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Richard Nixon Watergate Scandal

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On July 13th, 1973, Alexander Butterfield, a white house employee who handled schedules and papers of the President’s, testified that Nixon had been secretly taping conversations in the oval office for two years, but Nixon refused to give up the tapes. Nixon went to extremes to keep the tapes and the transcripts. “ Nixon fought hard. He fired special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, who insisted on getting the tapes.” (94, Miller). Two weeks later, all was revealed about Nixon’s involvement once he finally gave up the final tape. “With the release of the incriminating tape- the famous “smoking gun” - Nixon’s Republican support in Congress vanished. On Aug. 9, [1974], four days later, Nixon became the first president in history to resign.” (95, Miller). …show more content…

Archibald Cox was the special prosecutor investigating Watergate and President Richard Nixon’s involvement. Cox demanded the President hand over all of the tapes, but Nixon wanted to negotiate. Cox would not settle for anything less than every piece of smoking gun evidence against President Richard Nixon and planned to appeal the matter to the United States Supreme Court. On October 20, 1973, Nixon demanded that Attorney General Elliot Richardson fire Cox, but he refused and resigned. Next ordered Attorney General William D Ruckelshaus, but he also refused and resigned. Solicitor General Robert H. Bork took Ruckelshaus place as Attorney General and obeyed Nixon by dismissing Cox before he could get the Supreme Court to appeal. (89, Burns). The Saturday Night Massacre represented both a profound challenge to the American justice system and a turning point in the downfall of Richard Nixon. (90, Burns). As a result, the American government was looked down upon by its people and by other countries because of the unprofessional, un-american, unlawful acts of President Richard …show more content…

Our founding fathers put a system in place so congress, nor the president, nor the supreme court held all of the power and allowed the people have a say on who was put into the positions of power. Nixon had no regard for the constitution when he ordered the attorney general to fire the man specifically hired to investigate the president and ensure that all of his affairs were legal and in line. He was also not in check when he instructed the CIA to stop the FBI’s investigation into the break-in of the Watergate building and it’s burglars. Nixon abused his presidential power to attempt to get away with illegal activities and cover up his involvement with the Watergate

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Nixon was already being pressure to release tapes of his conversation in the White House but he refused to give them up (Fienberg 74). Nixon proposed an alternative on October 19, by giving the court a summary

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Because the Supreme court ruled against the president, Richard Nixon was the first president to ever resign from office. Some say because of this political scandal parts of the government were “cleansed” or improved. Some of Nixon's aides were even sent to federal prison. Congress passed laws for campaign financing, government ethics and freedom of information.

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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

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Most say Richard Nixon is one of the most interesting political figures of the 20th century. Nixon began his long political career in 1947 when he was elected to the House of Representatives. During the course of his presidential campaign, Senator George McGovern had complained about the various number of “dirty tricks” performed by members of the Nixon administration during the campaign. Nixon resulted in ordering aides to harass Democratic party leaders. The Attorney General Mitchell would later call these “dirty tricks” the “White House horrors.”

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Richard Nixon was a very paranoid man and thought that his enemies were everywhere so in the re-election in 1972, he would prove the his enemies and to the world that he was the greatest and he would stop at nothing to get to his goal. The results that came out from the re-election were amazing, he defeated George McGovern by the almost 20 million more votes which made him seem invincible at the time. During his 2 years as president, 2 reporters from the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did not believe that he could win by such a milestone so they dug and dug on Richard Nixon and they found everything out about him. They found out that there was a committee made called the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) that was a secret committee that would break laws in order for Nixon to win the re-election. The most well known incident of the Watergate Scandal was when 3 burglars from the CRP sneaked into the Watergate complex to put tiny microphones all over the place so they could listen on what the Democrat’s strategies were so they could always be one step ahead.

