The Watergate Scandal is a major political misconduct that occurred in the United States in the 1970’s, following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Complex in Washington, D.C and President Richard Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. The term Watergate is synonymous with the words corruption and scandal. Watergate obtained its name from the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Initial investigation of the scandal were heavily influenced by the media. Two reporters from the Washington Post- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, became known as the reporters who broke the biggest story in American Politics. If it had not been for the alert actions of Frank Wills, a security guard, the scandal may never have been stopped. The security guard noticed they had taped the …show more content…
The Watergate break-in happened because the people involved wanted to steal secret documents and to also wiretap phones in the building. The wiretaps failed to work properly, so on June 17th the group returned to the Watergate building resulting in the burglars being arrested inside the Democratic National Committee (DNC), they were connected to President Nixon’s reelection campaign. The five men involved in this crime are named Benard L. Barker, Virgilio R. Gonzales, James W. McCord, Eugenio R. Martinez, and lastly, Frank A. Sturgis. All of these men had connections within the CIA or FBI and also worked with those agencies.
Historians are not sure if Nixon knew about the Watergate espionage operation but he did try covering it up by giving “hush money” to the burglars and also overusing his power by trying to convince the CIA to stop the FBI from