802 CHAPTER 24

Watergate: Nixon’s Downfall

One American's Story

On July 25, 1974, Representative Barbara Jordan ofTexas, a member of the House Judiciary Committee,along with the other committee members, consid-ered whether to recommend that President Nixonbe impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”Addressing the room, Jordan cited the Constitutionin urging her fellow committee members to investi-gate whether impeachment was appropriate.

A PERSONAL VOICE BARBARA JORDAN

“ ‘We the people’—it is a very eloquent beginning.But when the Constitution of the United States was completed . . . I was not included in that ‘We the people’. . . . But throughthe process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, Ihave finally been included in ‘We the people’. . . . Today . . .[my] faith in the Constitution is whole. It is complete. It istotal. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator inthe diminution, the subversion, the destruction of theConstitution. . . . Has the President committed offenses . . .which the Constitution will not tolerate?”

—quoted in Notable Black American Women

The committee eventually voted to recommend the impeachment ofRichard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. However, before Congresscould take further action against him, the president resigned. Nixon’s resignation,the first by a U.S. president, was the climax of a scandal that led to the imprison-ment of 25 government officials and caused the most serious constitutional crisisin the United States since the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1868.

President Nixon and His White HouseThe Watergate scandal centered on the Nixon administration’s attempt to coverup a burglary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at theWatergate office and apartment complex in Washington, D.C. However, the

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

•impeachment•Watergate•H. R. Haldeman•John Ehrlichman•John Mitchell

•Committee toReelect thePresident

•John Sirica•Saturday NightMassacre

President Richard Nixon’sinvolvement in theWatergate scandal forcedhim to resign from office.

The Watergate scandal raisedquestions of public trust that stillaffect how the public and mediaskeptically view politicians.

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U.S. RepresentativeBarbara Jordan,1974.

CALIFORNIA STANDARDS

11.8.7 Describe the effects on societyand the economy of technologicaldevelopments since 1945, includingthe computer revolution, changes incommunication, advances in medicine,and improvements in agriculturaltechnology.

11.8.8 Discuss forms of popular cul-ture, with emphasis on their originsand geographic diffusion (e.g., jazzand other forms of popular music,professional sports, architectural andartistic styles).

11.11.4 Explain the constitutional crisis originating from the Watergatescandal.

CST 3 Students use a variety of mapsand documents to interpret humanmovement, including major patternsof domestic and internationalmigration, changing environmentalpreferences and settlement patterns,the frictions that develop betweenpopulation groups, and the diffusionof ideas, technological innovations,and goods.

REP 1 Students distinguish validarguments from fallacious argumentsin historical interpretations.

HI 1 Students show the connections,causal and otherwise, between partic-ular historical events and larger social,economic, and political trends anddevelopments.

HI 4 Students understand the meaning,implication, and impact of historicalevents and recognize that eventscould have taken other directions.

A

B

Watergate story began long before the actual burglary. Many historians believethat Watergate truly began with the personalities of Richard Nixon and those ofhis advisers, as well as with the changing role of the presidency.

AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY When Richard Nixon took office, the executivebranch—as a result of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War—had become the most powerful branch of government. In his book The ImperialPresidency, the historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., argued that by the time RichardNixon became president, the executive branch had taken on an air of imperial, orsupreme, authority.

President Nixon settled into this imperial role with ease. Nixon believed, as hetold a reporter in 1980, that “a president must not be one of the crowd. . . . People. . . don’t want him to be down there saying, ‘Look, I’m the same as you.’” Nixonexpanded the power of the presidency with little thought to constitutional checks,as when he impounded funds for federal programs that he opposed, or when heordered troops to invade Cambodia without congressional approval.

THE PRESIDENT’S MEN As he dis-tanced himself from Congress, Nixonconfided in a small and fiercely loyalgroup of advisers. They included H. R. Haldeman, White House chiefof staff; John Ehrlichman, chiefdomestic adviser; and John Mitchell,Nixon’s former attorney general. Thesemen had played key roles in Nixon’s1968 election victory and now helpedthe president direct White House policy.