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In the summer of 1973 it became very hard for Nixon the keep all the tapes hidden. Nixon’s lawyers stated that he could keep the tapes for himself and that he committed no crime doing it. John Sirica, the chief judge of the United States district court, didn’t agree and was determined to get the tapes from Nixon. Richard Nixon stated that he should be fired and forced some of the Justice Department officials to resign in protest. The House of Representatives voted to call him into question for violations to the constitution, and criminal cover up.

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Nixon tried to hide the tapes during 1973. Archibald Cox was a prosecutor who was determined to obtain the tapes. Nixon orders Cox to be dismissed which lead to the resignation of many Justice Department officials. This was known as the Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon had released some of his tapes but not all.

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In the beginning hours of June 17, 1972, five burglars were discovered inside the headquarters of the National Democratic Committee. At the now infamous Watergate hotel, it was quickly revealed that this espionage was not to be confused with any ordinary case, as four of the intruders had been connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign. Caught attempting to tap into and steal information from the Democrats, Nixon’s opposition, all of America share the same probing question; what did Nixon know and not know? However, although the break-in was disheartening, the foremost perplexity that concerned and shocked America was the fact that Nixon attempted to mask the truth from the people.

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With the key perpetrators being high-ranking officials such as President Richard Nixon himself, along with his aides and advisors (HISTORY.COM EDITORS, 2023). Nixon took aggressive steps to cover up the crimes, but when Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed his role, it further brought the scandal to light. The motivation behind the scandal seems to be Nixon's desire to maintain power and control by being elected for his second presidency term by having an edge over his opponents. Many other methods were used in the Watergate Scandal including actions such as the bugging of political opponents' offices, unauthorized investigations, and the misuse of government agencies for political purposes (HISTORY.COM EDITORS, 2023). More than 40 years later, the word Watergate became synonymous with political crime and corruption.

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1394 Words | 6 Pages

As the scandal broke way into the world, two reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, were set to uncover the truth. In reality, they were investigating whether or not Nixon was involved in the Watergate scandal. Elish states, “Much of the credit for bringing these crimes out into the open belongs to two reporters from The Washington Post named Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein” (Elish 21). Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were two reporters that focused on the Watergate scandal. They were first able to track James McCord to CREEP.

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Minute by minute Bernstein and Woodward depict the rigid, post-Watergate White House as Nixon, his family, staff, and people from Congress strained urgently to prevent Nixon from leaving. Furthermore, “The Final Days,” also uncovers President Nixon's exceptional tumble from the government, which twisted into one of the best emergencies in presidential history. In addition, Bernstein and Woodward reveal to the reader the massive pressure that President Nixon inflicts upon himself through his indignant lies that cause Nixon to become paranoid and reclusive. Not only that, but pressure gradually impacted Nixon’s choices during his last term in office. Through the book, Nixon debates with himself whether he should leave or stay in office, surrender confidential tapes or continue fighting in

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1050 Words | 5 Pages

Besides the committee, one of the people that sued Nixon to release the tapes was Archibald Cox. The committee, Cox, and multiple other people believed there would be evidence in those hidden tapes. “Cox refused the offer, saying that summaries would be unacceptable as evidence in court” (11, Waggoner). To try and salvage his presidency he told Cox he can tell them what happened on the tape instead of giving up the tapes.

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297 Words | 2 Pages

What happened in Watergate reduced the executive privilege and changed the American political system to more authentic

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1181 Words | 5 Pages

Furthermore, by placing so much faith in Nixon, many Americans and the White House denounced the Washington Post’s coverage of Watergate as biased and misleading. Americans felt that the Post was trying to depict their “truthful” president in a negative light; however, the Post writers Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were engaging in Plato’s dialectic approach to uncover the concrete truth of the Watergate scandal. On the other hand, most other Americans were concerned with the rhetorical truth. Based on the actions of past presidents, it was more plausible that when the president, the person they elected into a second term told the American people

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669 Words | 3 Pages

All of this deceit only made Nixon viewed as dishonest and shady to the American people, making his impeachment seem almost predictable. But something that was not predicted was Richard Nixon’s

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