Watergate Scandal. Presentation by Robert Martinez Primary Content Source: America s History, Sixth Ed. Henretta, Brody and Dumenil. Images as cited.

Transcription

1 Watergate Scandal Presentation by Robert Martinez Primary Content Source: America s History, Sixth Ed. Henretta, Brody and Dumenil. Images as cited.

2 The Election of 1968 Richard Nixon only narrowly won the 1968 election, but the combined total of popular votes for Nixon and Wallace indicated a shift to the right in American politics. The 1960's began as an era of optimism and possibility but ended in disunity and distrust. The Vietnam war and a series of assassinations and crises eroded public trust in government and produced a backlash against liberal movements and the Democratic party.

3 The Election of 1968 Nixon campaigned as a champion of the "silent majority," the hardworking Americans who paid taxes, did not demonstrate, and desired a restoration of "law and order. He vowed to restore respect for the rule of law, reconstitute the stature of America, dispose of ineffectual social programs, and provide strong leadership to end the turmoil of the 1960's.

4 Questions to think about: How did the 1968 election influence Nixon s Actions? What did the 1968 election results say about what Americans were feeling toward government?

5 Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers Daniel Ellsberg was an employee of the Defense Department who leaked a classified assessment of the Vietnam War in The 7,000 page document came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. They cast doubt on the justification for entry into the war and revealed that senior government officials had serious misgivings about the war. When the New York Times and Washington Post began to publish the Pentagon Papers, the Nixon Administration sued them. The Supreme Court ruled that the papers could continue to publish the documents.

6 Question to consider: What modern day leaks have been similarly received by the government?

7 The White House Plumbers Howard Hunt G. Gordon Liddy After the release of the Pentagon Papers, the White House created a unit to ensure internal security. This unit was called the Plumbers because they stopped leaks. In 1971 *they burglarized the office of Daniel Ellsberg s psychiatrist, seeking material to discredit him. It was later revealed that Nixon s domestic advisor John Ehrlichman knew of and approved the plan. James McCord Chuck Colson

8 On June 17, 1972, five men carrying wiretapping equipment were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee s headquarters located in the Watergate Complex in Washington D.C.

9 Watergate Burglars James McCord Vergiliio Gonzalez Frank Sturgis Eugenio Martinez Bernard Barker

10 Watergate office complex where the Democratic National Committee headquarters were located. A security guard noticed an exit door had been taped to keep the latch open. He removed the tape but on his second round found that it had been retaped and called the police.

11 When police arrived, they found five burglars who were attempting to bug the offices of the Democratic National Headquarters. All five men worked for the Committee to Reelect the President, President Richard Nixon's campaign committee. Seized wiretapping evidence

12 Questioned by the press, the White House dismissed the incident as a thirdrate burglary attempt. Pressed further, President Nixon himself denied any White House involvement.

13 In fact, G. Gordon Liddy & E. Howard Hunt, were former FBI and CIA agents currently working for Nixon s Committee to Re-elect the President. Their job was to protect the Nixon administration, anyway necessary, legal or not. G. Gordon Liddy Howard Hunt

14 Hunt and Libby had arranged for the illegal wiretaps (listening devices) at the Democratic headquarters, part of their campaign of dirty tricks against the rival Democratic party.

15 Quiz Question Back to the question of the role of the election of 1968 on Watergate Break-in!

16 The Watergate incident was not an isolated incident. It was part of a pattern of illegality and misuse of power by a paranoid and ruthless White House. Move over, we can t stay in a holding pattern forever People Actions Words Symbols Point of View Analyze the political cartoon using the items above!

17 Nixon could have dissociated himself from the break-in by dismissing his guilty aides, but it was election time. Fearful of bad press, he arranged hush money for the burglars and instructed the CIA to stop the FBI investigation.

18 Ordering the CIA to stop the FBI from investigating the Watergate incident was an obstruction of justice, a criminal offense.

19 Nixon managed to keep the lid on the incident until after his re-election, but eventually the lid blew off due to congressional investigations.

20 The Election of 1972 Despite the growing stain of Watergate, which had not yet reached the President, Nixon won by the largest margin in history to that point.

21 The Watergate Investigations: Judge John Sirica Watergate came to be investigated by a Special Prosecutor, a Senate committee, and by the judge in the original breakin case. Judge Sirica refused to believe that the burglars had acted alone. Sirica s investigation transformed Watergate from the story of a thirdrate burglary to a scandal reaching the highest points in government.

