Watergate NIxon's Downfall

Question 1

What did the Watergate Scandal Center on?

Answer 1

The Nixon administration’s attempt to Cover up a burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington DC

Question 2

When do historians believe Watergate began?

Answer 2

They belive that it beganwith the personalities of Richard Nixon and those of his advisers as well as the changing role of the presidency

Question 3

When Richard Nixon took office, what was the executive branch

Answer 3

The most powerful branch of government as a result of the Great Depression, world war 11 and the cold war

Question 4

Many people believe that by the time Nixon became president, the executive branch was the

Answer 4

Branch that had taken on a role of an imperial thing

Question 5

How did President NIxon settle in this imperial role

Answer 5

He settled into it with ease

Question 6

What did Nixon do to the role of the president

Answer 6

He expanded it with little thought to constitutional checks as when he impounded funds for federal programs that he opposed or when he ordered the troops to invade Cambodia

Question 7

What was the relationship between the president and Congress

Answer 7

It was fairly distant.

Question 8

Who did Nixon confide in

Answer 8

A small and fiercly loyal group of advisers

Question 9

Who did Nixon’s advisors include

Answer 9

H. R. Haldeman- the White house chief of staff

John Ehrlichman: Chief of domestic advisers

and John Mitchell: Nixon’s former attorney genera

All of these men played a key role in Nixon’s first term 1968 win. The men shared Nixon’s desire for secrecy and the consolidation of power

Question 10

What did Critics charge the men with?

Answer 10

They thought that they were above the law

Question 11

Throughout his political career, what did Richar Nixon live with

Answer 11

The overwhelming fear of losing elections. So, by the 1972 campaign, the people sought advantages by any means possible including an attempt to steal information form the DNC headquarters

Question 12

What was the basic situation of the Watergate Scandal?

Answer 12

At 2:30 A. M on June 17th, 1972 a guard at the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. caught five men breaking into the campaign headquarters of the DNC

Question 13

What did the burglars plan to steal

Answer 13

They wanted to photograph documents outlining the Democratic Party strategy and to place wiretaps or bugs on the office telephones

Question 14

The press soon discovered who was the leader

Answer 14

James mcCord- was a former CIA agent. He was a scurity coordinator for a group known as the Committee to Reelect the President

Question 15

Who was the Committee to Reelect the PResident’s leader

Answer 15

John Mitchell

Question 16

What was the cover up:

Answer 16

Workers shredded all the incriminating documents in Haldeman’s office.

Question 17

What did the FBI do

Answer 17

They stopped the investigations at the Urging of the CIA (at PResident Nixon’s consent the white house asked them)

Question 18

How much were the Watergate Burglars paid out

Answer 18

They were paid out 450,000$ dollars for the scilence. After they were indicted

Question 19

Throughout the 1972 campaign, what interest level did the Watergate burglar generate among American people

Answer 19

Very little bit

Only the Washington Post and two of the reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstain kept on the story.

Question 20

In a series of articles, what did the reporters uncover (Bob Woodward and Carle Bernstein)

Answer 20

They uncovered information that linked numerous members of the administration to the burgalary.

Question 21

With each new Post allegation, what did the White House do?

Answer 21

They denied each new charge.

Question 22

What proved to be effective in the short term for the white hosue

Answer 22

Denying the allegations. Nixon won

Question 23

In what year did the Watergate burgalars trial begen

Answer 23

January 1973

Question 24

John Sirica was

Answer 24

The trial’s presiding judge

Question 25

What did Sirica believe

Answer 25

That the men had not acted alone

Question 26

On March 20th, what happened

Answer 26

James mcCord sent a letter to Sirica indicating that he had lied under oath and he hinted that powerful members of the Nixon administration had been involved in the break in

Question 27

What aroused Public interest in the Scadal

Answer 27

McCord’s elation of possible White house involvemen tin the burglary

Question 28

On April 30th, 1973 what did Nixon do

Answer 28

Dismissed white house counsel John dean. He announced the resignations of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and replaced John Mitchell folliwing his resignation

Question 29

When Nixon wen ton TV, what did he announce

Answer 29

ny attempt at a cover up. He announced that he was appointing a new attorney general, Elliot Richardson and was authorizing him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Watergate

Question 30

A special committee chard by Senator________ of North Carolina began to call the administration officials to do

