Richard Nixon and the Watergate - Term Paper Example

Richard Nixon and the Watergate Aster Trevino  Sul Ross CJ5331 Famous American Crimes & Criminals  Dr. Lorie Rubenser  November 19,2010 Richard Nixon and the Watergate The Watergate incident has a unique place in American political history. Even though many other incidents and arguments labelled against many other American presidents, Watergate incident was the only one which resulted in the resignation of an American president. In other words, Richard Nixon was the only American President who forced to submit his resignation in 1974 before the completion of his tenure in the president’s office. Watergate incident was a major political shock to the Americans. Americans never anticipated or expected such an unethical behaviour from the President’s office. The concepts about the functioning of American Presidents have been rewritten after the Watergate incident. Watergate incident was occurred in 1970. The Watergate story started to unveil when five men were arrested on charges of breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. At the time of arrest these people had thousands of dollars in cash in their possession. After investigation FBI, concluded that these cash were the slush fund used by the 1972 Committee to Re-elect the President Nixon. In other words, the investigation extended towards the President’s office and the involvement of President Nixon and his officials in unethical behaviors before and after the president’s election was slowly unveiled. Moreover, the investigating team also revealed that President Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations. All the above charges finally led to the resignation of President Nixon. This paper briefly analyses the Watergate incident and the subsequent incidents happened in American politics which finally lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Watergate Incident “Five Held in Plot to Bug Democratic Offices Here," said the headline at the bottom of page one in the Washington Post on Sunday, June 18, 1972. The story reported that a team of burglars had been arrested inside the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington” (Washington Post, 2010). The story of one of the greatest political scandal of modern history or the chain of events started from there. When the above news first appeared on newspapers, neither the readers nor the publishers took it as sensational news. But, as the days progressed, new stories in connection with the above incident started to catch the headlines of the news papers. Washington Post appointed two of their smartest reporters; Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward for covering the Watergate incident and the chain events followed that. Nixon sensed the danger immediately after the arrest of the burglars as one of the gang was earlier worked in Nixon’s reelection committee. Nixon and his allies tried to utilize CIA to prevent FBI from further investigation of this scandal. At the same time, Bernstein and Woodward worked hard and they succeeded in bringing out new developments with respect to the Watergate scandal. They had reported that the grand jury sought the testimony of two of the closest allies of Nixon who were working in White house. Moreover, they also found that a $ 25000 check had been deposited into the bank account of one of the culprits. Meanwhile the Washington Post reporters also succeeded in canvassing one of the top officials of FBI and they got all the secret information revealed from the investigation. Nixon was not able to identify the FBI officer as the reporters kept the name of the officer as a secret. W. Mark Felt, who is so popular nowadays in the name of Deep Throat, was the informant who gave Woodward and Bernstein information which helped to expose the secrets behind the Watergate scandal. Deep throat was afraid of Nixon and he met the reporters secretly using different ways. In their 1974 book, All the Presidents Men, Woodward and Bernstein discuss their investigation and reveal that Deep Throat met them in a parking garage and in a bar to exchange information. A few times Deep Throat was contacted by phone, but Deep Throat quickly prohibited that form of contact because he was afraid the phone might be tapped. So the reporters and Deep Throat had to use signals to contact each other. If Woodward wanted to contact Deep Throat, he would move a potted plant that sat outside his apartment; if Deep Throat wanted to contact the reporters, he would leave a note inside the copy of The New York Times delivered to Woodwards front door (Rosenberg, 2010). In fact the efforts of deep throat were vital than anything else in unveiling the secret missions of Nixon. The identity of deep throat was never revealed to the public by the reporters and the public started to guess some names. Even Nixon with all his capabilities failed to identify deep throat. The identity of deep throat remained secret for almost three decades. In fact many people thought that deep throat was a group of people rather than a single person. Even Nixon could not identify the secret agent until his death. But in May 2005, Mark Felt, former FBI official, 91 year old at that time announced that he was the actual Deep Throat, the American people were looking for the last three