The Key Features of the Watergate Scandal

553 Words2 Pages

The Key Features of the Watergate Scandal

On the 17th of June 1972 five men were arrested for trying to break

into and bug the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate

building in Washington. When investigating this break in, the police

discovered that the five men were all employed by CREEP.

CREEP was a committee established by the Republican Party to campaign

for the re-election of President Nixon. They were prepared to go to

any lengths to achieve their objectives, even if it meant breaking the

law.

There were two journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who

worked for the Washington Post newspaper, who got hold of the story.

They decided to do a full investigative report into the story.

They discovered that the break in was not the only illegal activity

that CREEP had been involved in. CREEP had $350,000 allocated for

dirty tricks against the democrats. Moreover, it was being controlled

from the White House.

The election took place in November and Nixon won the biggest

landslide in American history. However, Bernstein and Woodward

continued their investigations. By May 1973 they had collected enough

information to publish their findings. The Senate set up a special

committee to find out what had been going on and many of Nixon's

advisers were forced to resign.

Nixon claimed he was innocent and did not know anything had gone on

and if it had he did not have anything to do with it. To prove his

innocence Nixon hired a private investigator called Archibald Fox,

hoping that this would produce a whitewash.

Between May and November 9173, the investigations went on, and all the

Presidents chief advisers were involved.

In America, all the hearings were held in public, creating a huge

scandal. Like in a court of law, all the President's advisers were

under oath, but were lying.

It was discovered that the President had made and kept recordings of

every conversation he had ever had in the Whitehouse, while he was in

office, since 1971.

More about The Key Features of the Watergate Scandal

Open Document