These men also shared PresidentNixon’s desire for secrecy and the con-solidation of power. Critics chargedthat these men, through their person-alities and their attitude toward thepresidency, developed a sense thatthey were somehow above the law.This sense would, in turn, promptPresident Nixon and his advisers tocover up their role in Watergate, andfuel the coming scandal.

The Drive TowardReelectionThroughout his political career, Richard Nixon lived with the overwhelming fearof losing elections. By the end of the 1972 reelection campaign, Nixon’s cam-paign team sought advantages by any means possible, including an attempt tosteal information from the DNC headquarters.

A BUNGLED BURGLARY At 2:30 A.M., June 17, 1972, a guard at the Watergatecomplex in Washington, D.C., caught five men breaking into the campaign head-quarters of the DNC. The burglars planned to photograph documents outliningDemocratic Party strategy and to place wiretaps, or “bugs,” on the office telephones.The press soon discovered that the group’s leader, James McCord, was a formerCIA agent. He was also a security coordinator for a group known as the Committeeto Reelect the President (CRP). John Mitchell, who had resigned as attorneygeneral to run Nixon’s reelection campaign, was the CRP’s director.

An Age of Limits 803

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

ASummarizing

What ismeant by “imperialpresidency”?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingMotives

Why would theNixon campaignteam take such arisky action asbreaking into theopposition’sheadquarters?

The Inner Circle

John EhrlichmanChief Domestic Advisor

John W. Dean III Presidential Counsel

H.R. HaldemanChief of Staff

John N. Mitchell Attorney General

804 CHAPTER 24

Just three days after the burglary, H. R. Haldeman noted in his diary Nixon’snear obsession with how to respond to the break-in.

A PERSONAL VOICE H. R. HALDEMAN

“ The P[resident] was concerned about what our counterattack is. . . . He raisedit again several times during the day, and it obviously is bothering him. . . . Hecalled at home tonight, saying that he wanted to change the plan for his pressconference and have it on Thursday instead of tomorrow, so that it won’t look likehe’s reacting to the Democratic break-in thing.”

—The Haldeman Diaries

The cover-up quickly began. Workers shredded allincriminating documents in Haldeman’s office. The WhiteHouse, with President Nixon’s consent, asked the CIA tourge the FBI to stop its investigations into the burglary onthe grounds of national security. In addition, the CRPpassed out nearly $450,000 to the Watergate burglars tobuy their silence after they were indicted in September of 1972.

Throughout the 1972 campaign, the Watergate bur-glary generated little interest among the American publicand media. Only the Washington Post and two of itsreporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, kept on thestory. In a series of articles, the reporters uncovered infor-mation that linked numerous members of the administra-tion to the burglary. The White House denied each new Postallegation. Upon learning of an upcoming story that tiedhim to the burglars, John Mitchell told Bernstein, “That’sthe most sickening thing I ever heard.”

The firm White House response to the charges, and itspromises of imminent peace in Vietnam, proved effective inthe short term. In November, Nixon was reelected by alandslide over liberal Democrat George S. McGovern. ButNixon’s popular support was soon to unravel.

The Cover-Up UnravelsIn January 1973, the trial of the Watergate burglars began.The trial’s presiding judge, John Sirica, made clear hisbelief that the men had not acted alone. On March 20, afew days before the burglars were scheduled to be sen-tenced, James McCord sent a letter to Sirica, in which heindicated that he had lied under oath. He also hinted thatpowerful members of the Nixon administration had beeninvolved in the break-in.

THE SENATE INVESTIGATES WATERGATE McCord’s rev-elation of possible White House involvement in the burglaryaroused public interest in Watergate. President Nixonmoved quickly to stem the growing concern. On April 30,1973, Nixon dismissed White House counsel John Dean andannounced the resignations of Haldeman, Ehrlichman andAttorney General Richard Kleindienst, who had recently

replaced John Mitchell following Mitchell’s resignation. The president then wenton television and denied any attempt at a cover-up. He announced that he was

WOODWARD AND BERNSTEIN

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernsteinof the Washington Post seemedan unlikely team. Woodward, 29(at right in the photo above), hadgraduated from Yale, while the28-year-old Bernstein was a col-lege dropout.

