that was orchestrated by Nixon. The book doesn't really delve into the "why" too much, although it seems like Nixon wanted to know how much the Democrats knew about certain covert foreign policies. To me, the actual Watergate break-in and burglary was not nearly as interesting as the cover-up afterwards and response by the various branches of government to Watergate itself.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the CIA, the Cold War, or the inter-workings of the US government.
April 26, 2022
Scorpions’ Dance by Jefferson Morley I knew nothing about this book when I began to read it. I did not know if it was an espionage fiction book or non-fiction. As I started, I still was not sure. Could Mr. Morley’s ideas be true? I did some research and he was a journalist for 15 years with The Washington Post and since then has devoted his research to activities of the CIA from the Vietnam War, through the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy’s assassination and Watergate. Woven into all of this, is Richard Helms who rose to Director of the CIA and the keeper of secrets that should never see the light of day. As one who is old enough to have lived through this era, old nightmares came back. The book does not just rehash old information and misinformation but uses documents that have been released since President Biden took office. And yet there is still so much more still locked away in the CIA. How are they able to do this? Richard Helms until he was caught in perjury finally in covering for Richard Nixon exposed the justification he used. Or perhaps convinced himself. And this was that he served the President no matter who (and he did serve both Democrat and Republican presidents) and that his responsibility was to protect the presidency and well as “The Company”- the CIA. And if this meant lying to Congress under oath which he did multiple times then so be it. It was finally during the cleansing by G. Ford that the Justice Dept. brought charges against him. He was able to negotiate “nolo contendere” deal by which he did not have to admit guilt. He was given a suspended sentence and a $2,000 fine. He died 22 October 2002, and we still live with the policies put in place during his time at the CIA. Or, perhaps we do not. How would we know?
June 6, 2022
This book is about the Watergate break-in scandal and the power struggle between President Richard Nixon and the CIA Director Richard Helms.
It was very informative and eye-opening with a new look at Watergate with the newly released documents. You could tell that Jefferson Morley really did his research. While there were a lot of interesting points and facts brought up, I did feel that there were some facts that felt a little unnecessary to the overall story that Morley was trying to convey.
Overall though, it was very interesting to learn more about the scandal.
If you’re into history, or if you’re a political science major, you’ll love this!
Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for sending me an ARC in a Goodreads giveaway.
It was very informative and eye-opening with a new look at Watergate with the newly released documents. You could tell that Jefferson Morley really did his research. While there were a lot of interesting points and facts brought up, I did feel that there were some facts that felt a little unnecessary to the overall story that Morley was trying to convey.
Overall though, it was very interesting to learn more about the scandal.
If you’re into history, or if you’re a political science major, you’ll love this!
Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for sending me an ARC in a Goodreads giveaway.
June 13, 2022
If you want an in depth look into not just Watergate, but everything surrounding it - then this is the book for you. Not only is it jam packed full of information, but it’s delivered in a way that doesn’t feel like a textbook - and I definitely appreciate that especially as a college student…I read enough textbooks.
Thanks to NetGalley, I also got access to this as an audiobook and the narrator hit it out of the park. His voice fits perfectly with the content and HE sounds interested in it which makes ME more interested in it. It’s really great.
Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I’m really happy I read this one.
Thanks to NetGalley, I also got access to this as an audiobook and the narrator hit it out of the park. His voice fits perfectly with the content and HE sounds interested in it which makes ME more interested in it. It’s really great.
Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I’m really happy I read this one.
July 3, 2022
SCORPION'S DANCE: THE PRESIDENT, THE SPYMASTER, And WATERGATE
Jefferson Morley
June 1972, I was a happy teenager between my sophomore year and Jr year of high school. I heard the news, and listened to my parents and others but didn't really think deeply about it. I grew up with terrible things on the TV in my living room, war, grown men spraying water cannons on small children, people cheating on their spouses, and political issues still influenced by the World War.
I did remember many of the names and like then I still thought as I was reading this, that this was only the guy that got caught. You can't convince me that it hasn't been going on forever... people with power or people trusted to do their best for the county.
I found the most serious statement that Americans want to believe is that we are pretty straightforward, honest, and always on the side of motherhood and apple pie, but we want results regardless of what it takes. I think this was a conflict between President Nixon, CIA Director Helms, and Watergate. I also think it is ongoing and happening right now, or at least something similar.
Watergate was fifty years ago and the scandals have continued. I think that is always going to happen when egos are engaged and you won't have leaders without them. I was a little amazed to actually find out how many CIA agents were involved and how their lives were only stalled for a short time. But I agree when you take an oath, you should uphold that oath so trying to force someone to spill the beans really seems like a conflict to me.
Having been an officer, I can't see not following the orders of the President. What like someone is going to say, no? There is a fine line between the violation of the law, and really what is the law for people at that level? I think it is all very difficult and to be honest, I like apple pie.
I was completely engaged in this book that I didn't sleep last night. I admire the level of research done. Super good. I highly recommend this book.
5 STARS
Happy Reading!
Jefferson Morley
June 1972, I was a happy teenager between my sophomore year and Jr year of high school. I heard the news, and listened to my parents and others but didn't really think deeply about it. I grew up with terrible things on the TV in my living room, war, grown men spraying water cannons on small children, people cheating on their spouses, and political issues still influenced by the World War.
I did remember many of the names and like then I still thought as I was reading this, that this was only the guy that got caught. You can't convince me that it hasn't been going on forever... people with power or people trusted to do their best for the county.
I found the most serious statement that Americans want to believe is that we are pretty straightforward, honest, and always on the side of motherhood and apple pie, but we want results regardless of what it takes. I think this was a conflict between President Nixon, CIA Director Helms, and Watergate. I also think it is ongoing and happening right now, or at least something similar.
Watergate was fifty years ago and the scandals have continued. I think that is always going to happen when egos are engaged and you won't have leaders without them. I was a little amazed to actually find out how many CIA agents were involved and how their lives were only stalled for a short time. But I agree when you take an oath, you should uphold that oath so trying to force someone to spill the beans really seems like a conflict to me.
