A New Documentary Rehabilitates Nixon’s Reputation On Watergate’s 50th Anniversary
Imagine, if you will, a contemporary “Man on the street” interview:* Guy with a mike and recorder: “You, Sir, have you ever heard of Richard Nixon?” Random young pedestrian: “Uh—um, uh, like, yeah...
And so it was, half a century ago, that Richard Nixon, Washington’s political “bad boy” communism fighter, a West Coast outsider, not of the genteel Ivy League aristocracy, not welcomed by the establishment elite, and a man who trounced Democrats in every state but one in his reelection, was finally branded the evil conspirator by that establishment. He would wear the Watergate albatross as his enduring legacy. So thrived the narrative; Watergate would be the enduring code word for government corruption.
But cracks are now forming in that escutcheon. Consider this opening from PJ Media’s Victoria Taft:
Imagine a scenario in which the intelligence community, political actors, the FBI, and the media all worked together to bring down a president. You don’t have to wonder, as it happened 50 years ago in the United States of America when Richard Nixon was forced to resign his office after winning the election as the most popular president since FDR.
The same article introduces Watergate expert and author Geoff Shepard, who was a young attorney on the Nixon Defense team and who, since then, has spent decades deeply researching administrative, political, and prosecutorial Watergate archives obtained through FOIA requests. The results of his investigations are damning to those who conducted their immoral, unethical, and illegal abuse of power to purge Nixon from the presidency.
Shepard has written three books on this subject. His most recent is The Nixon Conspiracy: Watergate and the Plot to Remove the President, a detailed and easily read analysis of the whole Watergate debacle. Here’s John Dale Dunn’s handy review. Tucker Carlson interviewed Shephard for over two hours.
The book has now been made into a documentary motion picture, Watergate Secrets, with live discussions with Shepard and other notables, and with dramatic reenactments of Watergate events of the time. My advice: watch the movie, then read the book, then watch the movie again.
Watergate Secrets and Betrayals - Learn More
‘Watergate Secrets and Betrayals’ unveils the hidden stories and secret documents behind America's most infamous political scandal. Learn more at WatergateSecret
watergatesecret.com