WatergateThe Watergate situation is best known for leading to the 1974 resignation of President Nixon. It all began on June 17, 1972, when five men were arrested for breaking in to the office of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel. Further investigation would show that Nixon knew about the break-in from the start and that he was involved in the cover-up as time went on.
The break-in itself was part of a much larger plan by President Nixon supporters to ruin the reputation of the Democratic Party. This included harassment of Democratic candidates, negative campaign ads, two separate break-ins at the National Democratic Headquarters, and another one at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Ellsberg was the person who offered up the Pentagon Papers to the public, detailing the strategy for the United States' position in Vietnam.
Young reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post were assigned to investigate the situation.
Together, they wrote a series of articles that were crucial in exposing the actions of the Nixon administration. Before these two reporters started investigating, almost all media reported the break-in as a minor story, and it had little national coverage. With the help of a source known as Deep Throat, Woodward and Bernstein had uncovered one of the most important stories of the twentieth century.
12 central playersPresident Richard Nixon: The 37th President of the United States, and the only U.S. President to resign from office. He ordered an illegal cover-up, owed back taxes, accepted illicit campaign money, and harassed opponents with executive agencies, wiretaps, and break-ins.
Bob Woodward: A reporter for The Washington Post, who helped uncover the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation.
Carl Bernstein: Also a reporter for The Washington Post, who helped uncover the Watergate scandal.
Deep Throat: An important...
Watergate according to a source not worth consulting.
This essay shows the uselessness of using Wikipedia as a source.
The essay says that Nixon knew about Watergate "from the start." Does that mean he knew about the planning that went into the break-in beforehand, or merely that he was informed very soon after the break-in that his White House could be implicated.
As to most of the "major players," they weren't. Frank Wills discovered evidence of a break-in, and initially ignored it. He found a door taped so that it would not lock, obviously indicating that something was wrong, and he simply ripped off the tape and continued his rounds. Fortunately, he came back later, and found that the door had been taped again. Finally it dawned on him that this was the sort of thing that tenants of the Watergate complex paid him to report to the police. He called the police. End of discussion.
Woodward and Bernstein are perhaps the most overrated personae in the drama. They did manage to keep the story alive during some months when it was trivial news, but they uncovered virtually nothing that was not uncovered and exploited to much greater effect by the criminal investigation, the grand jury, or the various congressional committees. (In this regard, you ignored the incredible role played by Senator Sam Ervin, the simple country lawyer whose televised committee hearings held up the venality of the administration to the world.) The single original contribution that can be credited to Woodward and Bernstein was the exposure of Donald Seghretti, an inconsequential figure. Even with Deep Throat, they made virtually no original contributions to the investigation, and contributed only marginally to bringing Nixon down.
Haldemn was not Nixon's Chair of Staff; he was the Chief of Staff.
Sirica was not the chief judge of the U.S. District Court. By random selection, he drew the Watergate case as part of his normal docket. He was actually a very, very poor judge, who was ranked as perhaps the weakest member of the D.C. District Court bench, during the height of his fame as the judge hearing the Watergate trials.
You left out Archibald Cox, who, as special prosecutor, ferreted out the existence of the White House tapes, and forced a constitutional crisis by his determination to get to the bottom of the case.
In short, this essay reflects a Wikipedia level understanding of the Watergate affair. It is frustratingly unimpressive.
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