On June 17, 1972, five men broke into the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. It was found that in one man's account, there were checks from Nixon's re-elect campaign. These checks were made out to the President's re-elect committee, or at least that's what the people thought. The burglars used this money for traveling, living expenses, and personal purchases. But the burglar who did this, Bernard Barker, could not endorse these checks. Instead, these checks were endorsed by Hugh Sloan who was the committee's treasurer. In 1973, Nixon was forced to ask for the resignation of two of his aides, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlinchman. He also had the Counsel to the President, John Dean, resign.
Tapes in the oval office reveal the truth, President Nixon and John Dean had a conversation revealing everything. Dean named off many of the people who were involved and also included that the burglars were being paid hush money. Nixon refused to give these tapes to the Senate and instead gave transcripts. It was later discovered that 18.5 minutes was deleted from one of the tapes plus fragments throughout the tapes were also erased.
On July 27, 1974, the House of Representatives votes 27 to 11 recommended to the first article of impeachment to the President; obstruction of justice. Within the next three days, the second and third were added as well. As Nixon denied any involvement with the scandal, enough votes were made to have him impeached. Nixon decided to resign.
I think the whole thing was stupid. All the men involved should have thought it through. It's obvious that they would have gotten caught anyways. With what Nixon has shown during his term, he probably would have been re-elected.
http://www.watergate.info/
http://www.watergate.info/background/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/
http://www.musarium.com/WATERGATE/watergate1.html
2. Persian Gulf War(1990-91)
On July 17, 1990, Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates of overproduction of oil, thereby flooding the world market and decreasing its income from its sole export. On August 2, Iraqi invaded its neighbor nearly a tenth of its size, Kuwait. The United Nations gave Iraq until January to withdraw from Kuwait. On January 27, about 27 hours after the expiration deadline, US warplanes began bombing campaign against strategic targets in Iraq. Desert Shield (US protection of other Allies in the region) was officially over. This marks the beginning of Desert Storm.
A few days after, Saudi Arabia was getting Iraqi troops around its borders and asked the US for help. One month later, on February 23, US warships bombarded the coastline of Kuwait and drove across 200 miles of brand-new highway across the Saudi Arabian desert to attack Iraq.
The "100 hour war" destroyed the 500,000 strong Iraqi Republican Army
The invasion of Kuwait was worthless on Saddam's part. He must have really wanted to start a war of some sort to give him a reason to make nuclear weapons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0838511.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/
http://www.historyguy.com/GulfWar.html
3. 9-11 and the War onTerror- invasion of Afghanistan
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaedaterrorists hijacked four commercial jets that were carrying full loadsof passengers. Two of the hijacked jets were crashed into the TwinTowers in New York City. After the Twin Towers were hit they remainedstanding initially but collapsed nearly two hours after the firststrike. The collapse destroyed and damaged many buildings near the WorldTrade Center. The third of the hijacked jets was crashed into thePentagon in Arlington, Virginia. On the final plane that was hijacked,the passengers of the jet found out what was happening and attempted totake control of the jet. Unfortunately even though they fought to takeback control, they were unable to land the jet safely, and it crashed ina field Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All of the passengers from thehijacked jets died in this huge tragedy.
Total deaths of 2993 people, which included the hijackers.Most of the deaths were people working in the Twin Towers, or peoplethat were on the jets. These were innocent people that died in aterrible attack on our country. The men and women on the jet thatcrashed in Pennsylvania were true heroes because they tried to take backcontrol of the jet and find a way to get it safely back down.Unfortunately they were not able to land it, but they probably savedmany more lives by stopping whatever attack the hijackers had planned.
The attacks on 9/11 left a hole in our society. It made many people racist against Arabs and Israelis thinking they are all terrorists. This changed our country forever and it will never be the same.
http://www.september11news.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terror
http://us-foreign-affairs.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-us-war-on-terror
4. Invasion of Iraq-2003
On March 20, 2003, the invasion began by "the Coalition" or US, United Kingdom, and several other countries. It followed the military doctrine called Shock and Awe and marked the beginning of the Iraq war. Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003. On May 1, 2003, U.S. president George W. Bushdeclared the end of major combat operations terminating the Ba'athParty's rule and removing Iraqi president Saddam Husseinfrom office. Coalition forces ultimately captured Saddam Husseinon December 14, 2003. A transitional occupationbegan thereafter.
I understand that we wanted to help the Iraqi people, but it just has been going on for too long. It's just going to be one of those things that goes down in history of killing soldiers that deserve to live. We should have pulled out a few years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq
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