Watergate

Examples of Watergate in the following topics:

• The Effects of Watergate

  • As a result of the Watergate Scandal and Nixon's impeachment hearings, the public lost faith and trust in politicians and elected officials.
  • The impact of the Watergate scandal was intense and far-reaching.
  • Fallout from Watergate led to Democratic victories in the mid-term elections of 1974, in which Democrats gained five seats in the Senate and 49 in the House.
  • Johnson, a professor of journalism at Southern Illinois University, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger predicted during Nixon's final days that history would remember Nixon as a great president and that Watergate would be relegated to a "minor footnote. " In fact, Watergate overshaddows the rest of Nixon's presidency in the memory of many Americans.
  • Examine the far-reaching effects of the Watergate scandal and Nixon's resignation.

• Watergate

  • The Watergate scandal encompasses a series of illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration in 1972, leading to Nixon's resignation.
  • In a speech on August 5, 1974, Nixon, pleading a poor memory, accepted blame for the Watergate scandal.
  • Nixon’s resignation, which took effect the next day, did not make the Watergate scandal vanish.
  • For many, Watergate confirmed these beliefs, and the suffix “-gate” attached to a word has since come to mean a political scandal.
  • Summarize the Watergate scandal, including the arrests, the breaking of the story, and the resignation of President Nixon.

• The Cover-Up and the Unraveling

  • In early 1973, the Senate voted to hold hearings on the Watergate break-in.
  • However, one of the new tapes, recorded soon after the break-in, demonstrated that Nixon had been told of the White House connection to the Watergate burglaries soon after they took place, and had approved plans to thwart the investigation.
  • In a statement accompanying the release of the "Smoking Gun Tape"on August 5, 1974, Nixon accepted blame for misleading the country about when he had been told of the truth behind the Watergate break-in, stating that he had a lapse of memory.
  • Nixon attempted a cover-up of his involvement in the Watergate break-in.

• Conclusion: Political Crises in the 70s and 80s

  • Even before his landslide victory, however, evidence had surfaced that the White House was involved in the break-in at the Democratic National Convention’s headquarters at the Watergate office complex.
  • His successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to solve the pressing problems the United States faced or erase the stain of Watergate.
  • At his inauguration in January 1977, President Jimmy Carter began his speech by thanking outgoing president Gerald Ford for all he had done to “heal” the scars left by Watergate.

• The Election of 1976

  • The United States presidential election of 1976 followed the resignation of President Richard Nixon and subsequent inauguration of Vice President Gerald Ford into the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
  • Because many voters found Carter's framing attractive in the wake of the Watergate scandal, it ultimately led to Carter's advantage.
  • Ford, although personally unconnected with Watergate, was seen by many as too close to the discredited Nixon administration; Ford himself provided further support for this opinion when he granted Nixon a presidential pardon for any crimes he might have committed during his term of office.

• The Nixon Administration

  • However, Nixon resigned before the end of his term on August 9, 1974 amidst a scandal that came to be known as Watergate.
  • On June 17, Nixon was implicated in the burglary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate complex, and he became the only president in American history to resign.

• Administrative Corruption

  • Before the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, Teapot Dome was largely regarded as the greatest and most sensational scandal in American political history.

• The Ford Administration

  • One of his more controversial acts was to grant a presidential pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal.

• The Election of 1972

  • His aides also committed the Watergate burglary to steal Democratic Party information during the campaign, a move that would prove to be Nixon's political downfall.

• The Ford Inauguration

  • When President Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 over the controversy of the Watergate scandal, Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the presidency; this made him the only person to assume the presidency without having been previously voted into either the presidential or vice presidential office.