Fifty years after Watergate, researcher Shane O'Sullivan uncovers the chilling true story of the infamous break-in, revealing a web of political espionage and deception. The 1968 election victory of Richard Nixon hinged on an "October Surprise," a treasonous plot orchestrated by Anna Chennault and key Republican figures to sabotage peace talks with South Vietnam, resulting in countless American casualties. While Nixon's campaign employed "dirty tricks" in 1968, they were ultimately caught four years later. Utilizing the CIA's recently declassified history of Watergate and thousands of unpublished documents, O'Sullivan provides a definitive account of the men behind the break-in. He meticulously details their connections to the CIA and how these ties implicated both the Agency and the White House in break-ins targeting Daniel Ellsberg and the Democratic National Committee's Watergate offices, which led to Nixon's downfall. The narrative poses intriguing questions: How did a malfunctioning bug lead to the burglars' capture? Why was a bug on DNC official Spencer Oliver's phone discovered months later? And what was the fate of a CIA agent involved in the plot? This updated paperback edition, released for Watergate's fiftieth anniversary, includes new insights from key figures like burglar James McCord and whistleblower Alfred Baldwin, enriching the historical account.
