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The Watergate Scandal Essay

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Richard Milhous Nixon was the thirty-seventh President of the United States of America from 1969 until 1974. Nixon completed his first term as President in 1973 and was re-elected to the position for the next four years. However, Nixon would have his time in the White House cut short by the series of events that occurred in the twenty-six months that followed the Watergate burglary. On June 17, 1972 five men, one White House employee and four Cubans, broke into the Watergate Office Building in Washington, DC in an attempt to bug the Democratic National Committee (DNC) office. The break in and the events that took place afterwards led to the resignation of Richard Milhous Nixon on August 8, 1974.

The morning of June 18, Nixon was at …show more content…

John Dean served as a special counsel to President Nixon during his term of office.
When Dean learned of the break in he wrote it was somewhat sickening and did not want to learn more about Watergate (Colondy and Gettlin 164). Dean did however learn more about Watergate because John Erlichman, chief domestic affairs advisor to President Nixon, ordered Dean to find out the entire story by any means possible (White 161). Dean was the best choice to head up a cover-up scandal because he had worked in Congress and for the Justice Department. Dean subsequently held a meeting with Gordon Liddy, counsel member to the CRP, in a park where Liddy informed Dean of all the ins and outs of the Watergate burglary. Dean learned that Bob Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff, had received transcripts from wiretaps in the DNC. Dean later testified to Watergate investigators that he spoke to Richard Kleindiest, U.S. Attorney General, that the investigation could lead to the White House and cause problems in an election year for President Nixon. He realized that if Haldeman was drawn into the picture Nixon also would be put in the spotlight after a short period.

Nixon began to focus on what the people involved could say to hurt the Re-election campaign. It is here where Nixon first begins to become involved in the cover-up of the Watergate Scandal. Nixon first reacted in a

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