The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate
by: James Rosen
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The Strong Man is the first full-scale biography of John N. Mitchell, the central figure in the rise and ruin of Richard Nixon and the highest-ranking American official ever convicted on criminal charges.
As U.S. attorney general from 1969 to 1972, John Mitchell stood at the center of the upheavals of the late sixties. The most powerful man in the Nixon cabinet, a confident troubleshooter, Mitchell championed law and order against the bomb-throwers of the antiwar movement, desegregated the South’s public schools, restored calm after the killings at Kent State, and steered the commander-in-chief through the Pentagon Papers and Joint Chiefs spying crises. After leaving office, Mitchell survived the ITT and Vesco scandals—but was ultimately destroyed by Watergate.
With a novelist’s skill, James Rosen traces Mitchell’s early life and career from his Long Island boyhood to his mastery of Wall Street, where Mitchell's innovations in municipal finance made him a power broker to the Rockefellers and mayors and governors in all fifty states. After merging law firms with Richard Nixon, Mitchell brilliantly managed Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign and, at his urging, reluctantly agreed to serve as attorney general. With his steely demeanor and trademark pipe, Mitchell commanded awe throughout the government as Nixon’s most trusted adviser, the only man in Washington who could say no to the president.
Chronicling the collapse of the Nixon presidency, The Strong Man follows America’s former top cop on his singular odyssey through the criminal justice system—a tortuous maze of camera crews, congressional hearings, special prosecutors, and federal trials. The path led, ultimately, to a prison cell in Montgomery, Alabama, where Mitchell was welcomed into federal custody by the same men he had appointed to office. Rosen also reveals the dark truth about Mitchell’s marriage to the flamboyant and volatile Martha Mitchell: her slide into alcoholism and madness, their bitter divorce, and the toll it all took on their daughter, Marty.
Based on 250 original interviews and hundreds of thousands of previously unpublished documents and tapes, The Strong Man resolves definitively the central mysteries of the Nixon era: the true purpose of the Watergate break-in, who ordered it, the hidden role played by the Central Intelligence Agency, and those behind the cover-up.
A landmark of history and biography, The Strong Man is that rarest of books: both a model of scholarly research and savvy analysis and a masterful literary achievement.
The Strong Man is the first full-scale biography of John N. Mitchell, the central figure in the rise and ruin of Richard Nixon and the highest-ranking American official ever convicted on criminal charges.
As U.S. attorney general from 1969 to 1972, John Mitchell stood at the center of the upheavals of the late sixties. The most powerful man in the Nixon cabinet, a confident troubleshooter, Mitchell championed law and order against the bomb-throwers of the antiwar movement, desegregated the South’s public schools, restored calm after the killings at Kent State, and steered the commander-in-chief through the Pentagon Papers and Joint Chiefs spying crises. After leaving office, Mitchell survived the ITT and Vesco scandals—but was ultimately destroyed by Watergate.
With a novelist’s skill, James Rosen traces Mitchell’s early life and career from his Long Island boyhood to his mastery of Wall Street, where Mitchell's innovations in municipal finance made him a power broker to the Rockefellers and mayors and governors in all fifty states. After merging law firms with Richard Nixon, Mitchell brilliantly managed Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign and, at his urging, reluctantly agreed to serve as attorney general. With his steely demeanor and trademark pipe, Mitchell commanded awe throughout the government as Nixon’s most trusted adviser, the only man in Washington who could say no to the president.
Chronicling the collapse of the Nixon presidency, The Strong Man follows America’s former top cop on his singular odyssey through the criminal justice system—a tortuous maze of camera crews, congressional hearings, special prosecutors, and federal trials. The path led, ultimately, to a prison cell in Montgomery, Alabama, where Mitchell was welcomed into federal custody by the same men he had appointed to office. Rosen also reveals the dark truth about Mitchell’s marriage to the flamboyant and volatile Martha Mitchell: her slide into alcoholism and madness, their bitter divorce, and the toll it all took on their daughter, Marty.
Based on 250 original interviews and hundreds of thousands of previously unpublished documents and tapes, The Strong Man resolves definitively the central mysteries of the Nixon era: the true purpose of the Watergate break-in, who ordered it, the hidden role played by the Central Intelligence Agency, and those behind the cover-up.
