All the President’s Men is a film that was produced in 1976 and it is based on the true story of the two journalists who uncovered the truth of the Watergate scandal that occurred in 1972 through 1974 during Richard Nixon’s presidency. The movie begins by showing the incident that took place on June 17, 1972 when five men with bugging and photographic equipment were caught breaking into the Democratic International Committee headquarters at the Watergate Complex. The men were arrested and two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, from the Washington Post were assigned to cover the story.
After the men were arrested, one of them named James W. McCord Jr. admitted to having connections with the CIA which sparked the reporters interest
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They eventually learn that the funds of the CREEP committee had been used the year before to create a “ratfucking” campaign in order to sabotage Democratic candidates. Through their long term investigation, it is finally confirmed by multiple sources that H.R. Haldeman, the second most powerful man in the nation, right under President Nixon, was in charge of the Watergate break-in and cover-up. The movie concluded with the two journalists writing the full story with the inauguration of President Nixon for his second term playing in the background.
With this movie being based on the nonfiction book titled All the President’s Men, the governmental aspects of the film were very true. The corruptness of this extensive story makes it seem almost as though it is fiction and unable to happen, but this was an important piece of history and it very much did so occur. There are several aspects from this film that directly relate with things we have learned in class, including the characteristics of governmental officials in Washington D.C., the process of being elected president of the United States, the supreme court, and the process for impeachment of a
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President Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal eventually went to the supreme court when President Nixon said he had the right to disclose audio tapes from the other branches because of “executive privilege.” This case became known as the Nixon vs. United States case. Of the four types of opinions discussed in class, the supreme court had made a unanimous 0-8 opinion at the end of the case and ruled in favor of the United States, saying that the president could only withhold information concerning military and diplomatic affairs. After the decision was made, the tapes were turned over to congress to listen
The two reporters named Carl Bernstien and Bob Woodward realized that this break in was some how involved in the up coming election but they did not know how. Their first move was to follow where the money for the break in came from. The Money led them to find a safe full of money that was to go to the Re-election of President Nixon. This Money came From the Committee to re-elect the president or CRP for sort. Woodward and Bernstien found out that CRP was performing illegal activities to re-elect the president and high white house officials were involved in the planning of there activities.
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
In conclusion, the movie All the President's Men is a precise depiction of the Watergate scandal. This is visible through the representations of Bob Woodword and Carl Bernstein, the events that took place to reveal the crime, and the steps that ultimately ended Nixon's presidency.
...in the cover-up; several people shredded documents, lied under oath and obstructed justice. At least if the participants in the scandal had been effectively punished, perhaps it would have curbed some of the power held by the executive branch. But the lack of consequence sends a dangerous message: if staff members of the executive branch are able to accomplish so much behind America’s back and are not held responsible for their actions, pardoned by the president, part of the executive branch itself, then the executive branch is far more powerful than Americans realize. What the government tells us it is doing may not actually be true, and at the end of the day there is nobody to enforce the laws on the members of the executive branch. In this regard, the Iran-Contra affair exposed the true, relentless power of the executive branch – and how little we know about it.
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).
Presidential power has increased all the time. Compared to the first U.S. president George Washington, the modern presidency has more power and departments (Patterson, 2014). The expansion of presidential power increases the ability of the Executive branch to regulate and protect our society. On the other hand, the president may abuse his presidential power. Like in this case, the President Nixon monitored his staff’s conversation at the Oval Office, and he let some people to set up the recording device in the Watergate complex (“teachingamericanhistory.org”, n.d.). In my opinion, the president Nixon abused his presidential power to set up these recording devices. Even though he had the excuse that the conversations he recorded may contain the national security issue, the method that he get information was not appropriate. He cannot just record everything without other people’s permission to achieve his goal. These recording conversations might have other people’s privacy. Even though the U.S. constitution does not state the word privacy, it can be derived from the Bill of Rights (Patterson, 2014). The people’s privacy is protected now, and any other person cannot invade their privacy without permission. Therefore, the president Nixon violates other people’s privacy, which was against the Constitution. Because the Constitution is the Supreme law of the U.S., the President Nixon had to follow it (Patterson, 2014). Thus, when the presidential power conflicts with the Constitution, anyone in Executive branch should obey the
United States v. Nixon 1. On March 1, 1974 a grand jury returned an indictment charging seven of President Nixon's close aides with various offenses, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and to obstruct justice having to do with the Watergate Affair. 2. After President Nixon was named an unindicted co-conspirator, he was issued a subpoena by the U.S. District Court to produce in advance of the September 9th trial date, of certain tapes, memoranda, papers, transcripts, or other writings related to certain identified meetings between him and others. 3.
President Richard M. Nixon and his involvement in the Watergate scandal were broadcast nightly on the 6 o’clock news in the early 1970’s. Americans were engrossed with the scandal and each person held his or her own view of situation. Each broadcast or newspaper article created a mistrust of political and governmental leaders. In response to this mistrust, the Freedom to Information Act was strengthened by the United States Congress in 1973 (Chamberlain). Although this act was first placed into law in the late 1960’s, the Watergate scandal provided the incentive make this law stronger.
There are many accurate depictions of the political process in this movie, but there are also some areas where this movie was just being a people pleaser. The American President accurately portrayed the rolls of the media, the effects of polling, the impact of primaries, and it showed the process of introducing a bill to congress. However, it also was being a typical Hollywood movie at times. This was mostly true in the cases where the President came off being naïve, when he through caution into the wind for a girlfriend, and at other times, like when he was to dignified to join into the smear campaign.
The American President is a romantic comedy which follows the widowed President of the United States as he pursues a new romantic interest in the peak of election season. An environmental lobbyist by the name of Sydney Ellen Wade catches the eye of the President, Andrew Shepherd, when she first has a meeting at the White House to try to gain support for a bill that would reduce carbon emissions. The movie follows the pair as they pursue a relationship while trying to navigate the struggle of gaining support for the bills they wish to pass and the President’s falling popularity. President Shepherd advises his staff to deny commentary on his relationship status, but with the public demanding answers and the Republican nominee Bob Rumson gaining
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
Executive privilege has been around since Washington’s first term in office as the first official president of the United States. During Washington’s presidency he set the stage for the use of executive privilege that will evolve over time into something far greater than its initial purpose. Clinton and Nixon utilized executive privilege in a greater sense than Washington, and later Jefferson. They used executive privilege to cover up their wrongdoings and illegal activities. The outcome of the Nixon trial led to the official acknowledgment of executive privilege as a power allotted to the president and other executive officials, but it also noted that the power of executive privilege does not override the need of key information in a criminal investigation.
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.
On April 6, 1976, the movie based on the Watergate scandal, All The President’s Men, was released and made a huge impact on the scandal by shining light on what really happened. The movie starred Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein and Robert Redford as Bob Woodward who played their parts mostly in the office setting of the Washington post as well as in the area of D.C. The movie added every detail of the scandal from the experiences that Bernstein and Woodward had in real life and based most of the screenplay off the book that the two wrote together after the scandal ended.
On June 17, 1972 five men were arrested for the bugging of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington D.C. Two reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were the two reporters assigned to the case at the Washington Post. All though their reporting styles contrasted they had similarities also when it came to journalism, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein worked together throughout the coverage of the break in at the Watergate. Together, both reporters had their share of failed interviews and sometimes questionable journalistic ethics, but still they did whatever was necessary to get the most accurate information for their story. Throughout their coverage of the Watergate case Woodward and Bernstein