Watergate. A classroom play by Team HOPE. Cast List. George H. W. Bush (BUSH). Chairman of the Republican Party

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1 Watergate A classroom play by Team HOPE Cast List George H. W. Bush (). Chairman of the Republican Party Elijah Lovejoy (ANCH).... anchor of The History News Report Margaret Fuller () reporter for The History News Report Nellie Bly ()..... reporter for The History News Report Ernie Pyle (.... reporter for The History News Report

2 TEACHER NOTES SETTING: A contemporary classroom. It is advised to set up the anchor in the front of the room facing the class, in front of some sort of background with The History New Report. You many choose to set up the different reporters conducting the interviews around the classroom and have the historical figures come to them. This way it gives the appearance of different locations. A name plate in front of each cast member is highly recommended. A 5x8 index card folded in half works great for this purpose. COSTUMES: Although not necessary, any period costumes for the historical figures are a great addition. Even a simple hat or wig is excellent. MASKS: Masks are an easy addition that will add to the drama and make the entire event more fun for the students. First, go to and click on image search. Type in the historical figure s name and find an image of the person. Copy and paste the picture in a Word document. You may need to crop and then enlarge the photo so you get a picture large enough to be used as a mask. Portraits obviously work best for this use. Print out the picture and paste it onto a cardboard backing. You can tape a plastic spoon or popsicle stick to be used as a handle. You may decide to make masks for the student correspondents as well, using pictures of television news personalities for the masks. Note: If there is a historical person you cannot find a picture for, don t despair! Almost any random period person s picture (as long as it not someone easily recognizable) would work as a mask. ROLES: Encourage students to act out the roles with as much energy as possible. Do not be too terribly concerned that the sex of the historical figure matching with the sex of the student. The teacher may decide to take a part in the play, role-modeling one of the historical figures. It is recommended that five copies of the scripts are specifically set aside for each character in the play. For each character, highlight all their lines in order to facilitate a faster pace of dialogue. All other students should receive an unmarked copy of the play to read as the play is performed. ANCHOR AND REPORTERS: In order to facilitate the historical discussions that exist in the plays, actual famous journalist names have been used in the plays. Teachers should point out that these journalists come from different times in American history and do not necessarily reflect the period they report on. It is as if they can travel in time to deliver The History News Report. A teacher may also decide to substitute the names given in the script for student names if desired. A brief description of the journalists is as follows: Elijah Lovejoy ( ) A minister and journalist for the St. Louis Observer and later editor of the abolitionist newspaper the Alton Observer of Alton, Illinois. In 1837, pro-slavery forces attacked his warehouse in order to destroy his printing press and he was murdered on the scene. Margaret Fuller ( ) An early woman rights activist, Margaret was the first female journalist to work on the staff of a major American newspaper, The New York Tribune. She was a widely read literary critic who was also sent on overseas assignments to Europe. Nellie Bly ( ) After a writing a fiery rebuttal to a sexist column in the Pittsburgh Dispatch, Nellie was hired by a very impressed editor at the newspaper. She went on to become a famous investigative journalist on the plight of working women, and gained further fame for having faked insanity in order to investigate the treatment of the mentally ill. Ernie Pyle ( ) An American journalist who was a roving correspondent for Scripps Howard newspaper chain. His articles were read in over 200 newspapers. He is most famous for having been a war correspondent during World War II. He led the charge for Congress to give soldiers battle pay while in combat. He died under heavy fire from a Japanese machine gun nest in the Pacific on April 18, DISCUSSION: Use the attached worksheets to facilitate discussion before and after the play. Students who are not directly involved in the play can attempt to write preliminary answers as the play is performed. The audience should be told that they will be the primarily responsible for the discussion questions at the end of the lesson.

3 Watergate NOTE: All responses by historical figures reflect actual events and beliefs as closely as possible. CAST ABBREVIATIONS George H. W. Bush. Elijah Lovejoy... ANCH Margaret Fuller.. Nellie Bly... Ernie Pyle ANCH Welcome to History News Report, I am your anchor Elijah Lovejoy. The 1972 election featured incumbent President Richard Milhous Nixon against the Democratic challenger George McGovern. Nixon would go on to win on the biggest blowouts in electoral history; however, in the midst of this campaign, several Nixon operates attempted to steal medical records to find dirt on political opponents. This led to the infamous Watergate scandal. To help us better understand this historic event, former Vice President and President of the United States George H.W. Bush has joined us. I am also joined by Margaret Full, Nellie Bly, and Ernie Pyle, HNR News contributors all. Welcome President Bush! ANCH Pleasure to be here! When this scandal took place what was your position Mr. President? I was Chairman of the Republican National Committee. I had that job before I was CIA Director under President Ford. Can you give us some background on the scandal? What was at the root of it? I think looking back, it really had to do with President Nixon s personality. He was a very paranoid person. It s been said that most politicians are convinced people love them, but, President Nixon, he knew people flat out didn t like him. I think this insecurity is at the root of why the scandal happened. Yeah, it doesn t make sense, wasn t he going to win the 72 election easily? It sure seemed that way to all of us. I mean, McGovern was a liberal and he was very upfront about it. That wasn t going to play in America in But Nixon was insecure and felt like he needed to get something on them. Thus the break-in. That s right. The Democrat National Committee headquarters were located at Washington s Watergate Hotel. On June 23, 1972, a group of five low-level

