RICHARD NIXON “WATERGATE SCANDAL”

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Richard Nixon “Watergate Scandal”
Politics is playing an important role in ensuring that a country or a nation moves ahead. Claims that politics is a dirty game arise because of shortchanging and propaganda that is manifest in politicians. This paper delineates on a political scandal (the “Watergate scandal”) that involved the then President of the U.S., Richard Nixon.
The Watergate scandal is a general term that describes a number of political scandals that happened between 1972 and 1974 . The scandal begn whne the DemocraticParty offices were invaded in June 17, 1972 . The break-in happened at the main offices at the Watergate building in the city of Washington.Nixon tried to cover up the scandal in vain, which eventually led to his resignation. He remains the only president in the history of the U.S. to have resigned from office before the term ended.
The burglary happened in one of the plushest hotels in Watergate building through an alert raised by Frank Wills in the early morning on 17th of June 1972, when the guards went to investigate the burglary. On the arrival, they bombarded a group of five men in black suits in the office of the National Democratic Headquarters. This ambush culminated to the scandal after the investigations on those behind it went on.
Five days after the arrest of these men, Nixon denied any knowledge of the attack and distanced his administration from playing a role in it. On June 23 ,1972, in the Whitehouse, Nixon was informed that the Attorney General John Mitchell, who at the time was the head of the committee to re-elect the president and other staff, took part in the planning of the break-in . Nixon discussed this issue with his Chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman. Although the conversations were unknown to the public, they were recorded by a secret taping/recording gadgets that were installed in thebuilding. A plan aimed at covering the truth was hatched in June 1972 between Nixon and Haldeman in order to limit FBI investigation in the scandal .
Nixon was re-elected on March 21, 1973 in a landslide win but the Watergate scandal rekindled again. The senate arranged to start a hearing to establish the people who were involved. After these denials, he again made other three major speeches about the Watergate scandal in 1973 and 1974. His first speech was delivered on April 30, 1973 where he announced that Dean Ehrlichman and Haldeman have resigned from their duties. The problem was out of control after James McCord, one of the burglars, told the judge in his case that people who were closely linked to the president approved the operation at the Watergate. To avoid being blamed because of the gravity of the matter, Dean approached the senate committee investigators and resigned together with the close aides. Nixon, through televised address, acknowledged that indeed the matter of Watergate was serious. Nixxon gave his other speeches on 15th of August 1973 and 29th of April 1974 where partial transcripts of the tapes in the White House were released .
The initial investigations in this saga were highly influenced by the media, specifically led by two journalists named Bernstein and Woodward that worked for the Washington Post, together with their mysterious investigators. Becase of the magnitude of the scam, committee was set by the senate to investigate on the issue in February 1973. The public hearings were sensational and included the evidence from John Dean . The committee was able to uncover the existence of a secret tape that helped them to unravel the scandal that stimulated legal and political conflicts maong the congress and the president.
Some of the witnesses recounted the high degree of corruption in the high levels of government. The campaign accepted huge sums of money as illegal contributions, and had maintained a cash ‘slush fund” for illegal activities. During the hearing, two cabinet secretary members and vice president Spiro were charged with taking bribes and hence compelled to resign . Furthermore, documents linking Nixon to the cover up of the break-in were alleged to have been destroyed, and the committee had ran a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign against the democrats. Moreover, the administration had illegally wiretapped phones used by their opponents, including journalists. In March 1974, Mitchell John who was also the former attorney general plus other six top presidential aides were convicted by a federal grand jury for attempting to block the investigation. In the summer of 1974, the articles of impeachment were approved by the house judiciary committee against the president for his role in obstructing justice. The days of Nixon in the office were to end in later June and early of August 1974 . The house judiciary committee voted and accepted three proposed impeachement articles where a number of Republicans voted for the removal of the sitting president. The biggest blow to Nixon came when the Supreme Court ordered that Nixon release more tapes from the White House. One of the tapes came to be called ‘smoking gun’ as it revealed that Nixon was one of the participants in the quest to conceal this scandal that happened in June 23, 1972. Through these tapes, many people who thought otherwise about Nixon were surprised called for his resignation.
At 9 PM, on August 8, 1974, Nixon read a nationally televised resignation speech . On the next morning, he met his White House staffs and took his letter of resignation to Kissinger, the Secretary of states. On his resignation, Gerald Ford ascended to power as the 38th president of the U.S. He also pardoned Nixon’s mistakes. This pardon was controversial in a way, because Nixon was required to face the law for his deeds.
This scandal had negative ramification to Nixon. One of the consequences of the scandal is that it led to his resignation as an elected president. This was one of the hardest times for Nixon because it impacted on his political career. While quitting, he stated that he had never been a quitter, and leaving the office before his time elapsed was for the interest of the Americans. He regretted any hurts that he had caused, as he made the decision to resign . Apart from Nixon, the scandal saw many other people convicted for the crimes that they conducted. On a positive note, the scandal led to the introduction of changes in the campaign finance reforms that aimed at ensuring that corruption and mismanagement of funds were brought to an end. It also made the media aggressive in activities such as reporting on the flaws and poor governance in the U.S. The media became vigilant and played the role of 4th estate in a more aggressive and proactive manner . The scandal rocked the country that was healing from the Vietnam disaster, assassinations, economic troubles, and the social unrests that had marred the U.S. for the past 15 years. Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, was to move America forward to regain a sense of stability and order.
Many people in the U.S remember the Watergate scandal as it compelled Nixxon to step down and saw many of his aides convicted for the break-in attack and other atrocities. It was a very difficult moment for the Americans but at the same time, it was a wakeup call for them as they came to realize of the callousness of their politicians. It helped them to know that a few people that perpetrated it swindled the government resources. Therefore, adequate measures were taken in order to ensure that such instances do not happen again. On leadership, it determined the people to be more vigilant about the leaders they choose.

Bibliography
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Mallon, Thomas. “Forty More Years: Nixon and Me.” Ploughshares 38 no. 2/3(2012): 110-118.
Olson, Tod. “The fall of a president: the Watergate scandal changed American politics forever.” (Pres Richard Nixon) In: Scholastic Update 129, no. 14 (1997): 18-21.
Thomas, Johnson. “Watergate and the Resignation of Richard Nixon: Impact of a Constitutional Crisis, “The Rehabilitation of Richard Nixon”, eds. P. Jeffrey and Thomas Maxwell- Long: Washington, D.C., CQ Press, (2004):148–149.
Waldron, Lamar. The Hidden History. Berkeley. California: Counterpoint publishers, 2012. “Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon.” Watergate. Info. Last modified, 2013. Retrieved from: http://watergate.info/