Watergate
The Watergate Affair is a scandal that led to the
resignation of a president, Richard M. Nixon, after he
became implicated in an attempt to cover it up. Narrowly,
“Watergate affair"” referred to the break-in and electronic
bugging in 1972 of the Democratic National Committee
(DNC) headquarters in the Watergate apartment and
office building complex in Washington, D.C. Broadly, the
term was also applied to several related scandals. More
than 30 Nixon administration officials, campaign
officials, and financial contributors pleaded guilty or were
found guilty of breaking the law. Nixon, facing possible
indictment after his resignation, received from his
successor, Gerald Ford, a full pardon "for all offenses"
which he “has committed or may have committed."
Five men were arrested on June 17, 1972, after they were discovered in
Democratic National Committee headquarters inside the Watergate
complex in Washington, D.C. They were caught attempting to steal
documents and wiretap the telephones. The burglars are shown here, left
to right: James McCord, Jr., Roman Gonzalez, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio
Martinez, and Bernard Baker.
On August 8, 1974, United States President Richard Nixon
announced that he would resign; he left office the next day. He
became emotional, left, as he said good-bye to staff and Cabinet
members in the East Room of the White House. He then took his
leave by boarding a helicopter, right, on the White House lawn,
stopping to give his two-armed victory salute in farewell. Gerald
Ford was sworn in as president two hours later.
Woodward and Bernstein
A short biography
The most famous journalists in the 20th century appeared
in the first half of 1970s. Robert Upshur Woodward and Carl
Bernstein, the reporters of the Washington Post, investigated
the Watergate break-in and first cracked the Watergate scandal
in August 1972, which led to the resignation of President
Richard M. Nixon in 1974.
The first report about the break-in at the Democratic
National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate complex
in Washington, D.C. broke out on June 17, 1972. Most of
newspapers dismissed the story, calling the incident a “caper.”
However, Woodward teamed with Bernstein raised the issue
of the link between the burglars and President Nixon's
reelection committee with their first report for the Watergate
scandal.
Eventually their reporting made it clear that the break-in
had been orchestrated by high-ranking officials of the Nixon
administration and the Committee to Re-elect the President.
On the course of their reporting, the big picture of political
“dirty tricks” in the White House was revealed, which
included wiretapping, burglary, and disruption of Democratic
Party activities.
Their series of articles uncovered the deep connection
between the political misconducts and “creep” (CRP or the
Committee to Re-elect the President). This connection led to
Congressional hearings and the conviction of several Nixon
cronies. Two years and 8 days after the first report broke,
President Nixon appeared on TV screen for his resignation
speech.
During their reporting, they left the legacy of “Deep
Throat,” who anonymously provided them with the highly
political source. They revealed his identity in 2005, when their
source died.
Woodward and Bernstein won most of major journalism
awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. They coauthored two best
sellers, “All the President Men” (1974) and “The Final Days”
(1976). The first book was made into a movie in 1976.
In 1981 Woodward became the assistant managing editor
for investigations at the Washington Post. He is now an
associate editor there. Bernstein left the Post in 1976. He
worked for ABC TV, taught at New York University and was
employed briefly at Time magazine. He and Woodward are
frequent guests on TV news programs.
Who Was Deep Throat?
The Washington Post
On May 31, 2005 one of Washington's best-kept secrets was revealed. Vanity Fair magazine identified a former top
FBI official named Mark Felt as Deep Throat, the secret source high in the U.S. government who helped Post reporters Bob
Woodward and Carl Bernstein unravel the Watergate conspiracy. Woodward, Bernstein and the paper's editors confirmed the
story.
"Felt's identity as Washington's most celebrated secret source had been an object of speculation for more than 30
years," wrote Post reporter David Von Drehle the next day.
The reporters had written about their trusted source in their best-selling 1974 book, "All the President's Men," and
the 1975 movie of the same name dramatized his sometimes cryptic advice about how pursue the connection between the
Nixon White House and a crew of seven burglars caught in the offices of the Democratic National Committee on the night of
June 17, 1972. His true identity, the object of "countless guesses" over the years, remained secret until Vanity Fair's
story. "I'm the guy they call Deep Throat," Felt told members of his family.
The day after the story broke, Woodward wrote a first person account of his relationship with Felt, which began with
a chance encounter between a junior naval officer and a wary bureaucrat in 1970. Woodward cultivated him as a source.
When the Post began to pursue the Watergate story, Woodward relied on Felt for guidance.
