The Watergate scandal is one of the biggest scandals of Nixon's presidency and exposed Nixon's mistakes throughout his time as president. The break-in of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) caused corruption and public mistrust of the government. The DNC is the U.S. democratic party that is responsible for democratic campaigns and support. “The DNC is more focused on campaign and organizational strategy than public policy. When the president is a Democrat, the party generally works closely with the president” (Perez). On June 17th, 1972, five men were found by a nightguard at the DNC. They were charged with attempted burglary and interception. E. Howard Hunt, who had planned the break-in, and four of the burglars pleaded guilty. G. Gordon …show more content…
“White House public relations campaign claimed that there had been no involvement by the Nixon administration or the re-election committee” (Perlstein). Nixon tries his hardest to cover up his involvement in the scandal until two young FBI reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, find some dirt on the president. When Nixon found out about the investigation being held on him, he started firing those he thought were leading the investigators toward him. “On April 30, due to the mounting evidence of their personal involvement, Nixon's Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, Domestic Affairs Advisor John Ehrlichman, and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst all resigned and Presidential Counsel John Dean was fired” (Mielke). When the Pentagon papers were released, they revealed a lot about President Nixon and his involvement with the Vietnam War. He promised the U.S. that he was going to end the war, but in reality, he was expanding it and making the war bigger. To make things worse for Nixon and the trust he had lost from the public, his tape recordings were …show more content…
Even his closest aides told him he had to resign or face the almost certain prospect of impeachment” (The Watergate Story). Nixon decided to resign from office before anyone could have the opportunity to impeach him. After Nixon resigned from office, his vice president came into office taking his place. The Watergate scandal left many lasting effects on how our world runs today and on public opinion. “Nixon’s popularity took a severe hit. His ratings fell as low as 31% in Gallup’s early August survey” (Kohut). By the end of his presidency, he lost all of his supporters because of the scandal and he had to deal with public humiliation for almost the rest of his life. The scandal has many lasting effects trying to prevent anything like this from happening again, “Watergate's impact abounds-a less arrogant Presidency, a more assertive Congress, a more responsible Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency, a more open bureaucracy, and a more tightly controlled federal-election system” (CIA). With that being said, President Nixon ended up not being everyones favorite and was very humiliated by the public and even lost their
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
A year before the election of 1972, President Nixon was becoming nervous about what the Deomocrats were planning on for the election. Nixon wanted to be re-elected but he did not think he could become re-elected without some sort of help. Nixon decided to send a group of spies to investigate what was going on at the Democrat Headquarters to see if they had any plans on how they were going to bring down Nixon. Supposedly hired by Nixon, a group of five men went to the Watergate hotel and stole some documents. Unsatisfied with what they found, they returned three weeks later intending to fix wiretaps that were not working and photograph documents. However while they were inside the building these fiv...
Richard Nixon was in one of the most controversial issues that the United States has ever seen. The Watergate Scandal is now well known throughout history today. This issue led to Nixon resigning only 2 years in his 2nd term. Did President Nixon make the right decisions? Can anyone really trust the government after a situation like this? Some Historians believe that this changed the course of history, and that we can never truly trust the government again. While others believe that Nixon didn’t make the right decisions; however, this should not change the way the people look at our government. The government and the people need to keep a strong trust.
The Watergate scandal was a memorable moment in American politics, which later led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon and the indictment of a few of his advisers. The scandal got its name because it occurred at the Watergate hotel at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C, where the 1972 break-ins at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters were. Without the help of Deep Throat, who was later revealed as W. Mark Felt, there might
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.
What kind of person commits three major violations of the national law and gets away with it? Well that person is Nixon. President Richard Nixon was one of the most famous presidents in the United States. He was mainly renowned for his huge role in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal was important because Nixon and his cabinet arranged to get people to spy on the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building. After it became clear Nixon was responsible, he manages to resign before he was going to be impeached. President Nixon was involved with the Watergate scandal and should be sentenced to jail because he organized it, which then got leaked out and finally led to his resignation.
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
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.
Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the United States, became the only American President to ever resign from office on August 9th, 1974. The contributing factors that led to his resignation cannot be boiled down to any single event. Rather, his coarse personality and unorthodox viewpoints led to his political retreat. The very existence of the Watergate scandal, a key event in the downfall of Richard Nixon as president, can be attributed to his overwhelming paranoia and his legitimate belief that some of his political enemies were evildoers. To overcome these enemies, he felt that he needed use any and every political weapon at his disposal to secure his place as president, with no regard to the legality of such measures. Nixon also believed that as president of the United States he was allowed to break certain laws and that he was exempt from investigation. Each of these traits alone is not uncommon in other politicians and world leaders; it's the combination of these factors that led to Nixon's resignation.
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.
White collar crime is a term created by Edwin Sutherland in 1939 that refers to crimes committed by people of higher social status, companies, and the government according to the book “White-Collar Crime in a Nutshell” by Ellen Podgor and Jerold Israel. White collar crimes are usually non-violent crimes committed in order to have a financial-gain (Podgor and Israel 3). A very well known white collar crime that has even been taught in many history classes is the Watergate scandal. This is a white collar crime that was committed by government authorities. Watergate was a crime that shocked the nation.
Political leaders of the United States were, at one time, thought of as crucial members of our society. Ideally, their main goal was to represent and satisfy the needs of the American people. Unfortunately, over the last fifty years, our trust in our administrative representatives has drastically declined. Beginning with the great conspiracy theory that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 was actually planned by political leaders, America had, for the first time in history, begun to question its faith in its very own government. Consequently, the American people became extremely hesitant when it came to electing officials into office. Despite his loss to JFK in the 1960 presidential election, in 1968, Richard M. Nixon was elected as the thirty-seventh president of the United States. He was praised by many for his comeback after previously losing an election and seemed to be an admirable man. While in office, Nixon made many achievements and followed through with all of his promises made during his campaign. For the first time in what seemed like forever, the American people had finally elected a leader who seemed unquestionably trustworthy – or so they thought. Unfortunately, shortly after Nixon was elected to his second term of presidency in 1972, the Watergate Scandal changed America forever by creating a sense of mistrust toward the government for the American people because of The Nixon Administration’s actions.
Richard Milhous Nixon was a man of many contradictions. Nixon labeled himself an “introvert in an extrovert’s profession.” Full of insecurity, Nixon virtually had no one in his life that he trusted and as a result became extremely paranoid of those around him. Nevertheless, Nixon achieved the central role in American Politics and became the face of the country as the 37th President of the United States and also became the only president to ever resign from office. Generally Richard Nixon’s name is synonymous with corruption, greed, and deception and the question of how could Americans allow such a person rise to the role of president? What many people forget about the presidency of Richard Nixon is that it wasn’t all bad, after all Nixon was a determined anticommunist who made good efforts in the enhancement of the federal government’s role in the country’s welfare and the environment, and became president only after exhibiting his immense talent, intellect, and after climbing the ranks just like everyone before him. This leaves one to wonder, how did he self-destruct?
For many people, the first word that comes to mind when they think about the Nixon administration is Watergate, the political scandal the scarred the sacredness of the White House during the 1970’s. Was Watergate necessary, and did he need to be so paranoid about others? Did Nixon have a choice in resigning? Watergate was an unnecessary event that led to Richard Nixon’s downfall.
As television exposed the truth of government, so did Journalists. Daniel leaking of the Pentagon Papers that explained in detail the Vietnam War, and the leaking of the information to the New York Times in 1971. Scandals like this played an active role throughout the late 1960’s and into the early 1970’s. This eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. The critical stand point of the journalists led to the marked contradictory of American politics that grew into turbulent during the 1960s.