The Wars of Watergate.

• Author: Stern, Carl

The Wars of Watergate Stanley I. Kutler. Knopf, $24.95. The Library of Congress lists 229 "Watergate" books. So who needs another one? Thank heavens University of Wisconsin historian Stanley Kutler has gathered in 620 pages most of what you need to know about Watergate and Richard Nixon just at the moment when Nixon, who has spent a lifetime concocting alibis, is at it again.

In his latest memoir, the former president writes, "I played by the rules of politics as I found them. Not taking a higher road than my predecessors and my adversaries was my principal mistake." In other words, Nixon is still blaming other people.

Indeed, almost every chapter of Kutler's book reminds the reader of one consistent thread in Nixon's anxiety-ridden life--reaching for the least-principled option, based on the rationale that others did as bad or worse. When Nixon ordered the IRS to harass White House "enemies," he insisted he was only doing what the Democracts did. He called vote fraud and dirty tricks familiar stuff. When the Supreme Court scolded his Justice Department for unlawful wiretaps, Nixon responded that his administration had reduced wiretaps, by 50 percent from the all-time under former Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Kutler doesn't mention other examples that come quickly to mind. When the hidden White House taping system was revealed, Nixon said Lyndon Johnson's was far better than his. Actually, Johnson had only a dictating machine, while Nixon used a seven microphone, automatic mixing and switching system. When Nixon got in trouble for taking huge illegal tax write-offs on the presidential papers he donated to the public, he said he got that idea from Johnson. But in fact, Nixon had taken tax write-offs long before he became president.

Kutler's compendium has flaws. For example, he states that the CIA must obtain court approval for domestic wiretaps, when in fact the CIA is barred from surveillance activities within the United States. Kutler's biggest handicap may be that he was not present at the events he describes. The drama and turbulence are missing. I recall vividly being NBC's White House reporter the night Nixon fired the special prosecutor and accepted the resignations of the attorney general and his deputy. Standing on the White House lawn, struggling to describe the enormity of the moment, all I could think of to start my story was "President Nixon tonight jumped from the frying pan into the fire."

Kutler succeeds in giving...