The Watergate Scandal

The Watergate scandal is arguably one of the largest scandals to come out of the White House since Andrew Johnson was impeached in the 1870’s. It originally started as a small break-in at the Watergate complex in Washington DC, which was the Democratic National HQ. Five men were arrested in the wee hours of June 17, 1972 on the sixth floor of the Democratic National HQ. That was the start of a case that would lead up to the most powerful man in the country, president Richard M. Nixon. One of the men arrested was named James McCord who worked for the chairman who ran the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). Which would mean that he worked for the Republican Party. It seems strange that a man, who works for the Republican Party is breaking into the Democratic National HQ, doesn’t it? The Watergate scandal is an extremely interesting topic and it goes into much depth as time progresses. Plenty of powerful political people went served time because of their role in the Watergate scandal. People who helped cover-up the scandal, people who leaked out information, they all played a large part in the Watergate scandal and trial. The involvement of President Richard M. Nixon was probably the most important part of the entire Watergate scandal. He was the commander and chief of his country and he lied to his people under oath. He not only broke the law, but he tried to cover it up. The judicial part of Watergate is probably the most memorable part because it was the part where Nixon gets himself tangled up in his lies. The Watergate scandal is one of America’s most shameful memories but it will remain in history books because it’s an event that it changed presidential trust forever. In the early morning of June 17, 1972 five men were caught breaking into the Watergate complex. These men were James McCord, Bernard Baker, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and Vigillo Gonzalez. Bernard Baker was a Cuban exile living in Miami at the time. He had taken photographs of various documents that were in the Democratic National headquarters. Martinez and Gonzalez were also Cuban exiles that were helping Frank Sturgis. Sturgis was a former American solider who was a very strong supporter of Nixon. The head of the plan was James McCord. McCord was a former CIA agent. They were all helping place a wiretap on the phone of the Democratic Party Chairman Lawrence O’Brien. That night, in a hotel room at the Watergate Hotel, two very important men waited for the four helpers and McCord to come back. These

men were E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. They had employed the four men along with McCord to break into the complex and fulfill their dirty deed. Earlier that month, McCord had planted the wire but he was back again to adjust the wire for better sound quality. Frank Wills was the security guard on duty that night. He was roaming the garage when he noticed that a piece of masking tape was holding a lock. He removed the tape presuming that a worker had left it their earlier that day. He continued walking around. Later that night, he walked passed the same door and noticed that somebody had replaced the tape. He quickly knew that somebody had been working the lock and called the police. McCord had a walkie-talkie on him, which would connect him with Liddy and Hunt. On the other side of the street, Alfred Baldwin had a walkietalkie too that was connected to Libby, Hunt, and McCord. He was the lookout for McCord and the other burglars. While they were readjusting the wire, a loud static was coming from the end of one the walkie-talkies, so McCord told Baker to turn off the walkie-talkie. A few minuets later, a few police cars pulled up to the front of the building and the police marched into the building. Baldwin tried to contact McCord and the others to run for it, but because they had switched off their talkie, no contact was made. A few minuets pass two; the five men were caught by police. The police found seven pieces of evidence during the break-in. A bag, a wig, a flat file, rubber gloves, Chap Stick with a hidden microphone inside, screwdriver, and a walkie-talkie were the items. The most interesting thing found was an address book carried by Sturgis. The book contained a number that police would have to investigate. The number was marked, “HH” at “WH.” That number turned out to be Howard Hunt at White House. Also, taken off Baker was carrying a wad of new $100 dollar bills. This was odd because the numbers were all in sequence and were traced back to where they came from. This was bad because the person who cashed the check and was responsible for the money, this person was Liddy. (Time of Transition, “Watergate,” 51-57) (Kilian, 1-6) Liddy was the special assistant to the secretary of treasury in the White House. Hunt was a White House Consultant who was a part of CREEP. This committee was headed by Liddy. He was the one who helped organize all of the things that happened during Watergate. The break-in was used to gain information that the Republicans could use against the Democrats in a debate or to make the opponent look bad. After the