As the two men dug deeper intothe Watergate scandal, a mysteri-ous inside source known only asDeep Throat helped them to uncov-er the scandal. Nearly 30 yearslater, the reporters still refuse toidentify their famous source.

While people lauded the tworeporters for their dogged deter-mination, some Nixon officialsremain bitter toward them.

“I really believe [they] were on a personal crusade to bring downa president,” said Gerald Warren,Nixon’s deputy press secretary.Woodward denied that charge,saying, “We tried to do our joband, in fact, if you look at it, our coverage was pretty conserv-ative.”

SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHTHISTORICALHISTORICAL

C

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

ChronologicalOrder

What steps didthe White Housetake to cover upits involvement inthe Watergatebreak-in?

E

appointing a new attorney general, Elliot Richardson, and was authoriz-ing him to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Watergate. “Therecan be no whitewash at the White House,” Nixon said.

The president’s reassurances, however, came too late. In May 1973,the Senate began its own investigation of Watergate. A special committee,chaired by Senator Samuel James Ervin of North Carolina, began to call administration officials to give testimony. Throughout the summermillions of Americans sat by their televisions as the “president’s men” testified one after another.

STARTLING TESTIMONY John Deandelivered the first bomb. In late June,during more than 30 hours of testimo-ny, Dean provided a startling answer toSenator Howard Baker’s repeated ques-tion, “What did the president know andwhen did he know it?” The former WhiteHouse counsel declared that PresidentNixon had been deeply involved in thecover-up. Dean referred to one meetingin which he and the president, alongwith several advisers, discussed strate-gies for continuing the deceit.

The White House strongly deniedDean’s charges. The hearings had sud-denly reached an impasse as the commit-tee attempted to sort out who was tellingthe truth. The answer came in Julyfrom an unlikely source: presidentialaide Alexander Butterfield. Butterfieldstunned the committee when herevealed that Nixon had taped virtuallyall of his presidential conversations.Butterfield later claimed that the tapingsystem was installed “to help Nixonwrite his memoirs.” However, for theSenate committee, the tapes were thekey to revealing what Nixon knew andwhen he knew it.

THE SATURDAY NIGHT MASSACREA year-long battle for the “Nixon tapes” followed. Archibald Cox, the specialprosecutor whom Elliot Richardson had appointed to investigate the case, tookthe president to court in October 1973 to obtain the tapes. Nixon refused andordered Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. In what became known as theSaturday Night Massacre, Richardson refused the order and resigned. Thedeputy attorney general also refused the order, and he was fired. Solicitor GeneralRobert Bork finally fired Cox. However, Cox’s replacement, Leon Jaworski, provedequally determined to get the tapes. Several months after the “massacre,” theHouse Judiciary Committee began examining the possibility of an impeachmenthearing.

The entire White House appeared to be under siege. Just days before theSaturday Night Massacre, Vice President Spiro Agnew had resigned after it wasrevealed that he had accepted bribes from Maryland engineering firms, as governorof Maryland, and during his term as vice president. Acting under the Twenty-fifth

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“ Divine rightwent out withthe AmericanRevolution anddoesn’t belong to White Houseaides.”SENATOR SAM ERVIN

D

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The Watergatehearings, chairedby Senator SamErvin, shown (top left) withSam Dash, chiefcounsel to theSenateWatergateCommittee,made headlinesthroughout thesummer of 1973.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

DrawingConclusions

What wassignificant aboutthe revelation thatNixon taped hisconversations?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

ESummarizing

What eventsled to theSaturday NightMassacre?

AnalyzingAnalyzing

Amendment, Nixon nominated the House minority leader, Gerald R. Ford, as hisnew vice-president. Congress quickly confirmed the nomination.

The Fall of a PresidentIn March 1974, a grand jury indicted seven presidential aides on charges of con-spiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. The investigation was closing in onthe president of the United States.

