This isn't exactly a revisionist biography of Nixon administration Atty. Gen. John Mitchell, because as author James Rosen observes remarkably in The Strong Man -- John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate, his is the first biography ever written of the only U.S. attorney general ever to be imprisoned.
But such was the conventional wisdom of the man while he was in office, as the personification of evil, that it is arresting to read from Rosen's interviews evidence that Mitchell was "A tremendous worker, loyal, nice to people, good to (them)...He rewarded people well, they worked hard, and they'd bust their ass for him, but he took care of them....He was so unpretentious, so plain, so nice, so at ease that he made you feel at ease." Rosen's take on Mitchell the man is that of a "tough, unapologetic, drolly funny, unwaveringly loyal strong man..."
Not only did Mitchell fall on his sword for Nixon, perhaps sparing the president from prison, but he never wrote the tell-all memoir that enriched the likes of Bob Haldeman, John Erlichmann, and in a current context, George W. Bush's former press secretary Scott McClellan. Among the many Nixon-era aspects Rosen deals with are the purpose of the Watergate break-in and who actually ordered it, the CIA's role in Watergate, who masterminded the Watergate cover-up, how the Joint Chiefs of Staff spied on Nixon and Kissinger, the troubled life of Mitchell's wife Martha, and Henry Kissinger's wiretaps on newsmen.