Police had captured the burglars, the FBI had started searching the complex for clues and other information. This is not what the White House wanted. They were very frightened that the FBI might be on to them. So they sent the CIA to stop the FBI and tell them that the CIA would cover the investigation instead of the FBI. They did this because the government could control the CIA and stop investigating. The FBI refused and they started asking questions. They put hundreds of agents on the case but in the end, they came out empty handed. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were reporters for the Washington Post at the time of the burglary. They started investigating on their own and they came up with some very powerful information. Bob Woodward had a source that he called Deep Throat. He would tell Bob everything that he knew about Watergate. They started putting pieces together about the scandal. To find more info, they went door to door to people that worked in the White House or for CREEP to see if they knew anything about the Scandal. They didn’t find a lot of info but enough to break open the case. Woodward always kept Deep Throats identity a secret from the public and even now, it remains one of the unsolved mysteries of Watergate. After the scandal was finished and life was returning to normal, they went on to co-write books about their investigation. They won the Pulitzer Prize for the book All The Presidents Men, which was about the scandal. They also wrote The Final Days, which was about Watergate as well. The book All The Presidents Men became such a hit that Hollywood made it a movie that won four Oscars at the 1977 Academy Awards. (“Woodward and Bernstein,” Encarta Encyclopedia CD-ROM) Many people were involved in the Watergate scandal. Most of these people were either working in the White House or they were working for somebody who worked in the White House. E. Howard Hunt was one of the first people to be prosecuted in the trial, he was the consultant to Nixon and he was a big part of the cover-up plan. He was found guilty in 1973 and was sentenced to a two and a half year sentence but was put on parole thirty-two months into his sentence. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/onpolitics/watergate/keyplayers.html) G. Gordon Liddy was another player in the Watergate scandal. He was apart of the break-in and ended up serving four and a half years in prison. After that, he was

convicted in 1981 for using the slush funds from the campaign for the scandal and was forced to repay it. The cost was $29,499. (Fremon, 48-56) He complained that it was too much money and appealed. But he lost and was forced to pay. He was trying to coverup the scandal as well saying that the burglars acted alone and blaming most of the plan to be Hunt’s. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/onpolitics/watergate/keyplayers.html) Hugh Sloan was the former treasurer of CREEP. He quit his job less than a month after the burglary because he knew that it would cause him trouble if he didn’t. He was one of the key sources for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on their door-todoor information hunt. He leaked out plenty of information connecting the burglary to CREEP and to the White House. He later testified against his co-workers and leaked out even more information about the scandal and about how the White House was going to cover it up. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/onpolitics/watergate/keyplayers.html) John Mitchell was the appointed attorney general by President Nixon in 1968. He served his job until 1972 when he resigned and became head of CREEP. Woodward and Bernstein were the two that linked the burglary to Mitchell. They found out that Mitchell approved $250,000 for the break-in. In 1974 he was convicted for charges of conspiracy, perjury, and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to 19 months in prison. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/keyplayers.html) After John Mitchell resigned to be head of CREEP, Elliot Richardson was appointed new attorney general. He served for about a year until Archibald Cox started unraveling the story about Watergate. He was ordered to fire Cox from the Deference and instead of doing it he resigned. William Ruckelshaus was appointed to take his place. He was also ordered to fire Cox. He resigned as well. Finally Robert Bork was appointed as attorney general. He was asked to fire Cox, and he did it. It was too late though. Once he was fired, the court was already concluding that Nixon had the tapes but wouldn’t give them up. Bork was not charged with or anything because he had not done anything but carry out the wishes of the President. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

nv/onpolitics/watergate/keyplayers.html)

