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The Watergate scandal involved Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) during his second term as president of the United States. The scandal led to his impeachment and resignation from office.
In June 1971 a former employee of the U.S. Department of Defense, Daniel Ellsberg, gave The New York Times a secret government history of the Vietnam War (1957-1975) known as the Pentagon Papers. These revealed, among other things, a secret bombing campaign against neutral Cambodia. The White House issued an injunction against publication on the grounds of national security, but the injunction was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, which saw it as a form of prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment. In response, Nixon directed aides to find damaging information about his perceived political enemies. By September 1971, a special investigative group known as “the plumbers” was hired by Nixon’s assistant for domestic affairs, John Erlichman, to burglarize the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, which was located in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.
On the night of June 17, 1972, a security guard working at the Watergate Hotel noticed a piece of tape between the door of the basement and the parking garage. Upon investigation by the Washington police, five men were discovered and arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate complex, in a failed attempt to place listening devices and take photographs of committee documents. Later, one of the burglars, James W. McCord Jr., was found to be in possession of phone numbers belonging to E. Howard Hunt (1918-2007) and G. Gordon Liddy, former employees of Nixon’s reelection committee. At his arraignment, McCord identified himself as a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.
In attendance on the day of McCord’s arraignment were Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who began what became one of the most significant journalistic investigations of the twentieth century. A then-unknown individual with close ties to the White House, dubbed Deep Throat by Woodward, provided the journalists with information and assistance that helped them follow the story from an insignificant burglary to a cover-up orchestrated by the Nixon administration. Thirty years later, Deep Throat’s identity was revealed when former FBI agent Mark Felt admitted that he had been Woodward’s source.
In 1972 the Federal Bureau of Investigation established that the Watergate Hotel break-in stemmed from a spying effort conducted on behalf of the Nixon reelection effort. Despite this finding, Nixon won reelection in a landslide over the Democratic candidate Senator George McGovern in November 1972. By January 1973, however, the original burglars, along with Hunt and Liddy, went to trial, pleading guilty in a failed attempt to shield those above them from further inquiry. When the presiding judge, John Sirica (1905-1992), threatened thirty-year sentences, the defendants began cooperating with the prosecution. As the investigation broadened, the U.S. Senate established a committee, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin (1896-1985), to investigate the Watergate break-in.
By May 1973 two of Nixon’s White House aides, H. R. Haldeman (1926-1993) and John Ehrlichman (1925-1999), resigned amidst growing evidence of their knowledge of the events. Both would later go to prison for their role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up. The Watergate hearings were broadcast live on television from May to August 1973, and were immensely popular, with dire consequence for the Nixon administration’s approval ratings. As a result of these investigations, it was revealed that Nixon had recorded all his phone calls and conversations in the Oval Office. When Congress requested these tapes as part of the investigation, the president refused to turn them over. In an attempt to save himself from further political embarrassment and possible criminal indictment, Nixon directed Attorney General Elliot Richardson (1920-1999) to instruct special counsel Archibald Cox (1912-2004) to drop the subpoena for the White House tapes. When Cox refused, Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox. When the attorney general refused, Nixon fired both Richardson and his deputy in what is now known as the “Saturday night massacre.” A young solicitor with the attorney general’s office, Robert Bork, assumed the role of attorney general. Bork then fired Cox, but was pressured to name another prosecutor, Leon Jaworski (1905-1982).
Citing executive privilege, Nixon refused to comply with the subpoena for the White House tapes, creating a constitutional conflict between the president and Congress. In July 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in United States v. Nixon, that the president had to turn over the tapes to the committee. According to the Court, the president had no “unqualified” privilege of immunity. Less than one week later, a review of the tapes proved Nixon’s role in the conspiracy to cover up the Watergate break-in. On one tape, Nixon and Haldeman, the White House chief of staff, directed the CIA to obstruct the FBI and the Justice Department’s investigation into the break-in. It then became clear that the president and his aides had broken the law by orchestrating a cover-up, using the CIA to block the FBI investigation, lying to Congress, and destroying documents related to the investigation. Another scandal erupted when it was disclosed that an eighteen-minute gap had been found on one of Nixon’s tapes. The gap was explained as an accident by Rose Mary Woods (1917-2005), Nixon’s secretary.
In July 1974 the House Judiciary Committee passed the first of three articles of impeachment against the president for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. Two additional articles of impeachment did not pass the committee: one for federal income tax evasion, and another for the authorization and subsequent concealment from Congress of American bombing operations in Cambodia. Throughout the ordeal, Nixon steadfastly proclaimed his innocence. On August 8, 1974, after consulting prominent members of Congress on the likelihood of the committee indictment being affirmed by the full House, Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign from office. Vice President Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006) assumed the presidency. Ford pardoned Nixon of all charges related to the Watergate break-in and cover-up on September 8, 1974.
In the aftermath of the Watergate affair, the media became more confident and aggressive in their coverage of Washington politics. Investigative journalists began looking into the public and private lives of politicians as never before. As a result, there have been numerous “gates” since Watergate, each referring to another scandal at the highest levels of government. Additionally, Congress passed numerous “good government” bills in the years following the Watergate scandal. These addressed such issues as campaign finance reform, disclosure of campaign contributors and expenses to the Federal Election Commission, ethics in government, and a greater role for Congress in the appointment of independent counsels. Nixon continued to proclaim his innocence in the Watergate affair until his death in April 1994.
Bibliography
- Kutler, Stanley. 2002. Abuse of Power. New York: Touchstone. Schudson, M. 2005. Watergate in American Memory. New York: Basic Books.
- Woodward, Bob, and Carl Bernstein. 2005. All the President’s Men. New York: Pocket Press.
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