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Richard Nixon Watergate Scandal Essay

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The Watergate Scandal of the 1970’s was one the greatest political schemes in American history. Richard Nixon, with the help of his re-election committee and allies, were able to bug and break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. By doing this they were able to get valuable democratic campaign information that may have helped President Nixon win the election of 1972. On June 17th, 1972, five men were caught breaking into the Watergate Headquarters, bugging phones and retrieving valuable information that was only meant for the Democrats. When these five men were caught, there was no direct connection to them to Nixon, though suspicions were raised when they found the re-elections committee’s number on them. This little …show more content…

The President may have not ordered the burglarizing to happen because he didn’t want a negative sentiment put upon him but might have had some knowledge about it. As it was stated above in the quote, he went to extreme lengths to cover up what had happened, and he even went as far to commit an obstruction of justice and abuse of presidential power. He went to great lengths to keep this quiet and he must have known about the whole scheme even before the first break in happened, so he could be prepared to hide it as best as possible. On some of the tapes, from his office, it suggests that he did indeed know about the whole scandal. In an article it says “…three days after the crime, Nixon, in a tape-recorded conversation with H.R. Haldeman, his chief of staff, said: "My God, the committee isn 't worth bugging, in my opinion. That 's my public line." The implication seemed that his private belief may have differed.” (www.nytimes.com) showing that he might have had some knowledge of it. Although many believe Nixon knew about it, President Nixon on multiple occasions denies the fact of knowing about the break-ins in advance or ordering

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