The Watergate Scandal

Furthermore, it resulted in a resignation of a United States president. With the many conspiracies, social issues, and briberies to this scandal exposed an abuse of power during the presidency and added more stress to the people of the nation.

On June 19, 1972, there was a break in to the Democratic Party headquarters in at the Watergate Apartment in Washington D.C. Those who broke into the Democratic National Committee offices were instructed to spy on the opposing party, against President Nixon’s campaign.

Frank Wills was the guard on duty that night. He had found evidence of a break in on one of the door’s locks, and called the police from the scene of the crime. The break-in failed and the five men were found within the building and caught. They would be later identified as Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzales, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker, and James W. McCord. As the investigation continued, the men were caught with lock picks, tear gas, cameras, and bugs to spy on the many political conversations between the democrats.

A notebook with the name and phone number of “E. Howard Hunt” was found on one of the men. A significant sum of money was an also found. It would later be traced back to CRP, and this along with the notebook, led to a significant breakthrough in the scandal. These two objects could be directly linked back to the White House.

On further examination, James W. McCord was proven to be a part of Nixon’s campaign organization. He was apart of CREEP, or CRP, the Committee to Reelect the President. This was a group of people whose purpose was to get President Nixon reelected in the 1972 election. John Mitchell was the leader of this association. He had been an attorney general, but he resigned to take care of this occupation.

The money that was discovered on the burglars traced right back to a CRP account, but Mitchell repeatedly declined any relationship with this assembly and the Watergate hotel robbery. Later, a member of the White House staff , John Dean, made his own run through the scene and also stated no one was involved in this accident.

With Nixon still running for the 1972 election, federal juries finally went ahead and made indictments against the five burglars and two other people connected to the crimes. E. Howard Hunt was arrested as his name was found within the notebook at the crime scene. Also G. Gordon Liddy, Mr. Liddy was a part of the CREEP counsel.

Liddy was found guilty on January 30th, 1973 and was sentenced in March. Liddy first brought himself into the political sense when he became a member of the White House staff and had worked for Egil Krogh. Ironically, then he was apart of the group SIG, Special Investigations Group, which helped Nixon keep his political administration in privacy .

Once the indictments were made, the media started to get a hold of different stories about Watergate and would just not let it go. One of the more major media sources was The Washington Post. Each issue of the paper came out with more and more stories about illegal activity and the money being placed into them. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were the major reporters for the Post and generally wrote about the flow of campaign contributions to pay for the illegal activities.

When Woodward first found out about the Watergate scandal, he tried to take a direct approach. He had known that Hunt’s name was found in the notebook at the scene of the crime, so he tried him first. Woodward called Hunt but no one answered at first. He obtained his work number and got ahold of him. Woodward questioned him about his name being found, Hunt denied it and hung up instantly . This was once of the first leads the reporters took.

Once Nixon learned of this information, he and many other members of his committee denied ever taking part of any of these printed actions. Other reports include a donation to the CREEP association that was deposited into Bernard L. Parker’s bank account. He was one of the Watergate robbers.

These two reporters were not able to do this on their own. Most leads and information came from a secret source they called “Deep Throat”. This plays a very important role in the entire Watergate scandal. If it were not for Deep Throat, Nixon might have never been caught. Woodward and Bernstein vowed not to let the identity of their sources known. The identity was finally revealed though 30 years later. Two years ago in 2005, a “Vanity Fair” interview revealed who Deep Throat really was.

Mark Felt, aged 91, told the reporter he was Deep Throat and after further examination, Woodward also confirmed it was true. (McConnell 19). Mark Felt had joined the FBI in 1942, and worked for J Edgar Hoover, one of the agency directors. He would secretly meet with the reporters whenever he could to give him the progressing time line of the Democratic Party. Deep Throat was known as one of the greatest secrets during this age and in the long run, led to one of the reasons President Nixon was caught during the scandal.

By 1973, the Watergate scandal was becoming more known to the public, while in the courts, it was starting to become a very large dispute over bribery and perjury. The U.S Senate had created a Select Committee, to watch over the Watergate scandal and other political connections to Nixon’s election. John Sirica was the sitting judge during the trials and even he himself suspected something of the Nixon Administration.

