For years the citizens of the United States looked to their government as a trustworthy and reliable source of assistance as was especially characterized by the vast number of government programs made to help victims of the Great Depression. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt behaved in a way to where he was able to personally connect to the American People with his "Fireside Talk" and his direct addresses to the public. The majority of U.S. liked their government body had had no reason not to; up until Richard Nixon.
Richard Nixon was first elected to President in 1969 against Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey. His success in his campaign was widely due to his "comeback" from his presidential campaign loss against John F. Kennedy. Nixon had an extremely successful first term ending the war in Vietnam and gaining recognition by having the first U.S. moon landing during the early years of his presidency. As a result of his success, Nixon was re-elected to President in 1972 against Democrat George McGovern by one of the widest margins in voting history. However Nixon's re-election would not go over smoothly and he would become part of a scandal that would tarnish the image of the Presidency that F.D.R. had created as a trustworthy role in U.S. leadership.
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Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal had always been an intriguing topic to me and I always wondered just how much of an impact the scandal had actually caused on both the Presidency and the American people. I began my research with the facts of what actually happened that stirred all the initial excitement. After some preliminary research I came to enough of an understanding to characterize the occurrences at Watergate Hotel in my own phrase, "The break-in of the Democratic Party's National committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C." Obviously this phrase is quite vague and begs many questions; such as, "Who broke into the Watergate hotel?" "Why did they do it?" "Who was responsible and what were the results?" These kinds of questions became the outline of my research of which I was determined to answer.
My next step was to uncover the events at Watergate themselves. On June 17, 1972 security guard Frank Wills was on his graveyard shift at the hotel going about his normal duties turning off lights and patrolling as shown in his security log. Although his June-evening was not so ordinary when he witnessed five men wandering the building where after he immediately called the police. The five robbers had been caught attempting to wire-tap the offices in the Democratic National Committee Headquarters obviously attempting to illicit inside strategic information on the upcoming election. They were specifically targeting Larry O' Brien's office, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The five men each had previous or current experience with the CIA as well as histories pertaining to Cuba. The five men's names were Bernard L. Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, James W. McCord, Eugenio R. Martinez, and Frank A. Sturgis. According to my research these men would have been convicted and sent to prison plain and simple until a very interesting discovery was made, two of the burglars address books had contained connections to the White House.
All of a sudden the focus of the robberies shifted entirely. All eyes turned towards Nixon and his administration to gather what their response would be to the newly discovered connection to the Watergate robberies. The robbers had been specifically connected back to the organization CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the President) and even the phone number of E. Howard Hunt (White House employee and member of "Plumbers" team organized to prevent government leaks after the Pentagon Papers incident), leading many reporters and American citizens to believe the robbers had been directed by the Nixon administration. Obviously Nixon denied all allegations that he was in any was connected to the robberies, but there was some unusual behavior occurring in the White House. In Nixon's first Watergate response speech he announced the resignations of Bob Haldeman (Nixon's Chief of Staff), John Ehrlichman (Nixon's Domestic Affairs advisor), Richard Kleindienst (Nixon's Attorney General) and White House Counsel John Dean. More and more Americans were wanting more information and evidence from the White as suspicions grew towards Nixon's involvement.
Finally as ordered the White House released recordings from the tape recorders set up in the White House to document verbal interactions in the White House. Listeners of the tapes found incriminating evidence in multiple conversations involving Nixon and his members of staff. One particular conversation I found in my research involved Nixon discussing what appeared to be a matter of gathering "hush money" with his counsel John Dean. In one dramatic interaction between the two Nixon says, "Well, the erosion in inevitably going to come here, apart from anything, you know, people saying that, uh, well, the Watergate isn't a major concern. It isn't. But it would, but it will be. It's bound to be." To which Dean replied, "We cannot let your image be tarnished by that situation [...]." Obviously this tape reveals a dramatic conversation between the two who had been deeply discussing the effects the Watergate Scandal would have on Nixon's image. Eventually despite all the avoidance and turmoil of the Watergate Scandal, with impeachment by the House and Senate imminent, Nixon was forced to become the first President to resign from office.
Nixon's resignation and entire involvement throughout the Watergate scandal became characterized with a huge lack of apology for the events at Watergate. Even in Nixon's own resignation speech it was blatantly obvious that he wished for his image to be anything but related to Watergate. In his speech he said, "I shall leave this office not with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as your President for the past 5 and a half years." The particular instance where Nixon said "not with regret" especially gained my attention. The idea of him looking through the camera directly addressing the American People and saying "not with regret" after his obvious involvement in the Watergate Scandal was ridiculous. Of course Nixon wanted his Presidency to be one of success of remembrance, but by taking responsibility for his actions and giving the American People the apology they deserved, perhaps he would've been remembered as a President of character and not of scandal.
Sources:
Watergate Info - General Watergate Background
History Channel - Brief Summary
Frank Wills Info - Security Guard Account
Bob Haldeman - Bio
Nixon's Resignation Speech - Primary Source on Nixon's Attitude
Watergate Burglars - Background on Burglars
Haldeman's Opinion on Watergate - Haldeman's Post Watergate View
Richard Nixon Info - Bio
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