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impact of watergate scandal on media
richard nixon's involvement in watergate
richard nixon's involvement in watergate
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The events of the Watergate Scandal hurt the trust of the people of the United States. The Watergate Scandal shocked the nation and ended with the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Though the attempted bugging of Watergate was not a popular story at first, it quickly escalated and gained attention by raising questions of presidential involvement. The Watergate Scandal happened when burglars broke into Watergate, on June 17, 1972. The break-in was discovered by a security guard who noticed that someone had taped a lock of one of the office doors at Watergate. Five men wearing expensive gear were caught and arrested. They also had a lot of money with them. They were planning to bug some of Watergate’s offices. It was later discovered that Richard Nixon’s, the president, aides bugged Democratic offices and lied about their opponents in politics (Wilmore and Landauro). 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”). With this in mind, people can understand why such a fuss was caused when Nixon, involved for so long in government, was discovered to be part of the cover up. John Dean, a former counsel of Nixon, said Nixon had paid the burglars a lot of money to not say the White House was involved. D... ... middle of paper ... ...pen again. It also showed that we should pay attention to the news. Even though Watergate attracted minimal attention at first, it is now one of the most well know stories in the nation because the president ended up being involved and then resigned. Works Cited Ehrlichman, John. Witness to Power: The Nixon Years. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. Print. “Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon.” Watergate Info. N.p. 2013. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. Wilmore, Kathy and Victor Landauro. “Watergate: The Downfall Of A President.” Junior Scholastic 114.15 (2012): 16. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 24 Jan. 2014. Zimmer, Troy A. "The Impact Of Watergate On The Public's Trust In People And Confidence In The Mass Media." Social Science Quarterly (University Of Texas Press) 59.4 (1979): 743-751. Business Source Elite. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
The documentary entitled, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, documents the political decisions and environment within the Nixon Administration from 1969-1974. The documentary specifically details and describes the environment and culture in which the Watergate scandal could occur and the events and abuses of power that lead to its occurrence. Setting the tone and the political climate of the Nixon Administration was the Vietnam War; making him a wartime President, a war that he inherited from his predecessor. The Vietnam War faced a lot of opposition from the general public, with massive protests and political demonstrations by the younger generations and overall general public. Nixon’s presidency was surrounded by this climate amidst the
Historians on the opposing side believe that Nixon had a choice, but he choose the wrong one. He wanted to cover up the Watergate Scandal, and that was the turning point of his presidency. Maurice H. Stans explains, “Nixon was not a party to the Watergate break-in. That has been established, especially by the White House tapes beginning in June 1972, which showed his initial consternation at learning about it.” (Nixon 178) He could have turned the guilty party to the police, but he thought that it would end up hurting him.
Nixon’s run as an international crook finally caught up to him in 1972, when burglars were caught and arrested inside of the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington. Nixon attempted to cover it up, but eventually he was found caught in his own web of lies, and was forced to resign in 1974 (Lecture 30, December 12). Nixon’s promises of a return to normalcy were shattered with these revelations. The confidence in the Presidency that he had hoped to restore was even lower than it was when he entered office. If the 1960’s were defined by political and social instability, then Richard Nixon did nothing but further the sixties into the 1970’s. The 1960’s truly ended with the pardon of Richard Nixon by President Ford in 1974. After doing so, Ford declared: “our long national nightmare is over”.
Nixon was the mastermind behind the mission and the main reason he organized it was to find out secret information of the Democrats. He organized a committee to help him ensure his victory in the elections. “The committee to reelect the President” (CRP) used unfair tactics to get what they wanted. They organized a group of thugs – “Plumbers” to sneak into the Watergate and plant listening devices. The plumbers, James W. McCord, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, and Frank Sturgis however, were caught by the police. Nixon didn’t want anyone to find out about the break in. He said shortly after the plumbers were caught "In all my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook; I earned everything I've got." Nixon lied through his teeth just to get the public attention on something else. What he didn’t realize was that it was the beginning of his demise.
“Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon.” Watergate.info. N.p., 1995. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. .
