Last month marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Watergate break-in. In 1977, three years after he resigned, Richard Nixon agreed to a series of interviews with David Frost for which he was paid $600,000. Those interviews are currently being recreated on Broadway in the Tony award-winning play Frost/Nixon.At the time of the interviews David Frost was viewed as a lightweight celebrity interviewer who didn’t have the gravitas to go toe to toe with Richard Nixon. Today, Marc interviewed James Reston, Jr., who was hired as David Frost’s advisor to help him prepare for the interviews. In his new book, The Conviction of Richard Nixon: the Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews, Reston provides a behind-the-scenes account of the twelve days over which the interviews took place.
These interviews gripped the attention of the country. What are your memories of them and the Watergate era?
–Marcus
