The main focus of this book was to do research on The book “The Secret Man, The Story of Watergates Deep Throat,” written by Bob Woodward with a reporter’s assessment by Carl Bernstein, which is about a group of burglars who broke into the Watergate hotel in Washington DC on May of 1972. While breaking in the burglars left listening devices like voice recorders and attempted to wiretap phones so they could steal secret information and documents from the Democratic Party. Not only was this no ordinary robbery but the burglars were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign. When Richard Nixon heard what happened, he tried to cover-up for his burglars by lying about what he knew and when he found out about what they did.
According
Young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein posed the question, “What is Watergate?” The Watergate was considered as Nixon’s five wars, stated by The Washington
McCord. Woodward who was present at the arraignment, overheard McCord mentioned “CIA” in connection with his job. Another one of the arrested men identified his job as an “anti-communist”. According to an unknown source,” McCord was responsible for security for the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CPR), to re-elect Republican Richard M. Nixon.” Hunt and G. Gordon Libby, were members of the “Plumbers” and were connected with the White House, had been stationed nearby and were communicating with the burglars. The White House’s Special Investigation Unit, also known as “Plumbers”, was created by John Ehrlichman to prevent information and secrets from leaking from the White House, the group were also involved in many activities perpetrated against Democrats and antiwar protestors. The “Plumbers” most famous crime was the break-in at the home of former Pentagon employee Daniel Ellsberg.
The Watergate scandal was a memorable moment in American politics, which later led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon and the indictment of a few of his advisers. The scandal got its name because it occurred at the Watergate hotel at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C, where the 1972 break-ins at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters were. Without the help of Deep Throat, who was later revealed as W. Mark Felt, there might
unearthed one of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century. Bernstein and Woodward were not aware of how well they worked together. "They had never worked on a s...
The documentary entitled, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, documents the political decisions and environment within the Nixon Administration from 1969-1974. The documentary specifically details and describes the environment and culture in which the Watergate scandal could occur and the events and abuses of power that lead to its occurrence. Setting the tone and the political climate of the Nixon Administration was the Vietnam War; making him a wartime President, a war that he inherited from his predecessor. The Vietnam War faced a lot of opposition from the general public, with massive protests and political demonstrations by the younger generations and overall general public. Nixon’s presidency was surrounded by this climate amidst the
The book I chose to read for this assignment was All the President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The book was about the biographical accounts of two Washington Post reporters and of how their investigative journalism played a major role in solving one of the largest political scandals in American history. Me being a history buff was happy that the book was on the list of selective readings that we could choose for this assignment and before even reading a page was most certain that I would enjoy the book. I knew some about Watergate already and was eager to jump on the chance to learn more about it, especially from the two people who played the major role of bring the whole scandal to the surface. I had seen the movie before and had known from past experiences that movies leave out so much information when they are based on a book so I knew that I would be getting the full detail in account from the authors that I missed out on before. I am not the type who enjoys reading and it always ends up being a hard struggle for me to get through an entire book, but this book ended up not being like pulling teeth for me. Reading the book ended up being the exact opposite, enjoying it so much that it was hard to put down, not only because of the fact that I was fascinated with the information being provided, but also in the direct way that it was presented.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the United States was experiencing disorder and hysteria as domestic and foreign issues; created stress and tension within the nation. In the late 1960s, when Richard Nixon was running for president, the nation saw the death of two influential people, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, brother of John F. Kennedy. Following the death of King, race riots broke out across the country. To add to the anger and tension, many students and young Americans began to protest the war in Vietnam. Nixon promised to restore order to the country if he were to be elected. Unfortunately for Nixon, the Democrats, who had control of both sides of Congress, were prepared to block many of Nixon’s initiatives. Thus, CREEP (the committee to re-elect the president) began its corrupt path towards getting Nixon into office, even going as far as to break into the Democratic Party's National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate office in the nation’s capital ("Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon"). The Watergate scandal, which led to the first resignation of a United States President, changed the political landscape of the nation through its impact on Americans' trust in the government and its employees, its effect on government ethics, and its influence on journalism and the rise in investigative reporting.
