Writing Prompt #3: Nixon & The Watergate Scandal
Despite Nixon not physically having a direct part of the break in of the Watergate hotel, The Watergate Scandal is best described as a scandal which was a part of a larger campaign by Nixon supporters to ruin the reputation of Democratic candidates, and the Democratic Party. The investigation showed that Nixon had knowledge of the situation and that he did a lot to prevent any information about the situation from being revealed. With all of that being said, in this article, I intend to explain in more detail what the Watergate Scandal was, the crimes and illegal things that President Nixon did, the "Saturday Night Massacre", the "Smoking Gun" tape, and what the ultimate outcome of the scandal was.
It all started on June 17, 1972, when Frank Wills, a security guard working at the office complex of the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. noticed a piece of tape on the door between the basement stairwell and the parking garage. The tape was holding the door unlocked, so Wills removed it, assuming the cleaning crew had put it there. Later on, he came back and saw that the tape had been replaced. Once he saw this, Wills contacted the D.C. police. After the police arrived, five men by the names of: Bernard Barker, Virgilio González, Eugenio Martínez, James W. McCord, Jr. and Frank Sturgis were discovered and arrested for breaking into the office of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. The men had broken into the office three weeks earlier as well, and they had returned to fix wiretaps that were not working. There is still much dispute about the level of involvement of leading figures in the White House, such as Attorney General John Mitchell, chief of staff Haldeman, leading aides Charles Colson and John Ehrlichman, and President Nixon himself. However, the events listed above are the main things that led to a very famous event known very commonly as the "Saturday Night Massacre".
The...