Watergate Flashcards
White House Special Investigation Unit
set up summer 1971
‘plumbers’
Watergate hotel
location of Democrats Washington DC offices
didn’t contain any documents about electoral strategy
Arrests
17th June 1972
5 men arrested inside offices 2:30am
cover up
23rd June Nixon and Halderman discussed using CIA to stop the FBI
CIA would not cooperate so Nixon tried to pay burglars $430,000 to keep quiet
taping system
revealed 16th July 1973 by White House aide
surrendered 7 tapes after sacking cox with an 18.5 minute gap in Nixon-Haldeman talk
loyal secretary said she accidentally deleted it, found to be tampered with
Supreme Court ruling
24th July 1974 ruled unanimously that tapes must be released and Nixon could not claim exec powers
Resigned
8th August 1974
Special prosecutor
May 1973 Congress forced Nixon to appoint. Archibald Cox (democrat, Kennedy friend). Concentrated on getting tapes
Nixon action to Cox
sacked him 20th Oct 1973 and abolished his office
approval ratings 17%
Spiro Agnew
October 1973 first ever VP to resign
for tax evasion and accepting bribes while governor of Maryland
Nixon finances
said he received $1.1million in first term but payed less than $80,000 in taxes
John Dean message to staff
August 1971 ‘how can we use the available federal machinery to screw our political opponents’
Articles of impeachment
Obstruction of Justice
Abuse of power
Abuse of Congress
Daniel Ellsberg
leaked Pentagon Papers 1971
FBI refused to tap his phone and to undertake surveillance, so plumbers did
broke into his psychiatrists LA office but found nothing to discredit him
Hunt photographed Liddy standing outside the office then gave camera back to CIA
Gordon Liddy
campaigned 1968
joined staff 1971
‘plumber’
ran CREEPs surveillance
suggested electronic eavesdropping, kidnapping of political opponents
John Dean
White House Counsel from 1970
gave Nixon legal advice
fired 30th April 1973
Charles Colson
appointed counsel to Nixon 1969
had crazy schemes like feeding LSD to an anti-Nixon commentator
E. Howard Hunt
writer of spy novels
appointed after retirement from CIA 1971
‘plumber’ worked under Liddy
CREEP
Committee for the Re-election of the president
illegal fundraising
political subversion
criminal surveillance
illegal fundraising
collected over $60mil in campaign contributions
McDonalds donated $225,000 so it could continue and unauthorised price increase
example of press hostility
reported he made nation pay for a $60,000 ‘wind wall’ around his swimming pool
It was bullet proof glass insisted on by secret service
Reasons Nixon felt it was ok
Many Presidents did similar, us bs them, popular mandate, disloyalty normal practice (1971 joint chiefs of staff caught spying on National Security Council)
Hearings
bipartisan Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities Feb 1973
17th May to 7th August
36 days of hearings held
John Mitchell
former attorney general
admitted at hearings he met with the conspirators 3 times before the break in
