Effects Of The Watergate Scandal

The Watergate Scandal began on June 17th, 1972, early in the morning. It stemmed from the Nixon administration’s persistent attempts to cover up its involvement in the break in of the Democratic National Committee Watergate headquarters. When Nixon was running for president, the United States was still involved in the Vietnam War, and the country was deeply divided. The Watergate Scandal didn’t help gain the nations’ trust, but it actually lowered it because of the abuse of power from the person that they should have trusted the most, the president of the United States of America: Richard Nixon. In the morning on June 17th, several burglars were arrested, which later came out that these break-ins were connected to President Richard Nixon’s

These provided more than enough evidence of his complicity in the Watergate scandal. Richard Nixon knew that he didn’t have much time left in office before he would get removed by force, so he found it best to resign. He walked out of office on August 8, and left the following day. Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president six weeks later, and pardoned Nixon for any crimes he had committed while in office. Although former president Nixon got off easy, some of his aides were not as lucky. Many were convicted for very serious offenses and were eventually sent to federal prison. “Nixon’s Attorney General of the United States John Mithcell served 19 months for his role in the scandal, while Watergate mastermind G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent, served four and a half years.” Halderman, Nixon’s Chief of Staff spent 19 months in prison and John Ehrlichmn spent 18 months attempting to cover up the break-in on Nixon’s behalf. “Nixon himself never admitted to any criminal wrongdoing, though he did acknowledge using poor judgment.” Because of his abuse of power, America was filled with an atmosphere of cynicism and distrust from the poor political life and was further disappointed because of the outcome of this entire