Watergate scandal
The watergate scandal was a political scandal that happened in the 1970's and ultimately was the reason President Nixon resigned. The Watergate Scandal was when some people broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office Complex in Washington D.C. The break-in happened on June 17, 1972. A guard that was working named, Frank Willis was working in the building. He had noticed that someone had taped the latch on the door, so there for the door would not lock. He immediately removed the tape and was suspicious. He left for awhile and when he came back the latches were taped again.
After he discovered the latches taped over again he called the police and they arrested five men who were in the Democratic National Committees office. The men were convicted on attempted burglary and interception of communications. The FBI took over the investigation. The Committee to Re-elect the President was a group who wanted to get Nixon re-elected for president. The people who had broken into the office were apart of that group. The men were also tied with the President himself. They broke in because they wanted information about what the Democratics were doing. They were tapping into phone lines and taking pictures of documents. As the FBI got more evidence they discovered that Nixon had taped conversations with his staff about hiding the scandal and what happened. The tapes were used against them. Nixon was afraid that he would be impeached so he felt his only option was to resign, which he did on August 9, 1974.
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I think that the scandal wasn't very well thought out. I don't understand why Nixon would choose people who are close to him to break in. He probably would have been re-elected anyways. I think its also dumb that he needed to know what the Democrats were doing and everything.
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SOURCE:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1791.html
Persain Gulf War (1990-1991)
The Persain Gulf War was from August 2, 1990 to February 28, 1991. It was a war between the United Nations and Iraq. It started because Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. Iraq had control over Kuwait since 1990. All of the countries involved thought it was wrong for the Iraqis to be in Kuwait, so they tried to force them out. There were 37 countries that took part in this conflict but only the United States, Saudi Arabia, Frace, Egypt, Kuwait, Great Britain, and France Syria.
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The first action that was taken was an air attack on Jan 17. They wanted to focus mainly on destroying the bases where weapons were being made and were stationed. The air assult lasted 38 days. On February 23 they started an attack on ground. 100 hours after the ground attack started they declared a cease-fire. Iraq then launched missiles to military targets in Saudi Arabia. Iraq did give up 3 days after the ground attack started though.
I think the Persain Gulf War is when Saddam Hussein really started to feel like the whole world was against him. It was not fair at all that it was 37 against 1. The air attack played a big role in this war which i think is cool because i think its pretty rare that happens.
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SOURCE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War
9-11 and the War on Terror- Invasion of Afghanistan
On September 11, 2001, two jets crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City. 19 Al-Quada terrorists had hijacked four commercail jets that were carrying people. Two hours after the first strike the tower collapsed. The falling of the two towers damaged many building around them too. The third jet that was hijacked was crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The passengers on the fourth flight found out what was happening and tried to take control in order to save themselves. It didn't work and the plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Everyone that was on all of the four planes died.
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In all 2,993 people died, most of them coming from the collape of the Twin Towers. Many innocent people died in this huge tragedy. I don't really remember the day because i was younger, but i know schools everywhere stopped what they were doing to watch the news.
After 9-11 the President at the time, Bush, started the War on Terrorism. The point of the War on Terror was to get rid of the Taliban and to prevent anymore attacks on the United States. Bush's goals were to of course keep the people of America safe, get rid of Bin Laden, and he also didn't want to support any government that had connections to terrorists. He really wanted to get rid of international terrorism.
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Our currnet president, Obama, doesn't use the term, "War on Terror" anymore. He calls it the "Overseas Contingency Operation." Obama says that the US is at war with Al-Quada. The War on Terror definately made the US stronger as a country.
SOURCE:
http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/u-s-invasion-of-afghanistan/
Invasion of Iraq-2003
The invasion of Iraq started the beginning of the current war. It was started by the US, Great Britain, Australia, and Poland. These four countries had troops who fought in the first invasion phase, which was March 20 to May 1. The US had to most troops and Poland had the least, with 194. According to Bush and other leaders, they incaded Iraq to free the Iraqi people, to take Hussein out of power, and to get rid of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Tony Blair, whose from England, said that by the Iraqis having nuclear and chemical weapons, they were a threat to world peace.
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In 2003, 63% of Americans wanted Bush to find an alternative other than war, and 62% believed that more terrorism against the US would happen because of the war. Some of the US's allies didn't agree with invading Iraq. France, Germany, New Zealand, and Canada's leaders all said that the US had no evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, therefore we had no reason to invade. Around the world there were protests against the war in Iraq. After the first invasion, we continued with an air strike. The US continued to move into the heart of Iraq easily. Baghdad was captured April 9.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein went into hiding and that marked the end of the invasion period and started the military occupation period. Hussein is still in hiding and the US continues to look for him in Afghanistan. I sure hope that the war ends soon. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a time where we weren't in a war with anyone?
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