The Biography Editors state that the Watergate burglary occurred June 17, 1972 where five men were apprehended for breaking into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. The five men were Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and James W. McCord Jr. The Watergate scandal revolved around multiple crimes that were committed. The crimes that have been stated in articles such as, the Washington Post, dealt with political espionage, obstructing the investigation, breaking and entering which led to wiretapping phones. Also, there was campaign fraud during President Nixon’s reelection. The five men who were arrested were all associated and working on behalf of the president’s reelection campaign. As stated by The …show more content…
Felt now had the power to investigate and learn every single detail and know everybody’s move. Felt also knew that surprisingly Howard Hunt, who was involved in the “plumbers” unit was in fact in the Watergate scandal. It’s difficult to explain or prove that President Nixon did in fact play any part in the Watergate scandal, however, I did find some theories as to people believing he may have had knowledge and involvement in this scandal. In the US History article, it states that when the Watergate story published, an immediate cover up took place by Nixon’s association and campaign. L Patrick Gray was the acting director of the FBI and once he received documents from the top aide of the president, Ehrlichman, everything was destroyed. The US History article also states the Howard Hunt received “hush” money from President Nixon after threatening to reveal further information. Later, Nixon fired several attorneys who refused to comply with Nixon to dismiss the orders placed by Judge Sirica to release tapes that he had recorded
Morgan Ruth P. “Nixon, Watergate, and the study of the Presidency”. Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1, The Nixon Presidency. 1996, pp. 217-238
When Nixon was inaugurated, he took a sworn oath to protect the people and the country. He lied to his people. He states, “The major problem on the Watergate is simply to clean the thing up by having whoever was responsible admit what happened. Certainly I am satisfied that nobody in the White House had any knowledge or approved any such activity.” (Memoirs 646).
‘Confidence in the government declined between 1968 and 1980 largely due to political scandal’. To what extent do you agree?
The source from TeachingAmericanHistory.org gives me the background and discussions about this case. The case United States v. Nixon happened after the Watergate scandal. In 1972, when Nixon won the reelection, some burglars intruded the Watergate
“From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known; our Constitution works. And during Watergate years it was interpreted again so as to reaffirm that no one - absolutely no one - is above the law.” -Leon Jaworski, special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal.
During the 1970’s, the United States experienced "Watergate," the most famous political scandal in American History. It was a scandal that began with a break in and ended in resignation. On June 17, 1972 five intruders were caught and arrested for illegally entering the rooms of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate Complex. "The investigation of the break-in lead directly to the reelection campaign of President Richard M. Nixon and unraveled a web of political spying and sabotage, bribery and the illegal use of campaign funds" (Washingtonpost.com). Two-and-a-half-years later along with a number of court hearings led to the 1974 resignation of Richard M. Nixon. Nixon became the first President in U.S. History to resign. During all the political drama the United States brought an end to an unpopular war and made great strides in space exploration.
In order to understand how Richard Nixon was involved in Watergate, Americans must know who he was. Nixon stared his career in politics in the year 1947. His first political job was working in the House of Representatives. After that, Nixon became a Vice President for two terms (“Watergate: The Scandal That”). Later, in 1962, he said that he was retiring (Ehrlichman 33). However, he ended up running for president in 1968 and became president in 1969 (Ehrlichman 37; “Watergate: The Scandal That”). He was reelected for the next term (“Watergate: The Scandal That”).
Richard Nixon's first term as president will always be connected with the Watergate scandal, the biggest political scandal in United States history. Various illegal activities were conducted including burglary, wire tapping, violations of campaign financing laws, sabotage, and attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents to help Richard Nixon win reelection in the 1972 presidential elections. There were about 40 people charged with crimes related to the scandal. Most of them were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty. Watergate involved more high-level government officials than any previous scandal. It has been etched in the minds of millions and is still being recalled today when faced with the present day scandal of President Clinton. In All The President's Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, former Washington Post reporters, recount, illustrate, and analyze the Watergate scandal time and their work in reporting and revealing these events for the newspaper.
