cover image Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House

Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices, and Life Lessons from the White House

Cameron Stauth. PublicAffairs, $25 (220pp) ISBN 978-1-58648-467-5

Although the Watergate scandal covers well-trod ground, Krogh has the perspective to provide a new angle on the Nixon administration and the perpetration of one of the most infamous political crimes in American history. Part of the book's appeal stems from the fact that Watergate itself is not the central focus, since Krogh was no longer involved with Nixon's ""plumbers"" at the time the scandal occurred. Instead, the political decisions leading up to the creation of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the motivations of the individuals in that group and the break-in to Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office take center stage in Krogh's account, giving the reader a novel slant on a well known story. From his position as one of three leaders of the SIU (along with E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy), Krogh has a singular vantage point, and 30 years later he's had plenty of time to dissect the ethics and effects of the momentous decisions that led to the Nixon presidency's downfall. Krogh's conclusion is that the crimes have their roots in a breakdown of integrity, giving it wide applicability to the current age of government scandal and high crime.