All the President’s Men is a film that was produced in 1976 and it is based on the true story of the two journalists who uncovered the truth of the Watergate scandal that occurred in 1972 through 1974 during Richard Nixon’s presidency. The movie begins by showing the incident that took place on June 17, 1972 when five men with bugging and photographic equipment were caught breaking into the Democratic International Committee headquarters at the Watergate Complex. The men were arrested and two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, from the Washington Post were assigned to cover the story.
After the men were arrested, one of them named James W. McCord Jr. admitted to having connections with the CIA which sparked the reporters interest
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They eventually learn that the funds of the CREEP committee had been used the year before to create a “ratfucking” campaign in order to sabotage Democratic candidates. Through their long term investigation, it is finally confirmed by multiple sources that H.R. Haldeman, the second most powerful man in the nation, right under President Nixon, was in charge of the Watergate break-in and cover-up. The movie concluded with the two journalists writing the full story with the inauguration of President Nixon for his second term playing in the background.
With this movie being based on the nonfiction book titled All the President’s Men, the governmental aspects of the film were very true. The corruptness of this extensive story makes it seem almost as though it is fiction and unable to happen, but this was an important piece of history and it very much did so occur. There are several aspects from this film that directly relate with things we have learned in class, including the characteristics of governmental officials in Washington D.C., the process of being elected president of the United States, the supreme court, and the process for impeachment of a
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President Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal eventually went to the supreme court when President Nixon said he had the right to disclose audio tapes from the other branches because of “executive privilege.” This case became known as the Nixon vs. United States case. Of the four types of opinions discussed in class, the supreme court had made a unanimous 0-8 opinion at the end of the case and ruled in favor of the United States, saying that the president could only withhold information concerning military and diplomatic affairs. After the decision was made, the tapes were turned over to congress to listen
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
A year before the election of 1972, President Nixon was becoming nervous about what the Deomocrats were planning on for the election. Nixon wanted to be re-elected but he did not think he could become re-elected without some sort of help. Nixon decided to send a group of spies to investigate what was going on at the Democrat Headquarters to see if they had any plans on how they were going to bring down Nixon. Supposedly hired by Nixon, a group of five men went to the Watergate hotel and stole some documents. Unsatisfied with what they found, they returned three weeks later intending to fix wiretaps that were not working and photograph documents. However while they were inside the building these fiv...
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.
The Biography Editors state that the Watergate burglary occurred June 17, 1972 where five men were apprehended for breaking into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. The five men were Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and James W. McCord Jr. The Watergate scandal revolved around multiple crimes that were committed. The crimes that have been stated in articles such as, the Washington Post, dealt with political espionage, obstructing the investigation, breaking and entering which led to wiretapping phones. Also, there was campaign fraud during President Nixon’s reelection. The five men who were arrested were all associated and working on behalf of the president’s reelection campaign. As stated by The
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.
“President Nixon exhibited no interest, much less zeal, in ensuring full public disclosure of all the facts behind this shabby interference with the rights of his political opposition” (“The Watergate Tragedy” 4). The increase of media reports on the Watergate scandal caused the Nixon administration to try and use different methods to slow down the reporters like resist meeting with journalists and not giving comments to reporters. The news reporters were relentless in their search for answers in the scandal and kept on pressing different sources for any information they could get their hands on. News reports eventually showed that the president used the CIA to hinder the FBI’s investigations into where the funding for the break-ins came
On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested at 2:30 a.m. They were caught trying to "bug" the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex in Washington D.C. When the police caught the men, they were in the office of Larry O'Brien. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee, whose job was to aid political candidates in the Democratic party get elected. In 1972, O'Brien's main priority was to help the Democratic candidate for president, Senator George McGovern. The five men, who were arrested, were identified the next morning by two lawyers as, James W. McCord, Jr., Bernard L. Barker, Frank A. Sturgis, Virgilro R. Gonzalez, and Eugenio R. Martinez. Reporters and politicians were interested in this case because they found out that McCord was a former member of the CIA. Its agents are not permitted to spy on Americans. Not only was he a former member of the CIA, but now he worked for the Committee for the Re-election of the president, or CRP. This Republican group was formed to help President Richard M. Nixon win a second term in office.
The lying and cover-ups did not end there, it went on and on for months, and as the scandal kept unraveling, President Nixon and White House, and CREEP officials were deliberately misleading the public about the significance of the Watergate affair. As Watergate was becoming a front-page article in the newspapers, new evidence was being uncovered. One piece of evidence that changed the peoples’ ideas of our president was the tapping of every conversation in the oval office since about the 18th month of President Nixon's term. Those tapes would soon prove that the president was deeply involved in the scandal. The Nixon tapes brought out much controversy. The tapes alone could prove the president innocent or guilty, but whichever one it was, Nixon refused to hand over the tapes. After much struggle Nixon agreed to give a transcript of the tapes. The transcripts brought to light a significant amount of evidence against Nixon. The transcripts revealed payoffs, affiliation with the burglaries and the OK's to the cover-up, but most important the transcripts showed that Nixon had lied repeatedly after he had denied knowing anything about the conspiracy.
“On June 17, 1972, five men, including CIA agent James McCord were arrested in the burglary of the Democratic party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C.” “The Post Investigates.” Later that year, the Federal Grand Jury indicted these five men for their involvement in the Watergate burglary. Less than two months later, Richard Nixon was reelected President in an unprecedented landslide over George McGovern, the Democratic candidate. At the end of January the following year, James McCord and Gordon Liddy were convicted of illegally wiretapping the Democrats Watergate apartments, (“The Watergate Decade”).
On June 17, 1972 five men were arrested for the bugging of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington D.C. Two reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were the two reporters assigned to the case at the Washington Post. All though their reporting styles contrasted they had similarities also when it came to journalism, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein worked together throughout the coverage of the break in at the Watergate. Together, both reporters had their share of failed interviews and sometimes questionable journalistic ethics, but still they did whatever was necessary to get the most accurate information for their story. Throughout their coverage of the Watergate case Woodward and Bernstein
In conclusion, the movie All the President's Men is a precise depiction of the Watergate scandal. This is visible through the representations of Bob Woodword and Carl Bernstein, the events that took place to reveal the crime, and the steps that ultimately ended Nixon's presidency.
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 ...
According to the book “Watergate: Scandal in the White House” by By Dale Anderson it all began on
There are many accurate depictions of the political process in this movie, but there are also some areas where this movie was just being a people pleaser. The American President accurately portrayed the rolls of the media, the effects of polling, the impact of primaries, and it showed the process of introducing a bill to congress. However, it also was being a typical Hollywood movie at times. This was mostly true in the cases where the President came off being naïve, when he through caution into the wind for a girlfriend, and at other times, like when he was to dignified to join into the smear campaign.
During the first initial weeks of the scandal, the media seemed disinterested and didn’t want to report anything to early in fear of the Nixon administration. It took the work of two young reporters constantly investigating and getting anonymous help to spark a firestorm of investigations into the scandal itself and increase public interest into the newly discovered Watergate scandal. The names of those two young reporters were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and their approach to investigative journalism is what helped bring the story more into the public eye. Information about the Watergate scandal kept pouring out in the form of countless newspaper articles, editorials, and other news related organization after Woodward and Bernstein’s stories got more exposure. “Relying heavily upon anonymous sources, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered information suggesting that knowledge of the break-in, and attempts to cover it up, led deeply into the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and the White House”(“Watergate Scandal” 19). The press...