What was Watergate Scandal?
In the morning of June 1972,5 prowlers unethically tried to enter into the Democratic National committee office in Watergate complex. They were caught wiretapping phones ,applying spy devices, stealing documents .Later on they were found linked with the US President Richard Nixon reelection Campaign. The illegal entrance was not their first attempt to breach the D.N.C headquarters which caused Watergate scandal. They previously failed to complete their their last attempt. Despite this they returned a month later to complete their job.
Timeline of Watergate scandal
On June 17,1972 the security guard caught the group of ‘5 burglars’ in Washington DC Watergate office .In the FBI investigation they were found to be the members of CIA. They tried the attempt of wiretapping ,spying to disrupt the election campaign of George McGovern. In 1972 election McGovern accused Nixon of spying. But at that time there was very little evidence. The evidence wasn’t enough to prove the involvement of Nixon in Watergate scandal .Nixon won the election free handedly. After the FBI investigation and revelation by both the journalist of Washington post the involvement of Nixon was confirmed in the scandal .On Aug 8 Nixon resigned from his post of the president of the US.
Role of journalist
The involvements in Watergate Scandal were broke out by 2 journalist of Washington Post . Moreover the journalists Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward were known for their effortless and bold reporting in Watergate Scandal issue. The reporting led to the numerous resignations and eventual resignation of the biggest post of US . The FBI investigation further found out that culprits Virgilo Gonzalez ,Bernard Baker, James McCord ,Eugenic Martinez, Frank Sturgis were connected to the White House .In addition to this they were the members of reelection Campaign led by Richard Nixon .This sequence of events changed the history of superpower of the world.
After a while, the journalists made contact with the “Deep throat“. A governmental source that leaks confidential information proved the fact that Richard Nixon was involved in the Watergate Scandal. The journalists got their tips from “Deep throat” which helped them to break the scandal mystery.
Revelations
In the early days of his career Richard Nixon was comparatively known for using malicious activities to win the election. By the time he became president he had many enemies. In such an incident a military analyst position leaked the Pentagon paper document that revealed the scope of war in Vietnam. After that incident Nixon specifically became more aware of maintaining his privacy and secrecy in his administration. In line manner he started taping calls of his own for security. He employed some people to gain secret information and he called them plumbers. The plumbers helped him in the reelection campaign with the rally of events of illegal activities.
Investigations
On June,1972 the security caught them in the Watergate building of DNC where they were trying to disrupt the reelections by malicious activities . In addition to this in FBI investigation they were found to be CIA agents. In 1972 reelections Opposition leader accused Nixon of spying but at that time there was very little evidence which wasn’t enough to prove Nixon involvement in Scandal. But in early 1973 Washington post journalists revealed the scandal with the involvement of Nixon. After the investigation of FBI it was still not proved of Nixon involvement in scandal. The Scandal would have gone grounded but the existence of recording of Nixon conversation had been taped. Nixon refused to hand over the tapes.
Resignations
Nixon tried to use his power by terminating defence Attornie’s . The group of lawyers resigned as a protest to this and that day is known as Saturday night Massacre where rallies of resignation happened. On July 1974 the Comittee recommended Nixon for impeaching by using the power . Nixon finally gave tapes to supreme court on Aug 1974 .The tapes confirmed Nixon’s involvements . The tapes were called smoking gun tapes . On Aug 8.1974 Nixon resigned. His successor Gerald ford immediately pardoned him for all his crimes discovered and undiscovered.
Outcome of Watergate Scandal
Nixon was never prosecuted for his role in the scandal due to the pardon granted by his vice president Gerald Ford .Nixon never accepted the fact that the white house administration was never involved in the cospiracy of the scandal where appeared the event such as Saturday night massacare which led to a president resignation. The Pentagon paper’s , Watergate Scandal grown sense of dishonesty among the people of US. Nixon never accepted his involvement in Scandal even after proven guilty. The other culprits were sentenced for their crimes to disrupt the elections.