Having been an officer, I can't see not following the orders of the President. What like someone is going to say, no? There is a fine line between the violation of the law, and really what is the law for people at that level? I think it is all very difficult and to be honest, I like apple pie.
I was completely engaged in this book that I didn't sleep last night. I admire the level of research done. Super good. I highly recommend this book.
5 STARS
Happy Reading!
June 7, 2022
Here we are at the 50th anniversary of Watergate. A small time break-in with a coverup that still casts a huge shadow. This is a well researched and well written look at what was hiding under the rocks when it came to the secrets held by Nixon and Helms. As I read it and traveled back in my memories to the days of watching it unfold in real time, I have to wonder if those in power today might not benefit from reading it. Much of it sounds eerily familiar. As the saying goes - those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. As I finished the last page I couldn't help but wonder how much went on then that we will never learn the truth of. Very unsettling and a book well worth reading.
My thanks to the publisher St. Martin's and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
My thanks to the publisher St. Martin's and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
November 28, 2023
"Scorpion's Dance" is in one sense a dual political biography of Richard Nixon and his DCI (Director of Central Intelligence) Richard Helms and more specifically their relationship during Watergate, but Jefferson Morley correctly intuits that the shadow that looms over everything, the Rosetta Stone that explains so much of the behavior of the CIA during this period, is the still-unresolved assassination of President Kennedy.
Morley's intuition is buttressed by the historical record. For starters, former President Truman and Attorney General Robert Kennedy both immediately suspected in 1963 that CIA personnel played some role in JFK's assassination, though they expressed their suspicions in different ways (RFK immediately grilled DCI John McCone on this point, while Truman penned an op-ed for the Washington Post calling for the abolition of the CIA in December, 1963). There's certainly quite a bit of smoke in the record to infer the existence of fire. The ARRB (Assassination Records Review Board), established in 1992, has been releasing yearly troves of declassified documents related to the murder of President Kennedy, and it has clarified a few things over the last 30 years:
1) When the CIA told the Warren Commission that it had no knowledge of or interaction with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to JFK's assassination, that was false. There were over 40 documents in Oswald's file compiled by CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton, generated between 1958 and 1963.
2) The Fair Play for Cuba Committee--the Marxist pro-Castro group that Oswald claimed affiliation with, disseminated literature for, and claimed to represent on a New Orleans TV debate, was funded by the CIA.
3) The DRE (Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil)--the anti-Castro activist group with whom Oswald got into a public scuffle, and with whom Oswald debated on New Orleans TV, was also funded by the CIA.
Morley hones in on (correctly, in my view) the Bay of Pigs and subsequent CIA-funded anti-Castro activity as central to the death of President Kennedy, but also to the tacit agreement of mutually assured destruction via blackmail that cemented the working relationship between Richard Nixon and Richard Helms. “Scorpion’s Dance” helpfully quotes from one of the now-declassified transcripts of an Oval Office meeting between the two, surely one of the more simultaneously bracing and banal backroom power-plays in American political history; in it, Nixon lays his cards on the table for Helms, making it clear that he needs the classified CIA material on the Bay of Pigs and the Castro assassination plots, so that he can smear Teddy Kennedy in the event that he was Nixon’s opponent in the 1972 Presidential election. Nixon slithers to and fro, reassuring Helms by telling him “We don’t need to get into the ‘Who shot John’ angle”.
To properly flesh out the relationship between Nixon and Helms, Morley spends a great deal of time on the lives and lies of E. Howard Hunt. Hunt and Helms were more than co-workers, agent/director, or vague acquaintances; they were tight, they were friends, and time and time again Helms used his influence over the years to further Hunt’s career. Hunt is of course well known today for his involvement in the Watergate burglary, but it is Hunt’s involvement in organizing the Cuban exiles for the Bay of Pigs operation that provides the literal personification of the Nixon/Helms relationship. It’s all there: Hunt’s deviousness as an agent, his ineptitude as a burglar, his skill as a fiction writer, and his deep, abiding hatred of President Kennedy, who he held responsible (incorrectly, of course) for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Hunt’s views on Kennedy were widely shared in the early-60s CIA/Cuban exile milieu (whose numbers were also augmented by Mafia contract killers recruited for anti-Castro operations). That does not necessarily mean that, contrary to his deathbed “confession” to his son, that Hunt himself had anything to do with Kennedy’s assassination. But it seems incredibly likely that some people of Hunt’s acquaintance probably did, even if operating based on alternate motivations.
Morley's intuition is buttressed by the historical record. For starters, former President Truman and Attorney General Robert Kennedy both immediately suspected in 1963 that CIA personnel played some role in JFK's assassination, though they expressed their suspicions in different ways (RFK immediately grilled DCI John McCone on this point, while Truman penned an op-ed for the Washington Post calling for the abolition of the CIA in December, 1963). There's certainly quite a bit of smoke in the record to infer the existence of fire. The ARRB (Assassination Records Review Board), established in 1992, has been releasing yearly troves of declassified documents related to the murder of President Kennedy, and it has clarified a few things over the last 30 years:
1) When the CIA told the Warren Commission that it had no knowledge of or interaction with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to JFK's assassination, that was false. There were over 40 documents in Oswald's file compiled by CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton, generated between 1958 and 1963.
2) The Fair Play for Cuba Committee--the Marxist pro-Castro group that Oswald claimed affiliation with, disseminated literature for, and claimed to represent on a New Orleans TV debate, was funded by the CIA.
3) The DRE (Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil)--the anti-Castro activist group with whom Oswald got into a public scuffle, and with whom Oswald debated on New Orleans TV, was also funded by the CIA.
