I know he was president then, but I don't think he was responsible. What exactly was the "cover up"? What are the secret tapes that were discovered?
I think he probably did the right thing when he resigned because the country was divided after the scandal.
I don't even have a clue exactly what happened because I was just a baby when it all was going on.
2007-05-11 04:00:14 · 11 answers · asked by Nels 7 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
Nixon had nothing to do with hatching the plan to break into the democratic headquarters that night. But, it's pretty clear that he learned what had happened and his administration, which he is ultimately responsible for, tried to bury it.
2007-05-11 04:07:22 · answer #1 · answered by Scott B 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
People who were connected with the White House were directly linked to the break-in. It turns out that Nixon recorded every conversation with these folks up until after the story broke. The White House was ordered to turn over these tapes, which it did, however, there was an 18 minute gap in which the president turned off the recorder. There has been much speculation as to what was discussed during those 18 minutes.
I don't believe Nixon was ever directly linked to the Watergate break-in. The suspicion was that he ordered it. He resigned before he could be impeached.
2007-05-11 04:12:08 · answer #2 · answered by sparky52881 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Nixon not only knew about the Watergate cover-up, but he directed it. Tapes, and other evidence, showed that, among other things, Nixon approved hush money for Howard Hunt and that Nixon directed Haldeman to have the CIA concoct phony "national security" reasons to have the FBI turn away from crucial leads in the Watergate investigation. In addition, portions of one of the tapes were “missing.”
Nixon also wanted to have Special Prosecutor Cox, who was investigating him, fired. Nixon fired his newly appointed Attorney General and his Deputy when they refused to fire the Special Prosecutor. The Special Prosecutor was finally fired by the Solicitor General Robert Bork.
Several key White House officials went to prison, in addition to the Attorney General, John Mitchell.
Watergate is a very interesting scandal that involved an instructive look into the operations of government and the workings of the executive branch. All the branches of government were very much involved in the ongoing investigations and decisions.
2007-05-11 04:49:57 · answer #3 · answered by tribeca_belle 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He was asked to turn over his taped conversations (he was a bit of a paranoid...both with the breaking into the building to peek at election results...he was winning BTW, AND with taping all of his conversations.) When the justice dept received the tapes, the majority of the recordings had been cut out. OBVIOUSLY a cover up. He resigned shortly thereafter...on account of his knowledge of the break in, his attempt at a coverup, and the lack of confidence of the american people.
2007-05-11 04:22:28 · answer #4 · answered by hichefheidi 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
His political action committee decided to bug the Democrat party offices that were located in the Watergate towers. The secret tapes revealed that he had prior knowledge of the bugging and approved of it. He resigned because he had enough class not to put the nation through the impeachment (subsequent likely criminal charges) that he most likely would have gone through. More class than was shown 20 years later when we had a president lie under oath to a federal grand jury.
The true irony is that he probably would have won the election by a landslide, anyway. The Democrat party nominee was no match for him.
2007-05-11 04:07:18 · answer #5 · answered by †Lawrence R† 6 · 1⤊ 3⤋
The Nixon tapes revealed that his political team authorized a felonious burglary. When he found out about it he had his people intentionally try to cover it up.
A felony is slightly more illegal than a sexual trist
not quite as bad as sending 3500+ Americans off to die in a war that was started by lies.
2007-05-11 04:39:14 · answer #6 · answered by Deidre K 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
He was the mastermind behind it all - the people he chose for his closest advisors and staff helped plan and execute all the political shenanigans that helped fool the American people into re-electing him.
Almost everything that came out as shocking news in the Watergate investigations was detailed in snippets within Time Magazine (go read the 1973 issues) BEFORE THE ELECTION - people like me knew he was a crook well before the re-election but most Americans didn't.
2007-05-11 04:08:56 · answer #7 · answered by Ben 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Information is king and Nixon just had to know to much . Breaking into rooms to recover info and plant recording devices went a little to far .
Its was probably a common practice at the time .
He just happen to get caught and the media spun the break in out of all proportion considering the wide extent to which it was being practiced .
2007-05-11 04:11:22 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Because he was implicitly involved. Read the following for an encapsulated look at it:
http://watergate.info/
2007-05-11 04:58:07 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It was his chief of staff who was ultimately the most responsible. However it was Nixon who appointed him.
Its called personal responsibility. I believed Nixon when he said "I am not a crook", but he resigned anyway, he took responsibility for his appointee.
2007-05-11 04:05:22 · answer #10 · answered by truthspeaker10 4 · 4⤊ 2⤋