Chapter 22 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 22 begins the ramp-up to Watergate, the high mark of the Post's history in the years Kay heads the organization. Nixon, whom readers have already seen on Kay's radar as a suspicious and perhaps even dangerous character, is inaugurated as president in 1969. In March, Nixon suggests that Kay invite brilliant, humorous and articulate Henry Kissinger to an editorial luncheon to brief editors on Vietnam policy. It marks the beginning of a long, close personal and professional relationship. Kissinger laments inheriting a mess from LBJ, confesses they have no overall policy and is more interested in discussing arms control and nuclear proliferation. Kay is invited to the Nixon White House only twice, and early on the Post is dragged into Nixon's war against the "Eastern establishment elitist press," whose field general is Agnew.

Kay is flabbergasted at Agnew's misunderstanding of how the...