Morley hones in on (correctly, in my view) the Bay of Pigs and subsequent CIA-funded anti-Castro activity as central to the death of President Kennedy, but also to the tacit agreement of mutually assured destruction via blackmail that cemented the working relationship between Richard Nixon and Richard Helms. “Scorpion’s Dance” helpfully quotes from one of the now-declassified transcripts of an Oval Office meeting between the two, surely one of the more simultaneously bracing and banal backroom power-plays in American political history; in it, Nixon lays his cards on the table for Helms, making it clear that he needs the classified CIA material on the Bay of Pigs and the Castro assassination plots, so that he can smear Teddy Kennedy in the event that he was Nixon’s opponent in the 1972 Presidential election. Nixon slithers to and fro, reassuring Helms by telling him “We don’t need to get into the ‘Who shot John’ angle”.
To properly flesh out the relationship between Nixon and Helms, Morley spends a great deal of time on the lives and lies of E. Howard Hunt. Hunt and Helms were more than co-workers, agent/director, or vague acquaintances; they were tight, they were friends, and time and time again Helms used his influence over the years to further Hunt’s career. Hunt is of course well known today for his involvement in the Watergate burglary, but it is Hunt’s involvement in organizing the Cuban exiles for the Bay of Pigs operation that provides the literal personification of the Nixon/Helms relationship. It’s all there: Hunt’s deviousness as an agent, his ineptitude as a burglar, his skill as a fiction writer, and his deep, abiding hatred of President Kennedy, who he held responsible (incorrectly, of course) for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. Hunt’s views on Kennedy were widely shared in the early-60s CIA/Cuban exile milieu (whose numbers were also augmented by Mafia contract killers recruited for anti-Castro operations). That does not necessarily mean that, contrary to his deathbed “confession” to his son, that Hunt himself had anything to do with Kennedy’s assassination. But it seems incredibly likely that some people of Hunt’s acquaintance probably did, even if operating based on alternate motivations.
May 17, 2022
One of the best books I have ever read on the Watergate scandal!
May 12, 2022
Well written, with a lot of interesting points raised and addressed. It is different and eye opening!
December 8, 2022
Today's nonfiction post is on Scorpions' Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate by Jefferson Morley. It is 326 pages long and published by St. Martin's Press. The cover is a picture of the White House with the presidential car in front of it. The intended reader is someone who is interesting in the history of the Central Intelligence Agency, Nixon's White House, and Watergate. There is some foul language, no sex, and some violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the dust jacket- Fifty years after the Watergate break-in, the untold story behind the scandal that ended a presidency.
With fresh reporting by intelligence historian Jefferson Morley, Scorpions' Dance reveals the Watergate scandal in a striking new light: as the culmination of a concealed, volatile power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA director Richard Helms.
Nixon and Helms went back decades; both were 1950's Cold Warriors, and both knew secrets about the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the Kennedy administration's dangerous liaisons with organized crime, as well as off-the-books White House and CIA plots to remove Fidel Castro and other Latin-American leaders from power. Both had enough information on each other to ruin their careers.
After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI's investigation. He sought Helm's support and asked that the CIA intervene- knowing that most of the Water burglars were, after all, retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets with deep knowledge of the Agency's most sensitive secrets. Nixon and Helms then circled each other like scorpions, defending themselves with the threat of lethal attack. The loser would resign his office in disgrace; the winner, however would face consequences of his for the secrets he kept.
Review- An interesting take on the Watergate scandal, not from the White House, but from the CIA, it's director, and agents. The book follows Richard Helms from the beginning of his career all the way to the end. Helms was America's best spymaster and he had his hands in everything but he was local to the office of the President, even if he disagreed with the man himself. The whole Watergate scandal is covered but from the CIA and Helms perspective not the White House. That gives an interesting and unique look into the scandal, as Helms was not as involved as the White House. He had distance from it and gave him power over the White House and the other people more involved, and Helms used that power. He used it to protect himself, his agents, and the CIA itself. If you want to know more about Watergate but not the White House angle, then you should give this book a try.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
From the dust jacket- Fifty years after the Watergate break-in, the untold story behind the scandal that ended a presidency.
With fresh reporting by intelligence historian Jefferson Morley, Scorpions' Dance reveals the Watergate scandal in a striking new light: as the culmination of a concealed, volatile power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA director Richard Helms.
Nixon and Helms went back decades; both were 1950's Cold Warriors, and both knew secrets about the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the Kennedy administration's dangerous liaisons with organized crime, as well as off-the-books White House and CIA plots to remove Fidel Castro and other Latin-American leaders from power. Both had enough information on each other to ruin their careers.
After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI's investigation. He sought Helm's support and asked that the CIA intervene- knowing that most of the Water burglars were, after all, retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets with deep knowledge of the Agency's most sensitive secrets. Nixon and Helms then circled each other like scorpions, defending themselves with the threat of lethal attack. The loser would resign his office in disgrace; the winner, however would face consequences of his for the secrets he kept.
Review- An interesting take on the Watergate scandal, not from the White House, but from the CIA, it's director, and agents. The book follows Richard Helms from the beginning of his career all the way to the end. Helms was America's best spymaster and he had his hands in everything but he was local to the office of the President, even if he disagreed with the man himself. The whole Watergate scandal is covered but from the CIA and Helms perspective not the White House. That gives an interesting and unique look into the scandal, as Helms was not as involved as the White House. He had distance from it and gave him power over the White House and the other people more involved, and Helms used that power. He used it to protect himself, his agents, and the CIA itself. If you want to know more about Watergate but not the White House angle, then you should give this book a try.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
April 8, 2023
Jefferson Morley is probably more responsible than any other researcher-author for leading me to take a serious interest in the assassination of President Kennedy. Together with Prof. John Newman, author of Oswald and the CIA, Morley started to look into declassified cables and official documents of the CIA and writing seriously about them in the 1990s. One of his works, available only on Kindle and Audible, called CIA & JFK: The Secret Assassination Files hooked me after I'd only listened to the Audible version. I never looked back after that, and have probably read about 50 books about JFK in less than 6 years.
