ipl-logo

Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal

1015 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Rhetorical analysis nixon's resignation speech

Richard Nixon, our 37th president of the United States, is best remembered for his involvement in the Watergate scandal in the 1970’s. The Watergate scandal is mainly known for the break in at the Watergate building which is where the Democratic National Committee is located at in Washington, D.C. The break in consisted the undertaking of wiretapping of phones and the act of stealing confidential documents. After time had passed by, the FBI started growing suspicious about Nixon’s role in the scandal especially when he tried covering up the issue by providing hush money for the people who were involved in the break in. He also tried stopping the FBI from doing their job by not allowing to investigate the break in and as well as firing any disobedient …show more content…

Aristotle’s research suggested that there were three different appeals for influencing and persuading an audience. The first appeal is ethos and Aristotle stated that the speaker must be able to be relate back with the audience, establish authority, and sustain their reputation. In his speech, Nixon uses these phrases which completely uses the concept of ethos, “I trust that you will use them. And if you don't believe them, I don't mean-what I mean, I am not suggesting that you wouldn't believe them-but if you feel you need more information, write to me and I will give it to you. I want the facts out, because the facts will prove that the President is telling the truth.” Nixon establishes authority by letting the audience know who he is which was being the president at the time. He also persuades the audience by letting them know that they should trust him because he promised them the truth and only the truth. Due to the fact of being the president and making a promise of only the truth made him able to persuade the public. Next off, the second appeal is logos and logos represents using reasoning to persuade the audience. Some ways a speaker can persuade an audience through logos is through coherence, logic,

Show More
Related

How Did Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal Affect The United States?

1268 Words | 6 Pages

Richard Nixon is the 37th president of the United States and a very controversial one at that. President Nixon was best known for his biggest failures as a result of how bad they were. Nixon had been connected to the Watergate Scandal. It was several burglars who had been arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in Washington, D.C.The prowlers had been connected to President Nixon’s reelection campaign where they had been stealing important documents. Nixon aggressively took action in order to cover the crime.

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard Nixon's 1968 Presidential Campaign

1465 Words | 6 Pages

The televised advertisement was very persuasive for voters of different ethnicities and backgrounds. He used the three different rhetorical appeals, ethological appeals, logistical appeals, and pathological appeals, to gain the votes, minds, and hearts of citizens. Nixon emotionally connected with American parents and future American parents as voters to gain their respect and trust with their children and their uncertain futures in a turbulent American society. He shows himself to be a respectful and knowledgeable man whom not only has experience as a leader and political figure, but also sees the people of America as people. He deems them more important than the American government system, and tries his best to ensure that they know that they will be taken care of by him if he becomes the President of the United States of America.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of President Nixon's Speech

1216 Words | 5 Pages

His use of ethos helped to reconstruct his lost creditability; By giving the people straight facts to marinate and chew on, Nixon let the people come to their own conclusion as to the type of person that he was; his appealing to the emotional side of people let them know that he too is a just an average person. In the end, the use of his techniques in harmony allowed him to win the hearts of the American people, which allowed them to see that he was an honest, hardworking, average Joe American with nothing to hide, just like the

Read More

Comparing Watergate Scandals Of President Richard Nixon And President Donald Trump

1006 Words | 5 Pages

Prior to the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s tight victory in the election of 1968 made him scared that he was going to lose this election; thus, he had a great incentive to sway public opinion, and through a means of infamy and misconduct, he was successful in securing his victory in the election of 1972. In the Watergate scandal, President Nixon was investigated because the burglars whom were arrested for infiltrating the office of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex of buildings, were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign . The goal of the robbery was to find the “nitty gritty” to get dirt on his enemies and use it to secure a republican victory. Similarly, President Trump is getting investigated for collusion in seeking aid of Russia to influence the outcome of the election. The Intelligence Community has stated with high confidence that the Russian government has sought to influence the outcome of the U.S Presidential election favoring Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton through disinformation campaigns, breaching election data, and hacking the Democratic National Committee to access their emails and releasing them to WikiLeaks.

Read More

How Did The Watergate Scandal Change The Way We View Our Presidents

918 Words | 4 Pages

Nixon went out and got a heist crew to do a high risk, high reward robbery against the Democratic party trying to get an advantage on McGovern. This event known as the Watergate Scandal, would change America's view on presidents for decades to come. In May 1972, members of Nixon’s committee broke into the Watergate building of the Democratic Committee, they stole top-secret files and

Read More

Richard Nixon Rhetorical Analysis Essay

1560 Words | 7 Pages

The misunderstanding, the necessity for a man to come here and bare his soul?” With this statement, Nixon is trying to show Americans that he truly cares about what has been said about him by the people. Nixon is proud of this country and believes that strong leadership is the way to restore its

Read More

Richard Nixon Rhetorical Analysis

938 Words | 4 Pages

On August 8th, 1974 at exactly 9:01 pm, Richard Nixon--former President-- gave a speech that would affect both United States history and the american people. Richard Nixon’s argument and claim lay within the textual aspects, in other words, his tone, attitude, and the strategic ways of presenting to his audience. In this historical speech, Richard Nixon broadcasted his character, past decisions, and future advice to the people of the United States in order to justify his resignation from the presidential office. The rhetorical stylistic tools were effective and instrumental in backing up the argument. Recognition of audience was important, because it will determine his attitude and tone, which was innocence.

Read More

Nixon Speech Rhetorical Analysis

992 Words | 4 Pages

To start the speech the announcer says “he (Nixon) interrupts his run on the campaign trail to deliver this message.” This is trying to grab a hold of the audience’s attention that this is going to be an important message. This speech contains a massive amount of ethos because the focus of the majority of speech is to clear up his name from the recent allegations against him. After he clears up his name about the $18,000 donation that he is accused of taking in for personal use, he then shifts the focus of the speech to one more centered on the upcoming election rather than him. Ethos

Read More

Richard Nixon The Greatest Silent Majority Rhetorical Analysis

1269 Words | 6 Pages

Nixon gives horrifying imagery to create sadness in the audience members. Nixon expects that audience members will feel ethically pushed to help the suffering people. To describe the effects of leaving war, he says “This would cost more lives. It would not bring peace. It would bring more war” (Nixon).

Read More

Richard Nixon's Rhetoric In The Watergate Scandal

578 Words | 3 Pages

Nixon successfully apologized to the country by using pathos, ethos, and logos, as well as other forms of rhetoric. In his speech, Nixon used forms of logos to appeal to people’s sense of logic. He wanted to give his reasoning of resigning in a way he knew people would understand. He said “It has become evident to me that i no longer have a strong enough political base in congress.”.

Read More

Argumentative Precis On Richard Nixon

234 Words | 1 Pages

Summative Precis Richard Nixon, the former president of the United States, in the resignation speech (of August of 1974) announced his resignation that included a solemn speech towards the country regarding the reaction to the Watergate affair. Nixon supports his claim by using pathos which showed his respect for the nation and its institutions while also acknowledging his fault and taking ownership of his deeds in this speech, then by using ethos which urged the populace of the United States to uphold their confidence in the government and support the country's sustained stability based on the idea that Nixon tried his best for the Nation and its people, and finally by using syntax by using long and winding sentences to distract from the

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The Watergate Scandal

1761 Words | 8 Pages

Many people of the United States have heard about Watergate and how Nixon is involved, he had a lot of public support from people all over the country for his efforts with dealing of the Vietnam War and other foreign affairs. When the

Read More

Essay On The Long Term Effects Of Watergate

597 Words | 3 Pages

Nixon was accused of sending five men from his presidential campaign to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in order to avoid impeachment. Once the Watergate incident was resolved, it had significant long-term and short-term consequences that altered American history. President Nixon's actions altered voters' perceptions of American authorities, which harmed succeeding presidents and undermined public trust in the government. The Watergate incident demonstrates how corrupt the American government was and how far politicians were ready to go to avoid accountability. Since the Watergate crisis weakened the American political system, many Americans thought that certain reforms were required to avoid another scandal.

Read More

The Watergate Scandal Between 1972-1974

565 Words | 3 Pages

The Watergate scandal took place between 1972 and 1974. It began with an early morning robbery involving five men who were connected to President Nixon’s administration in the office of Democratic National Committee office located inside of the Watergate building. For the next several months, Nixon took steps to ensure that the scandal is covered up and that the Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wouldn’t investigate the crime that his own committee members were involved in, such as paying the robbers large amounts of money he raised through his own campaign, destroying any evidence, and even firing members who were uncooperative. This cycle of paranoid and hiding went on until 1974, when the scandal was undoubtedly exposed for the FBI, the

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard Nixon's Resignation

669 Words | 3 Pages

The thirty seventh president’s tone throughout the speech was genuine and anguished. He stated frequently his regret towards his resignation; when this passage is read aloud, it is stressed heavily on pathos and that Nixon defended his decision with the selflessness of his own emotions and did what is better for the country (“American”). In his speech, Richard Nixon establishes his credibility and then goes on to show the logic of why he is resigning along with sparking the reader’s emotions in defense of him through the use of frequent fallacies and rhetorical devices. Nixon goes on to speak of his accomplishments and the tasks he hopes the American people will achieve with a new president, but those ideas are shadowed by the steady reminders by Nixon himself of the circumstances that are causing him to resign the Presidency that overall make Nixon’s arguments to logic and his credibility seem

Read More

More about Rhetorical Analysis Of Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal

Related Topics

Open Document