decades. Woodward and Bernstein, who earlier hesitated to reveal the identity of the secret agent, agreed that the revelations of Mark Felt were right. Mark Felt passed away in 2008 at the age of 95. Nixon succeeded in winning the reelection with a massive majority even amidst the stories revealed in the Washington Post about the Watergate incident. Nixon and his allies conducted a massive campaign against the Washington Post reports and accused that all the reports published in the newspaper was fabricated ones to help the opposition. Nixon succeeded in his attempt to convince the public since most of the other prominent newspapers in America stayed away from the controversy. By 1973 summer, the Watergate scandal revelations by the Washington Post attained the proportions of a national scandal and the public also started to raise many concerns about the claims of Nixon as innocent. In May of 1973 the Senate opened up hearings on the Watergate break-in and under intense pressure, Nixon had Archibald Cox appointed as Special Prosecutor to the case. In July things got worse as it was revealed in the Senate hearings that Nixon had a sophisticated taping system set up in the Oval Office with which he had taped all of his conversations (The Watergate scandal, n. d). The above revelation was a serious one and it raised many suspicions about the functioning of the President’s office. The Senate committee and the Special prosecutor immediately asked President Nixon to surrender the tapes. But Nixon refused to do so citing his presidential powers. Nixon has realized that the special prosecutor is functioning against his will and did everything possible to fire him out from the post. Nixon’s efforts to fire Cox out of the Special prosecutor post did not succeeded immediately and the pressure to hand over the tapes to the prosecutor was increasing. Finally, Nixon succeeded in firing out Cox from the special prosecutor post, but the new Special Prosecutor appointed, Leon Jaworski was even harder than Cox. Nixon tried to cheat the special prosecutor with the help of an edited tape; but the supreme court of America declared that Nixon should hand over the original tape to the special prosecutor. The House of Representatives voted in favor of impeachment of Nixon since he refused to hand over the original tape to the authorities. Nixon now realized that he was into a corner from which there was only one way out and so it was that on August 8, 1974 Richard M. Nixon became the first United States President to resign. Gerald Ford, who had become Vice President upon the resignation of Nixon’s Original VP Spiro T. Agnew, assumed the highest office of the land. Days after becoming President, Ford pardoned Nixon completely. Nixon was the only ‘Watergate conspirator’ who spent no time in jail (The Watergate scandal, n. d). Impact of Watergate scandal on American politics The major reason for the Watergate scandal was the Vietnam War. The United States Army has committed horrible brutalities and atrocities against the Vietnamese soldiers and the innocent people just like what they did in Iraq in the recent past. Many political and policy blunders committed by the Nixon administration during the Vietnam War and it was necessary for Nixon to keep those things as a political secret. These blunders committed by Nixon administration were in the hands of Robert McNamara, the then Secretary of Defense, in the form of a report called Pentagon Papers. Pentagon Papers came in the hands of New York Times reporter Daniel Ellsberg and Nixon started his campaign against Daniel Ellsberg which resulted in the burglars arrested at the beginning of the Watergate Scandal were actually trying to collect information to discredit Daniel Ellsberg  (The Watergate Scandal and its consequences for the U.S., 2006) Nixon claimed that the American President has the Executive Privilege for National Security, and hence he is legally not responsible to hand over the tapes to the investigating authority. The above stand made lot of controversies in American politics. The question of who holds supreme authority in America; whether the president or the Supreme court, was also came into the main lime light because of Nixon’s refusal to hand over the tape. The supremacy of Supreme Court in legal matters was upheld as a result of the Watergate scandal. Another controversy was about the decision of the successor Gerald Ford to forgive Nixon in all respects. Even though, all the other people involved in the scandal were punished, Nixon escaped from punishment as result of the mercy shown by Gerald Ford. Gerald’s actions were also brought many controversies in America. It was assumed and proved that the major culprit behind the Watergate incident was President Nixon itself. It was unethical to allow the major culprit to escape while those who obeyed the instructions of the President forced to accept punishments. Being the most responsible person in the country, President should have shown the way to the general public. But he engaged in lot of unethical behaviors and still able to escape from law. Even though Supreme Court holds the higher authority on legal matters, it failed to punish Nixon because of the inference of President Gerald Ford. In other words, in this case, Supreme Court failed to overrule the President’s decision and accepted it in order to avoid any constitutional clash between the Judiciary and the Parliament. However, the above scandal has opened way for the construction of many legal laws in America. The consequences of the scandal were very widespread, and led to a variety of new laws to help keep the President from abusing power and to make campaigns fairer by changing the financing system. The Freedom of Information Act of 1986 was also a result with requires financial disclosures by key government officials.  