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Causes Of The Watergate Scandal

Decent Essays

Considering the post-war era of American society and the intense political conflicts, the Watergate scandal increased problems in society. The Watergate scandal was a result of many events beginning in the late 1950’s to 1960’s such as Vietnam, Nixon’s campaign, and the Pentagon papers. In the late 1960’s Richard Nixon won the presidency over Hubert Humphrey in what is called the closest election in American history. This election was the beginning to what would become the Watergate scandal in 1970’s. Some of Nixon’s policies for the government involved expansion of federal agencies, which gave him easy access to classified documents or files.
One major event that triggered the infamous scandal was in 1971 when the Pentagon Papers were released by the New York Times; A few months later, the “Plumbers” unit broke into an office in attempt to discover files on who released them, Daniel Ellsberg. These “Plumbers” broke into the Democratic National Committee in attempt to find information about Nixon’s opponent. Many public officials were involved in the cover-up and break-in itself which led to widespread corruption in the government. Some of those involved in these events were James McCord, a former CIA agent; Richard Nixon, the president; Sam Ervin, the man who first began to investigate the crimes; John Dean; John Ehrlichman and Gordon Liddy. Many events led up to the Watergate scandal, but it left a major mark on American history and holds a crucial significance to the

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