Nixon's Involvement In The Watergate Scandal

In the 1970’s, America not only witnessed the worst political scandal of the twentieth century, but also one of the most successful acts of investigative journalism to ever be done in America. The Watergate Scandal included a series of illegal activities initiated by members of President Nixon’s administration, the most significant crime being the break in and wiretapping of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972. CREEP (Committee to Reelect the President) funded these illegal projects by hiring people like the White House Plumbers to carry on missions to stop the leaking of classified information. The Watergate Scandal’s origins lay in the Fielding and DNC Headquarter’s break in, then the illegal activities were uncovered

In recent elections on the congressional level as well as for President we see the growing influences of interest groups in the form of PAC’s and Super PAC’s to back candidates. Super PAC’s can spend an unrestricted amount money to support a certain problems or candidate but cannot donate directly to the campaigns. PAC’s work with campaigns directly reallocating donations to candidates and parties.

When Nixon won his second term burglars broke into the Democratic Campaign Headquarters in Washington’s Watergate Complex. Tracks were found leading to government officials. The Nixon administration denied having the opponent building be broken into, but it was soon found that he did. Nixon was recording conversations in the Oval Office. Nixon was told to give up the tapes but he did not. He thought that he was the president and he was above the constitution. American democracy was made to not have a king, but Nixon thought he was the king, he thought he was above the law. The decision was taken to court and it was ruled 8-0 against Nixon and he had to give up the tapes.

After the break-in, Nixon needed to protect his image so that American’s could still trust him. To accomplish this, he let a number of employees take the blame for him. The Watergate Seven were a group of men involved in the scandal, who were also advisors and aides to President Nixon. On January 8, 1973, these men were put to trial. With urges from Nixon, five of the seven pleaded guilty. Then on January 30, 1973, six of Nixon’s aides and the lawyer for his re-election committee were charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to cover-up the break in. This included John Mitchell, Harry Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles W. Colson, Gordon Strachan, and Kenneth Wells Parkinson. However, after the trial, CIA operative, James W. McCord, wrote a letter to Judge John Sirica. In which he claimed that the defendants had pleaded guilty under duress. He also said that they committed perjury and that others were involved in the Watergate break-in. Leading to further pressure being put on Nixon and his alleged involvement in the break-in. Eventually, Nixon’s deceitful involvement would be revealed to the American public.

During Richard Nixon’s Presidency in 1972, five people broke into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Washington D.C., these five burglars were trying to find secret documents and tried to wiretap phones. The five were all connected to Nixon’s campaign, raising some flags about him being involved, somehow ordering them to do this. After suspicions grew, and he found out about him getting impeached, he resigned as President, leaving Gerald Ford as the 38th president of the US. Gerald Ford did something that would ruin his image, he gave Richard Nixon pardon for all the wrongdoings that he’s ever done while in office. Was he right for doing this?

The next presidential election will be one like no one has ever seen before in terms of campaign funding and expenses. Even now, the GOP Presidential Primary races are already showing signs of how money will not be an object for their presidential candidate. The seemingly limitless budget exists for these candidates thanks to the so-called Super PACs (Political Action Committees). These Super PACs are allowed to come up with independent financing for the presidential campaign, sans any budgetary ceilings. The inner workings of such a committee has left a bad taste in the mouths of the voters even though very little is known about the actual history and reasons for the existence of the Super PACS. This paper will delve into the committee's

Many people think that all Nixon did in his presidency was the watergate scandal, but in reality he helped stop Americans fighting in the Vietnam War. When Richard Nixon started in Office he was faced with the difficult task of trying to pull all US troops out of Vietnam. He decided to use a tactic he created called Vietnamization. The simple plan was to strengthen South Vietnam so they could fight the war by themselves. The plan involved many small steps which helped finally end our involvement in January 1973.

