Watergate
Scandal
Presentation by Robert Martinez
Primary Content Source: America’s History, Sixth Ed. Henretta, Brody and Dumenil.
Images as cited.
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On June 17, 1972, five men carrying
wiretapping equipment were arrested breaking
into the Democratic National Committee’s
headquarters located in the Watergate
Complex in Washington D.C.
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Watergate
Burglars
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Questioned by the press, the White
House dismissed the incident as “a thirdrate burglary attempt.” Pressed further,
President Nixon himself denied any
White House involvement.
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In fact, G. Gordon Liddy & E. Howard
Hunt, were former FBI and CIA agents
currently working for Nixon’s Committee
to Re-elect the President. Their job was
to protect the Nixon administration,
anyway necessary, legal or not.
G. Gordon Liddy
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Howard Hunt
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Hunt and Libby had arranged for the
illegal wiretaps (listening devices) at the
Democratic headquarters, part of their
campaign of ‘dirty tricks’ against the
rival Democratic party.
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The Watergate incident was not an
isolated incident. It was part of a pattern
of illegality and misuse of power by a
paranoid and ruthless White House.
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Nixon could have dissociated himself
from the break-in by dismissing his
guilty aides, but it was election time.
Fearful of bad press, he arranged hush
money for the burglars and instructed
the CIA to stop the FBI investigation.
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Ordering the CIA to stop the FBI from
investigating the Watergate incident
was an obstruction of justice, a criminal
offense.
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Nixon managed to keep the lid on the
incident until after his re-election, but
eventually the lid blew off due to
congressional investigations.
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In January 1973, the Watergate burglars
were found guilty. One of them began to
talk about his White House connections.
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In the meantime, two reporters at the
Washington Post, Carl Bernstein and Bob
Woodward, uncovered the Committee’s
to Re-elects illegal “slush fund’ and its
links to key White House aides.
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The slush fund received its money
illegally from the campaign
contributions of the Republican party to
finance “mischief” against anyone that
posed a threat to the Nixon
administration.
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In May, a Senate committee began
holding nationally televised hearings, at
which it was discovered that the
Watergate break-in was linked to the
White House.
Attorney General John Mitchell,
controlled secret “slush fund.”
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The guilty White House officials
implicated President Nixon. During the
testimony, it was discovered that Nixon
had installed a secret taping system in
the Oval office.
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Claiming executive privilege, Nixon refused to
surrender the White House tapes. Under
enormous pressure, he eventually released
some of the tapes. One of the tapes was
suspiciously missing 18-minutes of recording.
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Finally on June 23, 1974, the Supreme
Court ordered Nixon to release the
unaltered tapes. Lawyers were shocked
to find concrete evidence that the
president had ordered the cover-up of
the Watergate break-in.
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By then, the House of Representatives
had began to consider articles of
impeachment, to remove the president
from office.
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Certain that he would be convicted by
the Senate, on August 9, 1974, Nixon
became the first U.S. president to resign
from office.
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Gerald Ford swears in as President of the United States.
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The next day, Vice President Gerald Ford was
sworn in as president. Congressman Ford had
replaced Vice President Spiro Agnew, who had
himself resigned in 1973 for accepting
“kickbacks” while governor of Maryland.
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A month later, Ford stunned the nation
by granting Nixon a “full, free, and
absolute “pardon” for all offenses he had
committed or might have committed
during his presidency.”
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President Ford took that action, he said,
to spare the country the agony of
Nixon’s criminal prosecution. He felt the
country needed to move on.
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In Moscow, puzzled Soviets leaders could not
understand, how a powerful president could be
forced to resign, because of what they viewed
as a minor offense.
President Nixon shaking hands with Soviet Premier Brezhnev.
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Soviet history knew no parallel. That was
one lesson of Watergate – that, in
America, the rule of law prevailed. No
one is above the law, not even the
president.
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A second lesson involved the constitutional
separation of powers. As commander-in-chief,
Nixon asserted unlimited authority, excusing
his wiretapping. The president does not have
absolute power due to checks & balances.
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Congress pushed back against the
abuses of the Nixon administration,
passing the War Powers Act (1973),
limiting the president’s ability to deploy
U.S. forces without congressional
approval.
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Congress passed the Freedom of
Information Act (1974), protecting
privacy and access to federal records,
and the Fair Campaign Practices Act
(1974), limiting and regulating
contributions in presidential campaigns.
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Lastly, Congress passed the Federal
Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978),
prohibiting domestic wiretapping
without a warrant.
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