Morley is not a "conspiracy theorist" in the sense he doesn't formulate any particular speculative theory of what happened in the murder of JFK. Some of the "conspiracy theorists" (e.g. John Armstrong) are not only extremely entertaining to read but also highly thought-provoking, but the danger is in going down one rabbit hole too many and ultimately becoming lost.
Morley's Substack site, JFK Facts, is aptly named because it focuses on what is known, supplementing knowledge of fact with with the most corroborated evidence. By doing this, the reader develops a clearer picture in his or her head of something which, while still a mystery, can be speculated about endlessly. Speculation based on facts about something still mysterious is natural and human, but ultimately we have to step back and rely on what we we can establish as fact. This has helped to ground me in my thinking about the JFK assassination, and probably helped to keep me from going off the deep end.
This book is part of a "trilogy of spies." The first two books, Our Man in Mexico and The Ghost, about Winston Scott and James Jesus Angleton, respectively, recount events mostly contemporaneous with the assassination of JFK itself. This third book is about Richard Helms, who became CIA director under JFK's successor, Lyndon Johnson, and who had to negotiate a tricky relationship with President Richard Nixon up until 1973, when Helms resigned. That tricky relationship, as the book explains, had big roots in the assassination of President Kennedy. It would be a "spoiler" to say why here, but safe to say it is worth reading this expertly sourced and circumspect work. For anyone interested in the Watergate scandal, it is surely essential.
Morley is not a "conspiracy theorist" in the sense he doesn't formulate any particular speculative theory of what happened in the murder of JFK. Some of the "conspiracy theorists" (e.g. John Armstrong) are not only extremely entertaining to read but also highly thought-provoking, but the danger is in going down one rabbit hole too many and ultimately becoming lost.
Morley's Substack site, JFK Facts, is aptly named because it focuses on what is known, supplementing knowledge of fact with with the most corroborated evidence. By doing this, the reader develops a clearer picture in his or her head of something which, while still a mystery, can be speculated about endlessly. Speculation based on facts about something still mysterious is natural and human, but ultimately we have to step back and rely on what we we can establish as fact. This has helped to ground me in my thinking about the JFK assassination, and probably helped to keep me from going off the deep end.
This book is part of a "trilogy of spies." The first two books, Our Man in Mexico and The Ghost, about Winston Scott and James Jesus Angleton, respectively, recount events mostly contemporaneous with the assassination of JFK itself. This third book is about Richard Helms, who became CIA director under JFK's successor, Lyndon Johnson, and who had to negotiate a tricky relationship with President Richard Nixon up until 1973, when Helms resigned. That tricky relationship, as the book explains, had big roots in the assassination of President Kennedy. It would be a "spoiler" to say why here, but safe to say it is worth reading this expertly sourced and circumspect work. For anyone interested in the Watergate scandal, it is surely essential.
July 11, 2022
6/17/72; The first day of summer vacation after my junior yr of HS. . By Spring of 73, I’d be taking Civics during my senior year. Oh yeah, it was a good time to be taking Civics! The main reason I read this is because I’m interested in American History, especially during my lifetime .
I’ve found it very rewarding to read about the same events from different aspects , different authors’ point of view.
In my opinion, the most intriguing aspect of the book is the “bay of pigs”, who shot John? Issue. Nixon & Helms had unrecorded discussions which were portrayed in Stone’s “Nixon”, and on the Watergate tapes, he mentions “bay of pigs thing”
Nixon also tells Frost during the interview, he thought he was set up. Whether or not he was, name one President since who has questioned the CIA .Ford did fire Colby , but that was for CYA more than anything. From my other reading ms, I learned when Ford was on the Warren Commission, he was leaking confidential information .
Morley’s commentary in the Epilogue about bipartisan laws made during the 70’s Church Committee Hearings (FISA), were abused in the 80’s (Iran-Contra) , into the 90’s (Trail of the Assassins was published in 88) w/Stone’s movie JFK triggered another JFK Assassination commission & release of documents but not all; 9/11 triggered even more suspiciousness. Unmentioned was the recent censorship around Covid-19 & current censorship of those questioning the Ukrainian War.
Another interesting part was Helms’ plea bargain episode After Nixon resigns & his subordinates are all in prison. When Helms’ lawyer tells the Justice Dept., if you wanna trial fine, all the secrets will be exposed. Then the scene where Former friends Hunt & Helms see one another in a restaurant after Hunt gets out of prison, acknowledge one another, but do not visit.
Another good thing about reading many different books about the same topic is, you remember what others wrote and were quoted as saying, and it just fills in the context.
back to 72, From his book, Liddy tells his lawyer he'd have to lose the defense case in order to keep the lid on the conspiracy & protect the president. That was before Dean talked. And the rest is history
I’ve found it very rewarding to read about the same events from different aspects , different authors’ point of view.
In my opinion, the most intriguing aspect of the book is the “bay of pigs”, who shot John? Issue. Nixon & Helms had unrecorded discussions which were portrayed in Stone’s “Nixon”, and on the Watergate tapes, he mentions “bay of pigs thing”
Nixon also tells Frost during the interview, he thought he was set up. Whether or not he was, name one President since who has questioned the CIA .Ford did fire Colby , but that was for CYA more than anything. From my other reading ms, I learned when Ford was on the Warren Commission, he was leaking confidential information .
Morley’s commentary in the Epilogue about bipartisan laws made during the 70’s Church Committee Hearings (FISA), were abused in the 80’s (Iran-Contra) , into the 90’s (Trail of the Assassins was published in 88) w/Stone’s movie JFK triggered another JFK Assassination commission & release of documents but not all; 9/11 triggered even more suspiciousness. Unmentioned was the recent censorship around Covid-19 & current censorship of those questioning the Ukrainian War.
Another interesting part was Helms’ plea bargain episode After Nixon resigns & his subordinates are all in prison. When Helms’ lawyer tells the Justice Dept., if you wanna trial fine, all the secrets will be exposed. Then the scene where Former friends Hunt & Helms see one another in a restaurant after Hunt gets out of prison, acknowledge one another, but do not visit.