Many other people were involved with the Watergate Scandal but didn’t do as much make as much of an impact. These were the main people involved with the scandal and most of them paid the price for it. The most important person involved with the Watergate scandal was President Richard M. Nixon. President became the 37th president of the United States in the year of 1968. Richard Nixon was born January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California. He majored in History and won a scholarship to Duke University Law School. He graduated in 1937. After getting his law degree, the war was starting up in Europe. He enlisted in the military and was sent to the Pacific to fight the Japanese. In 1946 he left the services as a lieutenant commander. Richard Nixon became vice-president for Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. At that time, he was a very powerful person and was a very influential mediator. He was the youngest vice president to ever serve office and the first from California. In 1962, he ran for president against John F. Kennedy. It was a close election but Kennedy won. In 1968 he ran for president again against Hubert H. Humphrey. The year of 1968 was one of the closet elections in US history. Nixon won over Humphrey and became the 37th president of the United States. (“President Nixon,” Encarta encyclopedia CD-ROM). After Nixon took office, his plate was full of tasks that previous president Lyndon B. Johnson had left him to do. The first major event was Vietnam. During Johnson’s presidency, congressed had allowed Johnson to send troops to Vietnam. By the year 1968, 500,000 troops were in Vietnam (“President Nixon,” Encarta encyclopedia CDROM). While Nixon was campaigning, he said that he was anti-Vietnam and he would send troops back home if he were elected. Now that he was elected, he was going to do this. Nixon began slowly sending troops back home and he did this successfully. By the year 1970, 90,000 troops had been sent back to the United States from Vietnam (“President Nixon,” Encarta encyclopedia CD-ROM). Nixon had peace talks with both Vietnamese countries and peace would soon be the answer. On January 28, 1973 a cease-fire was put into action in Vietnam. President Nixon announced the great news over nationwide television and the reaction from the people was happiness. In February 1972, President Nixon traveled to the People’s Republic of China in search of peace between the communist country and the US. Also, in May of 1972, he

visited Moscow in search of the same thing. In China, he had made agreements of peace and this agreement is still in act today. In the USSR, Nixon was able to make trade agreements and one the agreements was to limit the selling of antiballistic missile systems. This was a huge step toward the end of the Cold War. (“President Nixon,” Encarta encyclopedia CD-ROM) By the year 1973, Nixon’s popularity was at its peak. But little did he know that it would soon all come down soon due to Watergate. In 1973, Prosecutor Archibald Cox was very close to solving the Watergate case and had information about the tapes that Nixon had recorded. Archibald knew about these tapes because White House aide Alexander Butterfield told him that Nixon had ordered him to install a recording system that would record all conversations held in the Oval Office. These tapes were recorded a week after the break-in when an advisor had told Nixon about the arrest of McCord. Nixon explained how he should cover-up the investigation. This proved that he knew about the break-in. Nixon and his aides helped think of plans to cover-up the break-in by using the CIA to throw off the FBI. It was very important that Nixon covered up this because he knew the consequences of his actions. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-nv/onpolitics/watergate/keyplayers.html) Once Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski had unraveled the story behind Watergate, Nixon was forced to give up the tapes. He tried very hard to fight against the court. He even gave 1200 typed pages of conversations. (Kilian, 120) But the typed papers showed nothing about the break-in. Leon was convinced that they had edited out the part with the Watergate conversation. He again ordered that Nixon turn over the tapes. Nixon gave the court nine tapes. But these tapes had been tampered with. Nixon had erased eighteen and a half minuets of important Watergate conversation that was important to the case. Jaworski was getting angry and made Nixon turn over the real tapes. Finally, Nixon gave up and turned over 64 new tapes, which proved Nixon had known about the break-in. After that, the Senate ruled in favor of impeaching him for obstructing justice, abusing presidential power, and refusing to obey subpoenas by the house. Nixon refused to be impeached, so he went to his last resort…resignation. On August 8, 1974, Nixon went on live TV and without admitting guilt for the Watergate scandal; he announced that he would resign from office at 12:00 PM on August 9. The

