Chapter 16, Breaking into Watergate, in the textbook, After the Fact covers the topic that revolves around President Richard Nixon that involves recordings that occurred in his office. The However, the main focus was on Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal on June 7, 1972. An unusual group of burglars had forced their way into Democratic Party headquarters at the water gate complex in Washington D.C. In 1973, the five arrested burglars and the two former presidential aides were threatened prison of twenty to forty years due to refusing to say who had ordered the burglary. However, during the time in March 21, 1973, Dean met with the President and his aides to provide a million dollars in order to buy the Watergate burglar’s silence.
Soon after evidence has occurred against Nixon’s staff, there was evidence that Nixon had a type of recording system in his office to which he was able to record many conversations. After a good amount of court trials, On April 1974, a special prosecutor Jaworski including the house Judiciary Committee had requested from the President Nixon to provide them with the tapes. Nixon was only able to provide them with an edited transcript. The transcripts revealed a president who was after vindictive, vulgar, and small minded. Soon after, Richard Nixon announced his resignation on August 9, 1974 after facing certain impeachment. A discussion occurred towards all other former Presidents who have used a recording system such as Kennedy who was the first President to make audio recordings. Lyndon Johnson, who was also pertained a recording in his office which recorded plenty of conversations from his phone. Nixon will be remembered for more than Watergate. However, the tapes themselves were only to show a limited view of himself and his Presidency. Nixon by wanting a resignation and fighting hard to keep the remaining tapes private, he was to only be able to redeem himself in the eyes of the American people. This lead many Americans to think more critically about the Presidency.
Nixon’s hamartia, a fatal flaw that leads to the character’s downfall, was his hunger for power and insecurity. Many people have reported that he would lash out at his enemies. The cause of the Watergate Scandal, the incident when burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee’s office and tried to wiretap phones and steal documents, was Nixon’s insecurity. He didn’t think he was going to be reelected and resorted to unethical actions. This event forced Nixon to resign from office, thus displaying that his insecurity led to his downfall.
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
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 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
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.
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
Out of all of the current presidents in our time the most interesting president to explore was President Richard Nixon and out of all of them he was the only one in term to resign. That Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment to be executed to the fullest extent of their nature. His poor choices and decisions led to his resignation. Although he did have some good qualities in helping the U.S. the bad however override the good. In the CRS (Congressional Research Service) It states: “ Obstruction of justice is the impediment of governmental activities. There are a host of federal criminal laws that prohibit obstructions of justice. The six most general outlaw obstruction of judicial proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1503), witness tampering (18 U.S.C. 1512), witness retaliation (18 U.S.C. 1513), obstruction of Congressional or administrative proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1505), conspiracy to defraud The United States (18 U.S.C. 371), and contempt (a creature of statute, rule and common law). Simple perjury in a federal investigation or judicial proceedings carries an extensive fine and up to 5 years in prison.” This was the first article president Richard M. Nixon was charged with by the House of Judiciary Committee. The vote was 27 to 1 for Nixon to be charged with the first article of impeachment, which was Obstruction of Justice. In denial of his liability in part taking in the Watergate scandal by saying he wasn't involved in the scandal He pointed finger at others that were involved in the break-in. However, tapes were found of conversations that proved his involvement and he was going to be impeached. Before he was charged, he made a resignat...
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).
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.
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.
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
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.
Watergate was an integral part of a bigger scheme that gathered information from multiple parties, and the operation began long before the burglars were caught. After the arrests, Nixon was not a suspect until the Federal Bureau of Investigation linked the “hush-money” (money given to keep a criminal quiet about a certain action) the burglars received to his campaign fund (64). The burglars were caught breaking into the Watergate Complex to fix the “bugs” they planted in a previous break in (Holland 43). Immediately after the break in, Nixon began to cover up Watergate and his involvement. He gave a speech stating that himself, along with his committee, was not involved in the break in (4...
In Nixon’s first Watergate speech he addresses the issue of what is known as the Watergate scandal, and explains why members of his administrationresignedor weresacked.In this speech Nixon is speaking as if he didn’t know about the incident and he is innocent. For an example Nixon says” I was appalled at this senseless, illegal action, and I was shocked to learn that employees of the re-election committee were apparently among those guilty.” Later on people found out that he did indeed order them to break into the DNC Headquarters. Nixon deceives hisviewers when he says, “I was determined that we get to the bottom of the matter.” Nixon wanted the viewers to believe that he was not a part of the affair, and he wason the same side with the FBI.As the issue got more intense that is when Nixon delivers his second Watergate speech.
The mistrust most Americans feel toward the government officials and political parities of today can be traced back to the Watergate scandal of 1972, which led to the resignation of an American president. The crimes of the Watergate scandal included political burglary, bribery, extortion, wiretapping (phone tapping), conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tax fraud, illegal use of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), illegal campaign contributions, and use of taxpayers' money for private purposes.