TT #10 -- 13 Facts about the Watergate Scandal

Note to Thirteeners & Others: If you leave a comment with your URL, we'll list your link under our post (making it a proper link for Technorati and Google). To join Thursday 13, click on the badge.

.

Want to join BN-Politics' link-exchange?
Add us to your blogroll and email us.

.

Get Thursday Thirteen code here!            View More T-13 Participants

Watergate investigations dragged on for two years before President Nixon resigned. Numerous Executive Branch abuses of power (and crimes) were uncovered, causing enormous ripple effects. Congress and the public became more cautious about Executive Branch secrecy, and reporters became more focused on finding real dirt behind politicians' pristine images. Below is a simplified overview of the scandal.

1.  "Watergate" refers to a volcano of scandals that erupted after five men were arrested in June 1972 for breaking into the Democratic Party office (located at a Washington DC hotel/office complex called "The Watergate," see photo).

2. Investigations uncovered illegal acts involving high-level members of Nixon's Administration: e.g., break-ins, political espionage, wiretapping of journalists and citizens....

3.  President Nixon had a recording system that taped  many of his conversations. The "Watergate Tapes" contained damning evidence against the Administration.

4.  Archibald Cox, the first Watergate special prosecutor, tried to get the tapes. Nixon ordered two Justice Department officials to fire Cox; they resigned, instead. Eventually, Solicitor General Robert Bork fired Cox (aka, the "Saturday Night Massacre"). Later, President Reagan nominated Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Senate refused to confirm him.

5. A tape called the "Smoking Gun" evinced that Nixon, himself, had conspired to cover up the break-in.

6. Not wanting to give the Watergate Tapes to Congress, Nixon claimed Executive Privilege. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ordered Nixon to hand over the tapes anyway. 

7. Nixon handed over the tapes and resigned 10 days later (August 1974), to avoid a formal impeachment. He was the only U.S. president to resign.

8. Vice President Gerald Ford became president.  In  September 1974, he pardoned Nixon.

9. Among those operatives who went to prison over Watergate were: 

John Mitchell: Nixon's Attorney General and campaign director, who helped plan the break-in. He died in 1988.

John Dean: White House Counsel, who masterminded the cover-up. He was convicted of crimes but cooperated with prosecutors to reduce his sentence. He is now a political commentator, who supports impeachment of President Bush.

Bob Haldeman: White House Chief of Staff,who was involved in the cover-ups. He died in 1993.

John Ehrlichman: White House staffer who created "The Plumbers," a group that tried to plug embarrassing info leaks and to destroy Nixon's political enemies. He died in 1999.

E. Howard Hunt: worked for CIA, later for the White House. As one of Ehrlichman's "plumbers," Hunt co-engineered the break-in. He died in 2007.

G. Gordon Liddy: a former FBI agent who worked for the White House before moving to Nixon's campaign committee. Among other things, Liddy co-engineered the break-in. Now, Liddy has a talk-radio show and does guest spots on Fox.

10.  The "Pentagon Papers"  were secret government reports about the Vietnam war, which showed that the Johnson Administration had misled the public about the war. In 1971, military analyst Daniel Ellsberg gave the papers to the New York Times. The newly publicized deceptions fueled public opposition to the war.

11. CREEP (Committee to Re-elect the President) was a fund-raising group for Nixon, which used slush funds and laundered money. CREEP operatives broke into a Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office to find discrediting information.

12. All the President's Men is a book (and movie) describing Watergate, written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who were among the journalists that helped expose the scandal.

13. Deep Throat was the code name of Woodward and Bernstein's secret source. His real name was W. Mark Felt: he was Associate Director of the FBI until 1971. In 1980, Felt was convicted of a felony for ordering FBI agents to illegally break into to Vietnam-war protesters' offices.  President Reagan pardoned Felt.  After decades of denying being Deep Throat, Felt revealed his identity in 2005.

Sources:

Jurist Legal Intelligence              Washington Post's Watergate Story

WatergateInfo.com                   Wikipedia

.
Other BN-Politics' Posts:

* President Flips Off Congres RE: Subpoenas

* Scandal Overview: Fired U.S. Attorneys

* Hurricane Katrina Taxbreaks Go Toward Luxury Condos

* Insurers Get Away with Over-billing Medicare (and Taxpayers)

* Contractor Fraud: Driving up Healthcare Costs?

