The Watergate Story - Essay Example

? THE WATERGATE STORY Up until now it is not clear if the Watergate scandal was a conspiracy to force the President to resign, or if it was a campaign between FBI and CIA. It is difficult to judge the truth, basing on the facts we know. Today, thirty years later, there are still many unknown pages and unrevealed facts in this story. As Romans had said, the history is re-written by the victors, so it is likely the full truth of this story is yet to be revealed. Or, perhaps, it will not be revealed ever. During his first term being the President, Nixon had a lot of breakthrough in negotiations with China and Soviet Union. During the re-election campaign he got incredible number of votes and won. However, he was brought down by the scandals he got involved in. There were many smaller dealings he was involved in that went undetected by the public and FBI or CIA. Nevertheless, in his fight to assure victory on the elections, he committed more serious crimes. It started with break-in to the headquarter office of the Democrat Party. Then the long and drawn-out court hearings followed, many high officials lost their positions, a power struggle and, finally, the first in the history of USA resignation of the President. WATERGATE COMPLEX BREAK-IN In June 1972 five people were arrested inside the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington. They were carrying wiretapping equipment, thus they were not just an ordinary robbers or burglars. The men were wearing surgical gloves and carried thousands of dollars in cash. The whole operation was carefully and professionally planned and was not an ordinary case of robbery. The press got right into investigating this case and Nixon had to make to make a claim that White House had nothing to do with this break into the headquarters of the Democratic Party. As was found later, the bugging was a part of the President’s Nixon’s re-election campaign. In his re-election campaign Nixon aimed many of his activities at his opponents from Democratic contenders. Five suspects were arrested early morning by the Metropolitan police. A security guard Frank Wills had noticed earlier that some doors at the Watergate complex of the apartments, offices and hotel rooms were opened and taped, and called on the police forces. Two masterminds of the break-in were G.Gordon Liddy (who was fired from the committee only few days before the accident) and E. Howard Hunt, a White House consultant (who did not want to give his testimonies during the investigations, he was paid to keep silence). Both of them were former FBI and CIA agents. Other suspects were also agents of either FBI or CIA. Democrats have tried to bring this incident up in the White House and at Nixon’s re-election committee. The five men arrested, or so it seemed, had something to do with Cuba, and most of them were connected to CIA or FBI in some way. The Police confiscated the spying equipment these men carried with them as well as cash, total amount of which was $2,300. During the case of investigation it was determined that prior to the incident a check for a large sum of money was deposited to the banking account of one of the people, who participated and were arrested for the break-in, namely, to Bernard Baker. The finance chairman of the President’s re-election campaign could not provide any substantial explanation as to where the check came from, why and how it got to Mr. Baker or what was the purpose of it. Mr. Baker was trying to pretend the money got to him by accident, however, it was determined that he was well aware of this financial operation and withdrew large amount of money from his account. Some of that money was found on men who were arrested for break-in. All these evidence and more led former Democratic National Chairman Lawrence O’ Brien to file a civil suit against Nixon and his committee as well as five suspects on the ground of violation of constitutional rights of all Democrats. Mr. O’Brien stated that a special counsel to the President, Charles Colson, might also need to be involved in the case, and that it all might be linked to the White House unlike the claims from the President. It is upon Mr. Consol’s recommendation that a former CIA agent Mr. Hunt was hired to White House. It was determined later that at least two of the burglars personally knew Mr. Hunt. None of the officials, whose name was mentioned in the case, were available for investigation. Actually, for the long time the investigations were carried out only by the reporters from “the Washington Post” newspaper. For the long time the investigation, arrests and break-in did not have any significant impact on the public or media and was not in news. There were other important event that major attention was given to, like Vietnam War and the soon approaching Presidential election. The only people, who carried much of the investigation on their own, were two reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. Mr. Woodward was relying on the confidential information he was receiving from Mr. Felt, a high ranking official at FBI. It was agreed that the identity of Mr. Felt will be kept in secret, and it remained so until 2005, when a real identity of mysterious man, who went by the name “Deep Throat” during the investigation and when the story started to be getting more publicity, was discovered. He, being a part of the committee that carried out an investigation, was in the position of either denying or confirming the findings of “The Post” reporters. It remains questionable, however, if he was really helping the investigation, or if he was merely directing reporters to what The Federal Bureau wanted the wide general public