"I was thankful for any morsel or information, confirmation or assistance Felt gave me while Carl and I were
attempting to understand the many-headed monster of Watergate. Because of his position virtually atop the chief
investigative agency, his words and guidance had immense, at times even staggering, authority," Woodward wrote.
But as The Post noted, Woodward and Bernstein also "expressed a concern that the Deep Throat story has, over the
years, come to obscure the many other elements that went into exposing the Watergate story: other sources, other
investigators, high-impact Senate hearings, a shocking trove of secret White House tape recordings and the decisive
intervention of a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court."
"Felt's role in all this can be overstated," said Bernstein, who went on after Watergate to a career of books, magazine
articles and television investigations. "When we wrote the book, we didn't think his role would achieve such mythical
dimensions. You see there that Felt/Deep Throat largely confirmed information we had already gotten from other sources."
Watergate Glossary
"I am not a crook." Nixon's line to a group of newspaper
editors.
"A third-rate burglary attempt" Nixon Press Secretary
Ron Zeigler's first comment on Watergate.
"Deep Throat" Named after a pornographic movie of the
era, this was Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's
still-secret Executive Branch source.
The 18 1/2-Minute Gap Three days after the Watergate
break-in, Nixon and Haldeman discussed the arrests. A
tape made then contained a suspicious 18 1/2-minute gap.
"Smoking Gun" When Nixon released tapes in August
1974 that showed he ordered a cover-up and knew of the
involvement of White House officials and the Campaign
for the Re-election of the President, the tapes became
known as "the smoking gun" and sealed his fate. Three
days later, he quit.
The Watergate The condominium-office complex along
the Potomac River in downtown Washington where the
Democratic National Committee had its offices.
CRP Committee for the Re-Election of the President
(pronounced “creep”).
Profiles of Watergate personalities
For showing of All the President’s Men
Information and photographs provided by Washingtonpost.com
Charles Colson
John Mitchell
– Special Counsel to the president –
Known within the Nixon administration as
the "evil genius," special counsel Charles
W. Colson served seven months in prison
in 1974 after pleading guilty to
obstruction of justice in the Watergaterelated Daniel Ellsberg case. Colson's
more notorious ideas, according to some
reports, included spreading false information about Ellsberg
and firebombing the Brookings Institution. He was also
indicted for his role in the Watergate cover-up.
– Former Attorney General – Nixon’s
former law partner served as attorney
general before resigning in 1972 to head
the Committee for the Re-election of the
President. He stood trial in 1974 and
was convicted on charges of conspiracy,
perjury and obstruction of justice.
Richard Nixon
– The 37th president of the United
States – He resigned in disgrace on
Aug. 9, 1974, because of public and
political pressures created by the
Watergate scandal.
H.R. “Bob” Haldeman
– Nixon's chief of staff – He spent 18
months in prison for his role in Watergate.
A former advertising executive, Haldeman
had a stern reputation as Nixon's
gatekeeper and once called himself "the
president's son-of-a-bitch."
Donald Segretti
– Political Saboteur – A former
military prosecutor and civil lawyer,
Segretti ran a campaign of political
sabotage against the Democrats for
Nixon's reelection effort.
Howard Hunt
– Organizer of the burglary – Hunt was a
member of the White House "plumbers,"
the secret team assembled to stop
government leaks after defense analyst
Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon
Papers to the press. A former CIA
operative, Hunt organized the bugging of
the Democratic headquarters in the
Watergate -- as well as a break-in at the office of Ellsberg's
psychiatrist.
Hugh Sloan
– The former treasurer of Nixon's
reelection campaign — Sloan quit his
job at the Committee for the Reelection of the President less than a
month after the burglary. Sloan later
testified against his former co-workers
and became a critical source to Post
reporters Woodward and Bernstein.
G. Gordon Liddy
– The former FBI agent who helped plan
the Watergate break-in – He capitalized
on his Watergate legend and took his
political views to the airwaves. Gordon
Liddy's conservative radio talk show,
"The G. Gordon Liddy Show," was
broadcast on 232 stations nationwide.
Maurice Stans
Jeb McGruder
– Nixon's deputy campaign director – Jeb
Stuart Magruder was charged with perjury
and conspiracy to obstruct justice for his
role in the Watergate cover-up.
.
– Nixon Finance Aide – An
Eisenhower official who served as
commerce secretary in the first
Nixon Cabinet and finance chairman
for the Committee for the Reelection of the President, Maurice
Stans was indicted on charges of
conspiracy, obstruction of justice and
perjury