Watergate

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Watergate

• Thinking Skill Explicitly assess information and
  draw conclusions
• Objective Understand the events of Watergate and
  assess its overall impact on US history and
  politics

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Watergate

• Why did Watergate occur?
• How did it take place?
• What were they specifically doing here?

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What you must know

• Watergate not as much about the actual break in
  but much more about the cover-up
• Watergate break-in itself was one of several in a
  series of events going back well before 1972
  (Dirty Tricks)
• Nixon was never called to testify and resigned
  just before inevitable impeachment
• Nixon and the entire nation were preoccupied with
  Watergate throughout 1973 and much of 1974,
  making it nearly a 2 year ordeal which likely
  would have been drawn out even longer had Nixon
  not resigned when he did

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Watergate An Overview

• Personality and psychology of Nixon
• Pentagon Papers, leaks, creation of
  Plumbers-during Nixons first term
• CRP (Creep)
• All the Presidents Men-Several spent time in
  prison for their role
• Operation Gemstone included several black
  bag ops
• June 17 1972the break inbroke big rule of
  espionage (direct link to the White House)
• 5 men caught and arrested, story made the paper
  but few people, if any, would understand its full
  significance at the time

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The Presidents men H.R. Haldeman and John
Erlichman
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John MitchellAttorney General
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The Break-In
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A key piece of evidence
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The Break-In
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The Level of Nixons involvement

• Smoking gun conversation June 23, 1972 just 6
  days after break-in
• -this dialogue would prove important later
  when discovered
• Nixon When you get in these people . . . say
  "Look, the problem is that this will open the
  whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the
  President just feels that without going into
  the details dont, don't lie to them to the
  extent to say there is no involvement, but just
  say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre,
  without getting into it. "The President's belief
  is that this is going to open the whole Bay of
  Pigs thing up again. And because these people are
  plugging for, for keeps, and that they should
  call the FBI in and say that we wish for the
  country, don't go any further into this case,
  period.. . .
• Significance of these words --obstruction of
  justice, President halted an FBI investigation,
  would later appoint new FBI director L. Patrick
  Grey who ironically would do more to increase the
  investigation into Watergate

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Watergate The Cover-up vs. the pursuit of truth

• Nixons press secretary called Watergate a Third
  Rate burglary
• Landslide re-election in Nov of 72
• As 1972 progressed, story gained momentum in
  press and cover-up worsened
• An increasing pressure to pay off the burglars.
  Where did the money come from? CRP campaign
  funds
• Into 1973 investigations, kept alive in press,
  especially by Woodward and Bernstein of
  Washington Post
• Famous leak -- Deep Throat informant (mostly
  famous due to the mysterious nature of his
  identity for decades) revealed in 2005 to be
  Associate Director of FBI Mark Felt.

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The power of the press and the one who helped
keep the story alive
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John Dean
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Watergate Turning points

• John Dean - March 1973 - Cancer on the
  Presidency conversation (Nixon authorizes more
  payments for hush money)
• Soon after Dean realized that he may become a
  sacrificial lamb for Watergate. He had been a
  loyal White House counsel, but would tell all to
  Grand Jury (but where was the evidence to prove
  him right?)
• Televised hearings about Watergate pick up
  momentum
• What did the president know, when did he know
  it? Senator Howard Baker
• White House taping system is revealed July 1973
• The presence of tape recording--why he did it and
  what we know because of it
• -block legal investigation (obstruction of
  justice), abuse of power, authorizing perjury,
  cover-up, cover-up of the initial cover-up
• Nixon Administrations defense - National
  Security

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The Oval Office
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The incriminating technology

• Phone calls were also recorded

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Watergate Backlash

• April 30 1973, Nixon fired Dean and accepted
  resignations of
• Erlichman and Haldeman
• In October 1973, VP Spiro Agnew - due to a
  separate issue involving tax fraud and bribery
  while Governor of Maryland -- was forced to
  resign rather than face impeachment charges, thus
  planting the idea of impeachment as a political
  tool for many in Congress. (What specifically
  does impeachment mean?)
• October 20, 1973 Saturday Night Massacre Nixon
  fired Archibald Cox and abolished the office of
  the special prosecutor. Attorney General
  Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D.
  Ruckelshaus are forced to resign. Pressure for
  impeachment mounts in Congress.
• Gerald Ford sworn in as VP
• -Was Ford chosen as VP as part of a backroom
  deal to pardon Nixon in the future?
• -This is not likely. In fact Nixon privately
  commented about his lack of faith in Ford as a
  future president, therefore he saw Ford as his
  own impeachment Insurance

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• November 17, 1973
• In a public address to
• the nation, Nixon declared
• "I'm not a crook"
• to maintain his innocence
• in the Watergate case,
• but this phrase still haunts
• his presidency even today

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• Legal battle over
• tapes in the end Nixon
• cooperated under pressure
• 18 ½ minute gap
• in tapes revealed
• Tapes are made public
• expletive deleted
• becomes a common phrase

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The Rose Mary Woods Stretch
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The Road to Resignation