Another good thing about reading many different books about the same topic is, you remember what others wrote and were quoted as saying, and it just fills in the context.
back to 72, From his book, Liddy tells his lawyer he'd have to lose the defense case in order to keep the lid on the conspiracy & protect the president. That was before Dean talked. And the rest is history
January 23, 2023
Decent at best, plus a BIG asterisk ...
The "decent at best"?
There's really not a lot new here for people who know a lot about Watergate. Having read Garrett Graff's great new book, and having known a decent amount before that, I'm in that camp. Click the "spoiler alert" on my review there to see just how much Graff has. In fact, Morley's overall thesis, that the CIA was quasi-involved, but not directing anything, is covered by Graff.
The big asterisk? Even though he claimed he's no longer one a few years ago, Morley is still a JFK conspiracy theorist. (I blogged about his non-denial denial.)
It starts on page 51 with a full chapter there in this chronological book, covering Nov. 22 and the immediate aftermath. Then there's most of a chapter in the middle of the book, re Nixon telling Ehrlichman to drop "Bay of Pigs" on Helms. Then part of a chapter near the end. Then the epilogue.
In the first spot, Morley clearly states he believes four shots (minimum) were fired at JFK. The first, that missed and hit the curb beyond the limo (at least he's following eyewitness testimony and evidence). A second that hit Connelly. A third that hit Jack in the body. Then, later, a fourth shot that hit Jack in the head.
In the third spot, he talks about various "framings" of interpreting the assassination. He won't come out straight and say the CIA did it, but that sure appears to be his angle. Wrong. Jack wasn't leaving Nam in the next 5 minutes, he wasn't reining in the CIA further, or anything else to make him a target. In the epilogue, talking about Geraldo first showing the Zapruder film on national TV and narrator Robert Groden taking about the head shot, he talks about the disproven idea that the motion of Jack's hed means the shot had to come from in front. Now, Morley never uses the word "only," but it's easy to infer he's implying it, especially if you know much about him.
There's enough decent stuff around the edges, and the conspiracy theory isn't front and center, to rescue this from a 1-star, but that's about it. It still got my BS label, too.
The "decent at best"?
There's really not a lot new here for people who know a lot about Watergate. Having read Garrett Graff's great new book, and having known a decent amount before that, I'm in that camp. Click the "spoiler alert" on my review there to see just how much Graff has. In fact, Morley's overall thesis, that the CIA was quasi-involved, but not directing anything, is covered by Graff.
The big asterisk? Even though he claimed he's no longer one a few years ago, Morley is still a JFK conspiracy theorist. (I blogged about his non-denial denial.)
It starts on page 51 with a full chapter there in this chronological book, covering Nov. 22 and the immediate aftermath. Then there's most of a chapter in the middle of the book, re Nixon telling Ehrlichman to drop "Bay of Pigs" on Helms. Then part of a chapter near the end. Then the epilogue.
In the first spot, Morley clearly states he believes four shots (minimum) were fired at JFK. The first, that missed and hit the curb beyond the limo (at least he's following eyewitness testimony and evidence). A second that hit Connelly. A third that hit Jack in the body. Then, later, a fourth shot that hit Jack in the head.
In the third spot, he talks about various "framings" of interpreting the assassination. He won't come out straight and say the CIA did it, but that sure appears to be his angle. Wrong. Jack wasn't leaving Nam in the next 5 minutes, he wasn't reining in the CIA further, or anything else to make him a target. In the epilogue, talking about Geraldo first showing the Zapruder film on national TV and narrator Robert Groden taking about the head shot, he talks about the disproven idea that the motion of Jack's hed means the shot had to come from in front. Now, Morley never uses the word "only," but it's easy to infer he's implying it, especially if you know much about him.
There's enough decent stuff around the edges, and the conspiracy theory isn't front and center, to rescue this from a 1-star, but that's about it. It still got my BS label, too.
June 26, 2022
3.5/5 stars
Thank you to Net Galley for sending me this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
The 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal happened just a few days ago, which makes the release of this book all the more timely.
This book focuses on the relationship between Richard Nixon and CIA leader Richard Helms. Morley skillfully weaves a intricate web of relations and tensions between Nixon and Helms, showing the long progression of their relationship. Rather than focus on only on the Watergate incident, Morley gives years of backstory to the political careers of both men. Morley focusing a lot on Helms interactions with Kennedy before his assassination, specially their involvement with the CIA’s failed assassination attempts on Fidel Castro (including one with a poisoned pen). During this time, Nixon was focusing on trying to run for president in 1964. At the last moment Nixon chose not to run, which was a wise move, & ended up winning when he run in 1968. After Nixon’s election, he and Helms became “unlikely partners in power.**” Morley skillfully weaves a complicated picture of the immense web of deceit, deception, and lies with these two men spun over the course of their lives.
I have two issues with this book. First, it’s too long. Parts of this book (mainly in the first quarter) drag out and make the book seem like it is going on for too long, even though it’s less than 350 pages. It takes a long time to get to anything related to Watergate which I wasn’t expecting. This may partially be due to marketing but I expected more of the book to revolve around Watergate, so I felt like it took too long to get to those parts. Second, I don’t know if the ending was completely satisfying. Even still, I really enjoyed learning more about this time in history and hearing information that is usually not discussed in the context of Watergate.
There is a lot of information that you’re trying to absorb when you read this book and I will definitely be revisiting it at some point in the future.
Overall, if this book sounds interesting to you I think you’ll probably enjoy it, especially if you enjoy reading about American history, however if this isn’t something you think you would love to read about I would say skip it. I would definitely say the audiobook is the way to go on this one - the narration is great.
**All quotes are from the ARC audiobook, not the final edition
Thank you to Net Galley for sending me this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
The 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal happened just a few days ago, which makes the release of this book all the more timely.
