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
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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
Watergate scandal clearly defines new law graduates and junior lawyers what not to do. The subject is of such fundamental importance that John Dean, who was the White House Counsel in 1973 and was disbarred after pleading guilty of forfeiting confidentiality, has been involved in delivering lectures on Ethical values for lawyers and the course is made mandatory by the Illinois Supreme Court for the lawyers practicing in the same state. Ad per Dean, if these ethical obligations would have been known to the lawyers back then and if we would have complied with it, such event would not have occurred in the first place.
Among them would be Bob Bernstein, and Carl Woodward, reporters for The Washington Post. They used a background source “Deep Throat” to uncover the relationship between the scandal and the White House. “Deep Throat” later announced was W.Mark Felt. The Senate makes a special committee that nominated Archibald Cox to head the special investigations. James D St. Clair was appointed to be Nixon’s defense counsel. Startling information shocked the nation. There was a check of $25000 in one of the burglar’s bank account. Archibald then learns that Nixon taped all his conversations in the white house. Archibald demanded tapes but Nixon denied. Archibald was getting close to uncovering the case so Nixon demanded him to be fired. He demanded Attorney General Richardson but he protested and resigned. Next in line was Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus who also protested and resigned. Finally, Solicitor General Robert Bork carried out orders. John Sirica, a judge and he also realized not all the pieces of the puzzle were put together.
As time progressed and the investigation began to uncover the truth about what transpired at the Watergate apartment complex several things became evident: most of the burglars were ex-CIA and ex-FBI personnel, the burglars were paid with money directly from the re-election campaign and President Nixon not only knew about and sanctioned the break-in but deliberately attempted to cover it up. When called before Congress to testify about his knowledge, White House staffer John Dean testified that Nixon and his aides attempted to “stonewall” the investigation. As Congress continued its inquiry, it became clear
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
After the break-in, Nixon needed to protect his image so that American’s could still trust him. To accomplish this, he let a number of employees take the blame for him. The Watergate Seven were a group of men involved in the scandal, who were also advisors and aides to President Nixon. On January 8, 1973, these men were put to trial. With urges from Nixon, five of the seven pleaded guilty. Then on January 30, 1973, six of Nixon’s aides and the lawyer for his re-election committee were charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to cover-up the break in. This included John Mitchell, Harry Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles W. Colson, Gordon Strachan, and Kenneth Wells Parkinson. However, after the trial, CIA operative, James W. McCord, wrote a letter to Judge John Sirica. In which he claimed that the defendants had pleaded guilty under duress. He also said that they committed perjury and that others were involved in the Watergate break-in. Leading to further pressure being put on Nixon and his alleged involvement in the break-in. Eventually, Nixon’s deceitful involvement would be revealed to the American public.
The reporters also revealed that John Mitchell had controlled a secret fund for financing political spying and dirty tricks to weed out the presidential candidates of the Democratic Party. Due to those dirty tactics, Nixon was reelected on November 7, 1972. “However, on February 7, 1973, with questions still remaining regarding the president’s knowledge of the Watergate affair, the Senate voted to establish the Senate Watergate Committee, which was charged with investigating the extent of campaign abuses in the 1972 presidential election”(McConnell 12). McCord, under oath before the Senate Watergate Committee, testified that Jeb Magruder, former Nixon aide, and White House counsel John Dean both were aware of the plans to bug the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. He also stated Mitchell had approved the plans. FBI Director L. Patrick Gray resigned after he confessed, on April 20, 1973, that he destroyed Watergate evidence because he was pressured by Nixon’s aides. On June 25, Presidential counsel John Dean testified that Nixon had been paying the five burglars and two operatives whom were involved in planning the Watergate break-in hush money. A Nixon aide testified on July 13 that Nixon taped all of his conversations and telephone calls on hidden microphones installed in the Oval Office. The Committee subpoenaed the tapes. Nixon refused to hand them over. The tapes became the primary focus of a year-long