4 operatives were caught breaking into the hotel. Nixon denied any knowledge of it? He sure did, but we know from the White House tapes that Nixon knew about it after the fact and certainly knew about it long before he admitted it to the American people. He lied for two years. He taped his conversations where he admitted knowing about the scandal? That seems, ah, rather not too smart if you ask me. Again, Nixon was paranoid. Early on in his administration he had a new voiceactivated audiotape system in the White House. Ironically, he provided the very evidence of his own lawlessness! So these burglars are arrested and at first Nixon denies it. But at this point, no one has any idea about tapes or that Nixon is involved, right? Correct. In the spring of 1973, pressure was applied to the burglars and they started to implicate higher ups, who then implicated still higher ups. The bombshell was when Secret Service agent Alexander Butterfield admitted to the Senate that Presidential meetings were secretly taped. By the fall the Senate Watergate Committee was exposing widespread abuses by the Nixon administration. And Nixon s Vice President was in trouble too? Yeah, Spiro Agnew was being investigated for taking bribes from highway contractors when he was governor of Maryland. He resigned in October of 1973 in order to escape a jail sentence. Did the Senate get the White House tapes? Not at first. Nixon released a bunch of carefully edited tapes and frankly, they undermined any support he had in the country. In the transcript, Nixon could hardly finish a sentence without some expletive. One Republican Senate leader, Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, called them shabby, disgusting, and immoral. Nixon claimed executive privilege over the rest of the tapes. The Supreme Court would decide if the Senate got them. Was impeachment brought up? The House Judiciary Committee proceeded to vote out three articles of impeachment against President Nixon in June Under the Constitution, impeachment works like this: The House is like a grand jury and indicts the President and the Senate is the jury that has to convict him. Interestingly, Republican members on the Judiciary Committee voted overwhelmingly for impeachment.

5 ANCH The trial went to the Senate? Not so fast. The Supreme Court rules in U.S. v. Nixon in July of 1974 that the president had to give up the White House tapes. Again, the tapes showed he knew all about the break in since it happened. It also showed that he obstructed justice by pressuring the FBI to call off the Watergate investigation. It was all over after that. So he had two options: Face a certain conviction and removal from office, or resign? That s it. Republican leaders in the Senate made it clear he would get no support from them. On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced to the nation in a televised address that he would resign the presidency at noon the next day. And you were there? Barbara, my wife, and I went to the White House that morning and had breakfast. Can hardly describe the atmosphere. Like someone had died. Then we went to the ceremony. President Nixon was there when you arrived? President Nixon looked just awful. He used glasses the first time I ever saw them. Close to breaking down understandably. Everyone in the room in tears. What did he say? The speech was vintage Nixon a kick or two at the press and media enormous strains. One couldn t help but look at the family and the whole thing and think of his accomplishments and then think of the shame and wonder, what kind of man is this really. No morality at all! He kicked his friends in those tapes all of them! What happened after that? Many of the pictures in the White House were changed with a great emphasis on the new President. We went over and hung around waiting for the swearing in of Ford. How was the mood like for that after Nixon s speech? The whole mood changed. It was quiet, respectful, sorrowful, but in one sense, upbeat. The music and the band seemed cheerier, the talking and babbling of voices after Ford s fantastic speech, crowds of friends, indeed a new spirit, a new lift. I walked through the line and the President was warm and friendly, kissing the wives, telling Barbara he appreciated my job, and on and on. It was much more relaxed. Thank you Mr. President for such a detailed report. And so ended a sad chapter in U.S. history; that of Richard Milhous Nixon. For History News Report, I am Elijah Lovejoy reporting.

6 Bennett, William J., America: The Last Best Hope Volume II, Nelson Current, Nashville: 2007, p "President Nixon Leaves the White House 1974," EyeWitness to History, (2007).

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