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The Watergate Scandal
The Watergate Scandal was a series of crimes committed by the President and
his staff, who were found to spied on and harassed political opponents,
accepted illegal campaign contributions, and covered up their own misdeeds.
On June 17, 1972, The Washington Post published a small story. In this
story the reporters stated that five men had been arrested breaking into
the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. The headquarters was
located in a Washington, D.C., building complex called Watergate. These
burglars were carrying enough equipment to wiretap telephones and take
pictures of papers.
The Washington Post had two reporters who researched deep into the story.
There names were Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, they discovered that one
of the suspects had an address book with the name and phone number of a
White House official who could have been involved in the crime. The
reporters suspected that the break-in had been ordered by other White House
officials.
In a press conference on August in 1972, President Nixon said that nobody
on the White House Staff was involved in the crime. Most of the public
accepted Nixon's word and dropped the questioning. But when the burglars
went to trial four months later, the story changed rapidly from a small
story to a national scandal. It ended only when Richard Nixon was forced
from office.
Watergate was connected to Vietnam, it eventually exposed a long series of
illegal activities in the Nixon administration. Nixon and his staff were
found to have spied on and harassed political opponents, planned
contributions to the campaign, and tried to cover-up their illegal acts.
These crimes that they did were called the Watergate scandal, named after
the building that it happened.
For years Nixon was carrying on the crimes and they were not noticed until
now. 1969 was the really date in which Watergate was really beginning. It
all started when the White House staff made up a list called "enemies list".
Nixon had enemies which include 200 liberal politicians, journalists and
actors. Most of these people made a public speech against the Vietnam war.
Nixon's aides formed a conducts tax audits on these people that he thought
were enemies. He also had agents find out secret information that would
harm them.
Nixon was always worried about govt. Employees revealing secret info. To
the news paper or any sort of press. The presidents agents helped him by
wiretapping phone lines that belonged to reporters in order to find any
revealing some material. Nixon was so worried that during the Cambodia
bombing he had to wiretap his own staff members.
On June in 1971, The New York Times formed work that was published about
the history of the Vietnam War, these were known as the Pentagon Papers.
They got the information from secret government papers. The papers blamed
the policies that were formed and caused the beginning of the war in
Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg, a former employee , gave the documents to the
paper. Nixon became very angry by their publishes.
Nixon tied to make Ellsberg's actions a form of treason, but he was not
content to take him to court. Instead he made a secret group of CIA agents
they were called the "plumbers" this is a name made up because they cover
up leaks, such as the pentagon papers, that could hurt the White House.
While they were searching for info. They found Ellsberg's psychiatrist's
office. They discovered nothing wrong. The next time the plumbers are
involved is the next election.
Nixon was always worried about having enough votes for the election in 1972.
Nixon was concerned that Edmund Muskie of Maine would win because he was
the strongest Democratic candidate. Hoping to wipe out Edmund from the
competition, the plumbers began to play a bunch of so called "dirty tricks".
They issued make believe statements in Muskie's name and told the press
false rumors about him, so that they could publish it to the public. And
most of all, they sent a letter to the New Hampshire newspaper starting
that Muskie was making mean remarks about French Canadian ancestry. All of
these aides forced Nixon to begin getting above Muskie in the elections.
Overall, the Democratic nomination went to George McGovern, a liberal
senator from South Dakota. His supporters included many people who
supported the civil rights, anti-war, and environmental movements of the
1960s. McGovern had fought to make the nomination process more open and
democratic. Congress had also passed the 26th amendment to the Constitution
allowing eighteen-year-Olds to vote. As a result, the 1972 Democratic
Convention was the first to include large numbers of woman, minorities, and
young people among the delegates.
McGovern's campaign ran into trouble early. The press revealed that his
running mate, Thomas Eagleton, had once received psychiatric treatment.
First McGovern stood by Eagleton. Then he abandoned him , picking a
different running mate. In addition, many Democratic voters were attached
to Nixon because of his conservative positions on the Vietnam War and law
enforcement.
Meanwhile, Nixon's campaign sailed smoothly along, aided by millions of
dollars in funds. Nixon campaign officials collected much of the money
illegally. Major corporations were told to contribute at least 100,000
dollars each. The collected much it clear that the donations could easily
buy the companies influence with the White House. Many large corporations
went along. As shipbuilding tycoon George Steinbrenner said "it was a
shakedown. A plain old-fashioned shakedown"
The final blow to McGovern's chances came just days before the election,
when Kissinger announced that peace was at hand in Vietnam. McGovern had
made his political reputation as a critic of the war, and the announcement
took the wind out of his sails. Nixon scored an enormous victory. He
received over 60 percent of the popular vote and won every state except
Massachusetts. Congress, however, remained under Democratic control.
On January of 1973, two months after Nixon had won the presidential
election, the misdeeds of Watergate began to surface. The Watergate
burglars went on trial in Washington D.C.., courtroom. James McCord, one of
the burglars , gave shocking evidence. A former CIA agent who had led the
Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, McCord worked for the Nixon re-
election campaign. McCord testified that people in higher office had paid
people "hush money" to the burglar who were involved in Watergate. With the
money they were supposed to conceal White House involvement in the crime.
