Robert Gettlin, the co-author of Silent Coup: The Removal of a President, joins S.T. Patrick to discuss the memory of friend Len Colodny, Watergate, and the writing of Silent Coup. There has long been a question about whether Gettlin disavowed Silent Coup when his name did not appear as an author on the book’s 25th anniversary paperback edition (Trine Day). That is answered in this episode. Gettlin also addresses the John Dean lawsuit, the origin of the friendship and co-authorship with Len Colodny, the books that should be Watergate canon, the importance of J. Anthony Lukas, the dangers to a presidency of the military-industrial complex, whether Watergate was a “golden age of journalism,” how Silent Coup was marketed, and much more.
Please visit Watergate.com for the Colodny Collection at Texas A&M.
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Fantastic interview. One aspect, among many, of Watergate that deserves more attention is the question of the intra-elite politics that enabled Nixon to resurrect his career & finally win the presidency. Who within the US oligarchy backed his pro-detente policies?
S.T. Thank you so much for an outstanding podcast. Very well done!! Len would be proud.
I
Len was the best! I appreciate everything he did for me and for the Watergate community. His work will live on and I’ll do my best to make sure it does.
— S.T. Patrick
…finally… Thank You. It’s been too long.
I’d be happy with two or four episodes per month.
At the time, Watergate felt to me like an extension of the JFK assassination.
What both have in common is flawed mainstream reporting.
Thanks for this, Robert and S.T.
I was just starting high school when Nixon resigned — I watched the news with my parents, and so heard Watergate was (allegedly) about election spying, and Nixon was in trouble for trying to cover it up — still I remember being surprised when he resigned, although those who followed the story more closely probably weren’t — but later in college I found the whole premise confusing: the break-ins happened in mid-1972, and Nixon won the election in November by a HUGE landslide (McGovern won only MA and the District of Columbia) — so what was there to worry about? — did they not have polls indicating even in June, 1972 that Nixon was going to win easily? — so I’ve questioned the conventional narrative about Watergate, at least the rationale for the break-ins, during my entire adult life.
Around that time I also took an interest in the JFK assassination.