1. Watergate

2. Unit Objectives
To understand the causes and effects of the Watergate scandal
To analyze what Nixon knew and when about Watergate

3. Background Checkers Speech: When Eisenhower ran for re-election,
Nixon was Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower
When Eisenhower ran for re-election,
Nixon was accused of taking bribes
when he was governor of California
Nixon made a speech claiming the only
gift he ever accepted was the family
dog names “Checkers”
Nixon remained on the ticket and served a
second term as V.P.

4. Nixon lost close elections in 1960 (for President against JFK) and 1962 (for Governor of California); Nixon promised the press they no longer “had Nixon to kick around any more” and he retired from politics
Nixon came out of retirement to run in 1968 because it was clear the Democrats could not win due to LBJ’s Vietnam policies

5. Nixon’s first term as President
Nixon ran promising to turn the fighting over to the South Vietnamese (“Vietnamization”) and get the U.S. out of the war
Before doing so, he tried to win the war first by authorizing illegal operations in Cambodia—when that failed, he turned to Vietnamization
Operations were not authorized by Congress in Cambodia because it was a separate independent nation—They were seen as necessary by Nixon because the Vietcong were routing the Ho Chi Minh Trail through parts of Cambodia

6. Secrecy and Paranoia
NIXON WAS ALWAYS AFRAID HIS POLITICAL OPPONENTS WERE OUT TO GET HIM AND WORKED BEHIND THE SCENES TO GO AFTER THEM

7. Abuse of Power
NIXON USED THE FBI, THE IRS, THE FCC, AND OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES TO GO AFTER HIS ENEMIES—NOT ILLEGAL BUT CERTAINLY UNETHICAL

8. Pentagon Papers
Classified top secret documents that detailed the history of the war and the lies that were told by the government to the people about its progress
Released to the public in the New York Times and Washington Post by Daniel Ellsberg

9. Impact
THEIR RELEASE INCREASED PROTESTING AND MADE THINGS DIFFICULT FOR NIXON

10. The Plumbers
GOVERNMENT GROUP ASSIGNED TO “PLUG THE LEAKS” OF INFORMATION TO THE PRESS
BROKE INTO THE PSYCHIATRIST OFFICE OF ELLSBERG AND LATER THE WATERGATE BUILDING

11. The Election of 1972 Nixon (Rep) vs George McGovern (Dem)
CRP (Committee to Re-Elect the President) formed (not uncommon)
Fake Letters:
SEVERAL LETTERS WERE WRITTEN BY CRP
THAT WERE SUPPOSEDLY WRITTEN BY
DEMOCRATS THAT MADE THEM LOOK BAD

12. Watergate
Break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters inside the Watergate Building (authorized by Attorney General John Mitchell and led by G. Gordon Liddy):
-GROUP OF BURGULARS WERE CAUGHT
-THOUGHT TO BE A REGULAR ROBBERY AT
FIRST BUT NOTHING WAS TAKEN EXCEPT
INFORMATION

13. Watergate Building

14. John Mitchell G. Gordon Liddy

15. Nixon’s dirty tricks may have been unnecessary because progress had been made toward peace in Vietnam making Nixon very popular by election time (the election was not even close)

16. Two reporters for the Washington Post (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) dug into the burglary and discovered it was connected to the Republican Party

17. Senate Committee established
Investigated the break-in and tried to find out how far up in the Republican Party the conspiracy went
Eventually the committee started to suspect it might have gone all the way to the top to Nixon himself
It is generally believed that Nixon at least found out about it after the fact and ordered a cover-up

18. Several Nixon officials
were convicted
(Mitchell, Liddy,
H. Howard Hunt)

19. Secret White House tapes
The Committee heard from several witnesses that Nixon secretly recorded Oval Office conversations—the Committee wanted the tapes to see what Nixon knew
Nixon refused to give them up citing “Executive Privilege”—What’s that?

20. Executive Privilege
THE PRESIDENT CAN WITHHOLD MATERIAL DEEMED TO BE RELATED TO NATINAL SECURITY

21. The Committee asked the Supreme Court to rule on if Nixon had to give up the tapes and the Court ruled he did
When Nixon finally gave up some of the tapes there was nothing that proved he knew anything about Watergate beforehand but there were several “accidental” erasures (Nixon’s secretary claimed to have been the one who made the mistakes that led to the erasure)
Later tapes revealed Nixon ordered a cover-up

22. Vice President Spiro Agnew
resigned for taking bribes
unrelated to Nixon or
Watergate—Did make
Nixon look bad and
allowed him to select
Gerald Ford as the new V.P.

23. Articles of Impeachment
1.) ABUSE OF POWER (USE OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO GO AFTER ENEMIES) 2.) OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE (THE COVER-UP) 3.) CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS (REFUSING TO GIVE UP THE TAPES)

24. Before charges could be brought by the House of Representatives, Nixon resigned rather than be the first president to be impeached
Ford became the only president to never be elected to at least the vice presidency and the first thing he did was pardon Nixon (made it impossible for him to get elected to his own term because the public assumed there was a deal in place for Ford to pardon Nixon if necessary in return for being named V.P.)