Answer 30

Samuel Ervin, give their testimonies. Throughout the summer, many of the American’s sat by their televisions

Question 31

Who delievered the first revalation, and what was said

Answer 31

John dean. In lat June during more than 30 hours of testimoney Dean provided a startling answer to Senator “Howard Baker’s repeated question “What did the president know and when did he know it” Dean declared that Nixon had been involved in the cover up, reffering to a meeting in which he and the president along with several others discussed strategies to continue the decit

Question 32

What did the White House do when Dean Charged them

Answer 32

They denied it once again

Question 33

The hearings had suddenly reached an impasse as the committe attempted to sort out who was telling the truth. Who finally told the truth, and what did they say?

Answer 33

Presidential Aid Alexander Butterfield. He revealed tha tNixon had taped virtually all of his presidential conversations.

Question 34

Who was Archibald Cox

Answer 34

The special prosecutor who Elliot Richardson had appointed to investigate the cause too k the president to court in October 1973 to obtain the tapes.

Question 35

When Nixon refused to hand over the tapes, what did he order: Richardson to fire Cox. But what eventually became known as the Saturday Night Massacre

Answer 35

Richardson refused to fire Cox and resigned. The deputy attorney genneral refused the order and he was fired. Solicitor General Robert Bork finally fired Cox

Question 36

Who was Cox’s replacement and what did he want

Answer 36

Leon Jaworski He wanted the tapes as well.

Question 37

Several months after the Saturday Night Massacre, what did the House Judiciary Committee examine

Answer 37

the possibility of the impeachment hearing

Question 38

Why did Spiro Agnew resign

Answer 38

because it was revealed that he had accepted bribes from engineering firms while governor of Maryland. Agnew pleaded (no contest to the chage)

Question 39

Acting under the 25th Amendment, who did Richard Nixon nominate?

Answer 39

House minority leader Gerald R. Ford as his new vice president

Question 40

In March 1974, a grand jury indicted seven presidential aides on charges of

Answer 40

conspiracy, obstruciton of justice, an dperjury.

Question 41

In the Spring of 1974, what did President Nixon tell a television audience

Answer 41

That he was releasing a 1254 page of edited transcripts of White House conversations about Watergate

Question 42

Even though nixon released the transcripts

Answer 42

He failed to satisfy investigators who demanded the unedited tapes

Question 43

When nixon refused to give up the tapes what happpened

Answer 43

The case went before the court

Question 44

On July 24, 1974 the high court ruled unanimously that

Answer 44

The presiden t must surrender the tapes. They rejected nixons argument that doing so would violate national security

Question 45

Even though Presiden t nixon maintained that he did nothing wrong

Answer 45

Evidence involving criminal activity could not be: withheld

Question 46

Even without holdng the original tapes, what was the house Judiciary committee determined to do

Answer 46

They though tthat there was enough evidence to impeach Richard nixon

Question 47

On July 27th, what did the committe approve

Answer 47

Three articles of impeachment charging the president with obstruction of justice, abuse of poewr and contempt of COngress for refusing to obey a congressional subpoena to release the tapes

Question 48

What did the House Judiciary committee charge Nixon with

Question 49

When did Nixon release the tapes, and what did htey contain

Answer 49

August 5th, but they contained many gaps (One had an 18 minute ga)

Question 50

What was the cover up by the White house wiht the tapes

Answer 50

That Presiden’t secretary had erased part of a conversation.

Question 51

A tape from June 23, 1972 contained a conversation

Answer 51

Between nixon and Haldeman and disclosed the evidence that investagators needed.

Question 52

What had the president known

Answer 52

He had known about ht erole of the members of his administraiton in the burglary and had agreeed to the plan to obstruct the FBIs investigation

Question 53

On August 8th,, 1974 before the House vote on the Articles of impeachment began what did Presiden Nixon announce

Answer 53

He was not admitting any guilt when he announced his resignation from office

Question 54

Who was sworn in

Answer 54

Gerald Ford

Question 55

What did Watergate produce

Answer 55

It produced a deep disillusionment with the imperial presidency. 25 members of the Nixon administration and served prison terms for crimes.

Question 56

What did the American public and media develop

Answer 56

A general cynicism about public officials. All scadals are compared to watergate