During the 1970’s, the United States experienced "Watergate," the most famous political scandal in American History. It was a scandal that began with a break in and ended in resignation. On June 17, 1972 five intruders were caught and arrested for illegally entering the rooms of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate Complex. "The investigation of the break-in lead directly to the reelection campaign of President Richard M. Nixon and unraveled a web of political spying and sabotage, bribery and the illegal use of campaign funds" (Washingtonpost.com). Two-and-a-half-years later along with a number of court hearings led to the 1974 resignation of Richard M. Nixon. Nixon became the first President in U.S. History to resign. During all the political drama the United States brought an end to an unpopular war and made great strides in space exploration.
Richard Nixon's first term as president will always be connected with the Watergate scandal, the biggest political scandal in United States history. Various illegal activities were conducted including burglary, wire tapping, violations of campaign financing laws, sabotage, and attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents to help Richard Nixon win reelection in the 1972 presidential elections. There were about 40 people charged with crimes related to the scandal. Most of them were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty. Watergate involved more high-level government officials than any previous scandal. It has been etched in the minds of millions and is still being recalled today when faced with the present day scandal of President Clinton. In All The President's Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, former Washington Post reporters, recount, illustrate, and analyze the Watergate scandal time and their work in reporting and revealing these events for the newspaper.
Despite the national attention the Watergate scandal had gained President Nixon, he won the second term presidency. The major problem for Nixon would come later. The investigations of the Watergate scandal lead to the discovery of other criminal acts by officials including Nixon. During the investigation many things begin to surface. It was discovered that documents had been destroyed that may have made a link between Nixon and the Watergate scandal. These documents may have shown that he had some acknowledgement in what had happened. There was evidence that people involved in the Nixon campaign had been wire tapping phones illegally for a long time according to “dummies.com”. The greatest issue would come to light during the 1973 Watergate hearings. During testimonies it came to light that every conversation was recorded in the Oval office according to “study.com”. It was demanded that these tapes be reviewed to learn how much involvement President Nixon had in the Watergate burglary. The President felt that he had the right to withhold these tapes through what he referred to as executive privilege. This means that if it is the best interest of the public the president has the right to keep information from the
The years leading up to the 1972 election were filled with new political tactics. Going into the election year, President Nixon seemed like he could never lose the second term election after successfully negotiating with Vietnam, Beijing, and Russia to improve international relations (Emery 4). Raising international toughness made Nixon seem like the most worthy person to stay president. Fred Emery analyses in his novel Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon, the president was also setting up the first summit meeting in history with Soviet Union Presidents (3). There seemed to be nothing capable of holding the seemingly responsible man back. However, this assurance came with massive consequences. The absolute certainty that Nixon would be reelected fueled the lies and abuse of power by the Nixon government (Emery 195). As the outlook of landslide winnings took over the White House, the moral reasoning, “the end justifies the means” became more prevalent. Nixon was obsessed with winning and being successful. Under his command his staff did whatever possible to ...
It all began on Sunday, June 18, 1972 when Frank Wills, security guard at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., found a piece of tape that was preventing a door from locking. After removing the piece of tape from the door, he later found that it had been re-taped. This seemed suspicious, so ...
In Nixon’s first Watergate speech he addresses the issue of what is known as the Watergate scandal, and explains why members of his administrationresignedor weresacked.In this speech Nixon is speaking as if he didn’t know about the incident and he is innocent. For an example Nixon says” I was appalled at this senseless, illegal action, and I was shocked to learn that employees of the re-election committee were apparently among those guilty.” Later on people found out that he did indeed order them to break into the DNC Headquarters. Nixon deceives hisviewers when he says, “I was determined that we get to the bottom of the matter.” Nixon wanted the viewers to believe that he was not a part of the affair, and he wason the same side with the FBI.As the issue got more intense that is when Nixon delivers his second Watergate speech.