Amid increasing disclosures of White House involved in the Watergate break-in and its aftermath, Nixon announced the resignations of John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldman, two of his closest advisers, in the dismissal of his counsel John W. Dean III. Growing suspicion of presidential involvement in the scandel resulted in an intensification of the investigation. Leaders in this inquiry included Judge Sirica, reporters for the Washington Post, the Ervin committee, and Archibald Cox, who was sworn in as special prosecutor in May 1973. Dean told the Ervin committee in June that Nixon had cover-up. A month later, former White House staff Alexander Butterfield revealed that Nixon had secretly tape-recorded conversations in his offices. Both Cox and the Ervin committee began efforts to obtain selected tapes. Nixon, citing EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE, refused to relinquish them and
* In June 1973, John Dean tells Watergate Investigators he had discussed the cover-up of the controversy with President Nixon at least 35
The Watergate Scandal was truly the biggest political scandal in United States History. Over forty people where charged with crimes relating to the scandal. Bernstein and Woodward were given a fantastic oppourtunity to uncover something truly significant in history. The twenty-one months of investigative reporting done by these two men would ruin Nixon’s name and make these two common everyday reporters lives change forever. Woodward first got his life changing call on June 17th 1972 with his editor telling him about a small invasion of the Democratic Party Headquarters. With being related to the scandal, two members of President Nixon’s cabinet, H.R. Hadlemen and John Ehrlichman, quickly resigned. When first thought of the president even having something to do with the Watergate Scandal, he made every effort to possibly hide this career ruining event. The break in was first found by a security guard by the name of, Frank Wills. Wills saw a piece of tape covering a broken lock. Wills was
“I am not a crook” is one of the most famous quotes from President Richard M. Nixon. Citizens of the United States of America would hope that their president would never have to defend himself as a crook, but that is just what happened in the presidency of Richard M. Nixon. President Nixon had to defend himself for not being a crook because of the events famously known as the ‘Watergate Scandal’. In 1972, members of Nixon’s re-election committee broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate offices and stole top-secret documents as well as trying to get into their phone system. They eventually were caught and so was President Nixon which led him to his resignation. Even though it was an unfortunate event, there have been positive outcomes because of it. The lasting implications of the Watergate Scandal have been generally positive on society because of the passing of Ethics in Government Act, amending the Freedom of Information Act and 42 states passing election reform laws.
The Watergate Affair, is the worst political scandal in U.S. history. It led to the resignation of the president, Richard M. Nixon, after he became implicated in an attempt to cover up the scandal. "The Watergate Affair" refers to the break-in and electronic bugging
Richard Nixon's presidency is one of the most examined, analyzed and discussed, yet least understood, of all the American administrations in history. While many factors still remain to be discovered, and many mysteries are left to be resolved, we need to do the best that we can to make sense of this secretive president of our past and his era. He is the one American figure about whom very few people don't have strong feelings for. Nixon is loved and hated, honored and mocked . The term 'Watergate', labeled by Congress in 1974, stands for not only the burglary, but also for the numerous instances of officially sanctioned criminal activity and abuses of power as well as the obstruction of justice that preceded the actual break-in.
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
As the result of Watergate, the concept of a special prosecutor became a reality and despite initial problems it worked. Interestingly, Nixon true to his pattern of abusing power, arrogantly thought he could control the office of the special prosecutor (The Saturday Night Massacre). Fortunately Leon Jaworski, who was selected by Nixon to replace Archibald Cox, recognized the seriousness of the situation and continued the prosecution in an honorable fashion. Jaworski is one of the true heroes of this episode in American Political History along with Elliot Richardson. These two men who recognized Nixon for the corrupt person he was and refused to be controlled by him.
Once broken, the seal of Watergate could never be replaced. The five men brought arrested for breaking into the Watergate Complex had to be served fair justice. The official hearings began on January 8th, 1973 (Files 1). However, fair trials would not prevail. Edward B. Hunt ordered the payout of twenty thousand dollars to each member of the break-in team, fifty thousand for his lawyer, and seventy thousand dollars for himself (Files 6). The “hush money” proved successful. All four Cuban men pled