watergate Flashcards
why was watergate so important
Watergate is an office complex in Washington DC that housed the DNC headquarters. It has also become a kind of shorthand that sums up Nixons illegal actions while president. It came to symbolise corruption, illegality and abuse of power
why is it not surprising that watergate occured
Nixon’s employment of vindictive cynics such as Haldeman and Ehrlichman was disastrous. They helped bring out the worst in him. Nixon was already deeply cynical of the political system, he felt that he had been robbed of the presidency in 1960 by dubious electoral practices in Mayor Daleys Chicago and LBJs Texas. He was also harassed by an IRS audit - checkers.
other important individuals in watergate
John Dean - white house counsel from 1970, he gave Nixon legal advice over Watergate
Jed Magruder - appointed special assistant to Nicon in 1969, he encouraged positive phone calls and telegrams to the White House whenever the president felt in need of support
James McCord - an ex FBI and CIA employee, appointed security director of CREEP in 1972
Charles Colson - worked on CREEP, Haldeman recalled rumours of wild schemes hatched by Colson for example feeding LSD to an anti-Nixon commentator just before he went on television. Colson wanted to burgle and firebomb the Brookings Institution - a liberal think tank to access foreign policy documents.
Gordon Liddy - ran CREEP, he suggested electronic eavesdropping, kidnapping of political opponents and employing prostitutes to compromise democratic delegates at the national convention. He was one of the plumbers who organised the break-in of Daniel Ellsbergs psychiatrist office
Howard Hunt - member of the plumbers
creep
Committee for the re-election of the President- Nixon unsure he would be re-elected in 1972 because of his prolongation of the vietnam war
He wanted secret documents regarding the Vietnam War to be kept quiet and not leaked to the press (Pentagon Papers)
purpose of CREEP
Illegal fundraising - it collected $60M in campaign contributions
Political Subversion – They worked to discredit moderate Democrats such as Senator Edmund Muskie- they misled the press into believing he had insulted canucks
Criminal Surveillance- Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist and watergate
historiography of CREEP
Iwan Morgan argues that the ‘dirty tricks’ of the Nixon campaign ‘went far beyond the customary rough and tumble of American elections’
CREEP Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
The White House Special Investigation Unit (plumbers)
was set up in 1971
Aimed to discredit Daniel Ellsberg (FBI Director J Edgar Hoover refused to do this)
Liddy and Hunt set out to burgle the offices of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist
Debate about how much Nixon knew about this
Nixon was concerned that information he wanted to keep secret about his Vietnam policies was being leaked to the press. The administration ordered the FBI to wiretap eleven officials. Nixon said that nothing the president ordered done on grounds of internal order and national security could be considered illegal. The plumbers broke into the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist after he leaked the pentagon papers to discredit him.
CREEP and the watergate break-ins
CREEP organised an illegal break in of the DNC headquarters in the Watergate building on 17th June 1972
James McCord and four Cubans were caught- Liddy and Hunt caught in building opposite with walkie-talkies
why break into the Watergate buildings
Colson and Hunt wanted to expose Democrat Links to radical groups
Dean ordered the break in to get hold of a DNC list of expensive prostitutes
When the break in was authorized, in early 1972, Nixon was behind the Democratic Front Runner - Edmund Muskie in the polls - therefore any information on the Democratic campaign would be useful
did Nixon know about the break ins
There is no doubt that he was involved in the cover-up. He complained to aides that the Democrats had been doing this sort of thing for years.
getting caught
Within days of the break -in, the FBI traced laundered money found on the plumbers to CREEP. On 23rd June 1972, Nixon and Halderman discussed using the CIA to stop the FBI - a clear obstruction of justice which the CIA did not agree to. Nixon tried to pay the burglars $430,000, to keep quiet, obstruction of justice again. Burglars were inducted in Sept 1972 then convicted in Jan 1973 - harsh sentences 20-40
role of the media
The press worked hard to uncover the plot. Washington Post reporters - Bob Woodhead and Carl Bernstein wrote a book called All the Presidents Men, their source was a mysterious character called Deep Throat - who in 2005 was Mark Felt. The media followed the unfolding scandal exhaustively. Television networks covered 300 hours of testimony in the subsequent Senate hearings.
role of congress
Following the burglars conviction, the senate established the Bipartisan Select Committee on Presidential Campaign ACtivities aka the watergate committee in Feb 1973. By this time, the Watergate conspirators were willing to talk. The committee held 37 days of hearings. Former AG John Mitchell admitted to meeting the conspirators 3 times before the break-in. The nation watched and the heads of the committees - Ervin and Baker became national heroes
resignations
April 30, John Dean who had managed the cover-up was fired and Haldeman and Ehrlichman resigned. May 22nd Nixon announced that they had been involved in the cover-up without his knowledge. Dean testified that Nixon was involved in the cover up but Halderman and Ehrlichman and Mitchell denied this. 16th July, White House aid Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of Nixon’s White House Taping system., which had been kept highly secret - even his family did not know.
congress and special prosecutors
In May 1973, Congress forced Nixon to appoint a special prosecutor - Archibald Cox, who concentrated on getting hold of the Nixon tapes. Nixon sacked Cox and abolished his office on 20th Oct 1973 which was unwise. AG Elliot Richardson resigned rather than carry out the sacking, this was termed the saturday night massacre. Nixon’s approval rating sank to 17%. The House Judiciary Committee gave $1M to hire 106 staff, including Hilary Clinton for an impeachment investigation. Faced with the public outcry, Nixon decided to surrender 7 white house tapes