Unclassified Documents Reveal Deep State Subversion
The Watergate scandal remains one of the most widely publicized political episodes of the twentieth century. Yet despite extensive media coverage at the time, the full truth of President Richard Nixon’s involvement has taken decades to uncover. Just this week, another long-missing piece of the puzzle surrounding Nixon’s presidency finally fell into place.
In a recent New York Times article, Watergate historian and Newsmax White House correspondent James Rosen reveals the contents of a seven-page file that had remained sealed for fifty years. The newly uncovered transcript records a conversation between President Nixon and Watergate prosecutors in which Nixon discussed a little-known surveillance plot carried out against him by his own senior military personnel—a plot that had originally been discovered by the infamous White House Plumbers.
As Rosen explains, the sealed portion of the transcript sheds new light on the complex foreign policy and national security concerns that led Nixon to suppress the spying scandal, fearing that exposing it would implicate his military commanders. President Nixon also recounts a face-to-face encounter with the mole at the center of the operation, Navy Yeoman Charles Radford.
Rosen’s article offers fascinating historical details and groundbreaking insight into one of the most controversial presidencies in American history. Read the full piece here.
Unpacking the Watergate Myth
Although the full facts of the Watergate scandal remained murky for decades, the event quickly assumed mythic status in the American imagination. President Nixon’s impeachment and resignation have been long portrayed as the end of the “imperial presidency” and the reassertion of constitutional limits against executive abuse of power.
In an essay for the Claremont Review of Books, Nathan Pinkoski challenges this narrative, calling it “the great cover-up of the last decades of the 20th century.” The real story of the Nixon presidency, Pinkoski argues, is that of a president trying—and ultimately failing—to rein in the subversive activities of his own military and intelligence agencies. Whatever Nixon’s methods, the historical record over the past several decades suggests that his mistrust of the federal bureaucracy was not without cause.
Pinkoski further contends that the national security establishment, the media, and political elites combined forces to achieve the “symbolic murder of presidential authority” by removing Nixon from office. The American public, he argues, was primed to participate in this scapegoating ritual amid rising anxieties about authoritarianism—an undercurrent that continues to shape today’s political culture.
In the end, Pinkoski concludes that the real Watergate scandal is the refusal to recognize and confront the workings of the deep state, as Nixon sought and failed to do. What do you think?
Compendium
Every article we feature here is available to read for free. Articles from paywalled publications are available through gift links.
Oren Cass on the problems of financialization in The New York Times, and Michael Munger’s reply in Civitas Outlook.
Robert George reviews Harvey Mansfield’s latest book on the use of human reason in The Washington Free Beacon.
Lara Brown and John Power on Peter Thiel’s belief in the Antichrist and his thoughts on Armageddon in The Spectator.
Brad Wilcox on marriage as the path to living a meaningful and fulfilling life in Compact.
The NYT Editorial Board on the legalization of marijuana and its growing abuses in The New York Times.
Christian Smith on the dissolution of a coherent Catholic identity at Notre Dame in First Things.
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This week, from ISI’s Digital Media:
This week, we’re featuring an episode of Daring Greatly, an interview series with ISI President and CEO Johnny Burtka. In this episode, he interviews Vivek Ramaswamy on President Nixon’s legacy. Their conversation covers Nixon’s pragmatism and foreign policy and even suggests that Nixon was targeted during the Watergate scandal, as recently released documents have revealed.
Daring Greatly is an interview series that examines the heart of leadership based on lessons from great men and women of history. Watch the full series here.
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This week, from the Collegiate Network:
ISI’s Collegiate Network supports over 80 student-run publications across the country, empowering students to run independent college newspapers, magazines, and journals that report on important issues ignored by the mainstream media.
Walking the Lifeline via The Harper Review
An exploration of cultural and philosophical perspectives on mourning and the nature of suffering in light of a tragedy in the author’s personal life.
Making America Healthy Again: An Exclusive Interview with Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill via The Wisconsin Standard
An interview with Deputy Secretary O'Neill on the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative, highlighting its efforts to overhaul U.S. health policy, tackle chronic disease and fraud, and reform dietary guidelines.
Let's Talk About the AI Girlfriend via The New Guard Press
An honest critique of increasing AI dependency and how humans are risking the displacement of genuine human connection.
Miller Center Reviews Trump's Second First Year via The Jefferson Independent
Reports on a recent Miller Center panel that analyzed President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, discussing his expanded executive power, personnel decisions, and implications for congressional authority and future governance.
Ghost Money: Our Endowment Problem via The Dartmouth Review
An evaluation of Dartmouth's endowment and its "Ghost Money," which masquerades as a stable fund while misallocating resources and threatening Dartmouth's economic stability.
Visit our Student Journalism section to read more from the Collegiate Network.
The Collapse of Global Liberalism?
Last week, the Intercollegiate Review featured three different perspectives on liberalism and its influence on Western civilization, including a review of Irish economist Philip Pilkington’s new book, The Collapse of Global Liberalism: And the Emergence of the Post Liberal World Order.
This week, Modern Age featured a conversation between Pilkington and Gene Callahan on the future of liberalism. In their conversation, Pilkington distinguishes between two forms of liberalism: “soft liberalism,” which coexists with traditional hierarchical structures, and “hard liberalism,” which seeks to dismantle those traditional structures through revolutionary upheaval. Since 1990, he argues, Western civilization has been caught in one such revolutionary phase, resulting in what he calls “hyperliberalism” taking over the body politic.
According to Pilkington, this hyperliberalism has precipitated liberalism’s global collapse. By destroying the traditional values that sustain civil society, liberalism has enacted its own demise. After outlining this argument, Pilkington and Callahan turn to the question of what a post-liberal future might entail—including whether the West can be “re-Christianized” or if a descent into barbarism is inevitable.
Read the rest of Pilkington and Callahan’s conversation here.
Modern Age is ISI’s flagship publication. Visit modernagejournal.com and subscribe to receive a free daily newsletter.
“A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.”
–Richard Nixon