What was the Watergate scandal?

Answer 1

The Watergate scandal was a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., the United States by members of President Richard Nixon's administration and the resulting cover-up which led to the resignation of the President. A number of the perpetrators were from the "plumbers unit", originally set up to "plug leaks," and some were 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, 1974, making him the only U.S. President to have resigned from office.

When Frank Wills, a security guard, found proof of a break in, he called the police. On June 17, 1972, police apprehended five men attempting to break into and wiretap Democratic Party offices. The five men were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez and Frank Sturgis. With two other accomplices[attribution needed] they were tried and convicted in January 1973. All seven men were either directly or indirectly employees of President Nixon's Campaign to Re-elect the President, CREEP, and many people, including the trial judge, John J. Sirica, suspected a conspiracy involving higher-echelon government officials.[citation needed] In March 1973, 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 scandal revealed the existence of a White House dirty tricks squad, an enemies list, a plumbers unit to plug leaks and a secret campaign slush fund associated with the CRP, all with high level administration involvement. It brought into the open the involvement of the Attorney General, John N. Mitchell, in the dirty tricks, funds and cover up, as well as key White House advisors, all of whom went to prison for these crimes.


The connection between the break-in and the President's re-election campaign fundraising committee was highlighted by its media coverage. In particular, investigative coverage by The Washington Post and The New York Times fueled focus on the event. The coverage dramatically increased the profile of the crime and consequent political stakes. Fed tips by an anonymous source (W. Mark Felt) they would later identify only by the code name "Deep Throat," Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered information suggesting that knowledge of the break-in and attempts to cover it up led deep into the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and even the White House itself. Rather than ending with the trial and conviction of the burglars, the investigations grew broader; a Senate committee chaired by Senator Sam Ervin was set up to examine Watergate and started to subpoena White House staff.

On April 30, 1973, Nixon was forced to ask for the resignation of two of his most influential aides, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, both of whom would soon be indicted and ultimately go to prison. He also fired White House Counsel John Dean, who had just testified before the Senate and would go on to become the key witness against the President.

On the same day, Nixon appointed a new Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, and gave him authority to designate, for the growing Watergate inquiry, a special counsel who would be independent of the regular Justice Department hierarchy, to preserve his independence. On May 19, 1973, Richardson named Archibald Cox to the position. Televised hearings had begun two days before.

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Answer 2

It was the scandal the grew out of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., in 1972. It became a scandal because eventually it became clear, through the news reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein at the Washington Post that the breakin had been ordered by someone within the White House, and that President Nixon himself -- while perhaps not knowing about the break-in ahead of time -- did authorize an effort to cover it up. This led to calls for impeachment by people from both parties and eventually drove President Nixon to resign. Many of the closest aids to Nixon were eventually convicted of crimes associated with the breakin and lies told to congress about it afterwards. The whole scandal unfolded over the course of many months and was highlighted by a multi-week congressional hearings, which were broadcast live during the summer of 1973 (pre-empting all that daytime programming on the major network channels) and watched by millions of people around the world. It was a long and complex drama. One of the key events was the discovery by the congressional investigators that Nixon taped all of his conversations, and it would therefore be possible by listening to the tapes to find out what role the president had in the conspiracy or the coverup. Nixon refused to hand over the tapes, and when he did eventually hand over some of them, there were parts that had clearly been erased. It was a fascinating story. There are many books about, but the ones by Woodward and Bernstein are likely to be the best since they broke the story.

Answer 3

It's called "watergate" because it took place at the watergate hotel. This is where the democratic party headquarters were for the (at that time) presidential election. Then president Richard Nixon ordered G GORDON LIDDY and other staff members to break in and bug and go thru the Demo's paperwork and strategy plans for the election. They got caught, it leaked to the public, the staff members went to prison and Nixon resigned rather than be impeached.

Answer 4

In a sentence:

Richard Nixon was caught spying (breaking into a hotel room and looking at his documents) on his political opponent in an election - at the Watergate Hotel.

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

presidents up to there old tricks but got caught put this time..bloody bunch of crooks