watergate - 1972-1974 Flashcards
watergate scandal with Nixon (21 cards)
CREEP
(after 1952) campaign to re-elect the president, they were told to do whatever necessary to make sure he won the election
Causes of the watergate scandal
- Nixon wanted to stay as president, but public opinion was sub-par (around 50% opposition), because he did not fulfill his promises regarding ending the vietnam war
- Nixon had tapes of the plans of the democratic party, and he destroyed the public opinion of his opposition (illegally)
White House Plumbers
created with / by the CREEP, in charge of investigating information about who was leaking incriminating information (about the campaign) to the media / news outlets
Arrest of 5 men
june 17, 1972, 5 men arrested inside the office of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel
- initially public thought it was a burglary, but instead they went there to install microphones into the office of the party
- devices used to give Nixon ideas on what they were planning (ie. what political campaigns they were planning)
James McCord
(discovered 19 June 1972), One of the five burglars, James McCord worked for the CREEP, but John Mitchell (Head of CREEP) denied involvement
- the discovery was true, later discovered that Mitchell had met with the burglars >3 times for the break-in happened
John Dean
(august 1972) White house lawyer, in charge of investigating this situation (obviously a bit biased because it is a white house lawyer)
- Nixon continues to lei to the public, claiming that no white house staff were involved in this break-in
Nixon’s cover-up
Nixon creates a (secret) cover-up, which prevents the FBI from investigating CREEP, meaning that he commited a federal crime
He also gave all of the burglars 25,000 of hush money, meaning that they could not/shouldn’t give information to the court
- the money was taken from the donations from people to CREEP
Journalism impact
october 1972 - Woodward and Bernstein - reported all of Nixon’s cover-up schemes / his involvement with the break-in to the papers, but this was all denied by Nixon
- caveat was that there was a high mistrust in papers (around 40%)
1972 Election
November 1972 - Still won by Nixon, by a landslide (public opinion of him is still fairly high)
Nixon’s firing of officials
April 1973 - Nixon fires his right hadn men - Dean (his lawyer), Halderman (his chief of staff). Ehrlichman (his advisor) resigns from the job
- they were key players in the watergate scandal, removing tehem meant that the situation woudl (hopefully) be de-escalated
Hearings (of Nixon)
May 1973 - Hearings by Senate Watergate Committee begins, these hearings are aired by many of the TV Networks (85% of Americans watched them)
New evidence (June 1973)
- Liddy and Hunt (consultant and cia agent to CREEP) conenction is found to the CREEP
- there is evidence of the set up of the White House Plumbers, and Nixon’s authorisation of this event
- discovery of the other illegal activities used by Nixon’s campaign to discredit his opponenets
- John Dean reveals that there were over 35 discussions of the break-in COVERUP with Nixon
Audio Tapes
Revealed in July 1973 by John Dean,, that there were tapes of their conversations since 1971
- these tapes were requested by the watergate committee, and Nixon denies them, leading to a lawsuit agaisnt Nixon
Nixon initially handing over tapes
October 1973 - but these tapes were heavily censored and contained long sections (~20 minutes) of blanked out audio
–> he claimed they were due to swearing, but it was actually because the evidenced contained was incriminating
- Strain / pressure placed on Nixon
“I am not a crook”
October 1973 - Speech made by Nixon in disneyland, to try and appeal to the American audience
Tapes handed over
July 1974 - Nixon is ordered to release the full / uncensored version of the tapes by the Supreme COurt
- Smoking Gun tape - contains the conversation between Nixon and Haldeman discussing the cover-up stories
Nixon Resigns
August 1974 - Nixon resigns as President, avoiding Impeachment
- Gerald Ford replaces him
Laws passed as an impact of watergate
1973 war powers act - government was unable to wage war / join war without the approval of congress
1974 congressional budget and impoundment control act - restricted the way that the government could spend money and required money spending to be approved by Congress (spending becomes delayed)
1974 Electoral campaign amendment act - restricted the amount of money that the government could spend on the electoral campaign and the magnitude of their spending. Increased the transparency in which the moeny was donated from
1974 privacy act - restricted how much data that the government could keep on the information about the residents
–> government couldn’t store information on the computers of other citizens
Impact on the government / public perception of politics
- discredited the government and caused public mistrust in relation to the government due to the betrayal of the president
- showed that the 3-way governmental system of USA was effective - congress/supreme court still able to condemn and depreciate Nixon and remove his power
- shows the somewhat corrupt system of American politics and also after vietnam war there was a lack of trust in the American military
Gerald Ford
president that succeeded Nixon after he resigned (USA’s only unelected president)
- pardoned Nixon of ALL his crimes
- wanted to allow USA to move past the watergate scandal and help the USA to recover
- however 30 other officials and advisors were convicted by Nixon, and sent to prison
impact of journalism
Woodward and Bernstein - continued reports on the watergate scandal, shows the power of journalism and how it could be used to bring down an entire government
- increased the (public) strained placed on Nixon and influenced the public’s mindset / viewpoint of Nixon.
