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The White House Plumbers
NOW A FIVE-PART HBO SERIES, STARRING WOODY HARRELSON AND JUSTIN THEROUX
The true story of The White House Plumbers, a secret unit inside Nixon's White House, and their ill-conceived plans stop the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, and how they led to Watergate and the President's demise.
On July 17, 1971, Egil “Bud” Krogh was summoned to a closed-door meeting by his mentor―and a key confidant of the president―John Ehrlichman. Expecting to discuss the most recent drug control program launched in Vietnam, Krogh was shocked when Ehrlichman handed him a file and the responsibility for the Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, later to be notoriously known as “The Plumbers.”
The Plumbers’ work, according to Nixon, was critical to national they were to investigate the leaks of top secret government documents, including the Pentagon Papers, to the press. Driven by blind loyalty, diligence, and dedication, Krogh, along with his co-director, David Young, set out to handle the job, eventually hiring G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, who would lead the break-in to the office of Dr. Fielding, a psychiatrist treating Daniel Ellsberg, the man they suspected was doing the leaking. Krogh had no idea that his decisions would soon lead to one of the most famous conspiracies in presidential history and the demise of the Nixon administration.
The White House Plumbers is Krogh’s account of what really happened behind the closed doors of the Nixon White House, and how a good man can make bad decisions, and the redemptive power of integrity. Including the story of how Krogh served time and later rebuilt his life, The White House Plumbers is gripping, thoughtful, and a cautionary tale of placing loyalty over principle.
The true story of The White House Plumbers, a secret unit inside Nixon's White House, and their ill-conceived plans stop the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, and how they led to Watergate and the President's demise.
On July 17, 1971, Egil “Bud” Krogh was summoned to a closed-door meeting by his mentor―and a key confidant of the president―John Ehrlichman. Expecting to discuss the most recent drug control program launched in Vietnam, Krogh was shocked when Ehrlichman handed him a file and the responsibility for the Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, later to be notoriously known as “The Plumbers.”
The Plumbers’ work, according to Nixon, was critical to national they were to investigate the leaks of top secret government documents, including the Pentagon Papers, to the press. Driven by blind loyalty, diligence, and dedication, Krogh, along with his co-director, David Young, set out to handle the job, eventually hiring G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, who would lead the break-in to the office of Dr. Fielding, a psychiatrist treating Daniel Ellsberg, the man they suspected was doing the leaking. Krogh had no idea that his decisions would soon lead to one of the most famous conspiracies in presidential history and the demise of the Nixon administration.
The White House Plumbers is Krogh’s account of what really happened behind the closed doors of the Nixon White House, and how a good man can make bad decisions, and the redemptive power of integrity. Including the story of how Krogh served time and later rebuilt his life, The White House Plumbers is gripping, thoughtful, and a cautionary tale of placing loyalty over principle.
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 26, 2022
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November 24, 2022
Call it 3.5 stars!
First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Egil ‘Bud’ Krogh, Matthew Krogh, MacMillan Audio, and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.
As an avid history buff, I was eager to get my hands on this book about the White House Plumbers. While I have read a great deal about Watergate, never have I taken the time to explore anything written by those men who were involved in the break-ins that would one day bring down a sitting US president. Egil ‘Bud’ Krogh and his son, Matthew, tell a great story in a handful of chapters, explaining how Nixon became paranoid about national security, which snowballed into worry about the Democratic Party leading up to the 1972 general election.
It was the summer of 1971 when Egil ‘Bud’ Krogh found himself sitting in a top-secret meeting within the White House. While Krogh expected to be talking about some part of the Vietnam War, things soon took a turn. President Nixon was highly worried about the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, a covert history of the war in Vietnam. Krogh was handed a file and tasked with heading up the Special Investigations Union—SIU—nicknamed ‘The Plumbers’. Their job would be to find the leak and plug it once and for all. This began a series of events that Bug Krogh would never forget.
Fuelled by a dedication to his country and president, Krogh blindly followed the direction of those above him as he sought to find proof of the security leak. The primary goal was to sully the name of Daniel Ellsberg, presumed to be the core of the leak and a potential Soviet spy. Working to do whatever was asked of him, even when it was highly illegal, Krogh began by organising a break in at the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, in hopes of finding damning evidence. These steps would one day bring down Nixon’s presidency and leave an indelible mark on the country for decades.
After committing this crime, Krogh left the SIU and chose to work within the Administration, lying when called upon to testify during the Watergate hearings. When the truth about his involvement surfaced, Krogh pled guilty to his actions shedding some unique light on what happened during those late night meetings and just who gave the orders, as well as who knew what was happening at any one time. His frankness and eagerness to tell all is both intriguing and resonates just how corrupt the Nixon inner circle turned out to be.
Exploring his attempts to put his life back together after time in prison, Bud Krogh explains his meetings with Nixon in 1974-75, as well as trying to regain his ability to practice law. While it was a superficial exploration, the reader can take something away they likely did not know.
Having now died, Bud Krogh’s story went with him to the grave, but this written account helps shed some light on the actors long deemed guilty, even if they deflected any responsibility at the time. While short and somewhat crafted as a primer, it was a refreshing look at Watergate, the role of paranoia in the early 1970s, and how Richard Nixon’s intoxication with power proved to be his downfall.
While this was not a stunning publication, full of revelations and finger-pointing towards new and mysterious actions in the Waterhouse debacle, it was still worth my time. Bud Krogh provides some blunt admissions and interesting insider views from 1971 and 1972, particularly related to illegal break-ins that Nixon could use for his own power games. Using short chapters and a clear narrative, Krogh presents eye-opening tales of events, naming names and eagerly explaining just what happened. His views, while surely tainted from years passing between the events and this publication, prove forthright and well worth the reader’s time. Surely a way to ‘ease one’s conscience’ before death, Bud Krogh was able to leave this world with a clean slate and likely allowed Matthew to see what happened when the younger Krogh was just a child. Short and to the point, the read was swift and a decent piece of writing, but lacked the depth and intensity I had hoped I would find with a piece of this nature.
Kudos, Messrs. Krogh, for this piece. While little was shocking, the entertainment value that emerged while reading and piecing things together proved well worth my time.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Egil ‘Bud’ Krogh, Matthew Krogh, MacMillan Audio, and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.
As an avid history buff, I was eager to get my hands on this book about the White House Plumbers. While I have read a great deal about Watergate, never have I taken the time to explore anything written by those men who were involved in the break-ins that would one day bring down a sitting US president. Egil ‘Bud’ Krogh and his son, Matthew, tell a great story in a handful of chapters, explaining how Nixon became paranoid about national security, which snowballed into worry about the Democratic Party leading up to the 1972 general election.
