The Watergate Scandal
Introduction

While the Watergate Scandal in American government erupted in June of 1972 when five men connected to President Nixon were arrested for breaking and entering the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in the Watergate building in D.C., the real scandal encompassed many more months and years that those of the summer of 1972. Indeed, Nixon’s presidency eventually became synonymous with Watergate, as the public began to view him with ever-increasing skepticism and scorn—scorn for a president who represented the abuses of power that the public was tired of seeing—abuses that had led to more and more American casualties in Vietnam, more and more lies told to the American public over popular media, more and more cover-ups of the truth and governmental conniption fits when the truth (such as the Pentagon Papers leaked by Daniel Ellsberg) came to light (Schulzinger, 1997). This paper will describe the Watergate Scandal and how it impacted the U.S. government.

Background and Relevance for Today

President Nixon was up for reelection that year in 1972. He had defeated Humphrey in 1968. Humphrey had been Johnson’s Vice President—but Johnson was not running for re-election and the nomination would have been Robert Kennedy’s, but RFK was assassinated in June of 1968, almost five years after his brother JFK was killed in Dallas, giving the presidency to Johnson. Johnson had escalated the conflict in Vietnam, which mired his presidency and pushed him from Office. RFK had the following, support and standing to take the White House back for the Kennedy’s, and Nixon surely had visions of political defeat at the hands of another Kennedy (he had lost to JFK in 1960). RFK’s death gave him a convenient path to victory and, though tragic, undoubtedly eased his stress about ever becoming president.

The 1960s had, in fact, been a decade of political intrigue and assassinations: JFK in ’63, Malcolm X in ’65, MLK, Jr. in April of ’68 and RFK two months later. These were not insignificant killings: these people were beloved public figures whose leadership and vision would be sorely missed by those who followed them. Obviously they were not beloved by all, and the fact that some in the country rejoiced while others wept indicated the extent to which the division and polarization of American society had developed. So in many ways the times were similar to current days—killings still abound (Seth Rich, Khashoggi et al.) and the nation is just as divided and polarized as ever.

The same problems persist as well: the illegal wiretappings that the Nixon administration engaged in and the subsequent cover-up are similar to the news that the Obama Administration engaged in the same type of spying of the Trump campaign leading up to the 2016 election and even beyond (Barone, 2018). Barone (2018) states, after all, that “defenders of the Obama intelligence and law enforcement apparatus have had to fall back on the argument that this infiltration was for Trump’s—and the nation’s—own good. It’s an argument that evidently didn’t occur to Richard Nixon’s defenders when it became clear that Nixon operatives had burglarized and wiretapped the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in June 1972.” The irony, of course, is that Nixon’s Watergate scandal has always been viewed as a breach of trust of the government and an all-around very bad thing. Yet, today, such measures are viewed as necessary by those of the #NeverTrump movement: “The crime at the root of Watergate was an attempt at surveillance of the DNC after George McGovern seemed about to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, just as the government misconduct in Russiagate was an attempt at surveillance of the Republican Party’s national campaign after Trump clinched its nomination” (Barone, 2018). Some lessons are never learned, it would seem.

Watergate

Nixon’s paranoia was intense, most likely because he himself was involved in shady dealings throughout his public tenure. With the upcoming election, he did not want to take any chances. He wanted to know what his opponents were up to—and so the idea to wiretap and bug the DNC office in the Watergate building in D.C. became the go-to idea. The brainchild was G. Gordon Liddy, who ran Nixon’s re-election campaign (Dean, 2014). The five burglars who were arrested attempting...…fact was that Hunt was blackmailing the White House in order to keep silence: Nixon wanted to pay. Congress viewed that as an impeachable offense—i.e., obstruction of justice. Further evidence was found on the actual tapes (some of which were deleted, which only fueled media speculation that Nixon was trying to hide something) indicating that the President was part of the plan to cover-up the nature of the Watergate break-in. Rather than face impeachment, Nixon resigned from office in August of 1974. He stated eloquently,

To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home (Nixon, 1974).

Nixon handed over the White House to Ford, who promptly pardoned Nixon of any wrongdoing. Two years later Ford would lose the election to Carter, who promised to bring a new spirit of honesty to the White House and to American politics. That lasted four years—then America got back to its good old ways by electing Reagan and ushering in the era of neo-conservatism currently running the Establishment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Watergate Scandal has a lot of similarities to today’s Russiagate. In fact, Watergate serves as the model political governmental scandal and the reason every scandal of today is affixed with the ending –gate. Watergate was a kind of blow-off top in politics, the culmination of a decade of slaughter and intrigue. Whether Nixon really did anything differently from what any other president in modern times would have or has done is probably unlikely—but in American politics the facts do not always matter. Control of the narrative is what matters—and that control can make or break a president.

…