A landmark of history and biography, The Strong Man is that rarest of books: both a model of scholarly research and savvy analysis and a masterful literary achievement.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- History Relived
This is an extraordinary piece of historical writing.It reads like a political thriller combined with Greek tragedy as it records the downfall of a great and honorable man who is done in by liliputian political operatives.Rosen accessed hitherto either ignored or unavailable resources such as the internal files of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's office in order to finally answer the question: who was really behind the Watergate break-in?
Rating: - A Superb Biography & Watergate Update
James Rosen, a long time news correspondent for the Fox News Channel, has written the first full biography of former Attorney General John Mitchell, entitled The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate. Rosen's thesis is that Mitchell was not guilty of many of the crimes in which he was convicted in United States v. Mitchell, better known as the Watergate Trial. In that trial, Mitchell and a handful of others were convicted of the conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury resulting ... Read More
Rating: - Not Just the Only John Mitchell Watergate Story, the Definitive One
As one who was a young federal lawyer in the early '70s and a former state College Young Republicans chair, with a wife who was detailed to the White House after Nixon resigned and for a time held custody of the Nixon Tapes for the National Archives, I have more than a passing interest in Watergate and have ready many, though by no means all, of the books by or about key characters. James Rosen's book weighs like a tome and is supported by a staggering amount of research and analysis in original and often ... Read More
Rating: - Masterful political biography
James Rosen had done a masterful job of researching and writing a political biograhy that illuminates both a central figure of the Watergate era and the events that we refer to as "Watergate" and its aftermath.Rosen provides impressive detail to explain both (1) John Mitchell's professional successes as a bond lawyer, as a political operative and campaign manager for Richard Nixon, and (surpisingly given his reputation) as Attorney General responsible for important civil rights achievements and efforts to ... Read More
Rating: - Something New on Nixon
It's been awhile since we've seen something new on the Nixon administration. James Rosen's book fills that bill. I spent 11 years as the supervisory archivist of the Nixon tapes and found much new material in this book; he really did his research. Inasmuch as there will be continuing interest in the Nixon administration for decades, this book will have a long life. Highly recommended.
- History RelivedThis is an extraordinary piece of historical writing.It reads like a political thriller combined with Greek tragedy as it records the downfall of a great and honorable man who is done in by liliputian political operatives.Rosen accessed hitherto either ignored or unavailable resources such as the internal files of the Watergate Special Prosecutor's office in order to finally answer the question: who was really behind the Watergate break-in?
- A Superb Biography & Watergate UpdateJames Rosen, a long time news correspondent for the Fox News Channel, has written the first full biography of former Attorney General John Mitchell, entitled The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate. Rosen's thesis is that Mitchell was not guilty of many of the crimes in which he was convicted in United States v. Mitchell, better known as the Watergate Trial. In that trial, Mitchell and a handful of others were convicted of the conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury resulting ... Read More
- Not Just the Only John Mitchell Watergate Story, the Definitive OneAs one who was a young federal lawyer in the early '70s and a former state College Young Republicans chair, with a wife who was detailed to the White House after Nixon resigned and for a time held custody of the Nixon Tapes for the National Archives, I have more than a passing interest in Watergate and have ready many, though by no means all, of the books by or about key characters. James Rosen's book weighs like a tome and is supported by a staggering amount of research and analysis in original and often ... Read More
- Masterful political biographyJames Rosen had done a masterful job of researching and writing a political biograhy that illuminates both a central figure of the Watergate era and the events that we refer to as "Watergate" and its aftermath.Rosen provides impressive detail to explain both (1) John Mitchell's professional successes as a bond lawyer, as a political operative and campaign manager for Richard Nixon, and (surpisingly given his reputation) as Attorney General responsible for important civil rights achievements and efforts to ... Read More
- Something New on NixonIt's been awhile since we've seen something new on the Nixon administration. James Rosen's book fills that bill. I spent 11 years as the supervisory archivist of the Nixon tapes and found much new material in this book; he really did his research. Inasmuch as there will be continuing interest in the Nixon administration for decades, this book will have a long life. Highly recommended.
