The '72-74 Watergate Scandal
It wasn’t the crime. It was the coverup.
Issue #136 American History September 13, 2022
No ads or annoying popups ever! So instead, please see the important information at the bottom of this post. Please keep those “Likes” and comments coming! Thanks!
Most of us have heard of “Watergate,” the scandal that led to the downfall of President Richard M. Nixon.
Many of us also know that when Nixon resigned, and his Vice-President Gerald Ford became president, Nixon was pardoned by Ford (“…to heal the country…”) and therefore Nixon experienced no other punishments or accountability for his crimes.
A lot of people feel that because Nixon was not held accountable for his crimes, Trump now feels he shouldn’t face any accounting for his various crimes either, decades later.
Here is a quick timeline of the Watergate Scandal, so named because it started with a break-in at one of the Watergate buildings in Washington, D.C.
How Gerald Ford Became an Unelected President
Former Vice President Richard Nixon won his first election in 1968, beating then Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota 43.4% to 42.7%. Former Alabama Governor George Wallace ran as an independent and received 13.5% of the popular vote.
Vice President Humphrey secured the Democratic nomination after President Lyndon Johnson withdrew and Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968.
Nixon chose Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew, considered at the time to be a “centrist” Republican, to be his running mate in 1968 and again in 1972. Their 1972 campaign defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern by one of the widest margins in U.S. history, and Nixon began his second term as president in January 1973.
Later, in 1973, Agnew was investigated by the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion, and tax fraud. Those crimes started when Agnew was Baltimore County Executive and Governor of Maryland and continued when he was Vice President.
Agnew finally pled no contest to one felony charge of tax evasion and resigned from office. Nixon then appointed House Republican leader Gerald Ford of Grand Rapids, Michigan, as his Vice President.
When Nixon resigned in August of 1974, Gerald Ford became the first Vice President to ascend to the presidency after not first being elected vice president.
The Watergate Break-In
On June 17, 1972, during the presidential campaign when Nixon and Agnew were running for their second term, several burglars were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee that was locked in the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C.
The burglars were connected to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign (the Committee to Re-Elect the President or “CREEP”). They were in the process of wiretapping telephones and stealing documents, after trying a previous failed attempt to wiretap the phones.
After the break-in, Nixon worked hard to cover up the crimes and gave a national speech in August 1972 swearing that his White House staff had nothing to do with the break-in.
It was later revealed that Nixon arranged to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars as “hush money” to the burglars.
He was still re-elected the following November.
Nixon and his aides planned to instruct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to impede the investigation of the crimes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
But after Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed Nixon’s role in the conspiracy, House and Senate investigations followed.
Seven conspirators were finally indicted on charges related to Watergate. Five pled guilty to avoid trial and two others were convicted in January 1973.
Some of Nixon’s aides, including White House Counsel John Dean, testified before a grand jury about Nixon’s crimes and the fact that Nixon had secretly taped every conversation that took place in the Oval Office.
Nixon argued that the tapes were protected by executive privilege but Judge Sirica, the Senate Committee, and independent prosecutor Archibald Cox continued their efforts to obtain the tapes.
But after Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed Nixon’s role in the conspiracy, House and Senate investigations followed.
The “Saturday Night Massacre”
When Cox refused to stop demanding the tapes, Nixon ordered him to be fired, leading several Justice Department officials to resign in protest.
All of these events occurred on Saturday, October 20, 1973, and are collectively called “The Saturday Night Massacre.”
Nixon finally agreed to surrender some, but not all, of the tapes.
By early 1974, the cover-ups and the efforts to impede the Watergate investigation began to fall apart.
On March 1, a grand jury appointed by a new special prosecutor indicted seven of Nixon’s former aides on various charges related to Watergate.
The jury was unsure if they could indict a sitting president, so Nixon was labeled an “unindicted co-conspirator.”
Is any of this starting to sound familiar?
The Beginning of the End and the End
In July 1974, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes, but Nixon kept delaying.
The House voted to impeach Nixon for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, a criminal cover-up, and several other violations of the Constitution.
Finally, on August 5, 1974, Nixon released all of the tapes that provided undeniable evidence of his complicity in the Watergate crimes.
The Senate let Nixon know that they would vote to remove him from office.
Nixon resigned from the presidency on August 8, 1974, in a televised address, and left office the next day, August 9, 1974, about 18 months into his second term of office.
Six weeks later, President Gerald R. Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he committed while in office. Nixon himself never admitted to any criminal wrongdoing.
In 1977, as part of a series of television interviews hosted by talk show host David Front, Nixon declared that “Well, when the president does it, by definition that means that it is not illegal.”
Nixon’s abuse of his presidential powers had a long-lasting effect on American political life, leading many citizens to be cynical and distrustful of their political leadership.
In his later years, Nixon tried to rebrand himself as an elder statesman by giving interviews and writing books. He died on April 22, 1994, almost exactly twenty years after he was forced to resign as president.
What did you know about the Watergate Scandal before this article? Let us know in the comments!
Help us to grow!
“We Are Speaking” is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and podcast episodes and to support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. We publish 7 days/week and 28+ issues/month. You. can upgrade your free subscription to the paid level. It costs monthly and annual paid subscribers less than 35¢ an issue. Thank you!
Thank you for checking out some of the books and businesses of the TeamOwens313 Global Creative Community:
Detroit Stories Quarterly (DSQ) Afro-futurism Magazine
The Mayonnaise Murders: a fantasy mystery novel by Keith A. Owens
The Global Creative Community Membership Site: Networking and Monthly/Weekly Topics for Independent Writers and Creative and Solo Professionals
The Global Creative Community Brand and Marketing Academy: Training and Group Coaching for Independent Writers and Creative and Solo Professionals
Pam’s Branding and Marketing Articles for Independent Writers and Creative and Solo Professionals on LinkedIn
“We Are Speaking” is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and podcast episodes and to support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.