It was the summer of 1971 when Egil ‘Bud’ Krogh found himself sitting in a top-secret meeting within the White House. While Krogh expected to be talking about some part of the Vietnam War, things soon took a turn. President Nixon was highly worried about the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, a covert history of the war in Vietnam. Krogh was handed a file and tasked with heading up the Special Investigations Union—SIU—nicknamed ‘The Plumbers’. Their job would be to find the leak and plug it once and for all. This began a series of events that Bug Krogh would never forget.
Fuelled by a dedication to his country and president, Krogh blindly followed the direction of those above him as he sought to find proof of the security leak. The primary goal was to sully the name of Daniel Ellsberg, presumed to be the core of the leak and a potential Soviet spy. Working to do whatever was asked of him, even when it was highly illegal, Krogh began by organising a break in at the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, in hopes of finding damning evidence. These steps would one day bring down Nixon’s presidency and leave an indelible mark on the country for decades.
After committing this crime, Krogh left the SIU and chose to work within the Administration, lying when called upon to testify during the Watergate hearings. When the truth about his involvement surfaced, Krogh pled guilty to his actions shedding some unique light on what happened during those late night meetings and just who gave the orders, as well as who knew what was happening at any one time. His frankness and eagerness to tell all is both intriguing and resonates just how corrupt the Nixon inner circle turned out to be.
Exploring his attempts to put his life back together after time in prison, Bud Krogh explains his meetings with Nixon in 1974-75, as well as trying to regain his ability to practice law. While it was a superficial exploration, the reader can take something away they likely did not know.
Having now died, Bud Krogh’s story went with him to the grave, but this written account helps shed some light on the actors long deemed guilty, even if they deflected any responsibility at the time. While short and somewhat crafted as a primer, it was a refreshing look at Watergate, the role of paranoia in the early 1970s, and how Richard Nixon’s intoxication with power proved to be his downfall.
While this was not a stunning publication, full of revelations and finger-pointing towards new and mysterious actions in the Waterhouse debacle, it was still worth my time. Bud Krogh provides some blunt admissions and interesting insider views from 1971 and 1972, particularly related to illegal break-ins that Nixon could use for his own power games. Using short chapters and a clear narrative, Krogh presents eye-opening tales of events, naming names and eagerly explaining just what happened. His views, while surely tainted from years passing between the events and this publication, prove forthright and well worth the reader’s time. Surely a way to ‘ease one’s conscience’ before death, Bud Krogh was able to leave this world with a clean slate and likely allowed Matthew to see what happened when the younger Krogh was just a child. Short and to the point, the read was swift and a decent piece of writing, but lacked the depth and intensity I had hoped I would find with a piece of this nature.
Kudos, Messrs. Krogh, for this piece. While little was shocking, the entertainment value that emerged while reading and piecing things together proved well worth my time.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
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January 28, 2023Egil “Bud” Krogh was one of the men known as the “White House Plumbers,” which was a small group of operatives that dressed as tradesmen in order to illegally break into and ransack private offices for the purpose of digging up dirt on political opponents. Krogh’s job, together with E. Howard Hunt, was to lead a small team of men to burglarize the office of Dr. Fielding, the psychiatrist that treated journalist Daniel Ellsberg, in search of a way to discredit Ellsberg, whom President Richard Nixon regarded as an opponent.
My thanks go to Net Galley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the review copy and audio book. This book is for sale now.
Few people shy of the Boomer generation will have personal recollection of the Watergate scandal that brought down a sitting U.S. president for the first time, and the burglary of Fielding’s office was the first illegal event that set it all in motion. Nixon was furious that the Pentagon Papers had been released and that the U.S. Supreme Court had come down on the side of the First Amendment and the free press. Consequently, the president decided that the executive branch must go it alone, and sought a way to discredit the journalists behind it. That was how all of this came about. He howled about national security, and may or may not have believed it; or, he may have sought to cover up lies he had told to the American people about the war in Indochina, and since he couldn’t force the publication out of circulation, the next best thing would be to persuade the public that its authors—or annotators, at any rate—were crazy and not to be believed. This background information comes from me, not from the book.
At any rate, this political memoir comes to us courtesy of Bud Krogh, and also his son Matthew, who completed it after Bud’s death. For the purpose of this review, I will use the name Krogh to refer to Bud, unless otherwise noted.
Krogh was brought into this mess by John Ehrlichman, one of the two advisors that were nearly as close as a second skin to Nixon during his time in office. Other accounts refer to both as cold-blooded thugs, and my earlier reading leads me to agree with them, but to Bud, Ehrlichman was a noble soul dedicated to his country and his president, a fine, devout individual that was like a second father to him growing up. It didn’t occur to him, initially at least, that anything he was being asked to do was corrupt or scandalous; here, I find myself shifting in my seat. Surely he must have wondered why this secret little group of men, not even government employees, were being tasked with this job, rather than the agencies that ordinarily do the cloak-and-dagger jobs? He claims that Nixon couldn’t trust FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who was a slimy character, and that makes at least a little sense to anyone familiar with him. Yikes.
The writing as well as the accountability are uneven throughout this book. The prologue sounds sketchy to me. Those of us that have spent any time at all watching criminal trials take place is familiar with the vaguely nebulous language I see and hear at the beginning of this thing. Instead of saying that he has done something very wrong and is sorry, he says he has made bad choices, and he is sorry about “what happened.” This is the language that guilty people use when their attorney has told them to show remorse. Someone not listening carefully might think that the speaker has apologized, but they’ve actually distanced themselves from wrongdoing. During this portion of the memoir, I glanced at the text and also the device playing the audio, half expecting to see a little slime leaching from its margins.
And yet, at the end, the prose is more eloquent, and the accountability rock solid. Krogh goes to the psychiatrist in order to apologize in person, once he is out of prison. He visits Nixon to apologize to him (which baffles me, but okay.) He claims to have declined a presidential pardon. He never loses an opportunity to put on a hair shirt prior to his many speaking engagements. And so it goes.
One could surmise that the early portion was written by Krogh, and the end written by his son, but even if that is true, those speaking engagements were taken by Bud, not by Matthew, and likewise the specific apologies rendered. So who knows?
The narrator for the audiobook is Peter Krogh, who does a fine job.
If you are interested in studying the Watergate scandal and haven’t read any other books about it, this is not the one. Krogh’s involvement ended with the break-in to Fielding’s office, and he helped cover it up, lying under oath as he was told to do, but he had nothing to do with the Watergate Hotel burglary of the Democratic National Committee’s offices. In short, though famous enough to be remembered for his actions, he was not a central player. For those interested in reading just one book about this scandal, I’d go with All the President’s Men, by Woodward and Bernstein; The Nixon Defense, by John Dean; or Nixon: The Life, by John A Farrell. These are all fairly lengthy; if you are looking for something less lengthy, try One Man Against the World, by Tim Weiner.
As a general read for the uninitiated, I’d give this book 2.5 stars. For Nixon and Watergate buffs, I rate it 3.5 stars.
My thanks go to Net Galley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the review copy and audio book. This book is for sale now.
Few people shy of the Boomer generation will have personal recollection of the Watergate scandal that brought down a sitting U.S. president for the first time, and the burglary of Fielding’s office was the first illegal event that set it all in motion. Nixon was furious that the Pentagon Papers had been released and that the U.S. Supreme Court had come down on the side of the First Amendment and the free press. Consequently, the president decided that the executive branch must go it alone, and sought a way to discredit the journalists behind it. That was how all of this came about. He howled about national security, and may or may not have believed it; or, he may have sought to cover up lies he had told to the American people about the war in Indochina, and since he couldn’t force the publication out of circulation, the next best thing would be to persuade the public that its authors—or annotators, at any rate—were crazy and not to be believed. This background information comes from me, not from the book.
At any rate, this political memoir comes to us courtesy of Bud Krogh, and also his son Matthew, who completed it after Bud’s death. For the purpose of this review, I will use the name Krogh to refer to Bud, unless otherwise noted.
Krogh was brought into this mess by John Ehrlichman, one of the two advisors that were nearly as close as a second skin to Nixon during his time in office. Other accounts refer to both as cold-blooded thugs, and my earlier reading leads me to agree with them, but to Bud, Ehrlichman was a noble soul dedicated to his country and his president, a fine, devout individual that was like a second father to him growing up. It didn’t occur to him, initially at least, that anything he was being asked to do was corrupt or scandalous; here, I find myself shifting in my seat. Surely he must have wondered why this secret little group of men, not even government employees, were being tasked with this job, rather than the agencies that ordinarily do the cloak-and-dagger jobs? He claims that Nixon couldn’t trust FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who was a slimy character, and that makes at least a little sense to anyone familiar with him. Yikes.
The writing as well as the accountability are uneven throughout this book. The prologue sounds sketchy to me. Those of us that have spent any time at all watching criminal trials take place is familiar with the vaguely nebulous language I see and hear at the beginning of this thing. Instead of saying that he has done something very wrong and is sorry, he says he has made bad choices, and he is sorry about “what happened.” This is the language that guilty people use when their attorney has told them to show remorse. Someone not listening carefully might think that the speaker has apologized, but they’ve actually distanced themselves from wrongdoing. During this portion of the memoir, I glanced at the text and also the device playing the audio, half expecting to see a little slime leaching from its margins.
And yet, at the end, the prose is more eloquent, and the accountability rock solid. Krogh goes to the psychiatrist in order to apologize in person, once he is out of prison. He visits Nixon to apologize to him (which baffles me, but okay.) He claims to have declined a presidential pardon. He never loses an opportunity to put on a hair shirt prior to his many speaking engagements. And so it goes.
One could surmise that the early portion was written by Krogh, and the end written by his son, but even if that is true, those speaking engagements were taken by Bud, not by Matthew, and likewise the specific apologies rendered. So who knows?
The narrator for the audiobook is Peter Krogh, who does a fine job.
If you are interested in studying the Watergate scandal and haven’t read any other books about it, this is not the one. Krogh’s involvement ended with the break-in to Fielding’s office, and he helped cover it up, lying under oath as he was told to do, but he had nothing to do with the Watergate Hotel burglary of the Democratic National Committee’s offices. In short, though famous enough to be remembered for his actions, he was not a central player. For those interested in reading just one book about this scandal, I’d go with All the President’s Men, by Woodward and Bernstein; The Nixon Defense, by John Dean; or Nixon: The Life, by John A Farrell. These are all fairly lengthy; if you are looking for something less lengthy, try One Man Against the World, by Tim Weiner.
As a general read for the uninitiated, I’d give this book 2.5 stars. For Nixon and Watergate buffs, I rate it 3.5 stars.
March 5, 2023
3.5, I don't feel like there was really enough of a story for a full book so I'm curious how they make the series about it
December 27, 2022
When I was in 11th grade, I took a class called "International/National Affairs" with one of my most favorite teachers ever. In this class we looked at and discussed many topics, both current and in the past, all relevant still. One of the topics was Watergate and we both read "All the President's Men" and watched the excellent movie [I have the movie about Mark Felt on my TBW list and it got bumped up because he is mentioned in this book and reminded me I want to know more about that man. At the time of me being in HS, "Deep Throat" was an unknown and there was always a lot of speculation]. Of all that we learned in that class, this is the one section that really stuck with me; perhaps its my love of History and Presidents, or the fact that a President did something awful and unethical and was unrepentant to the end about it, I am not sure, but Watergate has always stayed with me and I have been intrigued by anything written about it.
This book is a very good read and a good look into the beginnings of what became the downfall of President Nixon. Bud Krogh is one of the few that were convicted that was repentant from almost the beginning and his redemption story is inspiring. The fact that he wrote this with his son [Matthew] and then that same son finished it when his dad died and then the second son narrates it, just shows how he worked to repair all that was broken and how he spent his life making things right.
IF you are fascinated by the whole Watergate scandal, this is a great book to read about the beginnings of that time. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read it. It was really interesting to read about the man who turned himself in and was repentant from the beginning and worked from the start to make amends. I am not sure that really is the case with all of them. All that he was able to achieve afterwards is, I believe, simply because he was truly repentant and made amends with the people he hurt AND because he was willing to serve the sentence he was given. That goes a long way in my book of someone who made a mistake, realized it and worked to correct it for the rest of his life, long after it was not needed. Well done.
I was also able to get an audiobook ARC for this book and I am so glad I did. Mr. Krogh's son Peter narrates this, and I love how his sons worked to finish this after their father died. While not the best narrator I have ever heard, I am not sure anyone else would have done the whole story any kind of justice like his son reading it would. Even though he was young when the original act happened, I am sure there was much discussion about the White House years through out his and his brother's life [and why good people sometimes do bad things and how to make that right] and he was, in my opinion, the perfect fit to read his father's story.
Thank you to NetGalley, Egil "Bud" Krogh, Matthew Krogh, Peter Krogh - Narrator, St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin and Macmillian Audio for providing both the book ARC and the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a very good read and a good look into the beginnings of what became the downfall of President Nixon. Bud Krogh is one of the few that were convicted that was repentant from almost the beginning and his redemption story is inspiring. The fact that he wrote this with his son [Matthew] and then that same son finished it when his dad died and then the second son narrates it, just shows how he worked to repair all that was broken and how he spent his life making things right.
IF you are fascinated by the whole Watergate scandal, this is a great book to read about the beginnings of that time. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read it. It was really interesting to read about the man who turned himself in and was repentant from the beginning and worked from the start to make amends. I am not sure that really is the case with all of them. All that he was able to achieve afterwards is, I believe, simply because he was truly repentant and made amends with the people he hurt AND because he was willing to serve the sentence he was given. That goes a long way in my book of someone who made a mistake, realized it and worked to correct it for the rest of his life, long after it was not needed. Well done.
I was also able to get an audiobook ARC for this book and I am so glad I did. Mr. Krogh's son Peter narrates this, and I love how his sons worked to finish this after their father died. While not the best narrator I have ever heard, I am not sure anyone else would have done the whole story any kind of justice like his son reading it would. Even though he was young when the original act happened, I am sure there was much discussion about the White House years through out his and his brother's life [and why good people sometimes do bad things and how to make that right] and he was, in my opinion, the perfect fit to read his father's story.
Thank you to NetGalley, Egil "Bud" Krogh, Matthew Krogh, Peter Krogh - Narrator, St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin and Macmillian Audio for providing both the book ARC and the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 25, 2023
We're coming up on the fiftieth anniversary of the Watergate scandal, which broke open the government and showed the American people just how corrupt and craven their elected representatives could be. Thank God no other presidential administrations have since been so brutally transparent in how corrupt and craven they are! Especially not ones where the candidate was basically trying to sell baseball caps with a dinky slogan on them!
Egil "Bud" Krogh was a minor functionary of the Nixon administration who ended up being the first of Nixon's men to plead guilty and serve time for his role in the abuses of power that culminated in the Watergate break-in, and his memoir "The White House Plumbers" (reissued after being published under a different title in 2007) is a pretty interesting inside look at some of the crimes that Nixon and his cronies committed and then covered up. It's not riveting, perhaps, but it feels more honest than many of the post-Watergate memoirs of convicted officials likely were. Krogh doesn't beat around the bush about his own responsibility in helping to coordinate the break-in to the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, and he talks in depth about the way in which he let G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt off their proverbial leashes to pursue what was a dead end information-wise, but a dry run at other illicit activities masterminded by the pair at the behest of Nixon later on (culminating with the break-in of the DNC at the Watergate Hotel in June 1972).
Krogh comes across as sympathetic, because he not only does time for his crimes but he acknowledges how right it was for him to do so. One of the basic tenets of his life is integrity, and he concedes that in his zeal to serve Nixon, he forgot about his own personal integrity and his responsibility to the American people, not just to Nixon. The book isn't especially revealing or stunning in its depiction of Nixon-era crimes and misdemeanors, but it's pretty serviceable as a memoir from a minor player in one of the major political scandals of the twentieth century.
Egil "Bud" Krogh was a minor functionary of the Nixon administration who ended up being the first of Nixon's men to plead guilty and serve time for his role in the abuses of power that culminated in the Watergate break-in, and his memoir "The White House Plumbers" (reissued after being published under a different title in 2007) is a pretty interesting inside look at some of the crimes that Nixon and his cronies committed and then covered up. It's not riveting, perhaps, but it feels more honest than many of the post-Watergate memoirs of convicted officials likely were. Krogh doesn't beat around the bush about his own responsibility in helping to coordinate the break-in to the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist, and he talks in depth about the way in which he let G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt off their proverbial leashes to pursue what was a dead end information-wise, but a dry run at other illicit activities masterminded by the pair at the behest of Nixon later on (culminating with the break-in of the DNC at the Watergate Hotel in June 1972).
Krogh comes across as sympathetic, because he not only does time for his crimes but he acknowledges how right it was for him to do so. One of the basic tenets of his life is integrity, and he concedes that in his zeal to serve Nixon, he forgot about his own personal integrity and his responsibility to the American people, not just to Nixon. The book isn't especially revealing or stunning in its depiction of Nixon-era crimes and misdemeanors, but it's pretty serviceable as a memoir from a minor player in one of the major political scandals of the twentieth century.
April 3, 2022
This was a book referencing to a operation that went down before the Watergate scandal in Richard Nixon’s time as President. The author was indicted for his part in the “sting” that took place that they knew about and set up. The author thought he was taking care of something that was obstruction of national security. But after everything happened and he was arrested among others, he began to see what his role was in this “sting.” I liked the book. It was okay. Good information about this man who pled guilty over things that shouldn’t even be going on in the government, especially ours. I know some things are needful for security sake, protection of the President, and other important issues, but whenever this comes to be, think long and hard, if it’s for doing for these reasons. Is it because of national security or obstruction of it. There’s a fine line with it all and they need to make sure they’re not crossing it. Thank you to #NetGalley and the publishers, St Martin’s Griffin, and the author, for the opportunity to read and review #TheWhiteHousePlumbers with my honest thoughts and opinions.
March 9, 2022
The White House Plumbers, is a well written memoir, of an inside view of some of the most disheartening times in our nation, during Richard Nixon’s Presidency. The paranoia of Richard Nixon was his downfall. And the downfall of many of those who were loyal to him and who served him. I especially applaud “Bud” Krough for saying he took “full responsibility” for the break in of Dr. Fielding’s office, a psychiatrist treating Daniel Ellsberg, a man suspected of leaking top secret government documents to the Press. While he took “full responsibility’, he did not take “exclusive responsibilty.” So many followed President Nixon with a groupthink philosophy. The Watergate and The National Archives break ins, were appauling events, that also contributed to Nixon’s downfall. So many of Nixon’s staff thought they were acting to preserve National Security. I look forward to watching the HBO series based on this book and will also recommend the book. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advanced copy.
February 27, 2023
Not exactly the best book about the Nixon administration. There is very little in the way of information in this book. It is pretty much Krogh's way of getting everything off his chest, almost like he is confessing to a Priest. It is a quick read, but is pretty much a waste of time.
