AN AMERICAN LIFE: One Man's Road to Watergate

by Jeb Stuart Magruder ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 15, 1974

Jeb Magruder's open-faced admissions of how ambition drove him through five jobs in eleven years, and of how he was seduced by the clockwork ""perfection"" of San Clemente and his affirmations of general good grooming, family instincts and likability are all geared to make the reader sigh with relief that ""there but for the grace of God. . .. ""He is taking a lot for granted. In fact, though self-criticism and contrition abound, Magruder still seems faintly bewildered about just where things went wrong. Somehow his administrative duties -- for example, the sending of faked telegrams or the planning of an ""independent"" think tank foundation which would support White House policies -- don't bother his conscience much, even in retrospect. And the days spent writing memos on how to put the screws on Huntley and other media figures were just wasted time (Shucks, we weren't serious anyway) that interfered with positive accomplishments like the White House Drug Abuse Conference -- a bona fide ""Presidential Offensive"" that inspired segments on Hawaii Five-O and Name of the Game. Magruder's harshest words are reserved for Hugh Sloan, whose refusal to go along with the cover-up he attributes to smoldering resentment and disloyalty. As for the rest of the President's men, Magruder pictures an assortment of bumbling to mediocre to fanatical non-politicians (in over their heads, every one) scurrying to act -- or appear to act -- on the stream of petty, paranoid directives that emanated from the President himself. Maybe it was just a failure of teamwork after all. Though Esquire's nomination for ""Brown-nose of the year"" might be a hard tag to overcome, Magruder has adroitly offered up his life as the managerial generation's American tragedy. Whether the image sticks or not, the gossip quotient is sky high -- and likely to hit Nixon hardest of all.

Pub Date: July 15, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION