The Watergate Scandal
Introduction
Before the year 1972 Watergate was just a luxurious and comfortable complex
at Washington, which was famous only among political elite. The summer of the
year 1972 changed everything: this name was on everybody’s lips and it
was connected with one of the most famous political scandals of the 20th century
and changed lives of some people. The Watergate scandal is first of all connected
with the name of the American president Richard Nixon. Nixon and his administration
were accused of abuse of political power status. If we want to get reliable
information about this case we should start from the very beginning and examine
everything with rapt attention.
The Watergate Scandal took place in the period of American history from 1972
to 1974. The consequences of this scandal were very serious and led to the President
Nixon’s resignation and constitutional disorder or even crisis. The reason
of the Watergate Scandal could be called Vietnam War. Nixon was for the continuation
of this senseless war while it was becoming less and less popular among American
population. Nixon tried to use his political authority to undermine his political
enemy – the Democratic Party. This party was in opposition and stood for
the cessation in Vietnam and s obtained popularity among ordinary people. The
investigation lasted two years and the result was the acceptation the resignation
of the President. In four days, on the 9th of August in 1974, Richard Nixon
resigned.
Investigation
Everything started at the field day on the 17th of June in 1972, when Frank
Wills, who was a guide at the office of Watergate at Washington D. C. was on
a beat and noticed a piece of tape. At first he didn’t think to be this
tape of great importance. It might be that the cleaners have put it between
the basic stairway and the parking garage. Frank removed the chip, as it didn’t
give a possibility to close the door. Much to his surprise the next day he found
this piece of tape but at a new place. Frank Wills decided to connect with police.
Immediately five men were arrested: Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, James
W. McCord, Jr., Bernard Barker and Frank Sturgis. They were accused of breaking
the headquarters of the Democratic Party. Three weeks earlier approximately
these five workers entered this office and tried to make photos of some important
documents and to fix wiretaps, which were not working.
This breaking into Watergate office as in the case of the tape was just a gross
error of the burglars. Police found the telephone number of Howard Hunt in McCord’s
notebook that was a serious argument. The point is that McCord used to work
Committee to Re-elect to President as Chief of Security while Hunt was closely
connected with the White House.
Under the circumstances it was obvious that the President had a bearing on this
case. At first most part of the American population couldn’t bring together
this careless affair and the President, although the coming elections were the
main sign of the legal behavior of the politicians.
The investigation was led by the Washington D. C. district office and during
it McCord claimed that he worked and then retired from the Central Intelligence
Agency. To plead a case decided Bob Woodward and his colleague Carl Bernstein.
The investigators tried to find links between the person and this agency and
at last they found that the Committee to Re-elect the President gave McCord
amounts of money. Course of events investigated by Woodward and Bernstein were
famous to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but that was their own investigation
and it had a number of mistakes.
On the 23rd of June the conversation between President Nixon and Chief of Staff
of the White House Haldeman was tape-recorded. The main point of the discussion
was the methods to stop the investigation of the Watergate case that was carrying
out by the investigating agencies. Nixon insisted on the unlikely origin of
the evidence and claimed that national security was in danger because of this
investigation.
A lot of so-called “dirty tricks” were used by Hunt and Gordon Liddy
the leading figures of GRP to foul the trails and to muddle the investigators.
These two persons re famous not only for their work for GRP, they also worked
in the Special Investigations Unit in the White House and their nickname was
“Plumbers”. They are famous for their actions against their political
enemy – the Democratic Party and worked for the destroying of anti-war
public opinion.
A lot of other members of the White House and figures were made answerable for
their participation in the Watergate Scandal. The trial began on the 8th of
January in 1973 and Hunt and Liddy among other accused were brought to trial.
Practically all the participators pleaded guilty and their sentences were such
crimes as espionage, theft, and conspiracy. But those who admitted their guilt
refused to name their accessories and to say where they got money and who headed
this operation. The trial judge John Sirica called “Maximum John”
for his strict verdicts threatened them with thirty-year se3ntences if they
would keep silence. Only two people didn’t plead guilty, they were McCord
and Liddy. McCord accused CRP if the crime and giving money for silence of all
accused. He also admitted to perjury.
Hearsay and witnesses brought the trial to the White House where a number of
people testified against or for the accused, the star witness was Counsel John
Dean. Impartial hearing in the White House lasted from June to August.
