One of the alarming times in American history came directly after August 9, 1974 when President Richard Nixon was forced to resign by the United States Congress. Nixon had been convicted for secretly recording every conversation he ever had in the White House, whether in person or on the telephone, and for the discovery of his involvement behind the Watergate complex break-in. Although considered a victory for the Constitutional government of the United States, Richard Nixon’s resignation for the crimes of the Watergate Scandal of 1972 brought an inadvertent consequence for the American people of a growing lack of faith and cynicism for the government and the office of the president.
After the break-in of the Watergate Hotel, an investigation
…show more content…
was held in order to determine what the real reason was for the break-in because nothing was stolen from the Watergate. At the time, the Watergate complex was the Democratic National Headquarters, and the break-in was to sabotage the convention they were holding. Mark Feldstein (2004), who is currently teaching public affairs and media at George Washington University, in his article “Watergate Revisited” from the American Journalism Review wrote that it was not clear if the FBI would investigate any crime beyond the break-in itself, but because the Post kept the Watergate scandal alive, the FBI and the Senate decided to look into Watergate deeper (p. 64-65). The issue was not a local problem either. George Nikolaieff (1974), who has published three books about the United States government and the economy, pointed out that it only took five months before most of the people around the world had heard of the term Watergate scandal (p. 34). Not only did they discover that Nixon was behind the forced entry of the Watergate Hotel, they disclosed Nixon and his administration had been a part of many controversial episodes that went unnoticed because of the lack of evidence. The FBI and Senate, after initiating the investigation, began to dig up a great deal of information about attempts at sabotaging various Democratic events that were ordered from the White House. After the FBI performed their investigation and found out that Nixon and others were behind the Watergate scandal, Congress and the Supreme Court had vital decisions to make.
Erika Wittekind (2013), who has degrees in journalism and political science, reported that because of the magnitude of the case, both sides were given three times the normal allotted time during the trial (p. 106). The Senate had to decide whether they were going to impeach Nixon, and the Supreme Court had to decide what it really meant to impeach a president. Wittekind (2013) showed that President Nixon tried to claim “executive privilege” as a means to clear his name in the Watergate scandal (p. 132). Even though Nixon was the president he put himself in a situation that not even he could get out of. Jeff Madrick (2012), who has written political articles for eight different news sources, stated in his article “Can We Trust the Government Again?” for The Nation that the entire situation with the Watergate scandal never would have happened if Nixon had not been so obsessed with getting reelected for his second term (p. 12). The other question they had to answer was how to get Nixon to turn over the copies of the recordings he had made of conversations he had while serving as the president. Nikolaieff (1974) expressed that Congress does not technically have the right to make the president give up some of his personal belongings (p. 126). The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Nixon had to give the tapes up to the Senate. Nixon gave them up and Congress told Nixon to resign or they would vote him out of office. Feldstein (2004), in his summary of Watergate, wrote that journalism played a big role in bringing all the facts to the public, which in turn had an effect on Congress’s decision to impeach Nixon (p. 62). Samuel Day (1975), who has published political articles for various newspapers and magazines, in his article “The Lessons from Watergate” in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
stated, “The press, the judicial system and the Congress did come to life in the end; the constitutional safeguards did function; the rascals were indeed thrown out.” (p. 3). Rather than be voted out of office by the Senate, President Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. Nixon’s resignation after two years of conflict, caused the American citizens to have many questions regarding the trustworthiness government. Bowman (2014) and Marsico (2014), who are both currently serving as political analysts for American Enterprise Institute, in their article “Watergate Revisited: How has America Changed?” record, “The Roper Organization was in the field soon after Nixon’s resignation, and the pollsters asked Americans about their views of the week’s events. Twenty-seven percent said the week was one of the darkest in the nation’s history, while 46 percent said it felt like the rebirth of the nation. Many weren’t sure. In another poll from that time, 49 percent worried a great deal and another 24 percent a fair amount about the significance of the Watergate affair in terms of our political and government system.” The American people began to doubt whether their elected leaders were doing what they promised to do when they ran for Congress. Bowman (2014) and Marsico (2014) communicated that some people did not care about Watergate because they said that the scandal was just a part of the corruption in politics and was not that unusual. Even though there were a few who did not, the majority of the people lost confidence in the government and struggled to trust any decision that was made. The American people’s confidence in the government was shaky but it was completely gone for the White House. The Vietnam War was not popular with the American people so they were not pleased with the Commander