Watergate Scandal (jan 8, 1973 – aug 9, 1973)

Description:

Most people initially considered the Watergate break-in to be a bizarre incident
Even when the 5 men who broke in (plus Hunt & Libby) were proven to be connected to CREEP, most people believed they were acting alone
When Nixon publicly stated that the White House lawyer, John Dean, had investigated and found no one from the White House staff were involved, most people believed him
Even when the Vietnam War was not going well, Nixon was widely seen as an effective president - it was no surprise when he easily won the 1972 presidential election
On 8th January 1973, the trial of the 5 burglars (& Hunt + Libby) began - they were charged with conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping
Five pleaded guilty and the other two were found guilty - all 7 were due to be sentenced on 23rd March
Amazingly, on March 19th, the trial judge received a letter from James McCord, one of the burglars and Director of Security for CREEP (Source C)
It was the contents of this letter that really started the scandal, as McCord claimed that leading White House officials had told the burglars to lie during their trial
Nixon denied that he had known the Watergate offices were going to be burgled and on April 17th, he announced a new investigation, led by special prosecutor for the White House Archibald Cox
On 30th April, Nixon announced he’d sacked Dean and Bob Haldeman (White House Chief of Staff) and that John Ehrlichman (Head of the Plumbers) had resigned, due to their part in the burglary and cover-up
Meanwhile, the Democrats had persuaded the Senate to run its own investigation - on 7th February, the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign activities was set up
This was led by Sam Ervin (Democratic Senator/former constitutional lawyer)
In May, the investigation began, with the meetings televised across the US, where the nation was gripped & shocked as people revealed the extent of the corruption at the highest level
The most shocking viewing was the 5 days of John Dean’s testimony, where he was the first to deliver the huge shock that the president was involved in the cover-up - Nixon refused to be questioned

The scandal increased after 1 of the witnesses revealed to the committee that all conversations and phone calls in Nixon’s office had been recorded since 1971 (as all presidents since Roosevelt had done)
A battle began as Archibald Coz and the Select Committee tried to get access to these recordings but Nixon constantly refused on the grounds of national security (the recordings had been about more than just Watergate)
He feared it would prevent people speaking openly to the president in private again and in October 1973, he released edited scripts of some of them
The following April, he released more scripts, this time unedited except for where expletives were used and the public were shocked by the extent of expletives and what was discussed
The fact that Nixon wouldn’t allow access to the recordings themselves plus the discovery that some of the scripts had been cut led the Senate to consider impeaching Nixon
When they were played, there was sufficient evidence to show that Nixon had blocked the initial investigation of the Watergate break-in, abused his power and failed to obey the laws requiring him to allow access to evidence
On 5th August, the ‘smoking gun’ was revealed - a recording from 23rd June 1972 which revealed that Nixon had tried to stop the FBI investigating the break-in, which proved that he had tried to cover up Watergate from the very beginning
On 9th August 1973, before he could be impeached, President Nixon resigned

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