Illustrations on endpapers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 689-757) and index.

Prologue: The Pentagon papers -- Part I: The kindling, 1971. All the President's men ; "Ellsberg? I've never heard of him" ; The Chennault affair ; The Huston plan ; Burglarizing Brookings ; The plumbers ; The enemies list ; Sandwedge -- Part II: The match, 1972. The Committee to Re-Elect ; The Dita Beard memo ; "He's our Hitler" ; Third-rate burglars ; "A crime that could destroy us all" ; "Boys will be boys" ; "Stay the hell out of this" ; "Keep my mouth shut" ; The arrival of Mr. Rivers ; The Dahlberg check ; The Patman probe ; "A hell of a story" ; "I can't talk about Segretti" ; Landslide -- Part III: Brushfire, January-June 1973. "Something was rotten" ; Guilty pleas ; The "country lawyer" enters ; "Twist slowly, slowly in the wind" ; "Perjury occurred" ; "What meat do they eat" ; "Voice of doom" ; The end of Mark Felt ; "A no-win job" ; "A Russian novel" -- Part IV: Firestorm, July-December 1973. "We need you today" ; Butterfield's bombshell ; Must-see TV ; Spiro ; "An upheaval in Washington" ; Mud-wrestling ; "He is essentially alone" ; "The mahogany coffin" ; The massacre ; "We have no functional President" ; The patriotic monkey ; "I am not a crook" ; The Rose Mary stretch ; "Do I fight?" -- Part V: Inferno, 1974. Flutter and wow ; Le grand fromage ; "Don't miss page 503" ; The United States v. Richard M. Nixon ; Impeachment ; The smoking pistol ; The final days ; "A day for tears" ; "I shall resign" -- Epilogue: Nixon's curse.