467). While Woodward and Bernstein got the credit for first bringing the story to light, as media reports increased, later research showed that much of what newspapers, radio and television reported to the public had already been discovered by investigative agencies such as the FBI (Feldstein,-PAGE), which suggests that perhaps the famous informer who met periodically with Woodward might have been someone from inside the FBI.
Eventually, money paid to two of the burglars, James McCord and G. Gordon LIddy, were traced to the Committee to Re-Elect the President ((Staff writers, p. 467). However, that did not implicate President Nixon. Jeb Magruder, Deputy Director for the Committee to Re-Elect the President (Emery, p. xvii), had begun the initial cover-up activities. Eventually, however, White House Counsel John Dean took over the task of coordinating the cover-up. When called before a Congressional committee, Dean spoke the truth and reported extensive White House involvement in both the break-in and the cover-up (Rosen,-PAGE).
However, not everyone believed Dean, and except for one mistake by Nixon, he might never have been tied to the break-in and following events. What may have brought Richard Milhaus Nixon's presidency to an end, forcing him to resign or face impeachment, may have been hubris. His landslide victory in the 1972 presidential election, in which he won all the electoral votes for 49 of the 50 states, may have led him to believe that the American people had given him permission to do whatever was necessary for him to achieve his goals (Washington Post Staff, p. 23). Nixon had an elaborate system in his Oval Office for taping conversations. That recording system activated when Watergate...
What happened with Watergate was exactly this type of unfortunate substitute of the democratic process with the will of another institution. The subject of the paper is very important for U.S. history exactly because of the implications of what was previously described. It is not a singular case of an American President attempting to substitute himself to the general democratic framework or usual democratic channels. Andrew Jackson had attempted to decrease
R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Attorney General Richard Kleindienst. In his speech, President Nixon said of the Watergate break-in that he was "appalled... and... shocked to learn that employees of the Re-Election Committee were apparently among those guilty." He then claimed that "there had been an effort to conceal the facts both from the public, from you, and from me." In his speech he said though he had been told
Kennedy won the election by a very narrow margin, 120,000 votes or 0.2% of the electorate. Most historians believe that the primary reason John F. Kennedy won the Presidential Election was because of the non-verbal "poor body language" on the television debate with Richard Nixon in 1960 -- especially valid since radio audiences overwhelmingly voted that Nixon had won the debate. Nixon's body language was furtive, he was perspiring,
Executive Branch Authority to Conduct Foreign Affairs Executive Power is vested in the President of the United States by Article II of the Constitution. Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the American Constitution, called the 'Executive Vesting Clause' has been the constant focus of constitutional analysis, even at the time of its ratification. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton famously debated this clause in 1793, on the specific issue of residual
Media in America as the Fourth Estate: From Watergate to the Present During the 1970's, the role of the media changed from simply reporting the news to revealing serious political scandals (Waisbord, 2001). The media's role during Watergate was viewed as the mirror that reflected the most that journalism could offer to democracy: holding powers accountable for their actions. This became a trend in the American media and journalism had
Richard M. Nixon: The Transformation from Disgraced President to Senior Statesman have chosen a plan for peace for Vietnam. I believe it will succeed. If it does succeed, what the critics say now won't matter. If it does not succeed, anything I say then won't matter. - Richard M. Nixon, televised address to the nation, 1969 While no one would likely call America's long-term involvement in Vietnam as "success" by any
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