Palace Guard, The (first edition)

In this crisis year, this hard-hitting, powerfully readable book, through its brilliant analysis of events and men and its inside information on the day-to-day operation of the Nixon White House, contributes a stunning inside to our understanding of how Watergate happened. Here are the inner workings of the Nixon White House as they unfolded in the years leading up to the break-in. Based on interviews, on-the-scene observations and hard pursuits of the facts the book shows how Nixon's disciples acquired so much power, how they used it to elevate or destroy each other, and how, eventually they set in motion the forces that have "left an indelible moral stain on the American Presidency." The book charts the flow of power around the inside the white House, vividly reveling the personalities of the men Richard Nixon chose to help him govern the country during his first term and detailing the rise and fall of his closest advisors.

There was the original cabinet- "twelve gray-haired guys name d George," as someone quipped when they were introduced to the country on television shortly before Nixen began his presidency. Amount them, John Mitchell represented a force of considerable weight, but, significant enough, "his power had almost nothing to do with his cabinet status as Attorney General and everything to do with the special relationship he had with the President."