December 12, 2022
Wow -- this was such an educational and honest read! Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Bud + Peter Kroch for an ARC of this biography/memoir. Several books tell the tale of "Tricky Dicky's" road to Watergate and the greed that led him there, but few tell the story of redemption. This book falls into the latter; it is well-painted portrait of remorse, amends, and forgiveness -- words that one likely wouldn't expect to hear when discussing the Nixon Administration.
Author and narrator set the stage for readers by depicting how quickly greed took hold of Nixon and his men. Nixon's ability to manipulate and to cunningly suck people into blindly following him caused the men of his administration to fall like dominos. Perhaps they didn't want to admit it at the time, but they knew they'd get caught. Rather than focusing heavily on the events of the Watergate break-in, the author educates readers on what led up to said grand finale of the Nixon administration's demise.
Bud Krogh's story isn't another sad and pitiful tale that pins blame on deceitful major players in Nixon's administration. Krogh is one of the few men who made the decision to take full responsibility for his decisions and actions. He didn't just write an apology letter; no -- he claimed he was guilty as charged, and he was clear that he wanted no mercy. He didn't want a presidential pardon. He didn't want leniency. He may have set a poor example for the American People at first, but he ultimately redeemed himself by showing them that he isn't above the law.
It was heartwarming to learn that after Krogh served time and paid for his egregious actions, he met with Nixon to formally apologize for his role in the fall of the Nixon Administration. This truly is a story of someone who was able to move on, but only after doing what he knew was right. Few men involved with Nixon and Watergate could say the same.
Thank you to the Krogh family to sharing their story. Get your copy on #pubday -- 12/27/22! And if you have HBO, I hope you'll join me in their limited series based on this wonderful book.
Author and narrator set the stage for readers by depicting how quickly greed took hold of Nixon and his men. Nixon's ability to manipulate and to cunningly suck people into blindly following him caused the men of his administration to fall like dominos. Perhaps they didn't want to admit it at the time, but they knew they'd get caught. Rather than focusing heavily on the events of the Watergate break-in, the author educates readers on what led up to said grand finale of the Nixon administration's demise.
Bud Krogh's story isn't another sad and pitiful tale that pins blame on deceitful major players in Nixon's administration. Krogh is one of the few men who made the decision to take full responsibility for his decisions and actions. He didn't just write an apology letter; no -- he claimed he was guilty as charged, and he was clear that he wanted no mercy. He didn't want a presidential pardon. He didn't want leniency. He may have set a poor example for the American People at first, but he ultimately redeemed himself by showing them that he isn't above the law.
It was heartwarming to learn that after Krogh served time and paid for his egregious actions, he met with Nixon to formally apologize for his role in the fall of the Nixon Administration. This truly is a story of someone who was able to move on, but only after doing what he knew was right. Few men involved with Nixon and Watergate could say the same.
Thank you to the Krogh family to sharing their story. Get your copy on #pubday -- 12/27/22! And if you have HBO, I hope you'll join me in their limited series based on this wonderful book.
October 16, 2022
The White House Plumbers is the memoir of “Bud” Krough who had an inside view during Richard Nixon’s Presidency.
I wasn't old enough nor was I raised in a politically involved family. So, most of what I read in this book was totally new to me. "The White House Plumbers" occurred prior to the Watergate but the actions of them led to the event most known to me.
I have read a lot about the paranoia of Richard Nixon, but this memoir was more personal because the information came from “Bud” Krough. The actions taken by "Bud" can be understood regarding his awareness and eventual guilty plea, but so can his actions prior to and leading up the break-in of Dr. Fielding's office. Believing what you are being told by someone as important as the President, it must have been difficult to be so caught up in the moment, that you follow thru on orders instead of questioning them.
While he took “full responsibility’, he did not take “exclusive responsibility.” He also made it clear that he did not want, nor would he accept a pardon. He served his time as well as testified truthfully when called to do so. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I love reading about topics such as this that I knew very little about. I feel as if I learned something new and highly recommend this book.
I received an ARC from NetGalley for an unbiased review.
I wasn't old enough nor was I raised in a politically involved family. So, most of what I read in this book was totally new to me. "The White House Plumbers" occurred prior to the Watergate but the actions of them led to the event most known to me.
I have read a lot about the paranoia of Richard Nixon, but this memoir was more personal because the information came from “Bud” Krough. The actions taken by "Bud" can be understood regarding his awareness and eventual guilty plea, but so can his actions prior to and leading up the break-in of Dr. Fielding's office. Believing what you are being told by someone as important as the President, it must have been difficult to be so caught up in the moment, that you follow thru on orders instead of questioning them.
While he took “full responsibility’, he did not take “exclusive responsibility.” He also made it clear that he did not want, nor would he accept a pardon. He served his time as well as testified truthfully when called to do so. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I love reading about topics such as this that I knew very little about. I feel as if I learned something new and highly recommend this book.
I received an ARC from NetGalley for an unbiased review.
March 16, 2022
During the Nixon presidency, author Bud Krogh was in charge of the Special Investigations Unit, a confidential group within the White House, tasked with investigating leaks of government secrets, at first specifically related to the release of the famed Pentagon Papers. This group, who would come to famously be known as “The Plumbers”, were central figures in the Watergate scandal, which ultimately lead to Nixon’s resignation. While this book does not explore the Watergate break-in, it is a fascinating inside look at the genesis of the group that was involved in that event, and the ideals which propelled their actions. The book is definitely a different look, revealing the mindsets of those involved, and the author’s attempts to atone for, and own up to, his own decisions that led to his downfall. It’s a short and quick read, but a must for anyone who has followed the Watergate scandal and its aftermath. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
August 16, 2023
Outside of the need to glorify his sense of revelatory personal responsibility, it’s not clear why this book is needed. Certainly kudos are due Bud Krogh for coming to his senses while surrounded by a pack of sociopaths, power-geeks, and paranoid schizophrenics, but the whole idolization of Nixon and his cronies still irks the soul and spotlights the injustices never sufficiently satisfied.
February 28, 2022
I received The White House Plumbers as an ARC through Netgalley. Bud Krogh describes what he believes to be the beginning of the downfall of Nixon. He was personally involved with The Plumbers and operation that went horribly wrong to retrieve documents from a private citizen. As a lover of all history and historical fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about this time period. Bud should be applauded for recognizing that him and his team had a big misstep and taking responsibility for those actions and the consequences that came with them.
January 3, 2023
The title is somewhat misleading since it centers on Krogh’s experience and the other plumbers don’t feature much but he gives a good first-hand account of his role in starting what woujd snowball into Watergate. There’s a lot of examination on why his moral code required him to plead guilty and face the consequences.
February 28, 2022
An intriguing read on how the Watergate break-in occurred and the aftermath from it. The story is informative and sure to be a great read for the history enthusiast.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
March 1, 2022
I have always been interested in the history of Watergate and this book reveals details from a unique perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys political history. I received an e-book from NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.
February 11, 2025
“Loyalty to the president was obviously important up to a point, however, loyalty to the constitution, to the law, and moral and ethical requirements should have been key factors in my decisions as well.”
This book was written by a man who played a key role in the events that led to the watergate scandal, eventually pled guilty and reflects on what led to his decisions. It’s definitely written from his perspective and is less about watergate and more about his introspection of what led him from being a “man of integrity” to someone who made decisions based on blind loyalty, power, group think, and small steps that led to big decisions. As a lifelong student of human behavior, I find stories like this fascinating and timely and something we all have to be careful of.
This book was written by a man who played a key role in the events that led to the watergate scandal, eventually pled guilty and reflects on what led to his decisions. It’s definitely written from his perspective and is less about watergate and more about his introspection of what led him from being a “man of integrity” to someone who made decisions based on blind loyalty, power, group think, and small steps that led to big decisions. As a lifelong student of human behavior, I find stories like this fascinating and timely and something we all have to be careful of.
December 31, 2022
Thank you to St. Martin Press for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book! Watergate is something I had always heard about in passing, but never has any deep knowledge on. While you do need some context on the Pentagon Papers to understand this, it was far more a memoir on the author’s frame of mind and rebuilding his life post-scandal than it is details about what happened and the trial. Very interesting to see how the author’s perspectives change over the course of him recounting his experiences.
February 16, 2023
I have read a number of books about Watergate over the years. I found this book interesting is that it concentrated on events prior to the actual Watergate break-in. The book glossed over a lot of details, and I felt the author was simply trying to explain why he participated in the illegal activities and somehow clear his name.
January 10, 2023
I did not know that the whole mess started with a break-in of a psychiatrist’s office in So Cal. Easy listen - to the point.
May 11, 2023
Interesting but the writing was pretty bland and it lacked any real analysis of why all the players involved in Watergate did what they did
March 1, 2024
Trash. It’s like reading testimony that’s been scrubbed to shreds by lawyers and PR agents.
Krogh must have bruises from patting himself on the back so much.
Krogh must have bruises from patting himself on the back so much.
April 5, 2023
Offering a few new details (specifically on the Ellsberg psychiatrist break-in) to the Watergate scandal, this book quickly goes downhill as it tries to be a redemption story for Bud Krogh.
Of the cast of Watergate figures doing Nixon's work, Bud Krogh is one of the few with some shred of decency. He acknowledged his mistakes, pled guilty and served his time without asking for additional leniency. However, being one of the "best of the worst" is pretty faint praise.
Krogh is still problematic. Specific to this book, he names the secretary assigned to the "special investigations unit" as one of the Plumbers, on par with Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy. While not innocent, the secretary is rarely, if ever mentioned in other Watergate accounts, so this feels weirdly vindictive.
A majority of the book is Krogh's examination of integrity, and how he says he lost and regained it. While it's an interesting concept, Krogh bangs on about "integrity" so much that it loses its meaning as a word. Krogh's "integrity" usage becomes both a shield and a sword, defending his actions and cutting against those who Krogh doesn't think have done enough to regain it. It feels like an excuse, a lifeline so he could ease his conscience.
Of the cast of Watergate figures doing Nixon's work, Bud Krogh is one of the few with some shred of decency. He acknowledged his mistakes, pled guilty and served his time without asking for additional leniency. However, being one of the "best of the worst" is pretty faint praise.
Krogh is still problematic. Specific to this book, he names the secretary assigned to the "special investigations unit" as one of the Plumbers, on par with Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy. While not innocent, the secretary is rarely, if ever mentioned in other Watergate accounts, so this feels weirdly vindictive.
A majority of the book is Krogh's examination of integrity, and how he says he lost and regained it. While it's an interesting concept, Krogh bangs on about "integrity" so much that it loses its meaning as a word. Krogh's "integrity" usage becomes both a shield and a sword, defending his actions and cutting against those who Krogh doesn't think have done enough to regain it. It feels like an excuse, a lifeline so he could ease his conscience.
May 2, 2023
This fascinating book, though brief in size, carries a large message about ethics in government. It seems almost quaint today following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot/insurrection and other scandals, but it is hard to overstate what a shock it was at the time to learn that the President of the United States was ordering illegal break-ins, wiretaps and other similar activities, not for national security, as Nixon claimed, but for political advantage. Co-author Egil "Bud" Krogh, one of the Watergate co-conspirators, had a genuine moral crisis as he took in what he had participated in in the belief that he was serving his country. The HBO series based on this book is delightful but prefers broad comedy to explore the sobering question: What are we capable of doing when something in authority asks us to do it? Bud, whom I had the pleasure to know while he was alive, was one of the most upright people I have ever met and his answer to that question would benefit any reader who likes history, politics or who struggles with questions of ethics, which we all should and hopefully do. The prose is brisk, lively and to the point. You will enjoy this book.
June 19, 2022
Fifty years ago the Washington Post broke the story of President Richard Nixon paying political cronies to spy on his political enemies. Today seemingly investigative journalism is not trusted to either be non-partisan or even to be a valid tool. Bud and Mathew Krogh were directly impacted by this. Bud as a member of the "White House Plumbers" was tasked with finding the leaks to the press and was sentenced to prison for the crimes committed by the group and Mathew his son. We all need to take heed of those that represent us as a nation and remember we are all supposed to be governed by the same laws.
December 31, 2023
This was definitely my fault, but when I first saw the title I thought this book would be about *actual* plumbers at the White House. Which, to be honest, might have been more entertaining than this book. I’m up for any behind-the-scenes look at the presidency, so stories of their toilet cleaners would no doubt deliver on multiple levels. However, this did have good information. It was both sad and thoughtful and I appreciated how the author and his father sought to get the truth out without making excuses for his decisions. A good read.
July 11, 2023
This book is a fascinating insight into the upper echelons of government and into one of the biggest news stories of my mid-childhood. It is brief and written in a minimalist, factual style that is closer to a legal report than to conventional literature. What it lacks in literary merit, it makes up for in content. I was 10 when the Watergate break-in took place, and I can still remember hearing the news of the arrest of the burglars on the radio during breakfast the following morning. It became the dominant news story for the next two years.
