The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U.S. Congress, the Nixon administration's resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis.[1] The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included such "dirty tricks" as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon …show more content…
The FBI connected cash found on the burglars to a slush fund used by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), the official organization of Nixon's campaign.[4][5] In July 1973, as evidence mounted against the President's staff, including testimony provided by former staff members in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape-recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations.[6][7] After a protracted series of bitter court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes to government investigators, and he eventually complied. These audio recordings implicated the president, revealing he had attempted to cover up the questionable goings-on that took place after the break-in.[5][8] Facing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974.[9][10] On September 8, 1974, his successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned
In June 1972, Nixon campaign people broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate Central Station, stole duplicates of top-mystery archives and destroyed the workplace’s telephones. But after that they were captured inside the workplace of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), situated in the Watergate working in Washington D.C. Nixon tried to cover the activities of his people before the operation was done by the Watergate secret activities. He tried to stop the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) from investing the activities, vanishing the proofs and changing and terminating the staff members. This act was an abuse of presidential power which was later found, and the president had to surrender.
1972 – 1974: Watergate Scandal: In June, 1972, Police arrested five men who broke into the the Democratic National Committee Office in the Watergate District of Washington, D.C. When further investigated, two more men were arrested. Following a background check, it was revealed that the men belonged to a committee to re-elect the president. It was also revealed that men were paid by the committee and the committee was controlled by the people who work in the White House. This information was gathered by the Washington Post, which had an FBI informant, nicknamed “Deep Throat.” The investigation revealed that some of Nixon’s closest advisors may be involved in the scandal. Nixon was also thought to be involved as the investigation proceeded. During Senate hearings, Nixon denied an affiliation with the scandal, but it was revealed that Nixon recorded every conversation in this office. After refusing to hand-over the tapes, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to do so. He did turnover the tapes, however there were minutes missing from the recordings. Congress drew up the Articles of Impeachment to impeach Nixon, but he decided to resign before he was
The Watergate Scandal was the downfall of Richard Nixon. It made Americans put less trust in the government and built trust in the media. It all takes place at the Watergate Hotel. He led an extremely corrupt administration to get him re elected. He also was the first President to resign. The unethical organization that was formed was called the CRP (later creep). They helped Nixon get re elected in 1972. They used illegal tactics to get him re elected. They paid lawyers for the burglars who broke into the Watergate Hotel. These people were known as the Plumbers. That was directed by John Ehrlichman. They were the White House investigation unit. They prevented information leak and burglarize any of Nixon reveals. Watergate seven was Richard Nixon closest comrades. They were in charge of the Creep and the plumbers that carried out many illegal activities. Christ the Transformer of Business culture is a good trait to obtain. “These people are intimately involved with those in the business, but their distinctive Christian standards are not lost” (Ruddell, 2004, p. 40). The people that were involved in the Watergate scandal should have had this trait.
In late June 17, 1972 two robbers were caught inside the office of the Democratic National Committee. These two were caught red handed wiretapping phones and stealing secret documents. These two burglars where somehow connected to Nixon and his reelection campaign. Thus, a long line of bad decisions led to Nixon’s downfall. He tried to raise “hush money” for the burglars to keep the FBI from investigating the crime. Nixon went as far as to destroy evidence and fire unwilling employees who were against the cover up. When all this was made to public light in 1974, Nixon resigned from
Watergate is the popular name for the political scandal and constitutional crisis that began with the arrest of five burglars who broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office in Washington D.C. on the night of June 17, 1972. It ended with the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon. The burglars and two co-potters-G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt were indicated on charges of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping. Four monthes later, they were convicted and sentenced to prison terms by District Court Judge John J. Sirica, who was convicted that pertinent details had not been unveiled during the trial and proffered leniency in exchange for further information. As it
In the early 1970’s, President Richard Milhous Nixon was a popular president among many people in the United States. However, he managed to change the view of the American government for the worse. Stealing documents from his rival party, covering up his actions over and over again. And finally getting caught of his actions, a distrust of their government by their citizens was created. But how had it occurred? Why did Nixon do this? Why did he cover it up over and over again? What steps and actions had led to Nixon’s resignation? Because of the Watergate Scandal, the American citizens understood that the American Government can be deceiving to its citizens.
Though the Watergate scandal is becoming a prominent news story everyone is clinging to, it did not sway the public from reelecting Nixon in November of 1972 with votes in excess of sixty percent making it a total victory. President Nixon’s celebration would be short-lived as members of his staff are being indicted and convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident. The first being convicted in January 1973 was aide G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord Jr. with five others pleading guilty. Add to that the resignation of top White House staffers, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, in addition to Attorney General Richard Kleindienst, the dominoes were beginning to fall.
On November 5, 1968 Richard M. Nixon was elected the 37th president of the United States. In 1972 Nixon was reelected in a landslide victory. However, His undoing was already in the works. A few months prior to Nixon’s reelection a group of men linked to the Nixon administration were arrested in the Democratic party headquarters in Washington’s Watergate complex and what followed was one of the biggest scandals in presidential history. The Watergate scandal was revealed as a cover-up by the Nixon administration to hide involvement in illegal activities against their opponents and ultimately lead to Nixon’s resignation from his presidency on August 9, 1974. Nixon was granted a full pardon from the Ford administration a month later. A few years later Nixon was paid $600,000 by British TV personality David Frost for a string of in depth television interviews. The last decades of Nixon’s life were spent rebuilding his reputation. He will always be remembered as the face of the embarrassing Watergate scandal. Due to these events no president will ever be trusted.
