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Scorpions' Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate Audiobook
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For the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in: The untold story of President Richard Nixon, CIA Director Richard Helms, and their volatile shared secrets that ended a presidency. Scorpions' Dance by intelligence expert and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley reveals the Watergate scandal in a completely new light: as the culmination of a concealed, deadly power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms. Nixon and Helms went back decades; both were 1950s Cold Warriors, and both knew secrets about the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba as well as off-the-books American government and CIA plots to remove Fidel Castro and other leaders in Latin America. Both had enough information on each other to ruin their careers. After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI's investigation. He sought Helms' support and asked that the CIA intervene—knowing that most of the Watergate burglars were retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets with deep knowledge of the Agency's most sensitive secrets. The two now circled each other like scorpions, defending themselves with the threat of lethal attack. The loser would resign his office in disgrace; the winner, however, would face consequences for the secrets he had kept. Rigorously researched and dramatically told, Scorpions' Dance uses long-neglected evidence to reveal a new perspective on one of America's most notorious presidential scandals. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press.
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"Just when you think you’ve read everything there is to read about Watergate, along comes another analysis seen through a different lens. This is particularly true of Jefferson Morley’s new book Scorpions’ Dance…[that] reveals a number of unexploded hand grenades previously undiscovered."
— Gary Hart, United States Senator (Ret.)
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“Morley’s pen is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel…He gives us hidden history.”
— Anthony Summers, New York Times bestselling author -
“Offering new and fascinating details…Scorpions’ Dance thoughtfully explores the relationship of the presidency to the intelligence community.”
— Spy Talk -
“This is a vital reconsideration of recent American history.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Pruden’s performance is engaging…[and] draws listeners in as if they are receiving firsthand information in this tale of two Richards. The tone and pacing of Pruden’s voice illuminates characters who are playing their roles in the tempest of high political theater.“
— AudioFile
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About Jefferson Morley
Jefferson Morley is a journalist and editor who has worked in Washington journalism for over thirty years, fifteen of which were spent as an editor and reporter at the Washington Post. The author of Our Man in Mexico, a biography of the CIA’s Mexico City station chief Winston Scott, he has written about intelligence, military, and political subjects for Salon, The Atlantic, and The Intercept, among others. He is the editor of JFK Facts, a blog.
About John Pruden
John Pruden is an Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator. His exposure to many people, places, and experiences throughout his life provides a deep creative well from which he draws his narrative and vocal characterizations. His narration of The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers was chosen by the Washington Post as a Best Audiobook of 2010.