Watergate

[jeanette1976]

In short, what is the basic story which surrounds Watergate? Is it that Richard Nixon started blabbing on paper what he thought of the Vietnam War and/or Fidel Castro and the room was burgled? If so, why and who by? I thought he was the guy who set up the FBI? Probs mixed up... I tried to read up about it in my Conspirasies book, but it was a lot of jargon and stuff i didn't really understand... Thanks

[vehelpfulguy]

Part 1 of 2

Nixon had been a politician for years, but had suffered some bad defeats.

So when he eventually became President he decided to use any means he could to STAY President.

To that end he created a department who would use underhand methods to try to discredit his opponents.

One of his opponents had been seeing a phyciatrist, who was based in the Watergate building.

Some of his people decided to burgle the phyciatrist's office to see if he could find evidence against him (wife beater or whatever).

But the burglers were caught and taken to court.

At first nobody linked it to Nixon or his team, but Nixon tried to hush it up. They paid money to the burglers to keep them quiet, and did other things to try to protect themselves.

Watergate went on for many months, with newspaper reporters gradually finding out more and more.

During this period Nixon won an election so was due to serve another 4 year term.

[vehelpfulguy]

Part 2 of 2

So Nixon got his second term.

But reporters began to find out more and more about this secret team that he had set up.

They learned about secret bank accounts, safe's full of cash, and so on.

It began to look bad for Nixon, but he denied knowing anything about Watergate or trying to hush it up (the Watergate cover up). Nobody could prove he knew anything about Watergate.

Gradually some of staff were arrested, some resigned, some were sacked, some went to prison, but it looked like Nixon had escaped.

Then he admitted that all meetings in the White House had been taped for his own use (nobody else knew he was doing this).

So people began to ask to hear the tapes, but Nixon refused.

So eventually a court order was issued for the tapes, but before he handed them over he wiped some of the sections off the tape.

This looked bad for Nixon as it made him look guilty.

He eventually handed over the tapes, and people began to talk about impeaching him (arresting and trying him).

He eventually realised to was boxed in to a corner so he resigned.

In some way he was unlucky because he did a great job in working with both Russia and China in begining to open those areas that had been caught up in the cold war.

But there is no doubt he had a nasty side and for that he lost his job.

[jackthehat]

vehelpfulguy - I shall cut, paste and save your answer to use as the perfect synopsis of an important event in Western Politics.

I wish it was up to me to award the stars :o)

[vehelpfulguy]

Two of the reporters who did a lot to force Nixon out of his job were Woodward and Bernstein from the Washington post (there were lots of others, also from other papers, who did their bit, but these 2 guys are the most famous)

Carl Bernstein wrote a book called All the Presidents Men about the story. Probably out of print but you may be able to find one.

They also made a film called All the Presidents Men with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford which you can probably get on DVD.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Presidents-Men-Ber nstein-Carl/dp/0446307033/ref=sr_1_1/026-52696 31-6451642?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190292378&sr=8 -1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Presidents-Men-Dis c-Special/dp/B000CDINU4/ref=sr_1_2/026-5269631 -6451642?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1190292378&sr=8-2

[annavc]

verhelpfulguy - that was a very good synopsis of events, although can I just take issue with one small point. The break in was not of a psychiatrist's office it was the offices of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee that was burgled, housed in the Watergate building, which was and still is a combination of offices and a hotel. The DNC is the organisation which governs the running of the Democratic Party.

[vehelpfulguy]

annavc, yes I think you are right.

I was thinking of the Daniel Ellsburg burglary which was where Nixon's team broke into the office of his phyciatrist and it became part of the Watergate "bigger picture".

The wiki site for Ellsburg says:

In one of Nixon's actions against Ellsberg, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, members of the White House Special Investigation Unit (also called the "White House Plumbers") broke into Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in September 1971, hoping to find information they could use to discredit him. The revelation of the break-in became part of the Watergate scandal. Due to the gross governmental misconduct, all charges against Ellsberg were eventually dropped. White House counsel Charles Colson was later prosecuted and pled no contest for obstruction of justice in the burglary of Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office.

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

[annavc]

veryhelpfulguy - that's really interesting. I didn't know about that part of it. The whole thing fascinates me.

[jackthehat]

Right then..............more cut and pasting...........:o)

[vehelpfulguy]

The film called "Nixon" by Oliver Stone includes a lot about Watergate.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113987/

[jno]

yes... one of the points to be made about breaking into the offices of your political rivals is that it kind of subverts the whole democratic process. That's why I consider Watergate a far worse scandal than Clinton and Monica, which was essentially a personal matter (though many Americans feel differently). But Nixon had to quit to avoid being impeached. Clinton stayed, was impeached (by the Senate rather than a court of law), and hastily let off when everyone realised that voters didn't give a damn.

Although Ellsburg's case sort of got involved in the Watergate scandal, at the time it felt like a largely separate business; the Pentagon Papers issue was mostly about freedom of the press to publish things the government doesn't like.