to know. However, the press investigation did not go easily. Katharine Graham, a publisher of “The Washington Post” wrote in her memoirs, that "The investigation of such a tangled web of crime, money, and mischief was made much harder given the unveiled threats and harassment by a president and his administration". In fact, the very next day upon arrest of burglars, Nixon and his chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed the ways to stop investigations, especially those carried out by CIA and FBI. Nevertheless, the reporters proceeded and within next couple weeks found a lot of information about the campaign of political spying and sabotage Nixon had against Democrats, such as existence of the secret fund controlled by attorney General John Mitchell. This fund was used to pay for the expenses for getting information on Democrats as well as other expenses to disrupt campaigns of the other Democratic Presidential candidates, such as giving false information to the press, disrupting campaign schedule, getting a hold of the confidential campaign files, and even planting provocateurs. The information printed in the “Washington Post” was highly downplayed and criticized by the White House officials for being biased and misleading. Other press was ignoring the incident and the investigation as well, and citizens seems to be accepting what the leading officials were telling and that the Watergate had no connection with the White House or with the Nixon re-election campaign. The whole story started on June17, 1972, and in November Nixon gained vast majority of the votes and was re-elected for the President. Up until now there was no clear connection between the burglars and the President or the White House was established. The president claimed his innocence. Six days after the incident Nixon commented, that "This kind of activity, as Mr. Ziegler has indicated, has no place whatever in our electoral process, or in our governmental process." AFTER THE RE-ELECTIONS Meanwhile the investigation continued, the men arrested pleaded guilty. Two people were convicted. That is when they started talking more and also this case of burglary directly linked to the White House and the President Nixon himself. After accepting resignation from his closest aides, Nixon stated that he accepts full responsibility for the actions of his stuff in the Watergate scandal. He also stated he will take steps to purge the American Political system of any abuses, like the ones during the Watergate scandal. What followed next was a devastating blow to the administration of the President. Within next ten hours Nixon accepted resignations of his White House advisers. He also fired John W Dean III. Other resignations followed, and a major reorganization of top administration personnel. A new defense secretary Elliot L. Richardson was appointed and was given an “absolute authority” to carry out responsibility for “uncovering the whole truth” about Watergate. Investigations continued. More and more facts were unveiled. At one point, Nixon announced that there are major developments in the case, so Watergate became a national scandal, probably biggest scandal of historic proportions. For months after the original break-in and arrests the Watergate case did not have significance nationwide, however, the situation has been changing. As the political pressure mounted, there are number of accusations being raised with the number of resignations accepted. In May 1973 The Senate Watergate Committee has been established and hearings began. It was nationally aired on television, and it is believed that large ratio of people was watching it daily. A special prosecutor, General Archibald Cox was appointed. As investigation went on, John Dean told of his discussions with Nixon of the Watergate scandal cover-up. He did not have evidences, but he talked from his own account of what had transpired. Now, his words did contradict President’s. Mr. Dean went into the details of what exactly they discussed with the President, such as how much men convicted would have to be paid for their silence, etc. He also told investigators that Nixon attempted to force him to sign a letter of resignation which would have put him in the position of being responsible for the Watergate. After the initial allegations by Mr. Dean, more evidence is being found, more allegations followed, culminating with Alexander Butterfield testifying that records existed of the telephone conversations Nixon had in his office. Alexander Butterfield was a former presidential appointed secretary; his testimony was acknowledged as being correct by the White House. He told the investigators that the tape recording equipment was installed in the Oval Office, cabinet room of the White House, and in Nixon’s Executive Office Building office and on four of his personal telephones. Only few people knew about hidden recording devices. These recordings might be a proof of the President’s innocence, as he was claiming, or, to the contrary, they will confirm Dean’s allegations against the President. The chief counsel of Senate committee Samuel Dash said the recordings will be requested for the certain date and that there should be no obstacles in obtaining them. However, the answer came from the White House that the President will not release the tales or any transcriptions of the recordings as those are considered presidential papers. So the long process of access negotiation to the tapes was started. Samuel Dash described the recording system very well, so there was enough evidence to believe his words; however the President refused to cooperate on that. Furthermore, Nixon orders the White House taping system to be disconnected. The