This book focuses on the relationship between Richard Nixon and CIA leader Richard Helms. Morley skillfully weaves a intricate web of relations and tensions between Nixon and Helms, showing the long progression of their relationship. Rather than focus on only on the Watergate incident, Morley gives years of backstory to the political careers of both men. Morley focusing a lot on Helms interactions with Kennedy before his assassination, specially their involvement with the CIA’s failed assassination attempts on Fidel Castro (including one with a poisoned pen). During this time, Nixon was focusing on trying to run for president in 1964. At the last moment Nixon chose not to run, which was a wise move, & ended up winning when he run in 1968. After Nixon’s election, he and Helms became “unlikely partners in power.**” Morley skillfully weaves a complicated picture of the immense web of deceit, deception, and lies with these two men spun over the course of their lives.
I have two issues with this book. First, it’s too long. Parts of this book (mainly in the first quarter) drag out and make the book seem like it is going on for too long, even though it’s less than 350 pages. It takes a long time to get to anything related to Watergate which I wasn’t expecting. This may partially be due to marketing but I expected more of the book to revolve around Watergate, so I felt like it took too long to get to those parts. Second, I don’t know if the ending was completely satisfying. Even still, I really enjoyed learning more about this time in history and hearing information that is usually not discussed in the context of Watergate.
There is a lot of information that you’re trying to absorb when you read this book and I will definitely be revisiting it at some point in the future.
Overall, if this book sounds interesting to you I think you’ll probably enjoy it, especially if you enjoy reading about American history, however if this isn’t something you think you would love to read about I would say skip it. I would definitely say the audiobook is the way to go on this one - the narration is great.
**All quotes are from the ARC audiobook, not the final edition
February 7, 2023
The CIA *slams hand down on counter* DID NOT have ANYTHING TO DO with the break in at the Watergate building! As I told congress, those were simply recently retired career CIA men using CIA provided equipment working closely with the same Cuban expats who coincidentally are the same guys we were using years ago to try to kill Castro! So what if they had code names!! Everyone has a code name *gulps entire snifter of brandy* I simply cannot comprehend why anyone of sound mind would think that the CIA had anything to do with any of this!
No, no, I'M NOT DONE, because the American people need to know about this *slurps whisky* If that little fucker Kennedy had just authorized air support like he was supposed to he'd still be alive! Do you know how hard it is to get someone into Texas after they've already defected to the soviet union!! Into a BOOK REPOSITORY! IN TEXAS! WITH A RIFLE! What do you mean the book isnt about Kennedy?!! IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT KENNEDY. Whats this about Nixon?? THE BOOK IS ABOUT NIXON? *Lights cigarette* can you imagine the price of a cigar if Marlboro owned Cuba like united fruit owns Guatemala?? I can't even get a decent cigar and you want to talk about that idiot Nixon!! You know he could only get into Duke right *guffaws* So what if we destabilized a democratically elected government for a fucking fruit company what are you some kind of communist! *Pulls bong out* Next you'll tell me you have a problem with throwing scientists out of windows *takes massive rip* because they object to our mind control experiments!! *Begins laughing uncontrollably*
-dick helms
Dictated but not read
No, no, I'M NOT DONE, because the American people need to know about this *slurps whisky* If that little fucker Kennedy had just authorized air support like he was supposed to he'd still be alive! Do you know how hard it is to get someone into Texas after they've already defected to the soviet union!! Into a BOOK REPOSITORY! IN TEXAS! WITH A RIFLE! What do you mean the book isnt about Kennedy?!! IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT KENNEDY. Whats this about Nixon?? THE BOOK IS ABOUT NIXON? *Lights cigarette* can you imagine the price of a cigar if Marlboro owned Cuba like united fruit owns Guatemala?? I can't even get a decent cigar and you want to talk about that idiot Nixon!! You know he could only get into Duke right *guffaws* So what if we destabilized a democratically elected government for a fucking fruit company what are you some kind of communist! *Pulls bong out* Next you'll tell me you have a problem with throwing scientists out of windows *takes massive rip* because they object to our mind control experiments!! *Begins laughing uncontrollably*
-dick helms
Dictated but not read
June 12, 2022
President Nixon, CIA Director Helms, and Watergate
Watergate took place fifty years. In light of the myriad scandals today, the burglary itself seems rather quaint. However, that wasn’t the whole story. Morley tells a much more complete story based on some documents that have recently been released.
Nixon and his CIA Director were men of large egos and both had things to hide. I hadn’t realized the extent of CIA involvement in planned assassination attempts in South America. There was also the Kennedy assassination and the problematic conclusion of the Warren Commission that found Oswald acted alone. Morley does and excellent job of laying out all this history. It reads almost like a spy novel.
The book also looked at the question of how far a president can go. How far above the law is he? I found his discussion on point with the problems politicians and ordinary citizens are grappling with today. This is an excellent book for people to read unless we understand the things that happened in the past we will be doomed to continue to recreate the crises.
The book was very well researched and easy to read. If you lived through the Watergate era, you may be surprised at how much you didn’t know. I was. It’s a book for people interested in the Kennedy assassination as well the actual Watergate crimes. I highly recommend this book.
I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.
Watergate took place fifty years. In light of the myriad scandals today, the burglary itself seems rather quaint. However, that wasn’t the whole story. Morley tells a much more complete story based on some documents that have recently been released.
Nixon and his CIA Director were men of large egos and both had things to hide. I hadn’t realized the extent of CIA involvement in planned assassination attempts in South America. There was also the Kennedy assassination and the problematic conclusion of the Warren Commission that found Oswald acted alone. Morley does and excellent job of laying out all this history. It reads almost like a spy novel.
The book also looked at the question of how far a president can go. How far above the law is he? I found his discussion on point with the problems politicians and ordinary citizens are grappling with today. This is an excellent book for people to read unless we understand the things that happened in the past we will be doomed to continue to recreate the crises.
The book was very well researched and easy to read. If you lived through the Watergate era, you may be surprised at how much you didn’t know. I was. It’s a book for people interested in the Kennedy assassination as well the actual Watergate crimes. I highly recommend this book.
I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.