NIXON RELEASES THE TAPES In the springof 1974, President Nixon told a television audi-ence that he was releasing 1,254 pages of edit-ed transcripts of White House conversationsabout Watergate. Nixon’s offering failed to sat-isfy investigators, who demanded the uneditedtapes. Nixon refused, and the case went beforethe Supreme Court. On July 24, 1974, the highcourt ruled unanimously that the presidentmust surrender the tapes. The Court rejectedNixon’s argument that doing so would violatenational security. Evidence involving possible

criminal activity could not be withheld, even by a president. President Nixonmaintained that he had done nothing wrong. At a press conference in November1973, he proclaimed defiantly, “I am not a crook.”

THE PRESIDENT RESIGNS Even without holding the original tapes, the HouseJudiciary Committee determined that there was enough evidence to impeachRichard Nixon. On July 27, the committee approved three articles of impeachment,charging the president with obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contemptof Congress for refusing to obey a congressional subpoena to release the tapes.

806 CHAPTER 24

THE WHITE HOUSE TAPESDuring the Watergate hearings a bombshellexploded when it was revealed that PresidentNixon secretly tape-recorded all conversationsin the Oval Office. Although Nixon hoped thetapes would one day help historians documentthe triumphs of his presidency, they were usedto confirm his guilt.

SKILLBUILDERAnalyzing Political Cartoons

1. What does this cartoon imply about privacyduring President Nixon’s term in office?

2. What building has been transformed into agiant tape recorder?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.

BackgroundAlthough historianssued for accessto thousands ofhours of tapes, itwas not untilsome 21 yearslater, in 1996,that an agreementwas made forover 3,700 hoursof tape to bemade public.

AUTH copyright © Philadelphia Inquirer. Reprinted with permission of UniversalPress Syndicate. All rights reserved.

The originalNixon WhiteHouse taperecorder andtape from the1970s.

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An Age of Limits 807

•impeachment•Watergate•H. R. Haldeman

•John Ehrlichman•John Mitchell

•Committee to Reelect thePresident

•John Sirica•Saturday Night Massacre

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES (11.11.4)

Use a time line like the one belowto trace the events of the Watergatescandal.

Which event made Nixon's downfallcertain?

CRITICAL THINKING3. HYPOTHESIZING (HI 4)

If Nixon had admitted to andapologized for the Watergate break-in, how might subsequent eventshave been different? Explain. Think About:

• the extent of the cover-up• the impact of the cover-up• Nixon’s public image

4. ANALYZING EVENTS (11.11.4)How did the Watergate scandalcreate a constitutional crisis?

5. EVALUATING (HI 4)Do you think that Nixon would havebeen forced to resign if the tapeshad not existed? Explain youranswer.

event

event event

eventJune1972

August1974

On August 5, Nixon released the tapes. Theycontained many gaps, and one tape revealed adisturbing 181/2-minute gap. According to theWhite House, Rose Mary Woods, PresidentNixon’s secretary, accidentally erased part of a conversation between H. R. Haldeman andNixon. More importantly, a tape dated June 23,1972—six days after the Watergate break-in—that contained a conversation between Nixonand Haldeman, disclosed the evidence investi-gators needed. Not only had the presidentknown about his administration’s role in theburglary, he had agreed to the plan to cover upand obstruct the FBI’s investigation.

The evidence now seemed overwhelming.On August 8, 1974, before the full House vote onthe articles of impeachment began, PresidentNixon announced his resignation from office. Defiant asalways, Nixon admitted no guilt. He merely said that someof his judgments “were wrong.” The next day, Nixon andhis wife, Pat, returned home to California. A short timelater, Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of theUnited States.

THE EFFECTS OF WATERGATE The effects of Watergatehave endured long after Nixon’s resignation. Eventually,25 members of the Nixon Administration were convictedand served prison terms for crimes connected toWatergate. Along with the divisive war in Vietnam,Watergate produced a deep disillusionment with the“imperial” presidency. In the years following Vietnamand Watergate, the American public and the media devel-oped a general cynicism about public officials that still existstoday. Watergate remains the scandal and investigative storyagainst which all others are measured.

With wife Pat looking on, Richard Nixonbids farewell to his staff on his final day aspresident. Nixon’s resignation letter isshown above.

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