Richard Nixon and Watergate

The word Watergate is nowadays used in most lexicons to refer to incidences of unusually massive corruption or deception. This is influenced by the events that happened in 1972, revolving around the then president Richard M. Nixon, and Watergate. Watergate is a plush hotel in Washington, and has over the years hosted some of the world’s most renowned public figures (Watergate, N. D. ). Background On June 17, 1972, some burglars broke into the Democratic National Committees offices, housed within the Watergate complex.

The burglars were however arrested, when a watchman reported the incidence to the police. Subsequent investigations came to the conclusion that the burglars had actually been part of the team used to Re-enact President Nixon in the elections. And from there on, a relatively mundane incidence took on a whole new dimension. The president and his top aides got involved in all sorts of cover-ups, from that break-in to other incidences of illegal activities by the White House (White House, N. D. ). The scandal

The main thrust of the Watergate incidence was that the “burglars” had actually been commissioned by Nixon to plant spying electronics (bugs) within the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Following up on this, it was soon discovered that a letter had been planted to a New Hampshire newspaper that essentially tarnished the image of the then Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Muskie. Muskie’s reaction to this caused him to loose in the democratic election, and hence a shot at becoming president (History, 2000). Nixon’s resignation

The Watergate cover-up began unraveling in 1973, when most aides involved in it, under pressure from investigations, began to resign, sometimes after revealing their roles in the scandal. It soon became clear that President Nixon had personally been involved in engineering the events. By August, 1974, President Nixon had lost the confidence of even the Congress. On August 9th, he handed in his resignation, making history as the only US president to ever resign. A total of 25 other people were publicly convicted with involvement in the scandal.

Nixon was given a full pardon by the succeeding president, Gerald R. Ford. References History place (2000) President Impeachment proceedings retrieved from http://www. historyplace. com/unitedstates/impeachments/nixon. htm accessed on 31st January, 2009 Watergate (N. D. ) Watergate: the scandal that brought down Richard Nixon Retrieved from http://watergate. info/ accessed on 31st January, 2009. White House (N. D. ) About the White House Presidents: Richard Nixon Retrieved from http://www. whitehouse. gov/about/presidents/richardnixon/ accessed on 31st January, 2009.

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