• April 30, 1974 The White House released more
  than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the
  Nixon tapes to the House Judiciary Committee, but
  the committee insisted that the tapes themselves
  must be turned over.
• July 24, 1974 The Supreme Court ruled
  unanimously that Nixon must turn over the tape
  recordings of 64 White House conversations,
  rejecting the president's claims of executive
  privilege.
• July 27, 1974 House Judiciary Committee passed
  the first of three articles of impeachment,
  charging obstruction of justice.
• Even Nixon loyalists will likely vote to impeach
  him

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The Looming Impeachment

• The House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 on July
  27, 1974 to recommend the first article of
  impeachment against the president obstruction of
  justice. The second abuse of power, and third
  contempt of Congress articles were passed on July
  29, 1974 and July 30, 1974, respectively. (On
  August 20, 1974, the Committee would formally
  submit H. Rept. 93-1305 which included the text
  of the resolution impeaching President Nixon and
  setting forth articles of impeachment against him

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U.S. v. Richard Nixon
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Public Reaction Intensifies
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Holding Out to the End
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Resignation

• Nixon addressed
• the nation on
• August 8,1974 to announce
• his resignation.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vZEOGJJ7UKFM
• I have never been a quitter. To leave office
  before my term is completed is abhorrent to every
  instinct in my body. But as President, I must put
  the interest of America first. America needs a
  full-time President and a full-time Congress,
  particularly at this time with problems we face
  at home and abroad.
• By taking this action, I hope that I will have
  hastened the start of that process of healing
  which is so desperately needed in America.
• I regret deeply any injuries that may have been
  done in the course of the events that led to this
  decision. I would say only that if some of my
  Judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they
  were made in what I believed at the time to be
  the best interest of the Nation.
• Full text - http//www.pbs.org/newshour/character/
  links/nixon_speech.html

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Nixons Farewell Speech Excerpt 8/9/74

• And so I say to you on this occasion we leave,
  we leave proud of the people who have stood by us
  and worked for us and served this country. We
  want you to be proud of what you've done. We want
  you to continue to serve in Government, if that
  is your wish. Always give your best never get
  discouraged never be petty. Always remember
  others may hate you, but those who hate you don't
  win unless you hate them, and then you destroy
  yourself.

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(No Transcript)
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Short and Long Term Impact

• Ford pardoned him Sept 8, 1974
• - our long national nightmare is over
• Legacy gate suffix is added to every scandal
• Public will vote for a Washington outsider in 76
  (Jimmy Carter)
• Voter apathy, lingering bad taste of political
  corruption

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Frost/Nixon
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Frost/Nixon interviews in 1977

• -I'm saying that when the President does it,
  it's not illegal!
• Closest thing to a Nixon apology?
• -I let them down. I let down my friends, I let
  down my country, and worst of all I let down our
  system of government, and the dreams of all those
  young people that ought to get into government
  but now they think "Oh it's all too corrupt and
  the rest." Yeah... I let the American people
  down. And I'm gonna have to carry that burden
  with me for the rest of my life.

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Q. Who am I? (Yale Law School graduate of 1973)
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A. Hillary Rodham Clinton

• In 1974 she was a member of the impeachment
  inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., advising the
  House Committee on the Judiciary during the
  Watergate scandal. Under the guidance of Chief
  Counsel John Doar and senior member Bernard
  Nussbaum, Rodham helped research procedures of
  impeachment and the historical grounds and
  standards for impeachment.The committee's work
  culminated in the resignation of President
  Richard Nixon in August 1974.

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(No Transcript)
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Did President Ford Do the Right thing in
Pardoning Nixon?
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(No Transcript)
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Watergate Review of Key Events

• Break in at Watergate Hotel-72
• Nixons cover-up
• Role of media - Washington Post
• Hearings, Tapes Revealed
• Agnew Resigned
• Saturday Night Massacre
• Tapes Released Congress moves to impeach
• Nixon resigned
• Ford (new VP) takes over and pardons Nixon

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Watergate Legacy

• Showed the President was not above the law and
  Constitution
• Balance of power in govt.
• Distrust of govt. officials and D.C insiders
• Disillusionment of people (Justice?)
• Imperial Presidency
• Role of Media

Nixons last goodbye
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Questions from videoWatergate The Final Report -
National Geographic

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vnFID6Qkwh88
• What were the burglars looking for?
• Why illegal tactics?
• What does CRP hope to learn?
• What is Nixon so paranoid about?
• What are Nixons aides concerned the press will
  find?
• Importance of Deep Throat?

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More questions

• Who is paying the burglars legal bills?
• What is Nixons level of involvement? (role?)
• Why does Nixon dismiss his loyal aides?
• What did the president know and when did he know
  it?
• Why did Nixon tape his conversations?
• Why did he not destroy his tapes?

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Sources

• Fred Emery Watergate, 1995
• National Geographic Watergate the Final Report
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?vnFID6Qkwh88
• A E Watergate special from 1994
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2Kx0R-rpRmY

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Marty Dardis of Endicott NY and his role in
Watergate

• http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic
  le/2006/05/18/AR2006051802047.html

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Side note - Some have suggested that one of these
tramps apprehended in Dallas on 11/22/63 was
E. Howard Hunt