There’s no doubt that money has always played a leading role in the United State’s elections — Jackson sourced his win to grass-roots donations, Vanderbilt spent immeasurable sums of money to influence elections, and Lincoln went broke by spending personal money on his campaign — what’s disturbing is the recent necessity of its importance in grossly expanded sums. Currently, 85% of Congressional campaign money comes from private, large contributions, often made with no donation cap through a Super PAC. In fact, for the 2012 election, 132 Americans (.000042% of the U.S. population) contributed 60% of Super PAC campaign donations (Lawrence Lessig). These donors essentially decide who will succeed in the general election; without their support, candidates lack the resources to compete. It’s pure deception: voters do, on the surface, get the ultimate say in their candidate, but this happens after funders have chosen whom to support with their money.

Barbara Jordan a member of the U.S House of Representative and a member of the House Judiciary Committee from Texas that considered whether to recommend that Nixon be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors

Scandal! I am not a crook, Watergate, impeachment, resignation, one final “two handed V”; which president comes to mind? President Richard M. Nixon was a visionary leader; but an unethical leader. This paper will examine two visionary leadership traits of President Nixon, two unethical leadership skills of Nixon and then look to my own career for two personal examples of visionary and two unethical leadership skills I portrayed. Nixon’s visionary leadership was on display when it came to dealing with Communist countries and recession on the home front. By using the full range leadership (FRL) process of contingent reward, Nixon focused relations with China to establish common political grounds. Using cognitive adaptability, Nixon was able to reign in the 1970’s recession. He applied FRL tactics to push his agenda towards politics and economic policy. But, Nixon’s unethical leadership trait, drive for success, led to the Watergate Scandal. Also, he failed to use the reasoning element of implication when he discharged the Special Prosecutor of the Watergate investigation. After discussing President Nixon’s visionary but unethical leadership, I’ll apply these same principles to myself by showing examples of how I used contingent reward and cognitive adaptability techniques in my Air Force career. Finally, I’ll discuss how drive for success

Watergate is the popular name for the political scandal and constitutional crisis that began with the arrest of five burglars who broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office in Washington D.C. on the night of June 17, 1972. It ended with the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon. The burglars and two co-potters-G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt were indicated on charges of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping. Four monthes later, they were convicted and sentenced to prison terms by District Court Judge John J. Sirica, who was convicted that pertinent details had not been unveiled during the trial and proffered leniency in exchange for further information. As it

President Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal is one of the most controversial court cases to this date. He was the first president to ever resign from office and caused the American trust in the government to suffer. Did Richard Nixon really have something to hide? Did the Supreme court make the right decision? Was the case handled in the most sufficient way? Whether one agrees with the outcome of Nixon vs. United States or not, this case left a mark on American history and shouldn't lessen trust in the American Government. The case was treated just as equally as any other case and went through the long Judicial practice as stated in the Constitution.

The transgressions uncovered during the Watergate break-in investigation discouraged Americans by shattering their belief in Presidential infallibility. As Richard Nixon’s chief-of-staff, H.R. Haldeman, said, “…comes a very clear thing: you can’t trust the government; you can’t believe what they say; and you can’t rely on their judgment; and the – the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though it’s wrong, and the President can be wrong.” These words expressed the sentiment of most Americans following Watergate and the publicity surrounding the investigation and President Nixon’s subsequent resignation.

Everyday citizens often live unaware of their government’s inner workings. The knowing of political espionage is often too heavy of a subject to be inducted in conversation. True, prima facie, modest twists and turns of information may not be considered substantial, but this inconsideration leaves much to be uncontrolled. It is easy for political leaders to become power crazed, to not realize the massive implications that come of their actions. Only after all is said and done do the people actually realize their government is an opaque mask of deception. The Watergate Scandal substantially impacted Americans’ trust in their government.

What kind of person commits three major violations of the national law and gets away with it? Well that person is Nixon. President Richard Nixon was one of the most famous presidents in the United States. He was mainly renowned for his huge role in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal was important because Nixon and his cabinet arranged to get people to spy on the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate building. After it became clear Nixon was responsible, he manages to resign before he was going to be impeached. President Nixon was involved with the Watergate scandal and should be sentenced to jail because he organized it, which then got leaked out and finally led to his resignation.