Nixon and Watergate Flashcards
Who was Richard Nixon?
- First elected to Congress in 1947
- Heavily involved in the Red Scare, pushing for Hiss to be trialled
- Vice president under Eisenhower
- Defeated by JFK in the 1960 election
- Ran in 1968 and won
- Hugely intelligent, hard working and he rewarded those who were loyal to him, though he was also paranoid, held grudges for a long time, sensitive to criticism and very bitter in defeat
Why was Nixon elected in 1968?
The Vietnam War was becoming increasingly unpopular. As a result, Nixon ran promising to get out of the war. This plus other chaos in the Democratic Party amongst other reasons, led to Nixon’s election
Why was CREEP set up?
- The Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) was created to help get Nixon re-elected in 1972 in part because Nixon feared his broken promises over leaving the Vietnam War would hurt his chances of re-election
- Only became known as CREEP after the scandal
- It was meant to raise money for Nixon’s campaign
- Secretly, it was given money to spy on Nixon’s opponents
Who were the White House Plumbers?
- A group formed to do the “dirty work” of CREEP, such as breaking into offices to find information to discredit Nixon’s opponents
- Some members were used in the Watergate break in
- They reported to John Ehrlichman, one of Nixon’s advisors
What happened on the 17th June 1972?
5 people were arrested at the Watergate Office Building (Democratic National Committe HQ (Nixon was republican)) for trying to repair bugging devices
When did the Washington Post report links between the burglars and CREEP?
19th June 1972
When did the Washington Post report that a cheque given to CREEP was paid to one of the Watergate burglars?
1st Aug 1972
When did Nixon announce that John Dean had investigated and found that none of the White House staff were involved?
30th Aug 1972
What were the five burglars plus E Howard Hunt and G Gordon Libby (who were found by the FBI to have planned the burglary and been members of both the White House Plumbers and CREEP) charged with?
Conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping
When were the five burglars plus E Howard Hunt and G Gordon Libby (who were found by the FBI to have planned the burglary and been members of both the White House Plumbers and CREEP) charged?
15th Sept 1972
What happened on the 11th Nov 1972?
Nixon won the presidential election
When was the trial for the Watergate break in?
8th-30th Jan 1973
What did the Senate do on the 7th Feb 1973
Create a Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities
What happened on the 19th March 1973
James McCord (a burglar) wrote to the trial judge claiming White House staff had told the burglars to lie during the trial
When did Nixon deny advanced knowledge of the break-in?
23rd April 1973
What happened on the 30th April 1973?
Nixon dismissed Dean and Haldeman, Ehrlichman resigned
When did Senate Committee hearings begin?
17th May 1973
When did John Dean testify?
25th June 1973
What was John Dean’s testimony?
Nixon was involved in the cover-up days after the break-in happened
When did Nixon say he wouldn’t testify nor grant access to the files?
7th July 1973
When was the White House taping system revealed?
16th July 1973
When did the Senate Committee demand the White House tapes and documents were handed over?
23rd July 1973
What happened on the 25th July 1973?
Nixon refused to hand over tapes and documents
What happened on the 9th Aug 1973?
Senate Committee begins a law suit against Nixon for failing to hand over tapes and documents
When did Nixon hand over some edited transcripts of the tapes?
23rd Oct 1973
What happened on the 21st Nov 1973?
A gap of nearly 20 minutes is found on a conversation between Nixon and Haldeman on the 20th June 1972
What happened on the 6th Feb 1974?
House of Representative officially allowed investigations on whether to impeach Nixon
When did the Supreme Court unanimously order Nixon to release all the tapes and documents?
24th July 1974
When did investigations decide that Nixon could be impeached?
27th-30th July 1974
When were the final tapes released?
5th Aug 1974
Which tape provided the “smoking gun”?
23rd June 1972
When did Nixon resign and Ford become president?
9th Aug 1974
What was the impact of Watergate on Nixon?
He resigned
What was the impact of Watergate on the perception of politics?
- Less faith/trust
- Belief of total corruption and possible criminality
What was the impact of Watergate on laws passed?
- War Powers Act (1973) stopped a president going to war with Congress’ approval
- House and Senate Open Meeting Rules (1973) stated that all committee meetings had to be open to the public
- Freedom of Information Act (1974) gave people the right to access any government document in which they featured
- Privacy Act (1974) set rules on how the government could collect information on individuals
- Election Campaign Act (1974) set limits on election campaign spending and contribution
- Congress Budget Control Act (1974) set rules on how the president could use government money
What was the impact of Watergate on US government?
- Government officials were trialled and sentenced
- Fewer politicians
- Fewer voters
- More difficult to recruit officials for parties/the federal Government
- Change of values
- Greater value of honesty
- Lesser value of capabilities
- Politicians showed honesty, held open meetings and published financial records
- Republicans lost seats
- Democrats won the 1976 election
- Jimmy Carter was elected. He was unknown, not in the “Washington Set”, unskilled and honest
What was the impact of Watergate on Ford and the pardon?
- Gerald Ford became president
- He pardoned Nixon
What was the impact of Watergate on journalism?
- Politics was more public
- There was a focus on uncovering more
- Quick to publish “scandals” with lack of evidence
