Watergate Scandal

The Watergate Scandal

            “Before Watergate and Vietnam, the American public, as a whole, believed everything it was told, and since then it doesn't believe anything, and both of those extremes hurt us because they prevent us from recognizing the truth.”- Author unknown. Presidents Nixon’s second term was cut short by his own paranoia.  This event would drastically change the way the American people view the President. Americans will never be able to trust a President in the same way they used to. The Watergate scandal was revealed by two reporters and their report lead to the resignation of Nixon and the distrust of the American people.

            On June 18, 1972 the report came out that burglars were arrested in the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate offices.  They were accused of breaking in to steal the Presidential Campaign papers they had been preparing. Once this report was printed two reporters of The Post, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, were assigned to work on the story. They reported that the burglar was on the payroll of President Nixon’s reelection committee. Once Bernstein and Woodward revealed that the burglar was on the payroll Nixon tried to get the FBI to back off the burglary case. Within a few weeks of the arrest of James McCord, Bernstein and Woodward reported that the grand jury would be further more investigating the burglary. During the investigation a former CIA agent by the name of E. Howard Hunt and a former FBI agent by the name of G. Gordon Liddy were taken in for testimony. Both of these men had worked for Nixon in the white house and were eventually indicted for helping guide the burglars from a hotel room across from the Watergate building via walkie –talkies. During the investigation Bernstein found out that there had been a $25,000 check deposited by one of the burglars, Maurice Stans who was Nixon’s Chief fundraiser. This check was from the Nixon reelection campaign. Woodward found Mark Felt, aka “deep throat”, who was a high ranking FBI officer. Felt helped confirm or deny what sources were saying about the Watergate Scandal and what leads to pursue because he had access to the FBI reports on the investigation. When Nixon was on his way to the reelection of 1972 Bernstein and Woodward reported that the Attorney General John Mitchell controlled a secret fund that helped pay for the gathering of the Democratic campaign information. During the trial of those who had committed burglary two of the men pled guilty while the other two were convicted. Also Nixon lost four of his top aides on account of perjury.

            In June of 1973 the white house aide, Alexander Butterfield, told the committee that Nixon had a secret taping system that recorded all of his conversations and phone calls in the oval office. Once this was released Nixon refused to turn over the tapes because of his “executive privilege”. After negotiation the White House agreed to release written summaries of the taped conversations to the Senate but one of the investigators rejected the deal. Nixon had that investigator fired. In January of 1974 Nixon in his State of the Union Address stated that “One year of Watergate is enough”. Through this whole thing Nixon stayed with his statement that he had made mistakes but he had never broke a law. He also said he did not know about the burglary or the cover up until 1973. On July 24 the Supreme Court ordered to have the white house turn over the tapes. Once the tapes were handed over there was a tape that was found that would ruin any of the support he had remaining. After this tape was released everyone told Nixon he had to resign because if he stayed he would most likely be impeached. On August 8, 1974 Nixon announced that he was resigning. His resignation was broadcasted on TV for all of America to see.

            After the Watergate scandal America’s views of presidents were forever changed. Once Nixon has resigned from office the Vice President, Gerald Ford, was sworn into office on August 9, 1974. The United States was in desperate need for a president that would be honest and truthful to the American people. Because of Watergate, Congress passed campaign finance reform legislation and prohibited the uses of power at the CIA and other national security agencies. There were also many books and movies such as All the Presidents Men and The Great Scandal that came out because of the Watergate scandal and the new found knowledge that our government does not tell us everything. After the scandal the press thought of themselves of having a new job. They now would dig up unknown secrets about political figures to try and keep the public informed about what was really happening in the white house. Watergate also changed the way elections were run because of how the press now dealt with situations. Americans would never fully trust the government again and this is how we ended up where we are today, knowing that the government really is not telling us the whole truth. We still have the press and news trying to keep us up to date with things that happen in the government because of the issue America had with Watergate.

            The Watergate scandal taught America that presidents were not always truthful and cannot always be trusted. Bernstein and Woodward helped open the eyes of America. This even forever changed the course of history. The American people would never look to a president the same way. Also the jobs of reporters would be forever changed. They now constantly try to dig up dirt on those who are in charge because of this event.