what was the watergate affair?

Question

and how did it lead to the crisis of confidence in the goverment?

Answer 1

The initial act was a break in to the Democrat offices in the Watergate building by Republicans. Sneaky, but not the end of the world.

However the lies and coverups after the event so destroyed national confidence in the Nixon administration that Nixon had to resign ahead of impeachment and many of his underlings went to prison.

Answer 2

Democratic Headquarters were once held in the Watergate Building in Washington D.C. Under Richard Nixon and with his full knowledge, Republican Operatives broke into the Watergate Building and stole copies of various documents.

Having second thoughts on this, one of the insiders who dubbed himself " Deep Throat ", a pun on a recent blockbuster Porn film, leaked information to the Washington Post. That info mushroomed in large part because Nixon having a fondness for wiretaps, tape recorded all of his conversation in the White house, and Deep Throat knew it!

As this information became a Congressional concern, a grand jury and later the Supreme Court demanded those tapes. Nixon refused to turn them over and even began firing Attorney Generals and Assistants, while trying to hold out.

At the 11th hour he began trying to destroy the tapes but it was too late and there were too many tapes to erase in time.
Congress was already calling for his impeachment, and so with Republican help, he so-called, saved face by resigination. Most Americans didn't buy it and neither did the rest of the world watching!

Of course that's not the first, nor last time the Republicans got cought with there pants down!

Answer 3

Basically it was the breaking and entering into Democratic National Headquarters and the subsequent coverup,lies and mistrust toward a President who was possessive in desiring political power and was paranoid enough to seek out people who were willing to go the extra mile to make sure that he was re-elected by finding out what the Democrats were going to try to do to derail Nixon in his hopes for a second term. It has taken many years and is still going on to regain the trust of the American people who believed one politician is as good as another and political parties do not matter for they are all cut from the same cloth. (Just look at the voting percentages of elections for President for we have one of the worst ratings in the world at barely 50-51%, as compared to other nations who reached the 80's and 90's percentile.)

Answer 4

http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0851589.html

Answer 5

Watergate affair
Watergate affair, in U.S. history, series of scandals involving the administration of President Richard M. Nixon; more specifically, the burglarizing of the Democratic party national headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C.

The Watergate Break-in
On June 17, 1972, police apprehended five men attempting to break into and wiretap Democratic party offices. With two other accomplices they were tried and convicted in Jan., 1973. All seven men were either directly or indirectly employees of President Nixon's reelection committee, and many persons, including the trial judge, John J. Sirica, suspected a conspiracy involving higher-echelon government officials. In March, James McCord, one of the convicted burglars, wrote a letter to Sirica charging a massive coverup of the burglary. His letter transformed the affair into a political scandal of unprecedented magnitude.

The Investigations
When a special Senate committee investigating corrupt campaign practices, headed by Senator Sam Ervin, began nationally televised hearings into the Watergate affair, former White House counsel John Dean testified that the burglary was approved by former Attorney General John Mitchell with the knowledge of chief White House advisers John Ehrlichman and H. R. (Bob) Haldeman; he further accused President Nixon of approving the coverup.

Attorney General Elliot Richardson appointed (May, 1973) a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, to investigate the entire affair; Cox and his staff began to uncover widespread evidence of political espionage by the Nixon reelection committee, illegal wiretapping of citizens by the administration, and corporate contributions to the Republican party in return for political favors. In July, 1973, it was revealed that presidential conversations in the White House had been tape recorded since 1971; Cox sued Nixon to obtain the tapes, and Nixon responded by ordering Richardson to fire him. Richardson resigned instead, and his assistant, William Ruckelshaus, also refused and was himself fired. Solicitor General Robert Bork finally fired Cox (Oct. 20, 1973) in what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre.

Nixon's action led to calls from the press, from government officials, and from private citizens for his impeachment, and the House of Representatives empowered its Judiciary Committee to initiate an impeachment investigation. Meanwhile, in response to a public outcry against the dismissal of Cox, President Nixon appointed a new special prosecutor, Leon Jaworksi, and released to Judge Sirica the tapes of the Watergate conversations subpoenaed by Cox. Jaworski subsequently obtained indictments and convictions against several high-ranking administration officials; one of the grand juries investigating the Watergate affair named Nixon as an unindicted coconspirator and turned its evidence over to the Judiciary Committee.

Responding to public pressure, in Apr., 1974, Nixon gave the Judiciary Committee edited transcripts of his taped conversations relating to Watergate; however, Nixon's actions failed to halt a steady erosion of confidence in his administration, and by the middle of 1974 polls indicated that a majority of the American people believed that the President was implicated in the Watergate coverup. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that ordered Nixon to turn over to special prosecutor Jaworski additional subpoenaed tapes relating to the coverup. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee completed its investigation and adopted (July 27–30) three articles of impeachment against President Nixon; the first article, which cited the Watergate break-in, charged President Nixon with obstruction of justice.

Nixon's Resignation and the Aftermath
On Aug. 5, Nixon made public the transcripts of three recorded conversations that were among those to be given to Jaworski. At the same time he admitted that he had been aware of the Watergate coverup shortly after the break-in occurred and that he had tried to halt the Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry into the break-in. Several days later (Aug. 9) Nixon resigned and was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford.

President Ford issued a pardon to Nixon for any and all crimes that he might have committed while President. However, Nixon's chief associates, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell, were among those convicted (Jan. 1, 1975) for their role in the affair. In addition to the governmental upheaval that resulted from the Watergate affair, the scandal provoked widespread loss of confidence in public officials and tended to foster a general suspicion of government agencies.

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The term Watergate scandal refers to a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. by members of the Richard Nixon administration and the resulting cover-up which led to the resignation of the President. The burglars' aim was to plant listening devices, while disguised as common criminals to provide cover. They were informally called the "plumbers unit" to "plug leaks," and included former members of the CIA. Though then-President Nixon had endured two years of mounting political embarrassments, the court-ordered release in August 1974 of a "smoking gun tape" about the burglaries brought with it the prospect of certain impeachment for Nixon; he resigned only four days later on August 9, making him the only U.S. President to have resigned from office.

refer to link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate