The Watergate Scandal

Although his political failure proved that no one, not even the President, is above the law, the United States lost their timid hopes and much-needed faith in their politicians and elected officials. Watergate became the legacy of buried hopes for an honest and uncorrupt government. “The downturn came to a climax with Watergate. Americans saw a presidency disintegrate before their eyes, criminal conspiracies at the highest level of government, and a president driven out of office.” Richard Nixon’s presidency and Watergate triggered a first-rate national scandal whose consequences still colour the nation’s politics. It alerted many Americans to the possible existence of corruption within their ideal, democratic government.

The Watergate scandal was a political scandal involving President Richard Nixon hiring thieves to possibly rig the voting, in other words, cheating to win the next election. This resulted in the first ever resignation along with a lot of attention on the issue. The scandal first started off with a break in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office. The Nixon administration attempted to hide the evidence of their connection to the crime. After the scheme was discovered, the Nixon Administration resisted to its probes led to a big crisis in the constitution.

The Watergate Scandal was a major political scandal during the Presidency of Nixon. Nixon, paranoid and afraid of losing his reelection, employed men to do an assortment of illegal activities intended to place the republicans ahead of the democrats in the election. The activities were not detected until a failed break in of the Watergate building. The corrupt actions were exposed and 43 people were eventually incarcerated, due to the dedication of Woodward and Bernstein in discovering the truth. Before criticizing Woodward's and Bernstein's behavior, the hardships that interfered with the freedom of press at that time have to be considered.

The opposing argument believes that Richard Nixon made a turning point in history that allowed the people to turn against the government. Nobody can trust a government where the president himself does something against the law. When Nixon was inaugurated he took a sworn oath to protect the people and the country. He lied to his people. He states, “The major problem on the Watergate is simply to clean the thing up by having whoever was responsible admit what happened.

The covert methods and agencies that Nixon created to ensure his own prosperity and his enemies’ demise, collectively known as the Watergate scandal, would ultimately serve to bring about the president’s resignation and shock the American political system to its core. The scandal was able to bring the American public together in a way that few events had before, and unite them in their mistrust for the political system and calls for either Nixon’s impeachment or resignation. While Nixon himself was not able to survive the public’s disdain,; it did not, as one might assume, completely destroy his party’s future in politics. In fact, the Watergate scandal only managed to strengthen the Republican party, as in the years to come Americans would seek less government involvement and call for more conservative politics that would ultimately serve to strengthen the Republican party on a national level. Nixon had long felt like the unwelcome outcast within Washington society.

His social beliefs and strong stance on communism allowed Americans to have hope for the future and belief in their government. However after Kennedy’s death, Johnson’s strong social programs were no match for the Vietnam Conflict. As the conflict itself changed from one of containment to one of full scale war, Americans were deceived into believing the war was going their way. As social issues of the day worsened, the new generation took to the streets to protest and become involved. When Nixon became president, the country was given even more chaos and scandal with Watergate and belief in the government failed.

" Why does it even matter, it was over 36 years ago so why do people still obsess over it?" Well, there may really be nothing here worthy of all this but if the President was killed by a conspiracy plot against him, if that is the case. Than yes, it does become very important, because it shows just how much power our government has to cover up something of this proportion that maybe it shouldn't have. It still matters because no one should have that much power, to be out side the realm of the law. This reminds me of a few years ago when our current President's "friends" who were associated with the white water scandal were dropping like flies.

The works later published by Bernstein and Woodward unmasked the man behind the bugging plot, Richard Nixon, President of the United States. After this discovery, known as the Watergate Scandal, Nixon’s reputation was tarnished, and the relationship between society and the government changed. As a result, Congress passed laws to sharply limit the president’s power. Nixon’s actions during his presidency alerted Americans that precautions needed to be taken in order to prevent and abolish violations of the Constitution by the government in the future. Nixon’s rea Despite Nixon’s attempt to justify his actions, his reputation was besmirched throughout America and he was eventually approved for impeachment.

Public outcry pressed Nixon to agree to release typewritten transcripts of his tapes, but Americans were not satisfied. The tape transcripts further damaged Nixon. On the tapes he swore like a sailor and behaved like a bully. Then there was the matter of 17 crucial minutes missing from one of the tapes. (undoing a president) The thieves that had robbed from the white house were McCord Jr., Sturgis, Barker, Gonzalez, and Martínez who were recruited by some ex-CIA officer and a member, E. Howard Hunt.

In response to the Pentagon Papers release, President Nixon created the plumbers, who would seek to end the leaks in his presidential offices. The creation of this anti-leak operation would ultimately lead to his downfall with the Watergate Scandal. As the facts of the scandal became public through the media, the pressure for Nixon to resign became too much for him to overcome. President Nixon’s lack of trust with the media eventually led to his resignation and forever changed the relationship of the president and the press. The following section of this essay details President Nixon’s pre-presidential history with the media such as the “Checkers” speech and the presidential debates with President Kennedy.