August 3, 2023
Morley's writing on Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms is riveting. He explores the way each of them used the secrecy of their institutions to further their political visions. While they were often at odds with one another (Nixon tended to distrust Helms for being from a more metropolitan and "elite" background), they found common cause in covert anti-communist operations and attempting to paint the US anti-war movement as well as the Democratic party as being infiltrated with foreign communist supporters and activists.
Morley paints complete and compelling portraits of those involved in the Watergate break in such as Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis and traces their paths as operatives involved in anti-Castro plots, coups in Guatemala and Chile, the attempt to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, and Watergate. While various threads point to both of these men being involved at some level in the assassination of JFK, Morley never indulges in conspiracism. He stops short of asserting anything that cannot be proven through official records, which I greatly appreciate.
Helms is the central figure throughout. Although he remains relatively unscathed by perpetually lying under oath and conveniently remembering nothing, he is ultimately undone by the ruin of his public reputation and the reputation of the agency that he devoted his life to.
I've read about most of these figures from other sources, but Morley approaches them from a new and unique perspective. Recommend 100%.
Morley paints complete and compelling portraits of those involved in the Watergate break in such as Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis and traces their paths as operatives involved in anti-Castro plots, coups in Guatemala and Chile, the attempt to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, and Watergate. While various threads point to both of these men being involved at some level in the assassination of JFK, Morley never indulges in conspiracism. He stops short of asserting anything that cannot be proven through official records, which I greatly appreciate.
Helms is the central figure throughout. Although he remains relatively unscathed by perpetually lying under oath and conveniently remembering nothing, he is ultimately undone by the ruin of his public reputation and the reputation of the agency that he devoted his life to.
I've read about most of these figures from other sources, but Morley approaches them from a new and unique perspective. Recommend 100%.
August 30, 2024
Hmmm. This is tough.
I was loving the first part of this book. It was maybe my favorite non-fiction read of the year. It almost read like a thriller. It traces the early political careers of Dick Helms and Richard Nixon respectively, along with the trajectory that would lead them to Watergate and the close of their careers.
Then it got to the Kennedy stuff. And I realized Jefferson Morley is a Kennedy conspiracy theorist.
Not a hardcore one. He doesn’t seem to believe anything too ridiculous and — despite the GOP moving conspiracies to the mainstream — he does appear to have decent politics. But it colored the way I read most of this. Was he playing loose with the facts?
The way he outlines them certainly makes sense: Richard Helms had cultivated relationships with a bunch of shady people to do CIA imperialism over the years. Those people needed an outlet at home in the early-70s when Nixon was expanding his domestic espionage program. Enter Watergate, etc.
And in double checking everything, it seems like he got his facts straight, at least as far as I can tell.
But I really try to keep my history reads to academic or pop academic texts. Even if Morley isn’t as bad as most (and he has quite a decorated career at reputable journalistic establishments), I try to slough off those kinds of writers. So I don’t know.
Nevertheless, if I’m basing this off of what I learned and the process of learning it, I enjoyed it immensely.
I was loving the first part of this book. It was maybe my favorite non-fiction read of the year. It almost read like a thriller. It traces the early political careers of Dick Helms and Richard Nixon respectively, along with the trajectory that would lead them to Watergate and the close of their careers.
Then it got to the Kennedy stuff. And I realized Jefferson Morley is a Kennedy conspiracy theorist.
Not a hardcore one. He doesn’t seem to believe anything too ridiculous and — despite the GOP moving conspiracies to the mainstream — he does appear to have decent politics. But it colored the way I read most of this. Was he playing loose with the facts?
The way he outlines them certainly makes sense: Richard Helms had cultivated relationships with a bunch of shady people to do CIA imperialism over the years. Those people needed an outlet at home in the early-70s when Nixon was expanding his domestic espionage program. Enter Watergate, etc.
And in double checking everything, it seems like he got his facts straight, at least as far as I can tell.
But I really try to keep my history reads to academic or pop academic texts. Even if Morley isn’t as bad as most (and he has quite a decorated career at reputable journalistic establishments), I try to slough off those kinds of writers. So I don’t know.
Nevertheless, if I’m basing this off of what I learned and the process of learning it, I enjoyed it immensely.
June 15, 2022
Thank you, NetGalley, for granting me a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Jefferson Morley’s Scorpions’ Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate is a real-life Cold War thriller, filled with schemes, conspiracies, political scandals, and cold cases. Ostensibly centered around Watergate, this is a tale that goes much deeper than the corrupt yet tragic figure of Richard Nixon. Charting the CIA’s newfound power in the postwar era, and their contentious relationship with the White House, Morley does not shy away from exploring conspiracies, nor is he so inclined as to try to debunk them. He does not challenge the claim that JFK won the 1960 presidential election in part because of his family’s mob ties in Chicago (a claim that more and more historians have come to accept over time), but he also declines to exonerate the CIA from any potential role they may have played in Kennedy’s assassination (a conspiracy that remains controversial to this day). Here we’re shown a symbiotic relationship between the CIA and the presidency, with the two being forced to work together while also seeking to undermine each other through spying and blackmail. Along the way, Scorpions’ Dance exposes a legacy of war, political assassinations, and lies that would put any espionage novel to shame.
Jefferson Morley’s Scorpions’ Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate is a real-life Cold War thriller, filled with schemes, conspiracies, political scandals, and cold cases. Ostensibly centered around Watergate, this is a tale that goes much deeper than the corrupt yet tragic figure of Richard Nixon. Charting the CIA’s newfound power in the postwar era, and their contentious relationship with the White House, Morley does not shy away from exploring conspiracies, nor is he so inclined as to try to debunk them. He does not challenge the claim that JFK won the 1960 presidential election in part because of his family’s mob ties in Chicago (a claim that more and more historians have come to accept over time), but he also declines to exonerate the CIA from any potential role they may have played in Kennedy’s assassination (a conspiracy that remains controversial to this day). Here we’re shown a symbiotic relationship between the CIA and the presidency, with the two being forced to work together while also seeking to undermine each other through spying and blackmail. Along the way, Scorpions’ Dance exposes a legacy of war, political assassinations, and lies that would put any espionage novel to shame.
