Essay About Watergate Affair And Richard M. Nixon

Watergate Affair
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Watergate Affair, the worst political
scandal in U.S. history. It led to the resignation of a
president, Richard M. NIXON, after he became implicated
in an attempt to cover up the scandal. Narrowly,
“Watergate affair”” referred to the break-in and electronic
bugging in 1972 of the DEMOCRATIC National
Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate
apartment and office building complex in Washington, D.C.
Broadly, the term was also applied to several related
scandals. More than 30 Nixon administration officials,
campaign officials, and financial contributors pleaded guilty
or were found guilty of breaking the law. Nixon, facing
possible indictment after his resignation, received from his
successor, Gerald FORD, a full pardon “for all offenses”
which he “has committed or may have committed.”
Americans were deeply troubled by the scandal. Attempts
by REPUBLICAN officials to discredit Democratic leaders
and disrupt their campaign threatened the political process.
Electronic surveillance presented a threat to civil liberties.
Abuse of “national security” and “executive privilege” to
thwart the investigation suggested that those concepts
needed more precise definitions. The misuse of large
campaign donations suggested the need for further reform
legislation. The willingness of Nixon and his aides to use the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
in unlawful or unethical ways against their “enemies” was a
reckless exploitation of the bureacracy. National Security
The antecedents of Watergate were steps taken by Nixon
from 1969 to 1971 allegedly in the cause of national
security. To uncover the sources of leaked news about
such matters as the bombing of Cambodia, Nixon
authorized, without court approval, the wiretapping of the
phones of government officials and newspapermen. But
some of the men whose phones were wiretapped had no
involvement with security matters, and taps on two men
continued after they had joined the staff of Sen. Edmund
Muskie (D-Me.), who was seeking the Democratic
presidential nomination. In 1971, Nixon approved an
intelligence operation that contemplated burglaries and the
opening of mail to detect security leaks. The author of the
plan, Tom Huston, acknowledged that part of his plan was
“clearly illegal.” Nixon revoked the operation after a protest
by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Also in 1971, Nixon
created the Special Investigations Unit — known as the
“plumbers” to plug news leaks. In September, agents of the
unit broke into the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, the
psychiatrist of Dr. Daniel Ellsberg, who had given copies of
the Pentagon Papers, a secret account of U.S. involvement
in Indochina, to newspapers. After Nixon learned of the
break-in, he and his top aides agreed to say that the
break-in had been carried out for national-security reasons.
But in 1974, Charles Colson, a former special counsel to
the president, who had pleaded guilty to obstructing justice,
admitted that the agents wanted to find derogatory
information about Ellsberg before Ellsbergs espionage trial.
Colson said that “on numerous occasions” Nixon had urged
him to disseminate such information. Egil Krogh, Jr., head
of the plumbers unit, pleaded guilty to violating Dr.
Fieldings civil rights, saying that he could not in conscience
assert national security as a defense. Colson and Krogh
were imprisoned. Two