After Watergate the recording systems in the Oval Office fell into disuse, and the mass media became more aggressive and harder on politicians.  The media began pressuring politicians to be more conservative in personal conduct and began to hold them to a higher standard of behavior.  The American Society in general became more cynical of the government and particularly the presidency (The Watergate Scandal and its consequences for the U.S., 2006) Even though, President Nixon escaped from imprisonment, Watergate incident clearly confirmed that no one is above the law; not even the president. Moreover the Watergate scandal was also revealed the importance of an unbiased press in a country in bringing out corruptions and political injustices. If the press was not allowed to function freely, Nixon would have been a great hero for the Americans. The American Congress started to put more control on presidential powers after the Watergate Scandal and the subsequent resignation of President Nixon. The War Power Act was one among the many acts passed by the Congress for limiting the powers of the President in critical policy matters. The War Power Act prevented the President from sending US armed forces into action abroad without the authorization of Congress. Before the Watergate scandal, the president could have send armed forces to abroad even without consultation with the Congress. The new act helped the Congress to take more control on war matters. The Watergate scandal succeeded in unveiling the darker side of American politics. Earlier people though that American politics was clean and the functioning of the Presidents were in accordance with the democratic principles. But the Watergate scandal revealed that at least some of the earlier presidents misused their power and behaved unethically while working in the President’s office. In short, Watergate scandal divided the modern American political history into two different eras; one before the scandal and the other after the scandal. “Watergates influence was felt in the Clinton Impeachment of 1998-99”(Watergates influence was felt in the Clinton Impeachment of 1998-99, 2010). The after effects of Watergate are still visible in many forms in American political circle. The last one in this series was the impeachment of former President Clinton. Clinton forced to face a trial in a sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, a former employee in Clinton’s office. Clinton tried immensely to escape from impeachment with the help of loopholes in the legal frameworks. But he did not succeed in avoiding the impeachment and became only the third president in American history to face impeachment. American legal system is not taking the words of the presidents in confidence after the Watergate scandal. Conclusions Watergate scandal has unveiled some of the myths about the function of the Presidents in America. Earlier people thought that after taking oath, the president of America will never behave unethically. American public gave so much respect to the Presidents and their actions earlier. But Watergate scandal rewrote the tradition and history. People started to analyse all the actions of the President’s office critically and more over the law making body, Congress started to enforce more control over the functioning of the President. Earlier, American Presidents enjoyed the power of a dictator even though America was a democratic country. They could have sent their military to other countries even without taking permission of the Congress. But after the Watergate scandal, Congress passed many bills for reducing the power of the Presidents. Nixon was the only president in American history who forced to resign from the President’s office because of criminal offenses. In fact he was the second President out of the total three presidents, who faced impeachment in American political history. Watergate scandal taught the public many lessons about the loopholes of democratic setups in America. It also taught them that even in democracy, if not controlled properly, the presidents can act like dictators. In short, Watergate scandal was an eye opener for the public. References 1. Rosenberg, J. (2010). Deep throat. Retrieved from http://history1900s.about.com/od/watergatescandal/p/deepthroat.htm 2. The Watergate scandal, (n. d). Retrieved from http://www.essortment.com/all/watergatescand_reji.htm 3.  The Watergate Scandal and its consequences for the U.S., (2006). Retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/mookieriffic/thewatergatescandleanditsconsequencesfortheu.s. 4. Washington Post (2010). Part 1: The Post Investigates. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/part1.html 5. Watergates influence was felt in the Clinton Impeachment of 1998-99, (2010). Retrieved from http://www.watergate.info/ Read More