Watergate

8 Pages 1914 Words

The term Watergate became known as a scandalous series of events that ended Richard
Nixon’s presidency and threatened the foundations of American government. In preparation for the 1972 election, Nixon was determined to win an overwhelming mandate for a second term. To protect Nixon at all costs from anything that might weaken his position, he made what is called the “enemies list. “ This was a list developed by a special council that listed names of prominent people unsympathetic to the administration. It included politicians such as Senator Edward Kennedy, members of the media such as reporter Daniel Schorr, and a number of outspoken performers including comedian Dick Gregory and actors Jane Fonda and Steve McQueen. Aides then considered how to harass these White House “enemies.” One idea was to arrange income tax investigations of people on the list. Despite his dedication to a domestic policy of law and order, Nixon was sometimes willing to take illegal actions more serious than the activities the were meant to control. Then the White House organized its own unit - nicknamed the Plumbers - to stop government security leaks. The group included E. Howard Hunt, a spy novelist and former CIA agent, and G. Gordon Liddy, once an FBI agent. This intelligent branch mastered outstanding plans such as an elaborate scheme of wiretapping. They planned to tap top Democrats to try to compromise them at their convention. They decided it would be to expensive and risky but they finally approved of the tapping of the phones at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C. The first break-in to install illegal listening devices failed. A second attempt, on the night of June 16...