Watergate Essay Research Paper What Was Watergate

Watergate Essay, Research Paper

What Was Watergate.

“Watergate” is a general term used to describe a complex web of political scandals between 1972 and 1974. The word refers to the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. In addition to the hotel, the Watergate complex houses many business offices. It was here that the office of the Democratic National Committee was burgled on June 17th, 1972. “Watergate” is now an all-encompassing term used to refer to:

* political burglary

* bribery

* extortion

* wiretapping (phonetapping)

* conspiracy

* obstruction of justice

* destruction of evidence

* tax fraud

* illegal use of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.)

* illegal use of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I.)

* illegal campaign contributions

* use of public (taxpayers’) money for private purposes

Background to Watergate

1968: Richard Milhous Nixon (Republican ) elected president. Click here to read Nixon’s first Inaugural Address. Nixon had been Vice President under Eisenhower (1952-60) and had been defeated in the 1960 presidential election by John F. Kennedy.

1971: Publication of the “Pentagon Papers”. These secret Defense Department documents on American involvement in the Vietnam war were leaked to the New York Times by an official in the Defense Department, Dr. Daniel Ellsberg. Nixon challenged the publication of the documents in the Supreme Court and lost when the court ruled 6-3 in favour of publication.

1970-1: A White House Special Investigations Unit is established, known as the “Plumbers”. This secret group investigated the private lives of Nixon’s critics and political enemies. It burgled the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist in an attempt to discover damaging information.

Nixon was reported to have a “hate list”, containing the names of many Democrats, James Reston, Jack Anderson, Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, and even Gough Whitlam.

Somewhere around 1971, voice-activated tape recorders were installed in the Oval Office in the White House.

The Political Debate

The late 1960s were a time of great political and social upheaval in the United States. President Johnson had been destroyed by the Vietnam War and had announced that he would not contest the 1968 election. A spirit of unrest pervaded the college campuses. Demands for black rights were growing and a huge anti-war movement had developed.

Nixon was elected on a pledge of ending the war. During his term, he opened up diplomatic relations with China (1971) and establishing “detente” with the Soviet Union. It has been argued that only a president with Nixon’s well-established and hostile attitude to communism could have done these things. As the 1972 election approached, the Democrats opted for a liberal candidate, Senator George McGovern, a factor that led to the landslide win by Nixon. Nixon won 49 of the 50 states, McGovern winning only Massachusetts and Washington D.C. Click here to read Nixon’s second Inaugural Address. During the campaign, McGovern had been forced to drop his vice-presidential running mate, Thomas Eagleton, after newspapers published reports of his previous mental illness. McGovern had earlier said he was 1000% behind Eagleton. Eagleton was replaced by Sargent Shriver.

The Watergate Burglary

June 17th, 1972: Five men are arrested at the Watergate complex after burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Charges are also laid against G. Gordon Liddy (CREEP) and E. Howard Hunt, a former White House aide. The “Watergate Seven” were sentenced by Judge John Sirica.

January 1973: James McCord and others alleged that they had lied in earlier evidence at the urging of John Dean (counsel to the President) and John Mitchell (Attorney-General). These allegations of a cover-up and obstruction of justice by the highest law officers in the land blew Watergate wide open.

February 1973: The Senate votes (77-0) to establish a Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin (Democrat – North Carolina)

April 30th 1973: Nixon announces the dismissal of Dean and the resignations of Haldeman and Erlichman, two of his closest advisers. The Attorney-General, Richard Kleindienst, also resigns and is replaced by Elliot Richardson. Archibald Cox is appointed as a special Watergate prosecutor.

May-October 1973: Senate hearings continue. Alexander Butterfield disclosed the existence of the White House tapes and a protracted legal battle begins. Nixon claimed “executive privilege” for the tapes and argued that he should not have to hand them over. Archibald Cox and the Senate Watergate committee request the Supreme Court instruct Nixon to surrender the tapes.

October 12th 1973: Nixon nominates Gerald Ford, Republican Minority leader in the House of Representatives, as vice-president, following the resignation of Spiro Agnew on bribery and tax evasion charges.

October 1973 – The Saturday Night Massacre: Nixon orders the Attorney-General to dismiss the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox. Richardson refuses to do so and resigns. His deputy is sacked for similarly refusing to carry out Nixon’s order. Eventually, the Solicitor-General, Robert Bork, dismisses Cox. In the 1980

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