How Presidents of the United States Overstep their Bounds and Defy the Constitution

Richard Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal left no doubt to his involvement of being impeached. During the Nixon Administration, he was able to prevent colleges from being gender biased and allowing both male and female to have equal opportunity and receiving financial aid as well as competing in sports. He was able to establish the Environmental Protection Agency. He also worked to create a relationship between the U.S and the Middle East. Unfortunately, even with all of the accomplishments, he was able to have, everyone will remember Richard Nixon as the president who was involved in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal left an asterisk by his legacy while being in the office, the results left him with having to resign and with him facing criminal charges as well, the Scandal became well known to the public in the summer of 1974. Through my essay, I will discuss why I am intrigued by the Watergate scandal, and discuss what if Richard Nixon never got caught on the audio tape?

Lyndon B Johnson was a horrible president. He started a war that split the country in half. People who lived through President Johnson’s years remember him badly. But then – there was Nixon, who not only was as bad as Johnson, he was actually worse. President Richard Nixon was the 37th president whose term lasted from 1969 to 1974. Nixon was doomed to almost certain impeachment. With the threat of impeachment looming over his head, he resigned on August 9, 1974. Several of President Nixon’s actions such as the Watergate scandal, violation of international law, and attempt at wage and price controls made Lyndon Johnson look like a saint in comparison.

For almost 200 years the American public viewed their government and its chief executive with virtual reverence. Presidents like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were the embodiment of every principle and value set forth in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The events that occurred in Vietnam coupled with the Watergate scandal shocked the nation and irreparably damaged the publics’ view of politics and government activities. The release of the Pentagon papers

President Richard Nixon’s Watergate incident and resignation in August of 1974 left the nation feeling skeptic toward the national government. Gerald Ford, who was not elected by the public, took the oath of office and became the 38th president of the United States. President Ford, coined with a repugnant image in both the eyes of the public and the media, was defeated by 56 electoral votes in the election of 1976. Jimmy Carter managed to receive similar distasteful images by the end of his single term as well. Although there were similarities between Ford and Carter, the two presidents were different in terms of previous experience, domestic policies, and foreign affairs.

Moreover, this paper hopes to justify that the Watergate break in was directly caused by the pressure on Nixon from his advisers in relation to the Pentagon papers and the papers' appearance to the citizens. In addition, this essay hopes to prove that Nixon unknowingly sabotaged his own presidency in response to New York Times's publication and court case, Daniel Ellsberg's trial, and Watergate. Also, this Extended Essay hopes to demonstrate how the Pentagon Papers established a credibility gap between the citizens and the presidency. Furthermore, the credibility gap is a different perception of events between the government and its citizens. Thus meaning that when any national crisis arose it could significantly affect a president's approval ratings and destroy any relationship forming with in the public. Finally, the Pentagon Papers established a credibility gap in the later years of Nixon's presidency specifically with the Watergate break in and his claims of innocence. This research question is worthy of investigation because the effects of the Pentagon Papers are still felt in the United States with the recent events of Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks, and the revelation of the NSA spying on American citizens. That is concurrent to the feelings of the citizens in the 1970s with the government lying to its own

Former President Richard Nixon is most well-known for his role in the Watergate crisis in the early 1970’s. The Watergate crisis started in June of 1972, when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters was broke into by members of Nixon’s re-election committee. The press took this breaking news and began to dig deeper into what the Whitehouse (President Nixon) was hiding. Over the next two years heavy investigations into the Watergate incident revealed that President Nixon did, in fact, ordered a cover-up to keep the incident under control. Fearing impeachment, President Nixon resigned his presidency in August 1974,

President Richard M. Nixon’s administration had to face many international and domestic challenges in the United States between 1968 and 1974, some positive and some negative. His achievements in expanding peaceful relationships with both China and the Soviet Union are contrastingly different with his continuation of the Vietnam War. In the end, Nixon’s scandals and abuse of presidential power caught up to him, and his administration did much to corrode America’s faith in the government.

Question: Explain how events such as the Vietnam War and Watergate affected the American public’s opinion of the U.S government.

First, President’s believe in unilateral decision making. When President Nixon discussed some of the illegal actions of his administration, he said, “Well, when the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” Although most Presidents have not abused their power to the extent that Nixon did in the Watergate scandal, his belief that the President can do anything for the good of the country is shared by other presidents. For example, President Reagan also abused his power in the Iran-Contra affair because he believed supporting the anti-communist Nicaraguan Contras would benefit the United States and the World as a

Nixon's extreme secrecy led him to be withdrawn from the rest of the country. He

Nixon vs. Reagan Have you ever wondered what life would be like under the presidency of Nixon or Reagan? Living under the presidency of Nixon, people felt mistrusted with the fact of the watergate scandal, and the vietnam war. The watergate scandal was where Nixon hired people to break into the Democratic National Committee to steal information about his opponent that could help Nixon win. Whereas, under the presidency of Reagan, people felt that he was bringing back the good in the country with ending the cold war with Russia. Although some people felt mistrusted with Nixon and felt at ease under Reagan, the two Presidents both had similarities and differences in the political standpoints.

During this period, a presidential election was seemed essential because the Vietnam War was taking place which led the US to a harsh political divide. The harsh methods used in this campaign were actually known as “illegal espionage”. This lead to Nixon’s group who reelected the president to steel “copies of top-secret documents and bugged the office’s phones” (Watergate: The Break-In). This break in was known as a third-rate burglary attempt. Their attempt failed and the committee came back to the building a few days later to barge right back in, but this time getting caught before things got out of hand.

The Vietnam War and the watergate scandal had a huge impact on the political front of the country. The political crisis were highly apparent from the growing public pessimism and lessening in publics respect towards political authorities. Moreover special interests and lobbies gained power and control. As a result, congress executed several reforms to reduce the exploitation of position and power by the president and gained access to the constitutional

In my opinion I argue that U.S. policy and practice indeed has placed too much emphasis on fighting al Qaeda, to the point that we still see today how it has negatively impacted our economic infrastructure and global presence, rather than managing the broader issues of terrorism. Although it was only natural that the American government would retaliate after the event that was 9/11, the combined losses of lives, finances, and other resources and human rights violations caused by continuous investment in the war against terrorism far exceeded what is considered rational and reasonable by many people. Despite the severe costs of this ongoing battle, I and many others suspect that America is only going to continue to burden itself until we see a formal defeat of the enemy, unfortunately because of our constant meddling in the middle east we only ended up playing a part in influencing the creation of more Islamic extremist groups like for example ISIS/ISIL.

The term “War on Terrorism” itself refers to the policy made by President Bush immediately following the September 11 terrorist attacks, declaring that the U.S. would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbour them".[1] The immediate application of this policy was the invasion of Afghanistan in early October 2001, when the Taliban controlled government of Afghanistan refused to hand over the well-known al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. This new United States policy inferred that any nation refusing to cooperate with American efforts to attack terrorists would be considered an enemy state. On September 20, in a televised address, Bush summed up this policy with the words, "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."[2] This doctrine is argued to be contrary to the classical concept of a just war which requires, among other stipulations, that war must only be conducted in self-defence. Supporters of the doctrine counter that the state-sponsorship of terrorism is in itself a first act of war, and that the US is acting justly when it answers with military actions.