The Watergate Scandal Essay

There was no other evidence, however, until on July 16, 1973, Alexander Butterfield, a former White House staff member, testified that there were secret recordings of presidential conversations. The Committee and the special Watergate prosecutor, Archibald Cox, subpoenaed the tapes, but Nixon refused to turn them over. In response, Nixon ordered his Attorney General Eliot Richardson to fire Cox; Richardson refused and resigned as did his deputy, William Ruckelshaus. Cox was eventually fired by the Solicitor General, Robert Bork. This was known as the "Saturday Night Massacre" and provoked a huge outcry at Nixon's abuse of power. On December 8, 1973, Nixon released seven of the nine tapes, and one of the seven had

What kind of person commits three major violations of the national law and gets away with it? Well that person is Nixon. President Richard Nixon was one of the most famous presidents in the United States. He was mainly renowned for his huge role in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal was important because Nixon and his cabinet arranged to get people to spy on the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building. After it became clear Nixon was responsible, he manages to resign before he was going to be impeached. President Nixon was involved with the Watergate scandal and should be sentenced to jail because he organized it, which then got leaked out and finally led to his resignation.

A defining moment in American history, the Watergate scandal, dramatically transformed the way Americans view politicians and government. In the eyes of most Americans, trust, honor and integrity, vanished from the political landscape.

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 and crisis that rocked the United States began on the early morning of June 17, 1972 with a small-scale burglary and it ended August 9, 1974 with the resignation of Republican President Richard Milhous Nixon. At approximately 2:30 in the morning of June 17, 1972, five burglars were discovered inside the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate office building in Washington DC. The burglars, who had been attempting to tap the headquarters’ phone were linked to Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). Over the next few months, what had began as a minor break-in quickly escalated into a full-blown political scandal. It was

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

heightened suspicions that Nixon had much to hide. Leon Jaworski, who replaced Cox as special prosecutor on November 1, continued to press for the tapes. On Mar. 1, 1974, a federal grand jury indicted seven men, including Haldeman, Ehrlichman,

On June 17,1972, five thieves, who were correlated with the reelection campaign of Richard Nixon, were arrested at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. The five men were caught in the middle of trying to steal classified documents and wire tape phones in the office of the Democratic National Committee. Although, Richard Nixon denied any connection to the incident, it was later revealed that Nixon had been dishonest. Not only was hush-money prepared to be given to the the prowlers, Richard had delayed the FBI investigation of the crime. Nixon had also tried to fire a prosecutor who kept pestering the president for tapes of the conversations that had taken place in the Oval Office. Due to the fact that all of these were, “an abuse of presidential

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.

In 1972, Richard M. Nixon hired five ex-cuban trained agents to break into the Watergate complex to gain information on George McGovern. The scandal started when Nixon hired Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt to re-elect Nixon. Nixon knew he was going to win the Presidential campaign, but he didn’t he wanted to win by a landslide.

Ehrlichman was ordered to destroy incriminating documents and tapes. Then L. Patrick Gray resigned as acting director of the FBI, later admitting he had destroyed documents given to him by Ehrlichman and Dean. On June 23, 1972, Nixon learned about Mitchell's possible link with the operation, and Nixon instructed the FBI to stop the inquiry into the source of money used by the men who tapped the building. He said that "the investigation would endanger the CIA operations." Dean and the others subsequently sought to induce CIA officials to cooperate with this plan. On July 1, Mitchell left the CRP, citing personal reasons. On August 29, Nixon declared that no one in the administration, then employed, was involved in the Watergate. Although money found in the possession of the wire tappers was traced to the CRP, such evidence was insufficient to implicate high officials. On September 15, only the five men first arrested, plus Liddy and E. Howard Hunt , one of the plumbers, were indicted (Carson 2).

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 for 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.

Then someone found out that the president had tapes of him talking to someone about the plan to break into watergate and he had Documents as well, “secret tapes of White House conversations later revealed that the president had participated in efforts to cover up the criminal activity.”( History.com), but they could not release them because Nixon claimed Executive Privilege which was something the court had never faced before. Executive Privilege is when someone has the right to withhold information from other branches of government. After claiming executive privilege the court had to decide on whether his claim completely protected him from judicial

The term “Watergate” has become a common household name in correlation with people's thoughts about corruption in government. President Nixon was in office at the time of this scandal and is often thought to be the most famous face in America's conspiracy of wickedness in the government. The Watergate scandal had rocked everything our country thought we knew about the American Presidency because it had forfeited the common vision of the leader of the nation. Watergate had replaced the image of elegance and worldliness of the U.S. President with a scattered vision of corruption and extreme competitive measures that the country had never been a part of. Richard Nixon and his men had taken