| WATERGATE |
| The Watergate Affair was a series of scandals involving the administration of President Richard M. Nixon. More specifically, it was the burglarizing of the Democratic Party national headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C. On June 17, 1972, police seized five men attempting to break into and wiretap Democratic Party offices. They and two other accomplices were tried and convicted in January 1973. All seven men were either directly or indirectly employees of President Nixon’s reelection committee. Many people, including the trial judge, John J. Sirica, suspected a conspiracy involving higher-level government officials. In March, James McCord, one of the convicted burglars, wrote a letter to Sirica charging a massive cover-up of the burglary, which transformed the affair into a political scandal of unprecedented extent. A special Senate committee, headed by Senator Sam Ervin, began nationally televised hearings investigating corrupt campaign practices. During one of these hearings, former White House counsel John Dean testified that the burglary was approved by former Attorney General John Mitchell with the knowledge of chief White House advisers John Ehrlichman and H. R. (Bob) Haldeman. He further accused President Nixon of approving the cover-up. Attorney General Elliot Richardson was appointed special prosecutor in May 1973. He and Archibald Cox were to investigate the entire affair. Cox and his staff began to uncover widespread evidence of political espionage by the Nixon reelection committee, illegal wiretapping of citizens by the administration, and corporate contributions to the Republican Party in return for political favors. In July 1973, it was revealed that presidential conversations in the White House had been tape-recorded since 1971. When Cox sued Nixon to obtain the tapes, he ordered Richardson to fire him. Richardson chose to resign instead. His assistant William Ruckelshaus was also fired when he refused to fire Cox. Solicitor General Robert Bork finally fired Cox on October 20, 1973 in what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon’s action led to calls from the press, government officials, and private citizens for his impeachment. Therefore, the House of Representatives initiated an impeachment investigation. After a public outcry against the dismissal of Cox, Nixon appointed a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworksi. He released the tapes of the Watergate conversation subpoenaed by Cox to Judge Sirica. Jaworski then obtained indictments and convictions against several high-ranking administration officials. In April 1974, Nixon gave the Judiciary Committee edited transcripts of his taped conversations relating to Watergate. However, Nixon’s actions could not stop the deteriorating confidence in his administration. By the middle of 1974, polls showed that the majority of American people believed the President was behind the Watergate cover-up. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that ordered Nixon to turn over any additional subpoenaed tapes relating to the cover-up to Jaworski. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee completed its investigation and adopted three articles of impeachment against President Nixon on July 27-30. The first article, which cited the Watergate break-in, charged President Nixon with obstruction of justice. On Aug. 5, Nixon made the transcripts of three recorded conversations that were among those to be given to Jaworski public. At the same time, he admitted that he had been aware of the Watergate cover-up shortly after the break-in occurred and that he had tried to halt the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry into the break-in. Several days later, on August 9, Nixon resigned and was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford. |