During 1973, a letter was mailed to Judge Sirica by one of the defendants, James W. McCord. He wrote to Judge Sirica claiming that all of the defendants only said they were guilty because they were under strict pressure. This led to an even deeper look into the scandal and an even higher claim that Nixon was involved.

Heavier disputes over Nixon’s administration started when John Dead got further involved. He had stated in one of the Select Committee’s hearings that there was a White House cover-up over Watergate. A few weeks later, another one of the president’s aides confessed the president had microphones hidden and placed in the Oval Office in 1971.

The tapes contained hidden conversations and started to became a major focus point of the scandal. Along with these tapes, Nixon began to break down even further. Archibald Cox was a member of the Nixon administration but he went against Nixon’s control. He vowed to obtain the tapes when asked by the government. Nixon was furious and his actions resulted in the “Saturday Night Massacre”.

Nixon took action and fired Cox from his administration but instead he had formed results of other members resigning from his power. Cox was later persecuted, when Nixon ordered Robert Bork to go fourth and fire him. Nixon knew he could not let the government get a hold of the tapes or he would have been found guilty.

After the persecution of Cox, many telegrams were sent to Nixon against his outrageous decision. Nixon was now more vulnerable than ever to sentencing against the Watergate Scandal. Law colleges across the nation started to call for the President’s impeachment. President Nixon buckled under the pressure and started to give in. Instead of going straight to impeachment, he handed over the tapes. One of the tapes was a conversation between the President and H. R. Haldeman. After listening to the tape an 18 minute gap was found. This brought up the question of whether Nixon was trying to hide information from the government.

The senate first looked to Rose Mary Woods. Woods was hired by Nixon to be his private secretary in 1951. She was in charge of transcribing all of the tapes that went through the office, including the one with the gap. She blamed the gap on herself. She told the Select Committee she accidentally erased the tape when answering the phone. With this lead, Woods still told the Senate that the gap could not be longer than 5 minutes, the length of the phone call .

The Saturday Night Massacre led Congress to bring up possibities of impeaching President Nixon. Closed hearings were held against him by the House of Representatives in 1974, a year later (Dudley). The hearings led to a vote in which the members had to choose sides, along with intertwining the articles of impeachment against the President. During the same year, the committee had three articles of impeachment against Nixon, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and the withholding of evidence, in this case the tapes.

Nixon knew he was more than probable to be impeached by the further hearings by the Senate.He decided to just step down from office. On August 9, 1974 President Nixon got in front of national television and stated that he would resign from the presidency of the United States.The decision did not come easily as he would remain on the history books as the first president ever to resign. Moreover, the White House staff was in disarray was many felt the pain of the president while others felt betrayed by the man they had served so loyally.

Furthermore, the real questions of succession and judicial questions relating to the resignation would fall upon the next president, Gerald Ford. The country stood and watched with gaping mouths as the scandal continued. to unwind. Would President Nixon go on trial? Is a presidential pardon advisable? What would it take to heal the wounds of a divided country? What would it take to re-establish the trust of the people in those who govern? The simple but controversial questions would be resolved in time but for now everyone was dealing with the delicate question of his resignation.

The Watergate Scandal left many long lasting marks on the nation and the presidency of the United States. It left Richard Nixon as the first United States President to resign from office. People now look at Watergate as a burglary, bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and most of all an abuse of power, As one reviews this incident as a scandal, what becomes apparent is the culminating effects of simple illegal acts and the role of free press in the United States.

Daily we read of such acts in our newspapers but it was rare to attach them to those who were elected to serve and to govern in a democratic state. It shattered the foundation of trust whether one was a Republican or Democrat. On a positive note, as the hearings were televised on national television the charges and evidence to support the charges became evident.

Individuals involved in the conspiracy were reluctant to admit their roles but evidence paved the way. The large circle protecting the inner circle was broken and soon the denials were no longer admissable. The three branches of government were performing to the plan proposed by our founding fathers. Neither the Attorney General nor anyone else was priviledged to violate the laws of the land.

Every one was talking about the scandal. After all, it was on public television! Newspapers carried the stories in detail but August 9 changed the course of action for our country. Perhaps now the Watergate scandal could be put to rest. Perhaps now the country would begin to heal the divisions of a painful experience which was a stressful time for everyone.

With the many conspiracies, social issues, and briberies to this scandal exposed an abuse of power during the presidency and added more stress to the people of the nation.