Egil ‘Bud’ Krogh’s involvement in Watergate was, strangely, both peripheral and central. A lawyer who became part of Nixon’s White House staff, he was ordered by Nixon to try and establish the source of a couple of leaks to the New York Times of papers relating to the Vietnam War and to the US’s negotiating position on the Salt I disarmament talks. Nixon told Krogh that finding the source of the leaks was a matter of national security. The title of the book stems from the fact that the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) established by Krogh was supposed to ‘plug leaks’.
When the CIA and FBI proved uncooperative in bugging phones and conducting polygraph tests to help the SIU, rather than take the hint that what they were doing might have been unconstitutional, the SIU simply ploughed on. In his own words: “Liddy’s report to us about this deficiency was an important factor in the self-help mentality that then began to emerge in the unit. Rather than questioning the Bureau’s lack of support, we resolved to go forward on our own with the investigation.”
The leaks about the Vietnam War had been released to the New York Times by Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the relevant papers, and Krogh knew that Ellsberg consulted a psychiatrist by the name of Fielding. In the hope of finding a link between Ellsberg and the Soviets that could be used to discredit Ellsberg, Krogh authorised an illicit break-in to Fielding's office. In his own words: “At this time in the Plumbers’ operation, I wasn’t able to differentiate between matters of national security considerations and matters that were primarily political. My inability to clearly delineate these considerations may have stemmed from the president’s own views, in which his political survival and well-being were conflated with his idea of a national security imperative.”
The break-in revealed nothing but, on hearing the detailed reports of the break-in, the penny finally dropped. Krogh realised that the SIU had gone too far, being particularly shocked by the revelation that G Gordon Liddy had carried a knife to the break-in and would have been prepared to use it. Krogh quit the SIU and moved the Department of Transportation. Several months later, it was the SIU team co-established by Krogh which was caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel to bug the headquarters of the Democratic Party.
The book is revealing on many levels. First and foremost, it shows how an essentially decent man can become corrupted and blind to a wider reality when they convince themselves of the moral rectitude of a particular course of action. (That Krogh was an essentially decent man is a conclusion with which it is hard to disagree: he pleaded guilty and refused to testify against anyone else until after he had been sentenced so that there could be no question of him receiving a reduced sentence in exchange for information.)
The second great revelation is that the book effectively undermines every myth about conspiracy theories involving the US government. The sheer level of incompetence displayed by the break-in team – in a logic-defying effort to make it look like the break-in to Fielding’s office was by people searching for drugs, they threw drugs around the floor – means that no reasonable person would put any real trust into field operatives being able to implement a plan properly.
Furthermore, it is quite clear that the rivalries at the top echelons of the US system (and almost certainly every other system) are so great, indeed bordering on internecine rivalry, that no-one could ever trust anyone else not to reveal a conspiracy. The CIA and FBI in particular clearly hated and distrusted each other so much that both would have leapt at any opportunity to undermine the other. This makes sense: either agency undermining the other would almost certainly boost its own power.
Even the suggestion that the FBI and CIA do the President’s bidding doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny, which is why the SIU had to resort to self-sufficiency in the first place. The heads of both organisations will invariably hope to outlast individual presidents, and will therefore fight not only to protect and preserve their individual fiefdoms, but also to resist anything that might undermine the power of those organisations in return for short-term gain. One of the most fascinating incidents in the book for me was Hoover calling Nixon and telling him that if a threatened congressional investigation into the FBI were to proceed: “Hoover would be forced to testify about “all” he knew about the Bureau’s national security investigations” and reveal warrantless wiretaps implemented by the FBI at the White House’s insistence.
And that to me is the last word on why conspiracy theories are invariably nonsense: if you can’t even trust your co-conspirator, how can you implement a conspiracy?
Egil ‘Bud’ Krogh’s involvement in Watergate was, strangely, both peripheral and central. A lawyer who became part of Nixon’s White House staff, he was ordered by Nixon to try and establish the source of a couple of leaks to the New York Times of papers relating to the Vietnam War and to the US’s negotiating position on the Salt I disarmament talks. Nixon told Krogh that finding the source of the leaks was a matter of national security. The title of the book stems from the fact that the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) established by Krogh was supposed to ‘plug leaks’.
When the CIA and FBI proved uncooperative in bugging phones and conducting polygraph tests to help the SIU, rather than take the hint that what they were doing might have been unconstitutional, the SIU simply ploughed on. In his own words: “Liddy’s report to us about this deficiency was an important factor in the self-help mentality that then began to emerge in the unit. Rather than questioning the Bureau’s lack of support, we resolved to go forward on our own with the investigation.”
The leaks about the Vietnam War had been released to the New York Times by Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the relevant papers, and Krogh knew that Ellsberg consulted a psychiatrist by the name of Fielding. In the hope of finding a link between Ellsberg and the Soviets that could be used to discredit Ellsberg, Krogh authorised an illicit break-in to Fielding's office. In his own words: “At this time in the Plumbers’ operation, I wasn’t able to differentiate between matters of national security considerations and matters that were primarily political. My inability to clearly delineate these considerations may have stemmed from the president’s own views, in which his political survival and well-being were conflated with his idea of a national security imperative.”
The break-in revealed nothing but, on hearing the detailed reports of the break-in, the penny finally dropped. Krogh realised that the SIU had gone too far, being particularly shocked by the revelation that G Gordon Liddy had carried a knife to the break-in and would have been prepared to use it. Krogh quit the SIU and moved the Department of Transportation. Several months later, it was the SIU team co-established by Krogh which was caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel to bug the headquarters of the Democratic Party.
The book is revealing on many levels. First and foremost, it shows how an essentially decent man can become corrupted and blind to a wider reality when they convince themselves of the moral rectitude of a particular course of action. (That Krogh was an essentially decent man is a conclusion with which it is hard to disagree: he pleaded guilty and refused to testify against anyone else until after he had been sentenced so that there could be no question of him receiving a reduced sentence in exchange for information.)
The second great revelation is that the book effectively undermines every myth about conspiracy theories involving the US government. The sheer level of incompetence displayed by the break-in team – in a logic-defying effort to make it look like the break-in to Fielding’s office was by people searching for drugs, they threw drugs around the floor – means that no reasonable person would put any real trust into field operatives being able to implement a plan properly.
Furthermore, it is quite clear that the rivalries at the top echelons of the US system (and almost certainly every other system) are so great, indeed bordering on internecine rivalry, that no-one could ever trust anyone else not to reveal a conspiracy. The CIA and FBI in particular clearly hated and distrusted each other so much that both would have leapt at any opportunity to undermine the other. This makes sense: either agency undermining the other would almost certainly boost its own power.
Even the suggestion that the FBI and CIA do the President’s bidding doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny, which is why the SIU had to resort to self-sufficiency in the first place. The heads of both organisations will invariably hope to outlast individual presidents, and will therefore fight not only to protect and preserve their individual fiefdoms, but also to resist anything that might undermine the power of those organisations in return for short-term gain. One of the most fascinating incidents in the book for me was Hoover calling Nixon and telling him that if a threatened congressional investigation into the FBI were to proceed: “Hoover would be forced to testify about “all” he knew about the Bureau’s national security investigations” and reveal warrantless wiretaps implemented by the FBI at the White House’s insistence.
And that to me is the last word on why conspiracy theories are invariably nonsense: if you can’t even trust your co-conspirator, how can you implement a conspiracy?
July 26, 2022
This book really paints a picture of the White House plumbers and what their job was. It really sheds light on some interesting facts that have not been shared before. What really happened behind those closed door meetings that they had with the president??? read this book to find out???
January 26, 2025
read as a nervous man trying to convince himself that his father wasn’t a villain
December 11, 2022
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this history/ memoir dealing with the Nixon administration, Watergate, and the consequences of one's actions in blind obedience.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, but for a lot of people, corruption sets in just in being close to power, absolute or not. How do so many otherwise rational people, supposedly moral, supposedly religious, supposedly from strong military backgrounds toss all these thoughts aside when a president goes, who will rid me of meddlesome leaker. Or a person who says not nice things about the person in power on Twitter. And why do they do it so happily, jumping right in and saying yes I am your lap dog, so much more loyal than all the other lap dogs praising you, I will do these otherwise illegal actions that all my training, teaching and conscience are telling me is wrong, unethical, downright illegal, and frankly stupid. Egil "Bud" Krogh was a lawyer, military man and someone who thought they were a good person. Until he was brought into the inner sanction of the Nixon Administration. The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency written with his son Matthew Krogh are an attempt to write and understand what led him down from promising up-and-comer to prison in a very short period of time.
Bud Krogh was a proud member of the presidential transition team, making sure that future cabinet officials and department heads were clear of any possible ethics violations in relation to the jobs they were offered. There are some funny stories about that time, as Krogh and his friends really didn't know much about politics or governance, but heard the stories of campaign veterans and wanted to not only know more, but be more in politics. Krogh got his chance as John Ehrlichman, counsel to President Nixon was a family friend, and father figure to Krogh, bringing Krough to the White House, where he was given a very important mission. The president was concerned about the amount of leaks the administration was dealing with. The New York Times and Washington Post were printing material that made it hard for Nixon to govern and deal with among other things peace in Vietnam. Krogh was given orders, find the leaks and stop them. Krogh gathered a real interesting gang of plumbers to help with these, and from there everything started to go wrong.
The book is small and really does not go into depth into why or what Krogh was thinking or why what started small escalated into robbery, or some of the other insane, and frankly stupid ideas that otherwise smart men thought to do. At one point Krogh mentions that Ehrlichman was a father figure so maybe that was a factor. Also at the time the President was still someone that people respected, and expected to know best. If the President said jump and break into this building I am sure most people would ask how high, and should we blow the safe. So don't go into the book for insight or deep moral questions. There is a lot about the other Plumbers, and working for the administration, and Krogh's life after which is interesting. However an understanding of Nixon and his people and the problems that were going on will help, as the book does not explain much outside of Krogh's circle and their relations to the president and events.
Recommended for readers of Watergate and Nixon books, both of which I am guilty of. This one is a little more personal, not revelatory but is still of interest. What does become clear is that draw that power has on people, a song of both greed and status and maybe a pat on the head that I will never understand, or if offered might think better of.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, but for a lot of people, corruption sets in just in being close to power, absolute or not. How do so many otherwise rational people, supposedly moral, supposedly religious, supposedly from strong military backgrounds toss all these thoughts aside when a president goes, who will rid me of meddlesome leaker. Or a person who says not nice things about the person in power on Twitter. And why do they do it so happily, jumping right in and saying yes I am your lap dog, so much more loyal than all the other lap dogs praising you, I will do these otherwise illegal actions that all my training, teaching and conscience are telling me is wrong, unethical, downright illegal, and frankly stupid. Egil "Bud" Krogh was a lawyer, military man and someone who thought they were a good person. Until he was brought into the inner sanction of the Nixon Administration. The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency written with his son Matthew Krogh are an attempt to write and understand what led him down from promising up-and-comer to prison in a very short period of time.
Bud Krogh was a proud member of the presidential transition team, making sure that future cabinet officials and department heads were clear of any possible ethics violations in relation to the jobs they were offered. There are some funny stories about that time, as Krogh and his friends really didn't know much about politics or governance, but heard the stories of campaign veterans and wanted to not only know more, but be more in politics. Krogh got his chance as John Ehrlichman, counsel to President Nixon was a family friend, and father figure to Krogh, bringing Krough to the White House, where he was given a very important mission. The president was concerned about the amount of leaks the administration was dealing with. The New York Times and Washington Post were printing material that made it hard for Nixon to govern and deal with among other things peace in Vietnam. Krogh was given orders, find the leaks and stop them. Krogh gathered a real interesting gang of plumbers to help with these, and from there everything started to go wrong.
The book is small and really does not go into depth into why or what Krogh was thinking or why what started small escalated into robbery, or some of the other insane, and frankly stupid ideas that otherwise smart men thought to do. At one point Krogh mentions that Ehrlichman was a father figure so maybe that was a factor. Also at the time the President was still someone that people respected, and expected to know best. If the President said jump and break into this building I am sure most people would ask how high, and should we blow the safe. So don't go into the book for insight or deep moral questions. There is a lot about the other Plumbers, and working for the administration, and Krogh's life after which is interesting. However an understanding of Nixon and his people and the problems that were going on will help, as the book does not explain much outside of Krogh's circle and their relations to the president and events.
Recommended for readers of Watergate and Nixon books, both of which I am guilty of. This one is a little more personal, not revelatory but is still of interest. What does become clear is that draw that power has on people, a song of both greed and status and maybe a pat on the head that I will never understand, or if offered might think better of.
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