Watergate" is a general term used to describe a complex web of political scandals between 1972 and 1974. The word refers to the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. In addition to the hotel, the Watergate complex houses many business offices. It was here that the office of the Democratic National Committee was burgled on June 17th, 1972. The burglary and subsequent cover-up eventually led to moves to impeach President Richard Nixon. Nixon resigned the presidency in August 1974. "Watergate" is now an all-encompassing term used to refer to political burglary, bribery, extortion, wiretapping, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tax fraud, illegal campaign contributions, use of public taxpayers' money for private purposes and abuse of power.
The late 1960s were a time of great political and social confusion in the United States. President Johnson had been destroyed by the Vietnam War and had announced that he would not contest the 1968 election. A spirit of unrest influenced the college campuses. Demands for black rights were growing and a huge anti-war movement had developed. Richard Millhouse Nixon was elected president in 1968. Nixon was elected on a pledge of ending the war. During his term, Nixon and his Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, opened up diplomatic relations with China and established "detente" with the Soviet Union. It has been argued that only a president with Nixon's well-established and hostile attitude to communism could have done these things. 1971: Publication of the "Pentagon Papers". These secret Defense Department documents on American involvement in the Vietnam War were leaked to the New York Times by an official in the Defense Department, Dr. Daniel Ellsberg. Nixon challenged the publication of the documents in the Supreme Court and lost when the court ruled 6-3 in favor of publication. 1970-1: A White House Special Investigations Unit was established, known as the "Plumbers". This secret group investigated...