Richard Nixon and The Watergate Scandal
Cade Gullett
Block 1
US History
12/8/17
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Cade Gullett
Block 1
Introduction and Thesis
Time and time again people all throughout history of the world have abused their powers, but what about the President of the United States? Is it possible for who some consider the most important and authoritative man in the whole world to lie, cheat, and steal? This is exactly what was happening during the Watergate scandal being led by the President of the United States Of America, Richard Nixon. President and candidate Richard Nixon was abusive of his presidential powers while in office by hindering the election of 1972, damaging the democratic headquarters in the Watergate Hotel, and trying to cripple top secret investigations.
Background
The Watergate scandal took place on June 17th, 1972. Five burglars were arrested in the Watergate hotel and building complex, home to the office of the Democratic National Committee, in Washington, D.C (Fisher 1). This was not an ordinary robbery, the burglars were working for President Richard Nixon’s re-election committee. Found by a security guard, the burglars were discovered to be wiretapping phones and stealing top secret documents. Nixon quickly took action in attempt to cover up the crime. In August 1974, Nixon’s involvement in the robberies was revealed. Soon after Nixon resigned. “The Watergate scandal changed American politics forever, leading many Americans to question their leaders and think more critically about the presidency” (Fisher 1).
The wiretaps did not work correctly, so later that month, the group of five men returned to the Watergate building. As the burglars were preparing to re-enter the Watergate complex to install a new microphone, a security guard found that someone had put taped over multiple door locks to keep the doors from locking. The guard quickly called the police, who arrived just in time to catch them. It was not clear who the burglars were hired by, but signs pointed at Richard Nixon’s campaign team. Detectives were suspicious when they found copies of the reelection committee documents that contained names and phone numbers, but there was no proof at that time that Nixon had any involvement. President Nixon was later elected for office, winning by a landslide over Democratic nominee George McGovern .
Throughout his presidency, Nixon was constantly under fire for his involvement in the Watergate scandal. However, on August 6th Nixon finally released the Watergate tapes then
resigned (Fisher 3). The reason Nixon decided to resign was based on the fact that he was most likely going to get impeached, so he decided to step down instead of being kicked out.
II.Arguments
President Richard Nixon attempted to rig the election of 1972 to gain the advantage over competitor George McGovern. Instead of taking the stereotypical approach to rigging an election by adding or subtracting votes, Nixon attempted to access top secret information from the Watergate hotel, which contains all the documents involved in the election. Nixon’s team also installed secret phone taps which allowed them to listen in on important democrat phone calls. Possibly the most important discovery of the whole Watergate investigation, was the countless acts of political sabotage and people hired to spy on the democratic party were all traced to Nixon’s "offensive security," which was conceived and directed in the White House by Nixon's reelection committee (Woodward 1). Nixon’s reelection team also forged numerous documents claiming they were part of the democratic election team. This caused problems such as confusion in their campaign schedule, and leaking false information to the press regarding McGovern hurting his reputation. When the public started to hear about this, obviously all fingers were pointed at Nixon. He later gave a speech in August 1972, swearing that he and his campaign team had zero involvement in any sabotage efforts against democratic nominee George McGovern. “The origins of the Watergate break-in lay in the hostile political climate of the time. By 1972, when Republican President Richard Nixon was running for reelection, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam war, and the country was deeply divided” (Gill 2). Nixon’s involvement was not suspected immediately during investigation, but later FBI agents found a document with the White House’s phone number on it tracing it back to Nixon.
Early on June 17, 1972, several men were arrested for burglarizing the Watergate hotel located in Washington D.C. The Watergate complex, home to the Democratic national committee’s headquarters. These were no normal criminals, all five of them were involved in Nixon’s reelection committee. The wiretaps that were installed did not work correctly, so on June 17th the group of men returned to the Watergate complex. “As the prowlers were preparing to break into the office with a new microphone, a security guard noticed someone had taped over several of the building’s door locks. The guard called the police, who arrived just in time to catch the spies red-handed” (Karimi 1). At first the men appeared to be normal burglars, but with closer inspection, they were found to be connected to the White House Re-election committee. Nixon promised the public that he had absolutely no involvement with these robberies. This promise clearly worked, because later he won the presidential election by a landslide. However, it was later discovered that Nixon set aside hundreds of thousands of dollars that he would give to the burglars to keep quiet about his involvement. Nixon’s committee men came up with a plan to interfere with the CIA and FBI's investigation, which is a more severe crime than the actual break- ins were. Later, three of the burglars pleaded guilty to avoid the process of going through trial. The other two were put on trial in January. Members of Nixon’s former team testified against Nixon, telling officials that he had secretly taped all of his conversations in the oval office.
