Watergate: Nixon’s Downfall
The Nixon Administration was
rolling along smoothly in
1972
America was pulling out of
Vietnam, but the fighting
was still going on
Domestically, the economy
was heating up, with
inflation robbing the
dollar of its value
However, it looked like
Nixon’s law & order
approach to crime &
antiwar protesters was
working
Opinion polls showed the
president had grown more
popular throughout his
first term
An Imperial Presidency
As a result of the New Deal,
World War II, & the Cold
War, the presidency had
become the most powerful
branch of government
By Nixon’s time, the executive
branch had taken on an air
of imperial, or supreme,
authority
Nixon expanded its power still
further, with little thought
to constitutional checks
He impounded funds for federal
programs he didn’t like, &
ordered the US invasion of
Cambodia without
Congressional approval
The President’s Men
As he distanced himself from
Congress, he surrounded
himself with a small but
fiercely loyal group of advisers
H.R. Haldeman was his chief of
staff; John Ehrlichman his
domestic adviser; & John
Mitchell, his attorney-general
All 3 had helped him get elected
in 1968, & now helped direct
White House policy
What They Had in Common
All three men shared Nixon’s
desire for secrecy
All 3 wanted to increase and
consolidate the power of
the presidency
Critics charged that these
men & their attitude had
developed a sense they
were somehow above the
law
This arrogance would play a
role in their attempt to
cover up the coming
Watergate scandal
What Drove Nixon
In 1960, Nixon had lost a squeaker of
a presidential race to John F.
Kennedy
1962-He ran for governor of
California, and was beaten
A bitter Nixon blamed the press for
his defeat: “You won’t have Nixon
to kick around any more”
That suspicious attitude continued
when he was elected president
He was in fear of losing another
election, which drove him & his
men to leave no stone unturned to
win in 1972-even if it were illegal
A Bungled Burglary
June 17, 1972-At 2:30 AM, a
guard at the massive
Watergate complex in
Washington, DC caught 5
men breaking into an office
The office housed the
campaign headquarters of
the Democratic National
Committee
The burglars planned to
photograph documents
outlining the Democrats
strategy & place wiretaps,
or “bugs,” in the office
telephones
Who Were These Burglars?
The press soon discovered the group’s leader, James McCord,
was a former CIA agent
McCord was also a security coordinator for a group called, The
Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP)
Nixon’s former attorney-general, John Mitchell, who also
directed Nixon’s re-election campaign, was CREEP’s director
The White House Was Obsessed
Nixon’s men were frantic to maintain there was no connection between the
burglars & the White House
They began a cover-up by shredding all incriminating documents in
Haldeman’s office
Nixon gave his OK to a plan for the CIA to ask the FBI to stop investigating the
burglary because it might affect national security
CREEP also passed out $450,000 to the burglars to buy their silence when they
were indicted in September, 1972
Nobody Seemed Interested in the Crime
As election day approached, the
American public showed little
interest in the burglary
Only 2 reporters from the
Washington Post, Bob
Woodward & Carl Bernstein,
kept on the story
In a series of articles, the
reporters uncovered
information linking numerous
members of the
administration to the burglary
The White House denied each
new allegation
Nixon still cruised to an easy
victory over Democrat George
McGovern in Nov., 1972
The Cover-Up Unravels
Jan. 1973-The trials of the
Watergate burglars began
The men were found guilty,
& on sentencing day, Mar.
20, McCord sent a letter to
the judge, John Sirica
McCord told Sirica he had
lied under oath
He hinted that powerful
members of the Nixon
administration had been
involved in the break-in
The Senate Investigates Watergate
McCord’s revelation of
possible White House
involvement aroused
public interest
Nixon moved quickly to
respond to the growing
concern, by dismissing
White House Counsel
John Dean
He also fired Haldeman,
Ehrlichman, & AttorneyGeneral Richard
Kleindienst--Would that
satisfy his enemies?
The president went on TV &
denied any attempt at a
cover-up
“No Whitewash at the White House”
Nixon appointed a new
Attorney-General, Elliot
Richardson, who was
given the power to
appoint a special
prosecutor to investigate
The president’s reassurances
came too late, as in May,
1973, the Senate began
hearings on Watergate
Committee Chairman Sen.