Senate kept negotiating with Nixon possibility of having the tapes as the evidence of his innocence. This opposition led to Nixon discharging Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and accepting resignations of Attorney Generals Richardson and Ruckelshaus, who resigned after refusing to dismiss Cox. From this time on the Justice Department was carrying full responsibility for further investigations and prosecution in Watergate and other cases. These events transpired because Cox refused to accept the terms of the agreement between the President and the Senate Watergate committee under which Cox and the Senate Committee would receive summarized transcripts of the tapes. Cox not only disagreed with the agreement proposed, but he also told Nixon that he intends to bring up the subject of the recordings in the televised news conference. Nixon explained his own actions, as “Washington Post” reported, that his proposal to give the court information from the recordings was accepted by "responsible leaders in the Congress and in the country," Ziegler commented, but the special prosecutor "defied" the President's instructions "at a time of serious world crisis" and made it "necessary" for the President to discharge him (“Washington post”, October 21, 1973) This event became known as Saturday Night Massacre and resulted in the “firestorm” of protests. Calls for impeachment started to be heard. In order to give the information to the court, a senator Stennis was picked by the president to listen to the recording and to make transcript of those. Total timing of the recording is 10 hours and one minute. President Nixon’s declaration “I am not a crook” became well known, and many citizens lacked confidence in their President after seeing him on television with this statement. He was defending himself, his records and the purpose of delivering information to the court. The tapes, according to him, had to prove him not being guilty. He acknowledged he had made a mistake by not supervising the campaign more closely. In summary, the President declared that the White House tape recordings would prove that he had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in, that he never offered executive clemency for the Watergate burglars, and in fact turned it down when it was suggested, and had no knowledge until March 21, 1973, of proposals that blackmail money be paid a convicted Watergate conspirator.( Washington Post, November 18, 1973) However, one of the tapes had a mysterious 18 minute erase in the conversation the President had only three days after the break-in. There was no satisfactory explanation provided as to how this piece got erased. By the end of 1973 the court report was stating that beside original seven burglars, there were another 12 persons who had pleaded guilty in the criminal offences related to the Watergate. By the spring on 1974 the transcript of the tapes was made. The President turned over to the Congress 1, 254 pages of the transcript of his 42 conversations recorded. However, controversy continues. There are many questions that are left unanswered, and many details of conversations that are recorded, such as the questions of money laundering, “hush money” transfers, etc. A question is raised also as to whether all the requirements of congressional subpoena were fulfilled, or whether the Congress will initiate contempt proceeding. One thing is sure – there are many details in the transcripts that may become a key charge in Nixon’s impeachment. In July the Congressed by a unanimous vote ruled that the President must turn over tape recording of the White House conversations. These recordings are needed by the Watergate prosecutor for the trial of the Presidents’ highest aides. The Court ordered compliance with the subpoena and rejected the President’s executive privilege. The final ruling was that the tapes must be turned in fully and with no exceptions. However, even after the ruling, the tapes were not turned in soon enough and readily enough, with arguments going back and for the between the White House and the Court. During these discussions the President was faced with the possibility of being called a conspirator, grand jury will vote for it. Besides, by now, tapes not produces promptly serve as an evidence of the guilt. SUBPOENA AND A SMOKING GUN TAPE Nixon released tapes a week after the subpoena. A conversation from June 23, 1972 showed the Nixon had played a leading role in the Watergate cover-up, contrary to his claims of innocence. This recording eliminated last remainder of support Nixon might had have. This tape with the clear evidence of the President’s guilt was dubbed “smoking gun” tape. It has a recording of the discussion Haldeman and Nixon had concerning the investigation FBI was doing tracing the source of money that was confiscated from burglars. To conclude it, they agreed to have CIA ask the FBI to stop their investigation of the Watergate break-in and to claim that it was national security operation. This conversation confirmed that crime was committed, a criminal conspiracy with the goal of obstruction the justice. After this tape was released even the closest aides advised Nixon to resign, otherwise he would undoubtedly face impeachment. Nixon signed his resignation, becoming the first president of the United States who resigned. He left his office teary-eyed. Undoubtedly, he was sorry for what has happened, yet the situation could not be altered. Through his actions he committed crimes and also lost the trust of the people. It is said that one of the greatest impact on the Watergate story is that people in the country overall lost the trust in the politicians and other leaders. Read More