At first President Nixon attracted the attention of the investigators after
the famous phrase of the Republican Senator of Tennessee Howard Baker: “What
did the president know and when did he know it?” At first the public opinion
started to change. People began to understand all the benefits of this operation
on the eve of elections for the President and found the relation between the
accused people and the President’s surrounding.
Soon on the 13th of July Committee Deputy Counsel asked deputy assistant to
show the records that must have been done by the recording system of the White
House. The access to the recording system is usually denied but to help the
investigation the records were given to the first prosecutor Archibald Cox and
the Senate. This new information could absolutely change the process of investigation
and find out if President Nixon was guilty.
Nixon was against any investigation in the White House referring to his executive
privilege. Such course of events wasn’t suitable for Cox and the following
occurrence that took place on the 20th of October in 1973 was called “Saturday
night massacre”. Nixon decided to make Cox redundant, because he wanted
to give personal tapes made by the President in his own cabinet to the Court.
The minister of Justice Elliot Richardson refused to follow the President’s
order and resigned, his deputy William Ruckelhouse supported his decision and
was made redundant. The retiring of first prosecutor Archibald Cox was anyway
hold by Solicitor General of the USA Robert Bork. However, these events were
brightly illustrated by the Mass Media and got a wide distribution among the
public. It goes without saying that suspects about president’s participation
in Watergate case became stronger.
Nixon had to appoint a new prosecutor, whose post got Leon Jaworski, to continue
the investigation. Nixon didn’t want to give actual tapes, but he decided
to replace them with the edited ones. The tension was growing when one of the
most important, 18,5 minutes part of the tape was, according to the words of
the President, accidentally erased by his secretary Rose Mary Woods. The tape
was of such great importance that it had never been taken out of the White House.
However, the investigation determined that the tape had been erased several,
may be nearly ten times over, that showed that this was made on purpose.
In the end the case was sent to the Supreme Court, and the unanimous Court decided
that Nixon’s words about executive privilege were not suitable for the
situation and the tapes were given to Jaworski for the further investigation.
Nixon had nothing to do but to agree with the decision of the Supreme Court
and to give the tapes.
Resignation
The affair is coming to a head. One by one all the people from Nixon’s
surrounding pleaded guilty and proved their participation in the Watergate trial.
At first on the 28th of January Herbert Porter Nixon’s campaign aide confessed
to a crime of lying to FBI during the process of investigation. The second victim
was Nixon’s personal lawyer Herbert Kalmbach who on the 25th of February
pleaded guilty of his illegal actions to hold a good election campaign. Then
came the turn of the so-called “Watergate Seven”: Haldeman, Ehrlichman,
Mitchell, Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson.
They were accused of conspiracy to slow the Watergate investigation. Nixon was
secretly named as one of the co-conspirators.
On the 5th of April the former Nixon’s secretary Dwight Chapin was arrested
for lying to the grand jury. The position of the President was very unstable.
The formal investigation against Nixon was undertaken by the House of Representatives,
the possible result of it could be the President’s impeachment. For the
first article of the impeachment voted 27 people from 38 from the House Judiciary
Committee and so it meant obstruction of justice for the President. The next
steps were abuse of power on the 29th of July and contempt of Congress on the
30th of July. Soon all the unknown tapes were used in investigation. One of
them proved the Nixon’s attempt to stop and muddle the investigation and
actions of FBI. It was the most important evidence that convinced the rest of
the congressmen who voted against the impeachment of the President to change
their opinion.
The impeachment wasn’t now necessary, Nixon analyzed his weak position
in the Senate and officially declared about his resignation. The process of
resignation took place on the 9th of August in 1974, but it couldn’t stop
the investigation and didn’t guarantee any privileges. The investigation
was only stopped after the official pardon for Nixon that was organized by Gerald
Ford and provided protection from any prosecution for crimes. This released
him from juridical responsibility but it could do nothing with the moral fact.
Nixon understood it and so tried to warranted himself: “I was wrong in
not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate,
particularly when it reached the stage of judicial proceedings and grew from
a political scandal into a national tragedy.”
Consequences of the Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal had great consequences not only for the people who were
messed up with it but also for all further development of the American democracy.
