Nixon's Presidency example essay topic

Richard Nixon's presidency is one of the most examined, analyzed and discussed, yet least understood, of all the American administrations in history (Genovese 1). While many factors still remain to be discovered, and many mysteries are left to be resolved, we need to do the best that we can to make sense of this secretive president of our past and his era. He is the one American figure about whom very few people don't have strong feelings for. Nixon is loved and hated, honored and mocked (Genovese 2). The term 'Watergate', labeled by Congress in 1974, stands for not only the burglary, but also for the numerous instances of officially sanctioned criminal activity and abuses of power a swell as the obstruction of justice that preceded the actual break-in (Kutler 9). Watergate involved the political behavior of the President and his men, beginning during Nixon's first term and extending to his resignation.

Some of the criminal behavior was a result of the disastrous events of the 1960's. These events include the civil rights movement, the controlling of cities and most importantly, the Vietnam War (Kutler 9). InH.R. Haldeman's book The Ends of Power, he quotes, 'I firmly believe that without the Vietnam War, there would " ve been no Watergate' (Haldeman 79). He goes on to say that the Vietnam War destroyed Nixon as completely as it ruined Johnson. Originating in Kennedy's term, Vietnam grew to be even more of a disaster after his assassination. The tidal wave of problems crashed abruptly on Johnson, who consequently made them worse.

The American society was dividing. Furious protests made Johnson portray a scapegoat for the nation's anxieties (Kutler 10). Then Nixon stepped into the picture in the presidential elections of 1968. He was successful with 43.6 percent over Humprey's 42.7 percent and Wallace's 13.5 percent (Genovese 6). He promised tha the would 'bring us together'.

The riots grew and the divisions widened. The day it all began was a Sunday, May 28, 1972. The contrasts that were taking place on this day were extraordinary. President Richard Nixon was in Moscow, nearing the climax of the first-ever summit to be held between American and Soviet Presidents (Emery 3). Five thousand miles away, in Washington, D.C., it was a different story. There was also a first-time event happening in our nation's capital, but it was not something to be proud of.

The first of several illegal break-ins into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate Complex was in effect (Emery 3). In Moscow, Nixon was planning a television speech to present to the Russian people, a speech that would be considered one of his best. It was an inspiring speech that would remove the fear that he believed restrained the Americans and the Soviets from better relationships in the past. Meanwhile, in Washington, the President's election staff was overcome with a different fear. Despite Nixon's high standing position for being reelected, his CREEP staff (Committee to Reelect the President) was afraid that they might not have as much 'dirt' on Nixon's opponents as they had on Nixon. The President laid upon his staff the determination to do whatever possible to win the election (Emery 4).

With this approval, Nixon's staff, headed by G. Gordon Liddy, began planning more ways of attaining information from the DNC. What they named the 'Plumbers unit' was established as a special task force for the President. The Plumbers " purpose was to keep any secret information from being discovered by reporters. In one situation, wearing CIA provided disguises, they illegally broke into Dr. Field's office, a psychiatrist, for information on a patient, Daniel Ells berg, who had given private Pentagon papers to the New York Times (Hargrove 25).

It turned out that the doctor had already been visited by the FBI and, taking precaution, removed the files. The White House also came up with an adversary list. Every President from Washington to Johnson has had his list, but Nixon's was much more efficient and threatening (White 152). The list originated on CharlesColson's desk, a White House mentor, and then was circulated by John W. Dean through the members of the underground. John Dean was the White House attorney at the time. The list's total came to over three hundred names, the prime list to twenty, in no specific order (White 152).

On June 17th, after several break-ins, police arrested five burglars found in the offices of Larry O'Brien, the Democratic National Chairman, at the Watergate complex. President Nixon, immediately after hearing of the break-in, appointed atop aide, John Ehrlich man, to uncover everything he could about the break-in and denied any involvement (Kilian 119). Among those arrested were Gordon Liddy, Howard Hunt, a spy for the CIA, and James W. McCord, a CIA agent who was hired by Nixon to be a security coordinator for his reelection committee. Liddy, Hunt and the burglars all pleaded not guilty and were released on bond. The police also turned up $4,500 in brand new one-hundred dollar bills, bugging equipment, small tear-gas guns, cameras, rolls of unexposed film, burglary tools and walk ie-talkies.

The motive of the burglary was obviously to spy on Democratic headquarters and the burglars were apparently getting paid for the duty (Hargrove 8). After this incident, Liddy, who put together the plan that eventually became Watergate, told Dean that he was willing to be shot if it would help matters (Kilian 119). Nixon then fired Liddy from his job with the reelection committee. The next advancement in the case was on August 1st, 1972.

On this day, the Washington Post revealed that a $25,000 check had been deposited into the bank account of one of the burglars. It also contributed to President Nixon's reelection campaign. In the following eight months, over $400,000 in cash was paid under the table to the burglars (Ben-Veniste 53). The people involved in these payments used code names such as 'the writer', the money was 'the script', and the other burglars were 'the players'. They communicated only by pay phone and left the money for the burglars or their lawyers in 'dead drops' on top of pay phones or in luggage lockers at National Airports. The burglars and lawyers kept demanding money until the point where there was none left.

John Dean then received Haldeman's, Nixon's chief of staff, permission to use a secret $350,000 White House fund. The hush money was continually paid until the evening of March 21st, 1973, when the last amount of $75,000 was handed over. Meanwhile, in the White House, on November 7, 1972, President Nixon had been reelected, winning in a landslide against Democrat Senator George McGovern. In every state in the Union, except for one, Nixon had prevailed (White 169).

He had swept the nation, everyone from Catholics to Protestants, and farmers to businessmen. Nixon a world of change at his fingertips - in housing, in tax structure, in welfare and in race-relations. He wanted to achieve what he had already achieved in foreign affairs, but he knew it would be difficult. On January 8, 1973 the trial of the Watergate burglars opened in the courtroom of the District Judge John J. Sirica (Kilian 120). Howard Hunt, right off the bat, pleaded guilty and four of the five burglars followed his lead. The jury found Liddy and James McCord, a CIA agent, guilty of conspiracy, illegal wiretapping and burglary.

They were the only two that did not plead guilty. McCord later stated that he had been pressured to plead guilty and to remain silent about others involved (Hargrove 17). Judge Sirica was dissatisfied with the findings. He felt that there was much more going on than was being told. The Senate's feeling was mutual and voted to create a Senate Select Committee to investigate the affair. They chose Democratic Senator Sam Ervin to head the committee and immediately began diligently working on the case.

In the meantime, Judge Sirica received an envelope from James McCord. The envelope contained two letters. The first was a duplicate of a letter that McCord had sent to the New York Times denying an article linking him to the 'strong arm tactics' that they had published the day prior. The second letter was addressed to the Judge himself. At the finish of the message, McCord wrote:' Be that as it may, in the interest of restoring faith in the criminal justice system which faith had been severely damaged in this case I will state the following to you at this time which I hope may be a help to you in meting out justice in this case.

' '1. There was political pressure applied to the defendants to plead guilty and remain silent. ' 2. Perjury occurred during the trial of matters highly material to the very structure, orientation and impact of the government's case and to the motivation of and the intent of the defendants. ' 3.

Others involved in Watergate were not identified in the trial when they could " ve been by those testifying. ' 4. The Watergate operation was not a CIA operation. I know for a fact that it was not.

' 5. Some statements were unfortunately made by a witness witch left the Court with the impression tha the was stating untruths or withholding facts of his knowledge when in fact only honest errors were involved. ' 6. My motivations were different than those of others involved but were not limited to or simply those offered in my defense during the trial. This is not the fault of my attorneys but of the circumstances under which we had to prepare my defense. ' The statements are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief (Sirica 96).

' This letter indicated that McCord was willing to break the silence that had frustrated millions of people since the crime itself. James McCord also indicated within the letter that the cover up was so extensive tha the didn't even trust the FBI or the prosecutors (Sirica 97). The only doubt that Judge Sirica had was about the statement implying that the CIA had no part in the scandal. McCord had been a CIA employee for nineteen years and was fiercely dedicated to his job. In December of 1972 he had threatened the White House that if they continued to blame the CIA 'every tree in the forest will fall. It will be a scorched desert.

' Judge Sirica doubted that he would ever admit the CIA's involvement even if they had taken part (Sirica 98). Deeper into the trial, the Court learned that the FBI investigation had all along been carefully limited and monitored by the White House. They also learned that some of the officials in Nixon's campaign had lied before the jury. As the trial progressed, on July 16, 1973, a White House aide, Alexander Butterfield, revealed that President Nixon had all of the White House conversations tape-recorded since 1970 (Kilian 121). The Senate Investigation Committee and Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox immediately wrote letters requesting to hear the tapes.

President Nixon initially refused to present them but then was forced by Judge Sirica to hand them over. The tapes, when eventually given to the White House, contained an eighteen minute, fifteen second gap that was recorded three days after the Watergate break in. The White House, under pressure to release the tapes, copied down the conversations on the recordings and released the transcripts publicly (Kilian 123). The House Judiciary Committee told the President that the transcripts were not enough but he still refused to turn them over. In return, they approved three articles of impeachment that accused the President of abuse of power, obstructing justice in the Watergate case and defying subpoenas for the Watergate tapes. On July 30, 1974 the President turned over eleven of the sixty-four conversations to Judge Sirica, and on August 2nd he submitted thirteen more.

Knowing that his status was quickly deteriorating, President Nixon made three transcripts of conversations that he had had with H.R. Haldeman on June 23, 1972, public. The conversations showed that Nixon tried to get the CIA to restrain the FBI from investigating the scandal (Kilian 23). On August 8, 1974 President Nixon resigned from office. The next day at 12: 03 p.m.

Gerald Ford was formally sworn in as President by chief justice Warren Burger. Ford stated, 'Our long, national nightmare is over, Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule (Kilian 110). ' The Watergate Scandal caused national turmoil. Americans, as well as other countries, lost faith in the United States and its leaders.

Nevertheless, the affair proved that the American government works. Watergate revealed Nixon at his worst. Head many great accomplishments during his presidency and set many great examples. Unfortunately, none were part of Watergate (Hargrove 31). Bib:

Bibliography

Ben-Veniste, Richard, and George Frampton, Jr. Stonewall: The Real Story of the Watergate Prosecution. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977.
Emery, Fred. Watergate. New York: Times Books, 1994.
Genovese, Michael A. The Nixon Presidency: Power and Politics in Turbulent Times. London: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Haldeman, H.R. The Ends of Power. New York: Times Books, 1978.
Hargrove, Jim. The Story of Watergate. Chicago: Children's Press, 1988.
Kilian, Pamela. What was Watergate? New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.
Kutler, Stanley I. The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
Sirica, John J. To Set the Record Straight. New York: W.W. Norton& Company, White, Theodore H. Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon. New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1975.