President Richard Nixon - Watergate Scandal
The Watergate Scandal got its name from the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC. During the election campaign of 1972, the Democratic National Committee had offices inside that building. The scandal all started on June 17, 1972, at 2:30 am, when police caught five men trespassing inside the Watergate Hotel. The men were reportedly attempting to hide bugs, which are microphones used to secretly listen to conversations, inside the walls of the offices. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, known as the FBI, believed that the break-in was part of a plan to help Nixon be reelected.
November of 1972, Nixon became president for his second term. The Watergate Scandal was still in question and many people connected to Nixon either quit, were fired, or were convicted of crimes having to do with their involvement in the scandal. The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee began court hearings. There were recordings of all telephone calls and office conversations that took place in Nixon's offices since 1971. The Senate Watergate Committee and a case prosecutor asked to listen to the recordings and Nixon denied them access to them which resulted in many people wanting the president to be impeached.
Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Nixon to hand over 64 tapes containing White House conversations. On August 5, Nixon made public the transcripts of three recorded conversations that were among those to be given to Jaworski. At that time, he admitted that he had been aware of the Watergate coverup shortly after the break-in occurred and that he had tried to halt the Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry into the break-in. Soon after, the House Judiciary Committee passed one of the three articles required to impeach Nixon. Instead of being impeached, Nixon chose to resign. On August 18, 1974, President Richard Nixon announced his resignation. Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign. The next day, vice-president Gerald Ford was sworn in as president. Ford eventually pardoned Nixon of all charges related to the Watergate Scandal.
I think this whole scandal is very unfortunate considering Nixon did many great things during his presidency like visiting the People's Republic of China which created a better relationship between the US and China. It's sad that all those things were pretty much forgotten after this incident. I believe that if he would have been open about it right off the bat then he could have finished his time as president. He shouldn't have refused to give them the tapes. The Watergate Scandal is a very unfortunate event in US History.
Comments
I agree 100% that Nixon would be regarded as an excellent president had it not been for Watergate.