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The Watergate Scandal Richard Millhouse Nixon was the thirty-seventh President of the United States of America from 1969 until 1974. Nixon completed his first term as President in 1973 and was re-elected for the position for the next four years. However, Nixon would have his time in the White House cut short by the series of events that occurred in the twenty-six months that followed the Watergate burglary. On June 17, 1972 five men, one White House employee and four Cubans, broke into the Watergate Office Building in Washington, DC in an attempt to bug the Democratic National Committee (DNC) office. The break in and the events that took place afterwards led to the resignation of Richard Millhouse Nixon on August 8, 1974. The morning of June 18, Nixon was at his home in Key Biscayne, FL. when he read a headline about the Watergate break in. The idea was out of this world and Nixon did not believe what he was reading. Nixon dismissed the story as a political prank (Nixon 625-626). James McCord, Bernard Barker, Virgilo Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, and Frank Sturgis had been arrested charged with second-degree burglary by the Washington police (WHT 820). McCord, a former CIA officer, was employed by the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) as a security consultant. Ironically McCord was supposed to prevent the very things he was doing to the DNC. Nixon telephoned Charles Colson, a special counsel to President Nixon, that evening to discuss the Watergate break in. Colson said, “he was so furious…he threw an ashtray across the room and was outraged that anybody even remotely connected with the campaign would have anything to do with a thing like Watergate.” (White 161) Nixon did not understand why anyone would try to bug the DNC, because no useful information could be rendered from anything recorded there. What started out as a prank in the eyes of President Nixon had now become a possible issue in the re-election campaign (Nixon 629). John Dean served as a special counsel to President Nixon during his term of office. When Dean learned of the break in he wrote it was somewhat sickening and did not want to learn more about Watergate (Colondy and Gettlin 164). Dean did however learn more about Watergate because John Erlichman, chief domestic affairs advisor to President Nixon, ordered Dean to find out the entire story by any means Teague 2 possible (White 161). Dean was the best choice to head up a cover-up scandal because he had worked in Congress and for the Justice Department. Dean subsequently held a meeting with Gordon Liddy, counsel member to the CRP, in a park where Liddy informed Dean of all the ins and outs of the Watergate burglary. Dean learned that Bob Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff, had received transcripts from wiretaps in the DNC. Dean later testified to Watergate investigators that he spoke to Richard Kleindiest, U.S. Attorney General, that the investigation could lead to the White House and cause problems in an election year for President Nixon. He realized that if Haldeman was drawn into the picture Nixon also would be put in the spotlight after a short period. Nixon began to focus on what the people involved could say to hurt the Re-election campaign. It is here where Nixon first begins to become involved in the cover-up of the Watergate Scandal. Nixon first reacted in a way that would lead to larger problems for him. Nixon tried figure out how Watergate could be used for a political advantage instead of trying to sort out the problem and deal with it the correct and legal way (Colondy and Gettlin 205-211) The Watergate Operation would be focused on the Democratic view of Castro. McCord was reportedly telling officials that the Cubans were putting in the bug for their own reasons. Haldeman reported to Nixon that Howard Hunt, White House consultant, was found to be in the address book of one of the arrested Watergate Burglars. This concerned Nixon because know the conspiracy was getting higher and higher into the White House ranks. Haldeman then told Nixon that Hunt was involved in the Bay of Pigs Operation and had worked with one of the Cubans before. Soon after the conversation with Haldeman, Nixon found out that Hunt was the largest conspirator in the Watergate Burglary and Colson had nothing to do with it. He decided to try and shift the attention to the Cubans (White 149-155). Nixon saw advantages in this idea because it would take the heat off of the CRP, and make it appear as if Cuban nationalists were scared of the Democrats. During an August 29, 1972 press conference, his first in three months, President Nixon stated, “Within our own staff, under my direction, the counsel to the president, Mr. Dean, has conducted a complete investigation of all leads which might involve any present members of the White House staff, no one in this administration, presently employed was involved in this bizarre Teague 3 incident…what really hurts is if you try to cover things like this up.” (WHT 828) Dean was surprised at this statement because it was the first time he heard of his inquiries publicly and also not bit of it was true. Dean knew that Nixon knew of the involvement of Liddy, Hunt, and several other White House employees. President Nixon all the while was becoming more upset at the situation and was looking for answers from his staff. Haldeman held a senior meeting trying to find something he could tell the president. Haldeman told Nixon that Liddy was responsible for the Watergate break in and Nixon immediately focused on John Mitchell, director of the CRP, who was the employer of Liddy. Nixon did not believe that Mitchell