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The Watergate scandal was a major political controversy in the United States during the presidency of Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974, ultimately resulting in Nixon's resignation.
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- The Watergate Break-In
- Nixon's Obstruction of Justice
- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Investigate
- The Saturday Night Massacre
- Nixon Resigns
The origins of the Watergate break-in lay in the hostile political climate of the time. By 1972, when Republican President Richard M. Nixon was running for reelection, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War, and the country was deeply divided. A forceful presidential campaign therefore seemed essential to the president and some of his k...
It later came to light that Nixon was not being truthful. A few days after the break-in, for instance, he arranged to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in “hush money” to the burglars. Then, Nixon and his aides hatched a plan to instruct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to impede the FBI’s investigation of the crime. This was a more ser...
By that time, a growing handful of people—including Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, trial judge John J. Sirica and members of a Senate investigating committee—had begun to suspect that there was a larger scheme afoot. At the same time, some of the conspirators began to crack under the pressure of the cover-up. Anonymous w...
When Cox refused to stop demanding the tapes, Nixon ordered that he be fired, leading several Justice Department officials to resign in protest. (These events, which took place on October 20, 1973, are known as the Saturday Night Massacre.) Eventually, Nixon agreed to surrender some—but not all—of the tapes. Early in 1974, the cover-up and efforts ...
Finally, on August 5, Nixon released the tapes, which provided undeniable evidence of his complicity in the Watergate crimes. In the face of almost certain impeachment by Congress, Nixon resignedin disgrace on August 8, and left office the following day. Six weeks later, after Vice President Gerald Fordwas sworn in as president, he pardoned Nixon f...
Aug 21, 2024 · The scandal included a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972, and subsequent cover-up by people who worked for or with the White House, and by Nixon himself.
- Police apprehended five burglars at the office of the DNC in the Watergate complex. Four of the five burglars were formerly active in Central Intel...
- Deep Throat was the anonymous source who provided leaks to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Only after some 30 years later, it was reveal...
- On September 8, 1974, U.S. President Gerald Ford chose to grant Richard Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed...
- On August 9, 1974, facing likely impeachment for his role in covering up the scandal, Nixon became the only U.S. president to resign.
- January 1969. Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th president of the United States.
- February 1971. Richard Nixon orders the installation of a secret taping system that records all conversations in the Oval Office, his Executive Office Building office, and his Camp David office and on selected telephones in these locations.
- June 13, 1971. The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War. The Washington Post will begin publishing the papers later in the week.
- 1971. Nixon and his staff recruit a team of ex-FBI and CIA operatives, later referred to as “the Plumbers” to investigate the leaked publication of the Pentagon Papers.
September 15, 1972: Hunt, Liddy, and the Watergate burglars are indicted by a federal grand jury. November 7, 1972: Nixon re-elected , defeating George McGovern with the largest plurality of votes in American history.
But it was a full year before the Watergate burglary of 1972. In this recording, President Richard Nixon, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger discuss how to retrieve files related to the Vietnam War from the Brookings Institution.
In the early morning hours of June 17, 1972, a night guard at a D.C. hotel and office complex was making his rounds when he noticed a suspiciously taped-open exit door. He quickly alerted...