President and his assistants performed a large number of illegal actions, most
of which should be followed by the criminal proceedings. These crimes include
bribery, political burglary, destruction of evidence, wire and phone tapping,
tax frauds, exceeding one’s commission, illegal campaign contributions,
obstruction of justice and many others. Even smaller number of crimes would
be enough to cause the public reproach and criminal responsibility. It’s
needless to say that discovering the president messed up with such dirty affair
turned to be a great shock for the whole nation and caused long time consequences
for the whole country. Nixon was forced to resign his presidency in 1974, so
the term of his presidency was too short to turn the person preoccupied by the
interests of the United States to mean manipulator striking for power. Richard
Nixon, during the term of his presidency created “a climate in which he
and those who served him could justify almost any tactics to stifle dissent
and undermine opposition.” Nixon believed that Democratic party brought
a great threat to American nation and only his timely actions could neutralize
this threat. He was sure that only his presidency could help the American nation
to grow in its greatness and power. It’s hard to trace inner motives,
which directed his actions, but he himself justified his actions by the mere
wish to save the nation. Nixon and his team developed sophisticated plan to
divide the Democratic Party and weaken candidates for presidency set forward
by this party. His plan was brilliant and only the Watergate scandal didn’t
let him make several last steps, which divided his from reelection.
The Watergate Scandal had not analogues in the America history. It’s evident
that Nixon exceeded his rights in the election campaign. Such a great scandal
had negative effect on the authority of the state power. In addition, thanks
to this scandal presidential elections of 1976 won Jimmy Carter – outsider
candidate with little experience, which probably had a negative impact on the
political system of the country. The level of trust to the state power was extremely
low during those times. The case became significant not only by its scale and
consequences, but also by its positive aspects, which are not always mentioned
from the first sight. What can be positive in scandal of the state scale and
governmental crises? But we can find these positive sides if study the situation
in greater detail. The Watergate scandal became a shock for American nation
as the years of constitutional government put the president on the highest pedestal
above all ordinary people and no doubts in his moral norms were assumed. The
president was regarded as ideal overcreature without the right for mistakes
and moreover speculations of his power. That is the reason the Watergate scandal
became such a great shock for the American nation. Never after the scandal the
authority of the president and his personal immunity was put back to that high
pedestal again. Sad disillusionment had good consequences. Starting from the
Watergate scandal citizens, mass media and Congress didn’t weaken their
persistent control of the president and the legacy of his actions.
Conclusion
This scandal became the result of the effort of one person supported by his
assistants to encroach upon the sacred ideal of democracy and liberty of the
country. The scandal, despite all its negative aspects proved one more time
that there are mechanisms, which can limit the power of the person, if he or
she exceeds his proxies even if this person is the first official of the country.
Congress managed to find the ways to discover and prove Nixon’s guilt
and stop him from creating the crime. I would like to believe that motives,
which have driven Nixon’s accusers, were more general than trial fight
for the state power. Congress had to pass more than twenty bills of impeachment,
to order the hearings for Watergate and many other political instruments to
make Nixon respond for his actions. Several special committees concerning the
Watergate case were created. The Select Committee on Presidential conduct was
occupied with the investigation of the Watergate scandal. Initiative of the
Congress was supported by the Supreme Court as the highest institution of the
state judiciary power. The balance of three branches of the state power (legislative,
judiciary and executive) is one of the main principles of the democracy and
this principle assumes not only harmonious work of these three branches but
also their mutually dependent control. Three state powers are constructed the
way they can keep the balance of powers in the state in order not to let one
individual or group of people neglect the principles of the Constitution and
manipulate the state power for their advantage.
Another positive consequence of the scandal was including the change of subordination
of FBI and CIA. Before the Watergate scandal FBI and CIA were subordinate to
the White House but since during the investigation it was proved that the president
and his team used their power to manipulate these state service, the number
of actions was performed to make both, FBI and CIA independent from the White
House. In addition, The Watergate Scandal became a bright example of an effect
mass media had not only on the public opinion, but also on the executive power
of the country. It became one of the rare cases when journalist investigation
had such massive official consequence, when about 70 people, including the president
of the country had to respond for their actions in the Supreme Court. This fact
proves the constructive role of the media in setting up and supporting the principles
of democracy in the country. Freedom of speech and the absence of censorship
are also among the main principles of the democratic social and political structure
and this principle was also proved during the Watergate scandal.
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