22 In January 1973, the Watergate burglars were found guilty. One of them began to talk about his White House connections.

23 In the meantime, two reporters at the Washington Post, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, uncovered the Committee s to Re-elects illegal slush fund and its links to key White House aides.

24 Woodward, Bernstein and the Washington Post Despite enormous political pressure, Post editor Ben Bradlee, publisher Katherine Graham, Woodward and Bernstein, aided by an enigmatic source nicknamed Deepthroat kept the story in the public consciousness until Nixon s resignation. The identity of Deepthroat was kept secret until W. Mark Felt unmasked himself in 2005.

25 The slush fund received its money illegally from the campaign contributions of the Republican party to finance mischief against anyone that posed a threat to the Nixon administration.

26 In May 1973, a Senate committee began holding nationally televised hearings, at which it was discovered that the Watergate break-in was linked to the White House. Attorney General John Mitchell, controlled secret slush fund. Served 19 months in prison for his involvement.

27 Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes In June 1973, former White House legal counsel John Dean delivered devastating testimony that implicated Nixon from the earliest days of Watergate. Sam Irvin Howard Baker

28 Senate Investigation and the Oval Office Tapes The Administration was eager to discredit Dean and his testimony so it began to release factual challenges to his account. In July former White House aide Alexander Butterfield was asked about the source of the White House information, he revealed the existence of an automatic taping system that Nixon had secretly installed in the Oval Office. These tapes would become the focus of the investigation.

29 Claiming executive privilege, Nixon refused to surrender the White House tapes.

30 The Saturday Night Massacre October 20, 1973 Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox issued Nixon a subpoena of the tapes. Nixon offered compromise (he would release a transcript of the tapes) The compromise was not accepted by Cox Since the Special Prosecutor is an employee of the Justice Department, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Archibald Cox

31 The Saturday Night Massacre When Richardson refused, he was fired. Nixon ordered Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. When he refused, he was fired. Robert Bork Nixon then ordered Solicitor General Robert Bork (who was later nominated for the Supreme Court by Reagan) to fire Cox and he complied. The Washington Post reported on the Saturday Night Massacre.

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33 People: Action: Words: Symbols: Point of View: Analyze the political cartoon using the items above.

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35 Finally on June 23, 1974, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release the unaltered tapes. (United States v. Nixon) Lawyers were shocked to find concrete evidence that the president had ordered the cover-up of the Watergate break-in.

36 18 ½ Minutes Once tapes were released it was discovered that one tape had a mysterious gap of 18 ½ minutes Experts said there were five separate erasures. Nixon s aides denied that any intentional erasures had occurred and blamed the 18 ½ - minute gap on an accidental erasure by Nixon s secretary, Rose Mary Woods. Woods told Judge Sirica she had accidently erased the tape while she was transcribing it, but her description was rather implausible and accounted for only 5 minutes of erasure, leaving 13 ½ minutes of missing tape unaccounted for.

37 By then, (1974) the House of Representatives had began to consider articles of impeachment, to remove the president from office.

38 Certain that he would be convicted by the Senate, on August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign from office.

39 Gerald Ford swears in as President of the United States.

40 The next day, Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president. Congressman Ford had replaced Vice President Spiro Agnew, who had himself resigned in 1973 for accepting kickbacks while governor of Maryland.

41 A month later, Ford stunned the nation by granting Nixon a full, free, and absolute pardon for all offenses he had committed or might have committed during his presidency.

42 President Ford took that action, he said, to spare the country the agony of Nixon s criminal prosecution. He felt the country needed to move on.

43 First lesson of Watergate that, in America, the rule of law prevailed. No one is above the law, not even the president.

44 A second lesson involved the constitutional separation of powers. As commander-in-chief, Nixon asserted unlimited authority, excusing his wiretapping. The president does not have absolute power due to checks & balances.

45 Congress pushed back against the abuses of the Nixon administration, passing the War Powers Act (1973), limiting the president s ability to deploy U.S. forces without congressional approval.

46 Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act (1974), protecting privacy and access to federal records, and the Fair Campaign Practices Act (1974), limiting and regulating contributions in presidential campaigns.

47 Lastly, Congress passed the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978), prohibiting domestic wiretapping without a warrant.

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