Watergate scandal remains one of the historical revelation of excessive use of power during the reign of President Richard Nixon. After the break-in at the Democratic National Committee at the Westgate offices, there was a remarkable series of rotten underbelly in the Nixon’s administration. Specifically, this scandal led to the discovery of the multiple abuses of the power under the articles of impeachment. Because of the unlawful approach used by this administration to thwart those who were critical of Nixon’s administration, human rights groups and political activities embarked on demanding for explanation and resignation of the president. Rightful, there was reasonable grounds to demand the president’s resignation because it became overt that he had used FBI, CIA and Internal Revenue Service to silence critics. Subsequently, this
After the case was final, Richard Nixon released all of the tapes. It was confirmed that he was involved with the watergate scandal. He had contact with the men that he ordered to bug the committees office. He shortly resigned after everything releasing the tapes. He became known as the first president to resign in history. This case is very famous and will go down in history forever. It was reenacted in one of my favorite movies, Forrest
United States President Richard Nixon was involved in a major political scandal during the 1970s that resulted from a break in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The scandal was known as the Watergate scandal. The scandal was called Watergate because it occurred at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Nixon and his administration attempted to cover up the scandal, but the scandal was discovered and investigated by Congress. The scandal comprised of illegal activities such as bugging of offices, ordering investigations of activist groups and political figures with the use of the FBI, CIA, and IRS. There were several abuses of power during the scandal and the results of the scandal and investigation were indictment of sixty nine individuals and Richard Nixon resigning his office as President of the United States.
At the hearings, all the illegal activities done on the behalf of the president became known: wiretapping, harassment, bribery, and obstruction of justice. This prompted Nixon to defend himself with a 4000 word report that didn’t just deny the accusations, but claimed the security operations, “stemmed from national security needs.”10 But there was still no hard evidence until Alexander Butterfield, Nixon’s aide, revealed that there was a secret recording system in the oval office, leading the Senate and special prosecutor Archibald Cox requested the tapes from the president. Nixon refused to hand them over citing “executive privilege.” The struggle for the tapes proved to be the beginning of the end of his presidency. By August, the public would overwhelmingly turn against his duplicity with 73 percent believing he was involved in Watergate.11 Despite this pressure to relent, Nixon continued his tactics of blanketly dismissing the charges and blaming the media. In September, the Supreme Court called on Nixon to release the tapes which he would again refuse. This began the chain of events that would come to be known as the Saturday Night Massacre. That night, Nixon ordered his attorney deputy attorney general to fire special prosecutor Cox, which both would refuse to do and resigned instead. Solicitor General Robert Bork, however, did comply and abolished the special prosecutor’s investigation. Several days later the House of Representatives called for impeachment hearing. In United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled that the president could not use executive privilege to withhold the tapes. From the tapes, it was apparent that Richard Nixon took part in the Watergate cover up and the subsequent obstruction of justice. With the impeachment proceedings in place, Richard Nixon was forced to announce his resignation as the president of United
The Supreme Court commanded Nixon to turn over the tapes in July of 1974 (Feinstein 39). It was proven on the tapes that Nixon lied about covering up Watergate, thus putting Nixon in the position for impeachment (Feinstein 39). According to Watergate Scandal, more information was unveiled as the trial went on, ironically followed by President Nixon’s resignation in August 1974. Gerald Ford was Nixon’s successor, and he pardoned Nixon for any accused crimes. However, many of Nixon’s aides were not pardoned. They were convicted and sent to federal prison, while Nixon faced no punishment. "Although Nixon was never prosecuted, the Watergate scandal changed American politics forever, leading many Americans to question their leadership and think more critically about
The infamous Watergate Scandal was the first of its kind; occurring in June of the year 1972, several robbers were taken into police custody inside the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), established in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. This break in was out of the ordinary, however, because the burglars were tied to former U.S. President, Richard Nixon's reelection campaign, and they had been caught during their attempt to wiretap phone lines and steal classified documents (History.com Staff). Even though it is unknown whether or not Nixon was aware of the Watergate infiltration before it occurred, many people believe he was involved due to steps he took to cover it up afterward. Nixon raised "hush money" for the robbers, in an effort to end the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from investigating the crime that had occurred (History.com Staff.). Nixon is also accused of destroying evidence and firing staff members that he thought to be uncooperative. In August 1974, after his role in Watergate Scandal had been brought to the public's attention, President Nixon resigned from office. His successor, former U.S. President Gerald Ford, immediately pardoned Nixon for the crimes he "committed or may have committed" while he was still in office (History.com Staff.). "Although Nixon was never
The Watergate scandal began during the 1972 Presidential campaign between Democratic Senator George McGovern of South Dakota and President Nixon. On June 17, 1972, about five months before the general election, five burglars broke into Democratic headquarters located in the Watergate building complex in Washington, D.C.In May 1973, Nixon's Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, appointed Archibald Cox to the position of special prosecutor, charged with investigating the break-in.In October 1973, Nixon arranged to have Cox fired in the Saturday Night Massacre. However, public outrage forced Nixon to appoint a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, who was charged with conducting the Watergate investigation for the government. Less than three weeks