.
Commenters' Links:

1. Tinkerbell
2. Too Many Ideas
3. What Works for Us
4. A Gentleman's Domain
5. Pop Culture Dish
6. No-Nonsense Girl
7. Puss Reboots
8. Nap Warden
9. J's Thoughts & Musings
10. Single Parents Unite
11. Ed's Thread
12. Carolan Ivey: Stories that Will Haunt You
13. Moments & Memories
14. Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing
15. Tennessee Text Wrestling
16. A Spot of T
17. Dallas Miao'd
18. Storyweaver's Web
19. Random Ramblings
20. Don't Call Me Mummy
21. Around the Island
22. Full House
23. The View from the Ridge
24. Hootin' Anni
25. The Two Rs
26. Philly Transplant
27. Life in the Urban Zoo
28. Writer Cramps
29. Busy's Fiber Blog
30. Blue Monday
31. D-3
32. One Gal's Musings
33. A Chronicler's Life
34. The Collective Blog of Stephen and Erin
35. Juuust a Bit Outside
36. Notes in the Key of Life
37. Yuriko's Blog
38. Joley Sue Burkhart
39. Any Apples
40. Dog's Eye View
41. Amy Ruttan
42. A Sample of Jennifer's Thoughts
43. Third World Country
44. Vixen's Den
45. Alasandra
46. Tea Time Ramblings
47. A Southern Girl's Guide to Almost Anything
48. Nicole Austin
49. Annie Dean
50. What Was I Thinking?
51. State of Confusion
52. Mom of 3 Girls
53. Tuesday Update
54. Ritty Rats
55. Mallory in the Middle
56. Everybody Lies
57. I Love Paperbacks
58. Pervy Blog
59. Choosing Voluntary Simplicity
60. She Became a Butterfly
61. On My Mind Today
62. On a Limb with Claudia
63. World According to Books
64. Real Bee Blog
65. Scribbit
66. Hello, Self
67. Fond of Snape
    
68. You're next...

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Comments

[Tink]

Now that's something I know about. I even made a project in highschool about Watergate!
My TT shares 13 things to do or see in my hometown Velsen / IJmuiden in The Netherlands.

[Mark Caldwell]

As political scandals of the 20th Century go there are few as big and it has the added bonus of leading to one of the best West Wing openings when Oliver Babish has the tape recorder that won't stop recording...

[WorksForMom]

Once again, I learned something at your weekly T13 post. I still can't believe we finally learned about deep throat first in 2005!

[Nicholas]

Even after all that has been written, I was still unclear about who some of those people were. I remember when Nixon resigned. I was in Canada. The whole room cheered when the news was announced.

[Malcolm]

Since I was a little kid when Watergate happened, I don't remember all of the details. What I do remember is that I would always get mad when the networks would interrupt regularly scheduled programming to report on Watergate. Later on, I do recall learning about CREEP in a U.S. Politics and Government class.

[The Nononsense]

Like every week, soo educating!!!

[pussreboots]

Speaking of Watergate, I'm going to be reading All the President's Men soon. LOL. Happy TT.

[nap warden]

Surprisingly enough, I knew alot of that. Thanks public high school. I don't feel stoopid;) Great list as usual!

[Jenny McB]

So we are more suspicious of executive secrecy? A lot of good that has done for us lately.

[Lori]

Man...thats some great info. I feel very History illiterate...(man I hope I spelled that right!) lol...Happy TT.

[Ed]

great and educational TT as we have came to expect.

[Carolan Ivey]

I always enjoy your TTs. :) As I was reading this one I couldn't help but think the current administration sure has taken more than a few pages from Nixon's playbook...

[Maribeth]

Thank you very much for that. I was always aware of The Watergate Scandal (but by name only) you just gave me a history lesson in less than five minutes and much better than any teacher ever tried.

[Lara]

I remember living thru Watergate and Nixon's resignation when I was younger. And it scared the crap out of me -- to the point that I learned not trust politicians in the least. Bill Clinton was the first one I sort of started to trust again....and look how well that turned out!!
Great TT as always!

[Thomma Lyn]

That's an excellent summary of the Watergate Scandal! As always, thank you for a fascinating and educational TT!

Happy Thursday Thirteening, and thanks for visiting mine. :)

[Joy T.]

I LOVE coming over here for TT! Always so informative and interesting.

[Dallas Meow]

dang.
I knew nothing 'cept what I learned from the movie Dick.

[Damozel]

Nice going, my brilliant colleague; you have summed up a huge scandal that went on for years in a nutshell. I am so stumbling THIS.

[Xakara]

I can't be the only for whom this week's lesson rang with eerie current context familiarity. But that's all I'll say.

Thanks! This is always among my favorite stops. :)

~X

[Michelle B]

This is a very interesting piece of history (and one I don't think about often!) Thanks for sharing!

[mom not mum]

Great list - I find it funny that after watergate we have labeled many other scandals with "gate" at the end. My nephew did a report on Nixon for school a few years ago - we all learned a lot helping him.

[Robin from Israel]

You left off the most important thing - they preempted SESAME STREET (!!!) for the "men in suits" as I called it as a child (the hearings)! I've never gotten over it.

[Vickie]

So much we forget over the years thanks for the refresher course.

[Judy Callarman]

I had a three-year-old and a 9-month-old baby at the time of Watergate. I remembering that I often sat there listening to the broadcasts, amazed. I left a lot of housekeeping undone to keep up with it.

It's a good thing John Dean decided to tell everything--Nixon really damaged the American trust in the Presidency, for all time, I guess.

[Hootin' Anni]

Oh........man, this makes one so upset! I do detest the 'executive privilege'....with any president!!! That sucks.

*breathe deep Anni*---"It'll be okay, soon.