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Lost Honor
Dean looks at the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, describes the changes in his own life, and speculates on the identity of "Deep Throat"
370 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1982
48 people want to read
About the author
John W. Dean
32 books121 followersJohn W. Dean served as White House Counsel for United States President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. In this position, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent Watergate scandal cover-up. He was referred to as the "master manipulator of the cover-up" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He pleaded guilty to a single felony count, in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution. This ultimately resulted in a reduced prison sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland.
Dean is currently an author, columnist, and commentator on contemporary politics, strongly critical of conservatism and the Republican Party, and is a registered Independent who supported the efforts to impeach President George W. Bush.
Dean is currently an author, columnist, and commentator on contemporary politics, strongly critical of conservatism and the Republican Party, and is a registered Independent who supported the efforts to impeach President George W. Bush.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 9, 2021
John Dean was President Richard Nixon's White House lawyer during much of the "Watergate" scandal in the early 1970s that resulted in Nixon's resignation in 1974. Dean was brilliant and ambitious, but very young and his lack of experience showed. While he crafted a legal defense for Nixon and even went to the point of obstructing justice, he failed to understand that a presidential lawyer is as much an advisor to keep the president out of trouble as to come to his defense after a problem develops. When Nixon was facing criminal prosection, he fired Dean, who later turned evidence against him. Dean wrote a book called Blind Ambition that sought to explain what had happened and what he had done. Lost Honor, written shortly after his release from a few months in prison for obstructing justice, tries to explain what happened to him next.
What comes through in all of Dean's books on the Nixon experience-- Blind Ambition, Lost Honor, and the more recent The Nixon Defense, is that Dean sought high office only for his own personal power. Never once does he explain some public good he wanted to accomplish for the country. It was simply his ambition to be a powerful and important person. Lost Honor really brings this out as Dean drifts after his imprisonment.
Dean's immaturity when he wrote this book is clear. He moans about a few months in a minimum security prison. He cruelly and unnecessarily questions Richard Nixon's sanity, never once saying a single nice thing about the man who gave him the opportunity of a lifetime. Dean admits he did wrong during Watergate but never explains why. Much of the book tells about his experience earning money writing a book and lecturing about Watergate--he essentially made himself wealthy writing about his own crime!
But Dean does raise some important and troubling points in this book. He rightly impunes Federal judge John Sirica who today likely would have been removed from the case for misconduct. He notes how once the witnesses did what Sirica wanted them to do and Nixon had resigned, Sirica released most of them, highly unethical to say the least.
I have read many books on Watergate and after nearly 50 years, one thing is clear: the famed Woodward and Bernstein of the Washinton Post who broke the "scandal" at best were wrong about many things, at worst simply made things up as the memoirs of many of those involved, other investigations and the release of many of Nixon's Oval Office tapes showed. Dean does a good job of showing many of the "facts" the Post printed that were clearly wrong or made up.
Dean wasted a lot of time trying to figure out who Woodward and Bernstein's "Deep Throat" source was, obviously to make more money off his tales. He ended up being wrong as the source was later revealed to be FBI official Mark Felt, but I think Dean was right in thinking the source was more than just Felt, that it was a combination of sources and even some made up things. Wategate was a serious criminal matter but the truth is the out of control Washington Post and other mass media outlets got completely out of control during Watergate.
Dean is a good writer and this book was interesting, but I think his final book on Watergate, The Nixon Defense, is his best book on the matter though even in that he never explains why he did what he did only what he did. To say Dean was flawed is an understatement; to say his books relate important national history is also accurate.
What comes through in all of Dean's books on the Nixon experience-- Blind Ambition, Lost Honor, and the more recent The Nixon Defense, is that Dean sought high office only for his own personal power. Never once does he explain some public good he wanted to accomplish for the country. It was simply his ambition to be a powerful and important person. Lost Honor really brings this out as Dean drifts after his imprisonment.
Dean's immaturity when he wrote this book is clear. He moans about a few months in a minimum security prison. He cruelly and unnecessarily questions Richard Nixon's sanity, never once saying a single nice thing about the man who gave him the opportunity of a lifetime. Dean admits he did wrong during Watergate but never explains why. Much of the book tells about his experience earning money writing a book and lecturing about Watergate--he essentially made himself wealthy writing about his own crime!
But Dean does raise some important and troubling points in this book. He rightly impunes Federal judge John Sirica who today likely would have been removed from the case for misconduct. He notes how once the witnesses did what Sirica wanted them to do and Nixon had resigned, Sirica released most of them, highly unethical to say the least.
I have read many books on Watergate and after nearly 50 years, one thing is clear: the famed Woodward and Bernstein of the Washinton Post who broke the "scandal" at best were wrong about many things, at worst simply made things up as the memoirs of many of those involved, other investigations and the release of many of Nixon's Oval Office tapes showed. Dean does a good job of showing many of the "facts" the Post printed that were clearly wrong or made up.
Dean wasted a lot of time trying to figure out who Woodward and Bernstein's "Deep Throat" source was, obviously to make more money off his tales. He ended up being wrong as the source was later revealed to be FBI official Mark Felt, but I think Dean was right in thinking the source was more than just Felt, that it was a combination of sources and even some made up things. Wategate was a serious criminal matter but the truth is the out of control Washington Post and other mass media outlets got completely out of control during Watergate.
Dean is a good writer and this book was interesting, but I think his final book on Watergate, The Nixon Defense, is his best book on the matter though even in that he never explains why he did what he did only what he did. To say Dean was flawed is an understatement; to say his books relate important national history is also accurate.
July 28, 2019
3 1/2 stars. I've always been fascinated by Watergate and what happened before and after. This is the "after" story of John Dean, Nixon's White House counsel. This takes place after his first book and tells the rest of his story, including his speculation about the identity of Deep Throat.
November 21, 2009
If you think Republicans are crooks now, you should've seen them back in the days of Dick Nixon and his boys.
June 2, 2012
Not as good as his first book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews