Richard Nixon And The Watergate Scandal

How many people can say they trust and believe in their government and president whole heartily, without fail, knowing that they are not abusing the power that was instilled in them, by you? If you asked this question 50 years ago the overwhelming majority of this great country would have answered a firm, and true yes. Now? The majority would laugh in your face for just asking the question. You could say you don’t trust the government because of many reasons, the Clintons, Obama, Donal Trump. But, the main reason that skepticism of our countries government was instilled in the brains of generations was because of one man; Richard Mihous Nixon. In the early 1970’s one of America’s largest scandals arose, Watergate. The Watergate scandal was

Previously, Nixon had been a Vice President and had run for the election in 1960, although he lost. Because of this, Nixon’s landslide win in 1968 was called for being “one of the greatest personal comebacks and one of the closest American election.” Believe it or not Richard Nixon was a great president in his first four years, he was a true diplomat and strengthened our nations foreign policy tremendously. But, the one great objective of his administration was to “bring the American people together”. And while he may have strengthen our bonds with foreign countries, he added turmoil to his own. Nixon pledged to bring peace in Vietnam but struggled to do so in his first presidential term. Maybe if he had stuck to his pledge and brought peace he wouldn’t have become the paranoid man that he is remembered to be . Because of all the riots and protests going on in opposition of the war in Vietnam, Nixon felt if he wanted to secure his second term he would need a more forceful campaign. And that is where the downfall of Richard Nixon truly

He becomes the first President not elected by the American people or electoral college. In his opening speech President Ford declared that “Our national nightmare is over” and promised to do his best to put this divided and fragile country back together. But he completely went back on his actions a month later; Ford pardons Nixon and becomes one of the most controversial aspect of the Water Gate scandal”. Even after Nixon was gone his hold ran deep. The country was left broken, fragile, mistrusting. The promise Nixon made to them, “to bring the American people together” had not only been a lie, but a complete opposite of his actions. Many politicians and finical officers opened their finical affairs as a way to help the ‘cleansing affect’ on the nation’s political process. Many changes were made because of Nixon. From 1972-1974 , 42 states passed new election reform laws, Congress passed “The War Powers Act” which limits and constricts presidential power. If anything good came out of Water Gate it was the ideal that was confirmed, that “no one is above the law, not even the President”. “The impact is deep and will be enduring. It will be a long time, if ever, before politics in the United States are the same again” The US News & World Report stated, A statement that would be found correct; American politics would never be the