next day he left the White House and Gerald Ford was sworn to presidency. That night, instead of being head of the United States, he was just a private citizen living in California. (Fremon, 113-120) On September 8, 1974, President Ford pardoned Nixon for all illegal crimes that he had committed while he was in office. After being pardoned, Nixon retired and traveled the world with his wife and daughter. In his free time, Nixon wrote books about his presidential successes. His first was titled No More Vietnams (1985). Another was In The Arena (1990). His most recent book was Beyond Peace (1994). Then on April 22, 1994, Richard Nixon had a stroke and was taken New York Hospital. Later that night, he died of another stroke. He was 81 years old when he died and was buried next to his wife at the Richard Nixon library in his hometown of Yorba Linda, California. (“President Nixon,” Encarta encyclopedia CD-ROM) The judicial part of the Watergate scandal was probably the most important part of the entire scandal. Many people were prosecuted and found guilty by two men. These men were Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski. They were the two main lawyers that were on the defense side of the Watergate Case. Archibald Cox was appointed to be the defense lawyer for the Watergate case by former attorney general Elliot Richardson. Before he was appointed, he was a law professor at Harvard and Elliot Richardson was a former student. The White House didn’t see Cox as a large threat, but after the Woodward and Bernstein investigation, Cox was able to do some damage. In 1973, once he had confirmation of the recordings, he subpoenaed president Nixon for tapes, which held the important conversations. Nixon quickly ordered the firing of Cox and he wanted Richardson to do it. He couldn’t go through with it and resigned. Then Robert Bork carried out the dirty deed. Before Cox was fired, he uncovered a lot of information, which would help the next lawyer who came in, to solve the case. Leon Jaworski was the lawyer who would step in for Cox during the case. Jaworski was lawyer from a small law firm Texas. He too was not expected to do any damage, but in the end, it led to the resignation of president Nixon. Jaworski went to Baylor University where he earned his law degree. Once he earned that, he went on to get his Masters Degree at George Washington University in 1926. When the Second

World War broke out, he enlisted in the Army and was sent to Europe. He served in the D-Day invasion and after the war, helped prosecute Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials. He became the special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation on November 1, 1973. Jaworski’s first move was to subpoena Nixon again for the tapes. He unwillingly gave Jaworski 9 tapes of key conversations in the White House. One tape was a bit strange because it had an eighteen and a half minuet gap in-between two conversations. Jaworski realized that Nixon had erased eighteen and a half minuets of conversation off the tape. He immediately subpoenaed Nixon again for the real tapes. Nixon wouldn’t comply and Jaworski took the case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in Jaworski’s favor and Nixon was to turn over the tapes. Nixon turned over 64 tapes that would explain all the information about the case and his involvement. Instead of pleading guilty, he resigned. A month later he was pardoned from all crimes and the case was dismissed of all charges. After the case was dismissed, Jaworski lived a quite life and dies in 1982 at the age of 77. (Fremon, 99-115) In 1996, two years after Nixon’s death, 3000 hours of never-before-heard tapes were released to the public. They hold the true meanings behind everything and how the entire scandal started. Because of these tapes, the truth about the scandal was revealed and many questions could be answered about the scandal. (Fremon, 99-115) August 9, 1974, the day that President Nixon announced his resignation from the presidency of the United States of America. He was the first and only president to ever resign from office and he only did it because the senate was going to impeach him if he didn’t. He didn’t need to break into the complex. He would have won without that. He had made peace with China, and he was working things out the Soviets. He made lots of progress during his years in office and without that, the US might still be in the cold war. He was loved by his citizens and even won Time magazine man of the year in 1971.

Because of his actions during the Watergate scandal, many people lost trust in

their government. The most powerful man in the country lied to them, and they had all the right to be upset. But after he left office, some citizens lost faith in their government. The Watergate scandal was a stupid plan by the government and it led to a period of time when the citizens of the US would no longer have faith in the government.

The Watergate Scandal

Evan Cohen March 5th, 2004 Ms. Goldberg – S.S., 3rd Ms. Lazar – L.A., 4-6