THE WATERGATE SCANDAL Watergate is a hotel in Washington D.C. where the Democratic National Committee held their campaign headquarters. The current president at the time was Richard M. Nixon, who was involved in the scandal himself and which lead to the cause of his resignation. The Watergate scandal should not have happened, but it did and it caused the American people to judge less of their government system. The scandal began on June 17, 1972, with the arrest of five men who were caught in the offices of the Democrat’s campaign headquarters. Their arrest uncovered a White House sponsored plan of espionage against the political opponents and a trail of intrigue that led to some of the highest officials in the land. The officials involved in the Watergate scandal were former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, White House Counsel John Dean, White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldman, White House Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs John Ehrlichman, and President Nixon. On April 30, 1973, nearly one year after a grand jury investigation of the burglary and arrest of the people involved, President Nixon accepted the resignation of Haldeman and Ehrlichman and announced the dismissal of John Dean. Furthermore, U.S. Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resigned as well shifting the position to the new attorney general, Elliot Richardson. However, Elliot Richardson decided to put Harvard Law School professor Archibald Cox in charge of conducting a full-scale investigation of the Watergate break-in. Hearings were opened in May of 1973 by the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Activities with Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina as the chairman. Suddenly, a series of startling revelations began as Dean testified that Mitchell had ordered the break-in and that a major attempt was under way to hide White House involvement. Dean also claimed that President Nixon had authorized payments to the burglars to keep them quiet. The Nixon administration denied any involvement in the scandal, but the testimony of White House aide Alexander Butterfield exposed Nixon and unlocked the entire investigation. On July 16, 1973, Butterfield told the committee, on nationwide television, that President Nixon had ordered a taping system to be installed in the White House to automatically record all conversations. With this what Nixon had said and when he had said it was on the t...
The Watergate is home of the National Democratic Committee. This is where the scandal occurred that would eventually lead to Nixon’s resigning of the Presidency. During the first break in, we do not really know what the burglar’s full intentions were. What we do know is that between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. on May 28, 1972, the burglars had attempted to unscrew a lock on a door that would allow access to the National Democratic Committee office. The burglars never gained access because they got nervous regarding the presence of the security officers. There is some thought that the burglars were after negative information that could be used against Nixon’s opponent (“5 held in Plot to Bug Democrats’ office” par. 28).
Nixon’s run as an international crook finally caught up to him in 1972, when burglars were caught and arrested inside the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington. Nixon attempted to cover it up, but eventually he was found caught in his own web of lies, and was forced to resign in 1974 (Lecture 30, December 12). Nixon’s promises of a return to normalcy were shattered with these revelations. The confidence in the Presidency that he had hoped to restore was even lower than it was when he entered office. If the 1960’s were defined by political and social instability, then Richard Nixon did nothing but further the sixties into the 1970’s.
Woodward and Bernstein's undertaking constructed the cornerstone for the modern role of the media. The making of the movie about the Watergate Scandal and the ventures of the two journalists signify the importance of the media. The media’s role as intermediary is exemplified throughout the plot of the movie. The movie is the embodiment of journalism that guides future journalists to progress towards the truth, no matter what they are going up against. It was the endeavor of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that led them to the truth behind the president’s men. They showed that not even the president is able to deter the sanctity of journalism in its search of truth. The freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and people’s right to know account for the same truth that journalists pursue; the truth that democracy is alive and will persist to live on.
Nixon was long associated with American politics before his fall from grace. He was along time senator before finally being elected president in 1968. During his first term, his United States went through the Vietnam War and a period of economic inflation. In 1972 he was easily re-elected over Democrat nominee George McGovern. Almost unnoticed during his campaign was the arrest of five men connected with Nixon’s re-election committee. They had broken into the Democrats national head quarters in the Watergate apartment complex, in Washington D.C. They attempted to steal documents and place wire taps on the telephones. By March of 1973, through a federal inquiry, it had been brought to light that the burglars had connections with high government officials and Nixon’s closest aids. Despite Nixon and his lawyers best efforts, it was shown that the president had participated in the Watergate cover-up. On August 8, 1974 Nixon announced, without admitting guilt, that he would resign. He left the Oval Office the next day: an obvious fall from grace.