Sam Irvin of North
Carolina began calling
administration officials to
testify in the summer,
1973
Americans were glued to
their TV sets during the
to watch the president’s
men testify
Startling Testimony
http://ww
w.youtube.
com/watc
h?v=cVdsMJnEg
John Dean, who turned bitter after his firing, delivered the first
bombshell
In late June, Dean was questioned for more than 30 hours
Dean declared Nixon had been deeply involved in the cover-up
He referred to one meeting in which he, the president, & other
advisers discussed strategies for continuing the deceit
The White House Strongly Denies It
The hearings suddenly
reached an impasse: no
one could determine
who was telling the
truth
Presidential aide Alexander
Butterfield broke the
impasse by revealing
that Nixon had taped all
his presidential
conversations
Nixon had installed the
taping system to help
write his memoirs
The Senate committee now
could find what the
president knew & when
he knew it
The Saturday Night Massacre
A year-long battle for the
Nixon tapes followed
The special prosecutor in the
case, Archibald Cox, took
Nixon to court in Oct.,
1973 to obtain the tapes
Nixon refused, and ordered
Attorney-General
Richardson to fire Cox
In what became known as the
Saturday Night Massacre,
Richardson refused to fire
Cox, so Nixon fired him
When the deputy AttorneyGeneral also refused,
Nixon fired him, too
The White House Under Siege
Nixon then ordered
Solicitor-General
Robert Bork to fire
Cox, which he did
However, Cox’
replacement, Leon
Jaworski, proved
equally determined to
get the tapes
Several months after the
“massacre,” the
House Judiciary
Committee began
looking at whether
they should impeach
Nixon
Spiro Agnew Takes a Hit
Vice President Agnew had
been Nixon’s attack dog,
always blaming the media
for being biased against the
president
Agnew had to resign when it
was revealed he had
accepted bribes while
governor of Maryland
He plead nolo contendere (no
contest) to the charges
When Agnew resigned, Nixon
appointed House minority
leader Gerald Ford as the
new Vice President-&
Congress quickly gave its OK
The Fall of a President
March, 1974-A grand jury
indicted 7 presidential
aides on charges of
conspiracy, obstruction
of justice, & perjury
The noose was closing in
on the president of the
United States
Spring, 1974-Nixon told a
nationwide TV audience
he was releasing 1,254
pages of transcripts of
his White House tapes
“I Am Not A Crook”
Nixon’s offering failed to satisfy
investigators, who wanted the
unedited tapes
July 24, 1974-The Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that Nixon
must surrender the tapes
They rejected his argument that
turning over the tapes would
violate national security
Evidence of a crime could not be
withheld, even by a president
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh163n1lJ4M
Articles of Impeachment
Even without holding the
original tapes, the
House Judiciary
Committee determined
there was enough
evidence to impeach
Nixon
July 27-The committee
approved 3 articles of
impeachment
Nixon was accused of
obstructing justice,
abuse of power, &
contempt of Congress
for refusing to obey a
subpoena to release the
tapes
A Suspicious Gap in the Tapes
Aug. 5-Nixon released the tapes, &
one tape revealed a disturbing
18-minute gap
Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose
Mary Woods, said she
accidentally erased part of a
conversation between Nixon &
Halderman
The date of the conversation-June
23, 1972-just 6 days after the
Watergate break-in
The gap probably contained the
evidence investigators needed
It looked like Nixon had known
about the role of the burglars &
had agreed to the plan to
obstruct the FBI’s investigation
The President Resigns
The evidence now seemed
overwhelming
Aug. 8, 1974-Just before the
full House was going to
vote to impeach him,
Nixon announced his
resignation from office
Defiant as always, Nixon
admitted no wrongdoinghe just said some of his
judgments had been
“wrong”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzXL7C0JQDM
A Tearful Goodbye
The next day, Nixon & his wife Pat took a Marine One
helicopter to take them to a plane heading for California
Gerald Ford was sworn in as the nation’s 38th president
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLyX4DbE6Hc
The Effects of Watergate
The effects of Nixon’s
resignation have endured
long after 1974
Eventually, 25 members of the
Nixon White House were
convicted & served prison
time
Along with disillusionment
with the divisive war in
Vietnam, Watergate
produced resentment over
“the imperial presidency
After Watergate, the
American public developed
a general cynicism about
public officials that still
exists today