After they investigated for awhile, they quickly found out that the break-
in was approved by the attorney General, John Mitchell. Even thought John
Mitchell was one of the most trusted advisors, Nixon denied to know
anything about the break-in and cover-up of the crime. The public found out
not to soon that Nixon was not telling the truth. The public also found out
that Nixon had ordered his aides to block any info to the investigators.
The White House also tried to stop flow of the investigations, because they
were afraid that it would uncover very important secrets. Nixon would not
appear at the congressional committee, complaining that if he were to
testify it would violate the separation of powers. Even thought that idea
doesn't appear in the constitution at all. It was a developing tradition to
protect the president. This made people feel that Nixon was abusing
executive privileges just to cover-up his crimes.
When Nixon had no possible way of protecting the White House staff he fired
them. Such as when he fired two of his aides, Bob Haldeman and John
Ehrlichwan, because they were on the line of being charged for the crimes.
But they were still convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and
perjury.
On may of 1973, they broadcasted the hearings on television to millions of
people, the public felt that it was very gripping and made them distraught
A official told the court that Nixon had tape-recorded all the
conversations on tape. Nixon had hoped these tapes would one day be used by
historians to document the triumph of his term, instead they were used to
prove that he was guilty.
The president refused to release the tapes, claiming the executive
privilege gave him the right to keep his record private. That caused him to
go to court, before it was decided, Vice President Agnew was charged with
income tax evasion. He was also charged for accepting bribes and exchanging
for political favors. Agnew resigned because of the charges on October of
1973. He was only charged of tax evasion and the others were dropped. This
scandal was not connected to Watergate, but it put a lot of stress on Nixon.
Nixon nominated Gerald Ford in place of Agnew. Ford did very little to
salvage Nixon reputation.
A couple of days after Agnew resigns, the federal court made Nixon hand
over the tapes. Nixon refused, and Cox ordered him to, but Nixon had his
attorney fire him. Cox was a idle to Richardson, because he was his
professor in law school. Richardson refused Nixon's order and resigned.
President Nixon then ordered the deputy Attorney General to fire Cox. This
massive event was known as the Saturday Night Massacre. Many people of the
nation felt that Nixon's blocking of the judicial process a proof of
guiltiness. People mailed Congress many telegrams saying to begin
impeaching proceedings against the president. So the House Judiciary
Committee did that, and fired him.
President Nixon had remained cool and still acted as if he was innocent. At
a press conference on November, his famous quote was " I am not a crook".
He avoided questions and was agitated. People that day who were watching
television knew that Nixon was gonna be in hot water.
Internal Revenue Services also discovered something that could harm Nixon.
They noticed that in 1970 and 71' he had only paid $800 in taxes when he
earned over $500,000. The nation found out that he also used public money
to fix-up his house in Florida and California.
Nixon keep on refusing to give up Watergate tapes. Then, on April 1974, he
gave out the transcripts of the tapes. He edited the transcripts and tried
to cover up the crimes, but it did not work and it gave Nixon a bad
reputation.
The Committee voted to bring impeachment charges in July against Nixon. The
first one said that the president knowingly covered-up the crimes of
Watergate. The second said that he used Government Agencies to violate the
Constitution of the U.S.. The third asserted that he would be impeached
because of the withholding of evidence from Congress.
Shortly after the house committee voted to impeach the President, the case
want to the entire House for a final say. Nixon at this point still counted
on the public to back him out , because of some that doubted his
involvement.
A decision came out a couple of days after the vote for Nixon to release
the tapes that involved the Watergate. Nixon at this point had to follow
through with it and hand over t he tapes.
Nixon for a long time claimed that he had no idea of the Watergate scandal
until John Dean told him on March 21, 1973. The tapes showed that Nixon was
a true liar, and not only knew about it, but ordered it.
Because of this Nixon met with A group of republican leaders and they tried
to convince him to resign from office. He did just that on August 9, 1974,
Nixon broadcasted that he was resigning to the nation. This meant that
President Richard Nixon was the first president of the United States to
resign from office.
The nation was shocked after this whole scandal by the way Nixon had lied
to the public and abused his own powers. This lead most of the public never
to trust a president as they did before, because of the massive secrecy in
the Government. But the best part is that the country did survive the
trauma, which is wonderful. The day of Nixon's resignations Gerald Ford was
sworn in to presidency.
ADDITIONAL FEATURED ESSAYS
Whitewater Vs. Watergate.
Both are political sandals that have rocked the nation. As Watergate unraveled, many of Nixon\'s dirty tactics were lear
Clinton Vs. Nixon
The resent scandal in the White House has brought my attention to the American Presidents as people and Presidents. Look
All The Presidents Men
Richard Nixon's first term as president was always be connected with the Watergate scandal and the President investigati
The Watergate Scandal
"The Watergate Complex is a series of modern buildings with balconies that looks like filed down Shark's Teeth" (Gold, 1
The Infamous Watergate Scandal
"The Watergate Complex is a series of modern buildings with balconies that looks like filed down Shark's Teeth" (Gold, 1
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