Richard Nixon
Watergate Scandal:Just within the first few months of Richard Nixon's presidency there was a huge problem! It all started on June 16, 1972 when a security guard found a piece of tape over the lock of the door leading to the National Democratic Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C.. This was one of many of Nixon's supporters' attempts to ruin the reputation of Democrats. Democrats during this time were subject to very discrediting campaign ads, and the National Democratic Headquarters were broken into two times. When the break-in at the Watergate Hotel was discovered Nixon ordered for it to be covered up. After the whole Watergate scandal everyone became aware that throughout Nixon's presidency he severely abused his powers. John Ehrlichman and Bob Haldeman were two of the most well known supporters of Nixon. Ehrlichman was President and Chief of the Domestic Council and Haldeman was the Chief of staff. Both men were fired because of their attempts to hide the scandal from Congress.
At this time the two most famous questions were: "How much did Nixon know?" and "WHEN did he know it?". Everybody knew Nixon knew about the break-in from the start and that there were many drastic attempts to try to cover it up. At first, our nation just brushed it off and thought that it wasn't significant to American history. It wasn't thought of as a bad thing until two reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward , did some extensive research with the topic. They became the two men know as the first men to force a presidential resignation in American history. These men found out there were taping systems that taped any conversations in the oval office, Nixon's hideaway office, and Camp David. Nixon refused to turn over these tapes because he referred to them as just private conversations between him and his advisors. The Supreme Court didn't agree and ordered Nixon to hand over the tapes. The tapes were released in the 1970s but there were 18 minutes of no conversations that have yet to be explained. The supreme court approved three articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. the articles were:
Article 1 : Obstruction of Justice
Article 2: Abuse of Power
Article 3: Defiance of Committee Subpoena
In 1974 Richard Nixon announced his resignation to the nation.
Even after his resignation 200 hours of taped conversations were released and went to prove further that Nixon abused his powers and was fully involved in the Watergate Scandal.
- I think this is crazy! He should've at least thought it through that people were going to find out! But I also believe He was a fairly decent president.
Post Presidency: After Nixon's resignation he traveled all around the world and spoke at a TON of seminars and other events. He wrote NINE books after his presidency. Nixon also helped plan his birthplace memorial. Nixon's wife died of lung cancer June of 1993. Richard Nixon died in April of 1994.
Sources:
1: Watergate
2: Picture 1
Comments
Great job! Watergate did not occur during his first few months of his presidency though. He was sworn in as President in January, 1969.