The Corruption and Deception of the Watergate Breeak In

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“From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known; our Constitution works. And during Watergate years it was interpreted again so as to reaffirm that no one - absolutely no one - is above the law.” -Leon Jaworski, special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the United States was experiencing disorder and hysteria as domestic and foreign issues; created stress and tension within the nation. In the late 1960s, when Richard Nixon was running for president, the nation saw the death of two influential people, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy. Following the death of King, race riots broke out across the country. To add to the anger and tension, many students and young Americans began to protest the war in Vietnam. Nixon promised to restore order to the country if he were to be elected. Unfortunately for Nixon, the Democrats, who had control of both sides of Congress, were prepared to block many of Nixon’s initiatives. Thus, CREEP (the committee to re-elect the president) began its corrupt path towards getting Nixon into office, even going as far as to break into the Democratic Party's National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate office in the nation’s capital ("Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon"). The Watergate scandal, which led to the first resignation of a United States President, changed the political landscape of the nation through its impact on Americans' trust in the government and its employees, its effect on government ethics, and its influence on journalism and the rise in investigative reporting.

June 17, 1972, was the date of the infamous Watergate break-in ("Watergate: The Scandal That Brou...

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...es. N.p., 5 June 2005. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. .

Lewis, Alfred E. “5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats’ Office Here.” WashingtonPost. N.p., 1972. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. .

Majerol, Veronica. “Watergate.” The New York Times 12 Mar. 2012: n. pag. Print.

Schneider, Bill. “Watergate.” All Politics. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. .

Super, John C., ed. “Nixon’s Resignation and Pardon.” Salem Press. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. .

“Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon.” Watergate.info. N.p., 1995. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. .

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