Despite the national attention the Watergate scandal had gained President Nixon, he won the second term presidency. The major problem for Nixon would come later. The investigations of the Watergate scandal lead to the discovery of other criminal acts by officials including Nixon. During the investigation many things begin to surface. It was discovered that documents had been destroyed that may have made a link between Nixon and the Watergate scandal. These documents may have shown that he had some acknowledgement in what had happened. There was evidence that people involved in the Nixon campaign had been wire tapping phones illegally for a long time according to “dummies.com”. The greatest issue would come to light during the 1973 Watergate hearings. During testimonies it came to light that every conversation was recorded in the Oval office according to “study.com”. It was demanded that these tapes be reviewed to learn how much involvement President Nixon had in the Watergate burglary. The President felt that he had the right to withhold these tapes through what he referred to as executive privilege. This means that if it is the best interest of the public the president has the right to keep information from the
Be that as it may, the Congress played out their role by having a group called The Senate Watergate Committee. They participated in nationally televised hearings and investigated the issue. They helped in catching a bunch of links that were connected to Nixon’s chain of lies and paranoia. A lot of the people that were somehow involved in the whole ordeal were top Nixon administration officials, some being The Plumbers (the men that were involved with putting an end to the leak of classified information Nixon wanted to keep classified) and obviously the burglars played a big role. Congress had to hold several conferences to solve the situation and get answers, putting all their information on the table. After a lot of inquiry on Nixon, Chairman Ervin said the executive privilege didn’t go as far to cover any aides in this case, so anyone else had to cooperate or get arrested. They complied and Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of the tapes. It was Ervin who first said Nixon had to give up the tapes, using subpoenas, but it didn...
It all began on Sunday, June 18, 1972 when Frank Wills, security guard at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., found a piece of tape that was preventing a door from locking. After removing the piece of tape from the door, he later found that it had been re-taped. This seemed suspicious, so ...
On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested at 2:30 a.m. They were caught trying to "bug" the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex in Washington D.C. When the police caught the men, they were in the office of Larry O'Brien. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee, whose job was to aid political candidates in the Democratic party get elected. In 1972, O'Brien's main priority was to help the Democratic candidate for president, Senator George McGovern. The five men, who were arrested, were identified the next morning by two lawyers as, James W. McCord, Jr., Bernard L. Barker, Frank A. Sturgis, Virgilro R. Gonzalez, and Eugenio R. Martinez. Reporters and politicians were interested in this case because they found out that McCord was a former member of the CIA. Its agents are not permitted to spy on Americans. Not only was he a former member of the CIA, but now he worked for the Committee for the Re-election of the president, or CRP. This Republican group was formed to help President Richard M. Nixon win a second term in office.
Nixon was long associated with American politics before his fall from grace. He was along time senator before finally being elected president in 1968. During his first term, his United States went through the Vietnam War and a period of economic inflation. In 1972 he was easily re-elected over Democrat nominee George McGovern. Almost unnoticed during his campaign was the arrest of five men connected with Nixon’s re-election committee. They had broken into the Democrats national head quarters in the Watergate apartment complex, in Washington D.C. They attempted to steal documents and place wire taps on the telephones. By March of 1973, through a federal inquiry, it had been brought to light that the burglars had connections with high government officials and Nixon’s closest aids. Despite Nixon and his lawyers best efforts, it was shown that the president had participated in the Watergate cover-up. On August 8, 1974 Nixon announced, without admitting guilt, that he would resign. He left the Oval Office the next day: an obvious fall from grace.
President Richard Nixon is most commonly known for his involvement with the Watergate Scandal. President Nixon is a very competitive politition who has been finding who his enemys are and what their weak spots are through all of his career. His purpose for doing this is that he wants to win the election so much and he feels that “the only way he can [win] is if he knows something about his opponent that can give himself some secret weapon” (Sussman 201). President Nixon got himself into many problems during his Presidency and used groups such as “The Plumbers” and the Committee to Re-Elect the President, more commonly known as CREEP. While President Nixon was in office, he seemed to feel that he was “above the law” and that he could create undercover groups to spy or even blackmail his opponents. Although Nixon did commit several crimes while in office, which include lying under oath…….., the main crime was in the forming of these groups like the Plumbers, because these groups were formed with a main purpose of breaking laws.
During the first initial weeks of the scandal, the media seemed disinterested and didn’t want to report anything to early in fear of the Nixon administration. It took the work of two young reporters constantly investigating and getting anonymous help to spark a firestorm of investigations into the scandal itself and increase public interest into the newly discovered Watergate scandal. The names of those two young reporters were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and their approach to investigative journalism is what helped bring the story more into the public eye. Information about the Watergate scandal kept pouring out in the form of countless newspaper articles, editorials, and other news related organization after Woodward and Bernstein’s stories got more exposure. “Relying heavily upon anonymous sources, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered information suggesting that knowledge of the break-in, and attempts to cover it up, led deeply into the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and the White House”(“Watergate Scandal” 19). The press...