was involved but there was a possibility and if he were that would mean trouble for the White House (Nixon 635-637). Nixon ordered the use of the CIA to put an end to the investigations of the FBI. This was the first personal crime that Nixon committed. Nixon knew that this would work because the FBI and the CIA had a long-standing agreement that neither one would interfere with another ones secret operations. The FBI became convinced that it there was CIA involvement. Before this the FBI had no grounds on which to stop the investigation of Watergate but now they did. Dean explained the theory introduced by the Cuban lawyers as an attempt to quiet the Watergate investigations. They would simply find something that the Democrats did and did not want it made public. Then to transfer attention away from the Watergate investigation, the CRP would release the material and prove the Democrats were trying to hide it (White 194-196). Nixon wanted to know what the Senate was planning since the cover-up evidence began to point directly to him. This set the stage for numerous Oval Office meetings between Dean and President Nixon in February and March of 1973. Now President Nixon realized that his re-election was in jeopardy and decided to deal with Watergate as best as he could. Nixon asked Dean to tell him the entire story and the truth. He needed this to be able to stay one step ahead of everybody. Until now he had been able to sort of avoid the pressure of Watergate but it was exploding and he had to take a stand, publicly. The first problem Nixon had to worry about is the fact that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was asking for records of Herb Kalmbach, personal attorney to Nixon. Nixon was not too worried but what he did not know and Dean did not tell him was that Kalmbach was used to raise and deliver hush money for McCord Teague 4 and the Cubans. If Kalmbach was exposed, Dean knew his role in the cover-up would be exposed as well and destroys his life (Kutler 433-434). As Nixon became more and more worried about the indictments reaching him, he got deeper and deeper into the cover-up. Nixon made it clear to Dean that the White House had no actual involvement in the burglaries and the CRP orchestrated it all. Nixon explained all of this so that Dean could tell Kleindiest who was actually responsible and to divert attention from the higher ranks of the White House. Nixon truly believed that not anyone believed he had a part in Watergate, however, Dean was not telling Nixon the entire story, particularly his involvement in the ordeal. Dean was all but making Nixon cover-up Watergate without him even knowing about it. In the meetings, Dean is often taking the focus away from him by discussing Mitchell and Haldeman continually. Several times throughout the ordeal Nixon wondered if was too late to cut the losses and have everybody admit to their own involvement. Dean never allowed this to happen due to the fact that he would have to tell of his participation and would be in trouble with the White House and the Law. April 30, 1973, four high-ranking White House executives resign their positions. Erlichman, Kleindiest, Haldeman, and Dean do so. Dean had been asked to resign before yet he refused by stating, “I will not be made a scapegoat…. I will only resign with the two presidential advisors.” (WHT 847) The involvement of the CIA and FBI to help the cover-up are also made known to investigators. Archibald Cox was named to prosecute the Watergate case before a grand jury on May 18 (White 248-250). John Dean was enjoying a visit at Camp David when he found out the news. Understanding that he could no longer cover-up for himself or others he decided to play his trump card to prosecutors. Dean had cooperated with the investigation all along but had been denied immunity for his help. Dean reportedly told prosecutors that he could “deliver the P.” Dean was the chief witness against Nixon during the trials that started in May 1973. Dean testified that he was deeply involved in the cover-up and Nixon knew everything that Dean did to cover-up the incident. Richard Nixon kept recordings of all his meetings in his office and this led to events that would remove him from the Presidency. These tapes tragically affected Nixon after they were released. Nixon tried to keep them from court but a United States Supreme Court ruling made it clear that not even the Teague 5 President can withhold information in a criminal case. On June 23, 1972 the “smoking gun” was recorded in the Oval Office. Many say that this tape almost single handedly caused the end of the Nixon era as President of the US. This tape is referred to as the “smoking gun” because it is direct evidence of criminal guilt. On this tape President Nixon told Bob Haldeman to obstruct justice by having the CIA impede the FBI’s investigation of the Watergate break in (Nixon 848-851). In July 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommended that Richard Nixon be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. The committee claimed that Nixon had obstructed justice, abused presidential powers, and withheld evidence in a criminal case. Nixon was forced to release the “smoking gun” on August 5, 1974. On August 8, Richard Nixon issued a statement that he would be resigning as the President of the United States effective at noon on August 9, 1974. Therefore on August 9, Gerald Rudolph Ford became the thirty-eighth President of the United States. Ford immediately pardoned Richard Nixon of any and all federal crimes he may have committed while in office. Richard Milhous Nixon died on April 22, 1994 leaving behind his wife and two daughters.

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