The Watergate Scandal Essay

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?

Many people, myself included look up to individuals in an authoritative role such as; senators, governors, and presidents. We view them as being honest and sincere. They have to be right? They do want to run the country after all. Often our thoughts are “they would never lie to us or hide things from us”, but unfortunately that’s not always the case. One of the biggest political scandals to hit the United States of America was the Watergate scandal involving our very own President Richard Nixon. This scandal caused a lot of American’s to lose trust and hope in the presidency. The scandal received its name from the Watergate apartment and office complex that was located in Washington D.C., where a burglary took place on June 17, 1972 and five men were arrested. It then came to surface that the men’s intentions were to sabotage the opposite political party, when president Nixon was notified of this he order the Central Intelligence Agency to call the FBI to stop with any further investigation, that national security was at stake. President Nixon knew that it would come back to the White House and didn’t want to risk anything, even though he was never involved with the

Watergate Scandal has been considered as one of the darkest chapters in American history. The event not only refers to unethical use of power by the public representatives but also levied great deal of attention on the mechanism of surveillance over the activities of public servants. Watergate scandal provides ethical directions not only to public servants but also provides ethical guidelines to the lawyers and media representatives as well. This incident reveals how ethical lines were crossed time and again by the politicians, legal attorneys and media for their own purposes. Ignoring the righteousness of the outcomes, events like these cause severe damage to the public's trust vested in these authorities which takes a long time to restore.

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

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.

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

Richard Nixon's first term as president will always be connected with the Watergate scandal, the biggest political scandal in United States history. Various illegal activities were conducted including burglary, wire tapping, violations of campaign financing laws, sabotage, and attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents to help Richard Nixon win reelection in the 1972 presidential elections. There were about 40 people charged with crimes related to the scandal. Most of them were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty. Watergate involved more high-level government officials than any previous scandal. It has been etched in the minds of millions and is still being recalled today when faced with the present day scandal of

Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were the investigative reporters to the Watergate scandal. Bernstein was a reporter at the Washington Post; he had

“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

Watergate was the name of the biggest political scandal in United States history. It included various illegal activities constructed to help President Richard Nixon win reelection in the 1972 presidential elections. Watergate included burglary, wire tapping, violations of campaign financing laws, and sabotage and attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents. It also involved a cover-up of conduct. There were about 40 people charged with crimes in the scandal and related crimes. Most of them were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty.

Woodward and Bernstein faced several obstacles while exposing the Watergate Scandal and Nixon’s involvement. At first their editor blocks them because their story lacks. They had few leads, and the leads they had led to nothing. When they called people who they thought were involved in to get information they would not talk and would hang up. Also when Bernstein called the White House Library to see if Howard Hunt checked out any material on Senator Kennedy. At first the librarian knew exactly what he was wanting and remembered he had checked out the material, then the librarian just suddenly forgot and said he did not check out any of the mentioned material. So that is some obstacle they faced while exposing the Watergate Scandal and Nixon’s

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

Two reporters from the Washington post named Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward had taken an interest in this event and perhaps maybe even knew there was more to it. Two days after the scandal at the Democratic Headquarters, Bob Woodward called in a favor from whom he referred to as “an old friend”, who came to be known as “Deep Throat”123. He was later revealed to be a high ranking federal agent who met with the reporters in extreme caution and secrecy to reveal details of the investigation into the Watergate scandal. An important detail of Deep Throat's significance is that he expressed the confidential tapings of White House conversations, to which only a few people at the time knew about existed. He also disclosed that there was 18 ½ minutes of the recordings that were missing, suggesting that the missing time was blank on purpose19. The identity of Deep Throat remained a mystery for over thirty years, when a man named Mark Felt revealed himself confirming that he had in fact retained high authority in the time of the ordeal21.