Watergate Essay Research Paper Watergate Watergate is

Watergate Essay, Research Paper

Watergate

.Watergate is the popular name for the political scandal and constitutional crisis that began with the arrest (June 17, 1972) of five burglars who broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C.. This was the scandal that ended Nixon.s career as President and changed the way the public looked at him, forever. President Richard M Nixon should not have been allowed to take the easy way out of his own problems by resigning; instead he should have been impeached in front of the people of his country.

Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. He was only 1 of the 5 sons, being the second born. . Despite the economic difficulties and emotional tensions of the Nixon household, young Richard excelled in school, graduating second in his class from Whittier College (1934) and third in his class from Duke University law school (1937).. When the U.S. was entering WWII Nixon was working in Washington DC. He then joined the navy and became an officer in the South Pacific. When he returned he got into politics becoming the Republican candidate for congress in California.s 12th District. This is what started his political career.

The next big milestone in Nixon.s political career would be the Vice-presidency. The President at this time was Eisenhower. Although Nixon was never personally close to his superior, he often covered for him when the President needed it, as a VP would normally do. The most famous account of this is when Eisenhower fell ill as a result of a heart attack, until the President could resume his duties. Due to Nixon.s good work after Eisenhower.s second term was through the Republican Party felt that Nixon was their prime choice for President against the young JFK.

Much to the surprise of Nixon, he had lost the election to a .lesser-known. opponent. Not by many votes for the most part, only a small margin of about 100,000 votes. Many thought that this would be the end of Nixon.s political life. His next attempt at political office would be for the governor for his home state, California. Not to the surprise of many, he lost the election, and decided to take a break from public life. A few years later he showed up on TV playing the piano. This brought him back in the minds of the people. .The nomination and overwhelming defeat of Sen. Barry Goldwater as the Republican Presidential candidate in 1964 encouraged Nixon to try again for the presidency in 1968. He obtained the nomination on the first ballot after winning a series of Presidential primaries. This time, partly because the Democratic Party was bitterly divided over the Vietnam War, Nixon won the election, despite an 11th-hour surge by the Democratic nominee, Hubert H. Humphrey, that narrowed Nixon’s final margin to less than 1 percent of the popular vote. . From then on, Nixon was on his way to the presidency.

From .zero to hero,. Nixon.s popularity was growing like wildfire. His comeback was one of the most amazing in American political history. Not many have left politics thinking that their career was over then reappearing in the public.s eye running for President. Nixon was a very versatile man he could be fair yet strong, as well as tough but at the same time doing it for all the right reasons. If only his decisions were planned out to be done without a hitch. Maybe we wouldn.t have even known what the leader of the country had done at the Watergate Hotel/office complex. The fact of the matter is that we do know, and he got caught in the act so he should have expected what was coming to him.

.Watergate is a general term used to describe a complex web of political scandals between 1972 and 1974.. To understand how the President took the easy way out of his own problems, you have to know what happened. In 1972 five men were arrested after a hotel security guard found them burglarizing the National Democratic Committee head quarters in the Watergate complex. All five men claimed that they had acted on their own, and there were no outside ties. Later, in early 1973 .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. .

When everybody found out about the break-in and of the involvement of high-ranking officials the Senate got together a committee to investigate just what was going on. Nixon can.t believe that it is gone this far, but thankfully, for his sake, nobody was pointing the finger at him, yet. Later, Nixon took John Dean, H.R. Halderman, and John Erlichman (both were close advisers to the President) and told them to resign or be fired. This showed just how selfish Nixon was stabbing his co-workers in the back just to save his own .butt.. This did not exactly work the way the President had hoped. Nixon assured himself that Dean wouldn.t talk, this also did not work out the way he had planned. Nixon was under the impression that his former counsel would still be loyal to him. Unfortunately, for Nixon, Dean did the total opposite.

As the Senate hearings continue, Alexander Butterfield (former White House aide), discloses information about hidden tapes (Nixon used the tapes to protect himself