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• Political Scandal during the 1970s in the U.S• Begin: Break-in of the Democratic headquarters at the

Watergate office complex in Washington D.C.• End: Ultimately led to the resignation of the U.S.

President, Richard Nixon

Watergate -What was it?

• 5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats’ Office Here• Washington Post, June 18, 1972

• GOP Security Aide Among Those Arrested• Washington Post, June 19, 1972

Burglar on the payroll of President Nixon’s re-election committee

Watergate – Timeline

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

• Mitchell Controlled Secret GOP Fund• Washington Post, Sep 29, 1972

Attorney General controlled secret fund to gather information about Democrats

• FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats• Washington Post, Oct 10, 1972

Nixon’s aides run “a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage” on behalf of Nixon’s re-election effort

Watergate – Timeline

• Nixon Wins Landslide Victory• Washington Post, Nov 8, 1972

Matter didn’t get much prominence and Nixon gets a huge majority

• Last Two Guilty in Watergate Plot• Washington Post, Jan 31, 1973

Conviction of burglars

Watergate – Timeline

• 3 Top Nixon Aides, Kleindienst Out; President Accepts Full Responsibility; Richardson Will Conduct New Probe

• Washington Post, May 1,1973 FBI pierces the White House denials, senior

officers prosecuted

• By the summer of 1973, Watergate was a ‘full-blown national scandal’ Scandal spread beyond the original burglary

Watergate – Timeline

• Dean Alleges Nixon Knew of Cover-up Plan• Washington Post, June 3,1973

Presidential counsel John Dean breaks with the Nixon White House; cover-up “a cancer on the presidency”

• President Taped Talks, Phone Calls• Washington Post, July 17,1973

Nixon routinely taping all the conversations and meetings

Watergate – Timeline

• President Refuses to Turn Over Tapes• Washington Post, July 24,1973

Stage set for a great constitutional struggle between a President and the Senate committee

• Nixon Forces Firing of Cox• Washington Post, October 21,1973

Dubbed the “Saturday Night Massacre”, Cox dismissed

Watergate – Timeline

• Pressure for Impeachment Mounting• Washington Post, October 21,1973

Demands for impeachment mount swiftly

• Nixon Tells Editors, “I am Not a Crook”• Washington Post, November 18,1973

President Nixon defends his record, unconvincingly

Watergate – Timeline

• President Hands Over Transcripts• Washington Post, May 1,1974

The Nixon Watergate Papers made public

• Court Orders Nixon to Yield Tapes; President Promised to Comply Fully

• Washington Post, July 25,1974 Supreme Court rules unanimously that Nixon

must turn over tape recordings -

Watergate – Timeline

• Judiciary Committee Approves Article to Impeach President Nixon

• Washington Post, July 28, 1974 The House Committee takes the momentous step of

recommending Nixon’s impeachment

• Nixon Resigns• Washington Post, August 9,1974

Richard Milhous Nixon announced last night that he will resign as the 37th President of the United States at noon today

Watergate – Timeline

• Political Impact Effect on the next Senate Elections Indirectly responsible for changes in Campaign Financing Left such an impact on the national and international

consciousness that many scandals since then have been labeled with the suffix –gate (Radia-Gate | Barkha-Gate)

• Cultural Impact Frost/Nixon All the President’s Men Silent Coup – The Removal of a President

Watergate – Impact

The Washington Post Archives Wikipedia Images.google.com MS Office Powerpoint

Thank you!