in Chief already, and then Watergate erupted and the people lost all hope that the president was fulfilling his responsibilities as the leader of the United States of America. Day (1975) revealed that even though there was corruption in executive office before Watergate Nixon made it clear that not every situation in Washington was being handled correctly (p. 3). This caused people to not trust future presidents because they found out about dishonesty that some presidents had before them. Because of Nixon’s use of “executive privilege” the two presidents that followed Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, never claimed it for fear of the American people and the slightest possibility of impeachment. The president needs to be allowed to claim “executive privilege” in certain situations because if the president does not claim it then the United States loses its ability to trust in a strong leader. The Watergate scandal made people feel uneasy in who they were trusting to run their country which caused Americans to feel insecure because of the lack of a strong leader. Even though people did not trust the president or the government after the Watergate scandal, there were promising instances for the United States’ future. Ronald Reagan had a large part in giving the people a government that they believed they could trust in. Madrick (2012) confirmed that when Ronald Reagan became President he gave the people hope for trusting the government again by saying that the government was causing the problems, not solving them (p. 13). Reagan allowed the American people to have faith in the government again because he told the people that the government was not perfect and that they made mistakes just like everybody else. In September of 2001 there was a terrorist attack at the World Trade Towers in New York City. This was considered a national tragedy which brought the government and the citizens together as they mourned those who were killed. The American people began to trust the government when there was a strong leader and when they needed to bond together with the government after the terrorist attack on nine eleven. Despite the glimpses of hope for the people, the negative effects of Watergate far outweigh the positive instances since then. President Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon once he became president which made the people exceptionally skeptical of Ford along with the future presidents. Another consequence of the Watergate scandal was the loss of historical facts. Wittekind (2013) reported that historians have lost knowledge of executive decisions because presidents since that time have been reluctant to keep any record of conversations because Nixon was punished for the recordings he made (p. 129). Although it is not a problem as long as the president is in office, in fifty years there may be no record of the decisions the White House made. The fundamental problem is that the country does not function properly as long as the government and the people are disjointed. Zelizer (2014) declared that the government struggles to do its job properly when they know that the American people do not trust them. Many different problems came out of the Watergate scandal and then more came out when President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. The Watergate Scandal of 1972 caused a large amount of discordance in the United States between the people and government. Even though the Constitutional government of the United States supposedly got a victory, the inadvertent consequence for the United States was the citizen’s growing lack of faith and cynicism for the American government and the office of the president following Richard Nixon’s resignation for the crimes of the Watergate Scandal of 1972. Had Richard Nixon known what he would cause to happen to the United States he probably would have never wanted the convention at the Watergate Hotel to be sabotaged. The present day lack of faith of the government dates back to President Nixon and the Watergate scandal.
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
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 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.
It is clear that while political scandal, primarily the 1974 Watergate scandal, played a large role in the rapidly declining confidence in government between 1968 and 1980, it is not the sole or even the dominant factor. The Watergate scandal only impacted on the Nixon era, and subsequently lead to measures that should have prevented further distrust in the government. Instead, the role played by the four presidents who held office in those years was the main reason behind the decline in confidence. The role of the presidents and their White House administrations encompassed political scandals, and also clearly influenced other factors such as the role
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.
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...
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
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.
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.
I have decided to use the Nixon Watergate Scandal as my topic for this museum post. I chose the Watergate scandal because it brought about the first and only resignation of a president. That president’s name was Richard Nixon and he resigned August 9, 1974, after being “faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment” (Frank and Sidey). The Watergate scandal came to be after a break-in occurred on June 17, 1972, at the office of the Democratic National Committee. This office was located in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C., hence the name Watergate Scandal. The intruders were caught and arrested after trying to setup secret recording devices and steal documents. After an investigation into the five burglars it was found that these
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.