The question of why Nixon committed The Watergate Scandal, is still being asked today. The reason that questions are still being asked today is because we do still do not have a concrete answer, until today. This essay looks at The Watergate Scandal from a new perspective. An outlook that looks at the situation from a Physiological point of view. This perspective uses empathy to allow someone to put themselves in Nixon’s shoes, and understand what events in his life have contributed to the development of his behavior. After all, Nixon’s behavior and trait are what drove him to committing The Watergate
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.
The Watergate Scandal and crisis that rocked the United States began on the early morning of June 17, 1972 with a small-scale burglary and it ended August 9, 1974 with the resignation of Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon. At approximately 2:30 in the morning of June 17, 1972, five burglars were discovered inside the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate office building in Washington DC. The burglars, who had been attempting to tap the headquarters’ phone were linked to Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). Over the next few months, what had began as a minor break-in quickly escalated into a full-blown political scandal. It was the cover-up, not the actual break-in that led to Nixon’s downfall and the start of a period of distrust of the government by the American people.
In June 1972, five burglars broke into Watergate complex, and were arrested on the spot. A reporter of Washington Post, Bob Woodward, starts an investigation to write a story and later is joined by another journalist, Carl Bernstein. In the process, they find out that the break-in leads much higher to H.R. Haldeman, “second most important person in the country” (after President Nixon).
“President Nixon exhibited no interest, much less zeal, in ensuring full public disclosure of all the facts behind this shabby interference with the rights of his political opposition” (“The Watergate Tragedy” 4). The increase of media reports on the Watergate scandal caused the Nixon administration to try and use different methods to slow down the reporters like resist meeting with journalists and not giving comments to reporters. The news reporters were relentless in their search for answers in the scandal and kept on pressing different sources for any information they could get their hands on. News reports eventually showed that the president used the CIA to hinder the FBI’s investigations into where the funding for the break-ins came
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.
The years leading up to the 1972 election were filled with new political tactics. Going into the election year, President Nixon seemed like he could never lose the second term election after successfully negotiating with Vietnam, Beijing, and Russia to improve international relations (Emery 4). Raising international toughness made Nixon seem like the most worthy person to stay president. Fred Emery analyses in his novel Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon, the president was also setting up the first summit meeting in history with Soviet Union Presidents (3). There seemed to be nothing capable of holding the seemingly responsible man back. However, this assurance came with massive consequences. The absolute certainty that Nixon would be reelected fueled the lies and abuse of power by the Nixon government (Emery 195). As the outlook of landslide winnings took over the White House, the moral reasoning, “the end justifies the means” became more prevalent. Nixon was obsessed with winning and being successful. Under his command his staff did whatever possible to ...
The water gate scandal was a brake in to the water gate building by President Nixon. Watergate was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s, following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. in 1972 and President Richard Nixon's administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U.S. Congress, the Nixon administration's resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis.
...ection Nixon went on to serve as Vice President for eight years, traveling abroad as a national ambassador. Nixon won the Republican nomination for the upcoming presidential election and competed against John F. Kennedy. Nixon lost the election to Kennedy and went back to California to run for Governor in 1962. He ran against Pat Brown and ended up losing the election. Nixon’s political career took a break for awhile after his lose for Governor. After a break from politics Nixon announced that he was going to run for president in 1968, he selected Spiro Agnew the Governor of Maryland for his running mate. In his campaign Nixon promised to end the Vietnam War that had been going on for 11 years. His promised and familiarity to the people helped him to win the election against Hubert Humphrey and by a narrow margin became the President of the United States.
In 1974 President Richard Nixon stepped down from the job duties of the President of the United States. This made him the only President that has ever stepped down in United States history (Roper). James McCord which was the retired CIA agent was convicted of “eight counts of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping, spending two months in prison” (history.com). He had written a letter about the involvement of White House officials in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal. He later in life wrote a book claiming all of his involvement in the Watergate scandal. A Cuban refugee Virgilio Gonzalez was one of the burglars and only spent one year and a month in prison. John Dean was a Nixon staff member. He was involved in the cover up of the Watergate scandal. During the trail he told about his and other officials involvement in the scandal. Dean served only four months in prison. G. Gordon Liddy was the former FBI agent involved with the burglary. For his involvement in the burglary and providing money for the burglaries he spent four and a half years in prison (history.com). There were many people that were involved with this scandal and the majority spent less than two years in