Richard Nixon was president during 1969-1974 and was the first president to resign from office. During this time there was a scandal known as the Watergate Scandal. It was about five men who broke into the watergate building and stole secret documents. They were caught, but some people believe Nixon was involved. He may have even tried to cover up the investigation using bribes.
Richard Nixon was born and raised in California in 1913 and died 1994. He was our 37th president of the United States of America. He also was vice president, senator, a member of the House of Representatives, and even served in the Navy during World War Two. He seems like he could have been a great leader, but could he have been a perpetrator of espionage. He should have been known for success in ending American fighting in Vietnam, and improving relations with China and Russia; but he is really known for the tragic Watergate Scandal. He served one full term, and was elected for a second term, but resigned. Five articles of impeachment were written three had already been passed, making it almost a necessity to resign. This makes him the first and still to this day the only president to resign in office. Why would he resign? He was scared he would be impeached because of what was happening in what was called the Watergate Scandal.
There are many conspiracies about the scandal. What they do know is that the burglars were wire-tapping phones and tried to steal secret documents. In this scandal it involved bribery, extortion, destruction of evidence, conspiracy, phone tapping, political burglary, illegal campaign contributions, and many more. They also know that they were connected to president Nixon’s re-election campaign. The burglary happened at the Democra...
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...involved with the break in, they did not like him as much. Him knowing the secrets of the party he was running against may have helped him win his second election, but I think he could have won anyways. If he had just told the truth he might have more respect than he does today. He set a bad example for our country to follow. He showed us that stealing and cheating are good. We all know that is not true, so what kind of leader was he. If I had known what he was doing I know I definitely would not have ever wanted to vote for him as president. He left our people unable to trust the government. The people who are supposed to represent leaders of our country and set the examples. Are we able to trust them? How do we know our previous President Nixon, was not the only one. Many people could have got away with things like this, and we would not have ever even known.
In conclusion President Nixon had some ups and downs like most Presidents. He was the first modern President that brought out globalized criticism, and where the White House conflicts became the household problems. If anyone wonders where America stands, or even how we got here, Nixonland will be a good place to start.
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.
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).
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
On January 20, 1969 our 37th president, Richard Milhous Nixon, was sworn into Presidency. His main focus as president was to pull forces out of Vietnam in order to end the War that began in 1961. Nixon began this process by pulling 75,000 troops out of Vietnam in the first year he was president. Nixon also worked to improve US relations with China as well as with the Soviet Union. He was the first president to visit China. He also imposed a wage price freeze to combat inflation that was replaced by a system of wage price controls, to be later removed. Nixon?s term as President will forever be remembered due to his resignation from presidency over the Watergate scandal.
The politics of the ultratight resonated deeply with Richard Nixon. Nixon had cut his political teeth as a young Red-hunting member of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. His home district in Orange Country, California, was widely known as a Birch Society stronghold. The Los Angeles-area Birch Society claimed the membership of several political and economic elites, including members of the Chandler family, which owned and published the Los Angeles Times. According to the writer David Halberstam (1979, 118) the Times, which was once described as “the most rabid Labor-bating, Red-hating paper in the United States,” virtually created Richard Nixon.
Richard Nixon, was born on January 9th, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California. Fifty-six years after he was born he became the 37th president of the United States. In the election Nixon only defeated the democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey, by about 500,000 in the popular vote. Nixon is considered one of the most controversial politicians of the twentieth century. He used his political experience, his background, the communist scare of the late forties and early fifties, and some other factors to become the President of the United States.
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.
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...
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.
He was the first president to go to China and he helped open up Chinese-American relationships and settle differences with the Chinese (The Richard M. Nixon Administration).... ... middle of paper ... ... Nixon's own taping system he had installed ultimately led to his downfall, which proves that his own mistake caused it. Even if Nixon made bad decisions that caused his downfall, he was a respected and good president.
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.
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
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...
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.