Watergate Affair, the worst political scandal in U. S. history. It led to the resignation of a president, Richard M. NIXON, after he became implicated in an attempt to cover up the scandal. Narrowly, “Watergate affair” referred to the break-in and electronic bugging in 1972 of the DEMOCRATIC National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate apartment and office building complex in Washington, D. C. Broadly, the term was also applied to several related scandals. More than 30 Nixon administration officials, campaign officials, and financial contributors pleaded guilty r were found guilty of breaking the law.
Nixon, facing possible indictment after his resignation, received from his successor, Gerald FORD, a full pardon “for all offenses” which he “has committed or may have committed. ” Americans were deeply troubled by the scandal. Attempts by REPUBLICAN officials to discredit Democratic leaders and disrupt their campaign threatened the political process. Electronic surveillance presented a threat to civil liberties. Abuse of “national security” and “executive privilege” to thwart the investigation suggested that those concepts eeded more precise definitions.
The misuse of large campaign donations suggested the need for further reform legislation. The willingness of Nixon and his aides to use the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in unlawful or unethical ways against their enemies was a reckless exploitation of the bureacracy. National Security The antecedents of Watergate were steps taken by Nixon from 1969 to 1971 allegedly in the cause of national security.
To uncover the sources of leaked news about uch matters as the bombing of Cambodia, Nixon authorized, without court approval, the wiretapping of the phones of government officials and newspapermen. But some of the men whose phones were wiretapped had no involvement with security matters, and taps on two men continued after they had joined the staff of Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Me. ), who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. In 1971, Nixon approved an intelligence operation that contemplated burglaries and the opening of mail to detect security leaks.
The author of the plan, Tom Huston, acknowledged that part of his plan was clearly illegal. ” Nixon revoked the operation after a protest by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Also in 1971, Nixon created the Special Investigations Unit — known as the “plumbers” to plug news leaks. In September, agents of the unit broke into the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, the psychiatrist of Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, who had given copies of the Pentagon Papers, a secret account of U. S. involvement in Indochina, to newspapers. After Nixon learned of the break-in, he and his top aides agreed to say that the break-in had been carried out for national-security reasons.
But in 1974, Charles Colson, a former special counsel to the president, who had pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, admitted that the agents wanted to find derogatory information about Ellsberg before Ellsberg’s espionage trial. Colson said that “on numerous occasions” Nixon had urged him to disseminate such information. Egil Krogh, Jr. , head of the plumbers unit, pleaded guilty to violating Dr. Fielding’s civil rights, saying that he could not in conscience assert national security as a defense. Colson and Krogh were imprisoned. Two other persons, including John
Ehrlichman, former chief domestic adviser to Nixon, were convicted of conspiring to deprive Dr. Fielding of his civil rights. Ehrlichman, who had approved a “covert entry” into Dr. Fielding’s office, also was imprisoned. The Watergate Break-in In 1971, H. R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff, was notified by an assistant, Gordon Strachan, that U. S. Attorney General John Mitchell and John Dean, counsel to the president, had discussed the need to develop a “political intelligence capability” at the Committee for the Re-election of the President (CRP).
Some of the personnel nd tactics identified with the activities described above became associated with efforts aimed at the Democrats. Early in 1972, Mitchell — both before and after he assumed his new position as director of CRP — discussed political espionage plans with Dean; Jeb Magruder, deputy director of CRP; and G. Gordon Liddy, counsel to the Finance Committee to Re-elect the President. Magruder later testified that on March 30, 1972, Mitchell approved a proposal by Liddy that included the Watergate break-in. Mitchell vehemently denied this.
Long after the scandal was evealed, investigators could not determine: (1) who gave the ultimate order to break into Watergate (2)what the conspirators hoped to find there. In any event, at 2:30 G on June 17, 1972, police arrested five men at the DNC headquarters. The men were adjusting electronic equipment that they had installed in May. One of those arrested was James McCord, security coordinator for CRP. Cover-up Magruder later admitted that he and others began immediately to cover up WHITE and CRP involvement in the break-in. He and others destroyed incriminating documents and testified falsely to official investigators.
L. Patrick Gray later resigned as acting director of the FBI after admitting that he had destroyed documents given him by Ehrlichman and Dean. On June 23, 1972, Nixon learned from Haldeman of Mitchell’s possible link with the operation. Nixon instructed Haldeman to stop an FBI inquiry into the source of money used by the wiretappers, using the excuse that the investigation would endanger CIA operations. Dean and others subsequently sought to induce CIA officials to cooperate with this plan. On July 1, Mitchell left CRP, citing personal reasons.
