Watergate

The Watergate
Scandal

Graduation Project
5/31/10

Introduction
“I am not a crook.” This quote was said on November 17, 1973 by the current president Richard Nixon. The quote is regarding his administrations involvement in the Watergate Scandals. On June 17, 1972, five burglars broke into the Watergate Office complex which was the headquarters of the Democratic National committee. Allfive men would then be charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. On June 19, 1972, it was discovered that a GOP security aid was among the Watergate burglars. Then on August 1, 1972, a $25,000 cashier’s check from the Nixon campaign, wound up in a robbers bank account (watergate.info). As the Watergate investigation continued more suspicioustestimonies and evidence points toward the Nixon administration. This would eventually lead to impeachment proceedings from the House of Representatives but Nixon resigned before the trial could take place in the Senate. I chose this topic because it is an important scandal in history.

Historic Figures
In June of 1972, Bernard L. Barker, Virgilio R Gonzales, James W McCord, Eugenio R Martinezand Frank A Sturgis were all arrested for the brake in at the Watergate offices. Later, G Gordon Liddy, a counsel to the Finance committee to Re- elect Nixon, was charged with the burglary. Also, E Howard Hunt Jr was also arrested. He was a former Whitehouse consultant and CIA employee. He had worked on declassifying the pentagon papers. Bernard Barker was a realtor from Miami, Florida and aformer CIA operative. Also he was known for involvement in the Bay of Pigs incident. Virgilio was a locksmith from Miami and a refugee of Cuba. James McCord was a security co- coordinator for the Republican National committee and he was on the committee to re-elect Nixon. He was also a former CIA and FBI agents. Eugenio Martinez worked at Bernard Barker’s real estate firm in Miami and he hadconnections in the CIA and FBI. Finally, Frank Sturgis also worked at Barkers firm and had connections to the CIA. A former FBI agent had felt that the FBI was giving the Nixon administration to much information on the ongoing investigation (watergate.info). This agents name was W. Mark Felt. He will later be referred as “Deep Throat”. He leaked very significant info to two reporters at the Washingtonpost. The reporters were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Felt would not be identified as the person who leaked important Watergate info to Woodward and Bernstein until May 31, 2005. When Richard Nixon was asked about his administration’s involvement, he denied any involvement.
Origins
After a total of seven men were indicted on attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone andother communications, many of Nixon’s Whitehouse staff resigned because of the scandal. HR Haldman and John Ehrlichman resign over the scandal. Also, the Attorney general Richard Kleindienst resigned. Then Whitehouse counsel John Dean is fired. This raised the question of what the Nixon administration actually knew about Watergate. The CIA and FBI were both investigating the scandal. Nixon ordered CIAand FBI to halt all investigations. During an interview with John Dean, he acknowledged that he had discussed the cover up of Watergate over 35 times. Then the former presidential appointments secretary Alexander Butterfield revealed that Nixon had recorded all conversations and telephone calls in the oval office (The Nixon Era Times). Soon after the taping system was revealed, Nixon disconnectedall taping systems. He was then asked to reveal the tapes of oval office conversations, but Nixon refused to give up the tapes because he said that it fell under executive privilege. After continuous pressure to reveal the tapes, Nixon fires Archibald Fox and the office of the special prosecutor. This heats up Nixon’s Impeachment proceedings. Richard Nixon then releases the tapes but an 18...