Thurday 5/2/13

[3Kira]

Richard Nixon-

• Background-
  • Vice-president under Eisenhower
  • Lost 1960 election to JFK
  • The only person to be elected twice to both the presidency and the vice-presidency
  • Only president to resign from office
• Elections-
  • 1968 election-
    • Nixon pledge to end Vietnam
    • 43% of the votes
    • Went against Humphrey
  • 1972 election-
    • Thought of as a Staged election
    • Was a blow out only 2 countries voted for McGovern
    • Dirty Tricks-
      • played dirty tricks on the democratic canidiates
      • started by Richard Nixon
    • rigged election
• accomplishment-
  • took control of the war in Vietnam
  • 1973 got out of Vietnam
  • Vietnam conflict dominated much of his presidency- war became very unpopular
  • promised to end the war- peace is honor
  • expanded war to Cambodia and Laos- bombing ho chi minh trail
  • started pulling troops out of Vietnam as promised
  • the Nixon Doctrine "Vietnamzation"
  • Paris peace accords signed in 1973 stopped the fighting and got the US out of the war
  • Environmental Decade
  • National Environmental Policy act
  • clean air act of 1970
  • Federal Water Pollution control act
  • approve NASA push
  • start space shuttle program
  • July 20th, 1969 we landed on the moon
  • went to china to talk
• scandals-

• June 17 1972 there was a break in at the democratic national committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex
• Nixon's administration attempted to cover up its involvement
• Indictment trial conviction and incarceration of 43 people
• dozens of Nixon’s top administration officials
• affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into Democratic National Committee (DNC)
• FBI connected cash found on the burglars to a slush fund used by the Committee for re-election of the president
• July 1973 evidence pointed including testimony provided by form staff members
• revealed that Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and he had recorded many conversations
• recordings from tapes implicated the president
• Nixon attempted to cover up questionable and illegal things that had taken place during his administration before and after the Watergate break in
• US supreme Court ruled that Nixon hand over the tapes to government officials
• Watergate burglars-
  • James W. McCord, Jr
  • Bernard Barker
  • Frank Sturgis
  • Virgilio Gonzalez
  • Eugenio Martinez
• CRP (Committee for the Re-Election of the President)
  • Jeb Magruder
  • John N. Mitchell
  • Robert Mardian
  • Fred LaRue
  • Kenneth Parkinson
  • Maurice Stans
• January 1972-
• G. Gordon Liddy presented a campaign intelligence plan to Jeb Stuart Marugder CRP's acting chairman,  attorney general John Mitchell, Presidential counsel John Dean
• plan involved breaking into the DNC at the Watergate complex
• purpose was to photograph document and install listening devices
• Liddy was the leader but has since insisted he was duped by dean and at least two of his subordinates
• included former CIA officers E. Howard Hunt and James McCord
• two attempts failed
• order for another break-in was given to Liddy by Jeb Marugder either acting on his own or on orders from dean
• June 17, 1972-
• FBI discovered the name E. Howard Hunt in address books of Barker and Martine
• security guard frank wills called the police about an hour after midnight after tape had been discovered on the latch of the doors twice
• Wills called police
• police found:
  • James W. McCord, Jr
  • Bernard Barker
  • Frank Sturgis
  • Virgilio Gonzalez
  • Eugenio Martinez
• Sept. 15 grand jury indicted them as well as Hunt and Liddy for conspiracy burglary and violation of federal wiretapping laws
• officials were concerned b/c Hunt and Liddy were involved in the White House Plumbers
• White House Plumbers was set up security "leaks" and investigate other sensitive security matters
• John Dean was order by John Ehrlichman to "deep six" the contents of Howard Hunt's white house safe
• Evidence from hunt's safe did end up destroys
• Watergate prosecutor James Neal was sure Nixon had no knowledge of the break-in in advance
• As evidence he cite on June 23 on a taped conversation between himself and his chief of staff H.R. Halderman Nixon asked "who was the ******* who ordered it?'
• Nixon did order Haldman to have the CIA block the FBI's investigation
• Aug 29 at a news conference, President Nixon stated Dean had conducted a thorough investigation of the matter, when in fact Dean had not conducted any investigation at all
• Nixon also said, "I can say categorically that... no one in the White House staff, no one in this Administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident."
• Sept. 15 Nixon Congratulated Dean by saying "The way you've handled it, it seems to me, has been very skillful, because you—putting your fingers in the dikes every time that leaks have sprung here and sprung there."
• march 28 on Nixon’s orders Ehrlichman told attorney general Richard Kleindienst that nobody in the white house had prior knowledge of the burglary
• April 13 Magruder told US attorneys that he had perjured himself during the burglars trial and implicated John Dean and Hon Mitchell
• April 30 Nixon asked for H. R. Halderman and John Ehrlichman to resign fired John Dean
• The President announced the resignations in an address to the American people: In one of the most difficult decisions of my Presidency, I accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates in the White House, Bob Halderman, John Ehrlichman, two of the finest public servants it has been my privilege to know. Because Attorney General Kleindienst, though a distinguished public servant, my personal friend for 20 years, with no personal involvement whatsoever in this matter has been a close personal and professional associate of some of those who are involved in this case, he and I both felt that it was also necessary to name a new Attorney General. The Counsel to the President, John Dean, has also resigned.