September 10, 2025
The Question: Was the CIA under orders from the White House to mitigate the culpability related to the Watergate break-in? A few pages into this book, I began to think that CIA Director Richard Helms was an admirable individual, but by the end, I concluded that he was an adroit prevaricator. President Nixon was desperate to halt an FBI investigation. He sought Helms' support and requested that the CIA intervene, aware that five of the seven Watergate burglars had ties to the CIA. The two men navigated their relationship like scorpions, each defending himself under the threat of serious repercussions. Helms insisted that the CIA charter prohibited domestic operations, yet here we were. My prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in and Nixon's subsequent resignation largely stemmed from the coverage by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, known for "All the President's Men." That coverage receives little attention in this book..I appreciate the additional insights provided.
September 10, 2022
I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway.
I honestly didn't know much about Watergate and the CIA (I still don't to be honest), but I was attracted to this book based on the redacted-style cover. So kudos to the designer for that one.
Overall, this book was interesting to read, however I must admit that I had many occasions where I struggled to keep up. But, 5 Presidents and numerous spies will do that.
I was intrigued when I read that some people were surprised that Dick Helms would lie about certain events. In my mind, of course he would lie. He's CIA. And Nixon's hubris and need for power seemed like such a trope, if you didn't know better, you wouldn't believe it.
Having finished this book, I think I ought to look a little bit further into Watergate, the Bay of Pigs, and what made Nixon and the CIA tick.
I honestly didn't know much about Watergate and the CIA (I still don't to be honest), but I was attracted to this book based on the redacted-style cover. So kudos to the designer for that one.
Overall, this book was interesting to read, however I must admit that I had many occasions where I struggled to keep up. But, 5 Presidents and numerous spies will do that.
I was intrigued when I read that some people were surprised that Dick Helms would lie about certain events. In my mind, of course he would lie. He's CIA. And Nixon's hubris and need for power seemed like such a trope, if you didn't know better, you wouldn't believe it.
Having finished this book, I think I ought to look a little bit further into Watergate, the Bay of Pigs, and what made Nixon and the CIA tick.
December 25, 2022
I have read multiple books of Watergate and its cast of characters ...This is the first book that I read has all the missing parts and conjecture altogether . It is a riveting story that is so stunning and riveting along with electrifies the reader. Yes...I was brought back to those times. In my minds eye I was seeing the events happening with new nuances that shatter and shock. It is questionable which is more. Shatter or shock. Please read this book. Along with this book was the release of more documents re The JFK Event and the CIA. Tehran.....Guatemala......Vietnam...Cuba....Chile......My goodness....as I was reading I was mesmerized by what I had read. Sometimes I did as I usually do..reread what I have digested and google it....Eyes widen almost to breaking point that ..:"The truth is there in plain sight".....
July 10, 2023
3.5 stars is a more accurate representation of my rating, 4 will do.
This is a great intro to Watergate and the underrepresented role the CIA plays into the caper. I’ll state again and again, Morley cites everything meticulously which is great for further research!!
However, the conclusion (if that’s what you want to call it) Morley reaches is milquetoast and quite literally nonexistent. He provides evidence (is sourced amazingly), but does not provide a true conclusion as to what the CIA’s role is indicative of.
Morley is immensely talented, and weaves the Watergate story like a Fleming novel.
Nonetheless, it’s a fairly quick read and good supplementary material for those immersed or aware of the political upheaval in the United States which defined the 1970s.
One thing I will note concerning sources, the bibliography lacked one luminary in Watergate research: Len Colodny.
This is a great intro to Watergate and the underrepresented role the CIA plays into the caper. I’ll state again and again, Morley cites everything meticulously which is great for further research!!
However, the conclusion (if that’s what you want to call it) Morley reaches is milquetoast and quite literally nonexistent. He provides evidence (is sourced amazingly), but does not provide a true conclusion as to what the CIA’s role is indicative of.
Morley is immensely talented, and weaves the Watergate story like a Fleming novel.
Nonetheless, it’s a fairly quick read and good supplementary material for those immersed or aware of the political upheaval in the United States which defined the 1970s.
One thing I will note concerning sources, the bibliography lacked one luminary in Watergate research: Len Colodny.
August 10, 2022
William F. Buckley good friends with E. Howard Hunt.
Richard Helms, lying head spy of the CIA, and Richard Nixon, corrupt politician.
Nixon and Helms playing games of chicken. The Watergate burglars screwed by both.
One of my conclusions after reading this book (and yelling at the people on the pages along the way):
Several Republican administrations have caused political upheaval and turmoil in Central and South America over the decades (not counting what TR did to the people of the Phillippines). So, the next time some Republican tries to blame the Democrats for a lax southern border, they better look in a mirror because it was their leaders' policies in those countries that have led their citizens to flee north in the first place.
Richard Helms, lying head spy of the CIA, and Richard Nixon, corrupt politician.
Nixon and Helms playing games of chicken. The Watergate burglars screwed by both.
One of my conclusions after reading this book (and yelling at the people on the pages along the way):
Several Republican administrations have caused political upheaval and turmoil in Central and South America over the decades (not counting what TR did to the people of the Phillippines). So, the next time some Republican tries to blame the Democrats for a lax southern border, they better look in a mirror because it was their leaders' policies in those countries that have led their citizens to flee north in the first place.
October 10, 2022
This book explores the relationship between the White House and CIA with respect to Watergate, which is worth exploring because most of the burglars had ties to the CIA. It shows the CIA's attempts to deflect attention away from the agency, especially Director Helms' duplicitous efforts, regarding the scandal. However, in attempting to put Watergate in a broader context, the author suggests that there was a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. Vincent Bugliosi's 1,600 page book Reclaiming History demolishes such conspiracy theories and casts doubt on the credibility of Scorpions' Dance.
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