This is where Nixon demonstrates his abuse of power. Instead of being forced to hand over the tapes Nixon refused. Nixon had a very hard time trying to protect the tapes during year of 1973. “His lawyers argued that the president’s executive privilege allowed him to keep the tapes to himself” (Karimi 2).
Throughout the investigation of the Watergate burglary, and President Richard Nixon’s involvement, many steps were taken to try and cover up crimes. Investigators found hundreds of thousands of dollars from Nixon’s re-election campaign money stashed away in order to pay the burglars to keep quiet about his involvement. The act of gaining information from the opponent is used in both parties, but investigators found Nixon’s workers going to the extreme. Authorities said tactics Nixon’s workers used included following family members of candidates. This wasn’t all, they had been accused of many other offenses including, “assembling dossiers on their personal lives; forging letters and distributing them under the candidates' letterheads; leaking false and manufactured items to the press; throwing campaign schedules into disarray;seizing confidential campaign files; and investigating the lives of dozens of Democratic campaign workers” (Woodward 1). Authorities also shared that the most prevalent example of the sabotage was the fabrication by a White House aide. “They sent a fake letter to the editor alleging that Sen. Edmund S. Muskie condoned a racial slur on Americans of French-Canadian descent as "Canucks." The letter was released to the public on Feb 24, right before the New Hampshire state primary” (Bernstein 2). These extremely hurt Muskie’s reputation, causing him to lose the votes of French-Canadian Americans, influencing the election. This team was made up of President Nixon’s re-election committee
. The reason for all of this sabotage was to create so much suspicion and confusion that Democrats would be unable to function correctly after electing a nominee. This clearly backfired at Nixon once investigators started to catch on.
III.Counter Point(s) and IV.Rebuttal(s) of Counter Point(s)
Many people believe that President Nixon did not illegally rig the election of 1972. Nixon was simply trying to get the upper hand on his opponent, George McGovern. In most competitions, people who have the advantage over their opponent will typically win, this is exactly why President Nixon was trying to access the democrats information. Though Nixon was gaining the advantage over McGovern, he was doing so illegally. By installing hidden microphones, and stealing documents Nixon completely crossed the line of fair competition, resulting in him breaking the law. Some believe that Nixon was not involved in the Watergate hotel break ins. They think that since he was not the one burglarizing, he was not breaking the law. Also there was no connection to Nixon and the burglars, though detectives linked them back to Nixon's reelection committee. Though president Nixon wasn't the one breaking in to the Watergate Hotel he was the one commanding it. Detectives found papers with the republican reelection committee, and funds that were taken out in order to pay the criminals. Secret tapes were discovered by detectives revealing that Nixon had secretly taped every conversation that took place in the oval office. Arguments are made that Nixon should not be at fault for members of his team getting caught trying to sabotage the democratic party. Some believe Nixon did not have any involvement, and it was his campaign manager. Though this could possibly be true, it is very unlikely that Nixon was unaware of this. Sabotage acts such as following family members of candidates, forging documents claiming to be part of the democratic party in order to ruin their reputation were all used to gain the upper hand. Most people would not have voted for Nixon if they knew all the crimes he committed..
V.Conclusion
The Watergate scandal was one of the greatest examples of world leaders abusing their powers in history, and especially in the history of the United States. Nixon showed characteristics of a cheating, lying, and being an abusive leader that tricked America into electing him as president. He used a handful of incriminating, and illegal ways to cheat, in order to prosper over democratic candidate George McGovern in the election of 1972. Nixon abused his political powers by attempting to rig the presidential election, hiring a group of criminals to break in to the Watergate Hotel, and deliberately ruin the reputation of the Democratic Party at the time.
Works Cited
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History.com Staff. “Watergate Scandal.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/watergate.
Schultz, Colin. “Nixon Prolonged Vietnam War for Political Gain-And Johnson Knew About It, Newly Unclassified Tapes Suggest.
Tribune Newspaper staff. Watergate. articles.dailypress.com/keyword/watergate.
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www.archives.gov/education/lessons/watergate-constitution.
“Watergate.info.” Watergateinfo Watergate The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon Comments, watergate.info/.
“Watergate Scandal Timeline.” World History Project, worldhistoryproject.org/topics/watergate-scandal.