Watergate was a political scandal that rocked American politics in the early 1970s, resulting in the end of Richard Nixon government . It all started when five men were arrested trying to break into the Democratic Party headquarters in Washington in 1972. Soon a spy scheme was discovered. linked to President Nixon.
The allegations against Nixon were reported in the press, with emphasis on coverage by two journalists from The Washington Post . When it was discovered that Nixon had deliberately acted to obstruct investigations promoted by the FBI, an impeachment case was opened. , which resulted in his resignation in 1974.
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What was the Watergate scandal?
The scandal began on June 17, 1972 , when five men were arrested at the Hotel Watergate, in Washington, the US capital. They were arrested for breaking into the Democratic Party's headquarters and trying to wiretapping telephones on site. The arrest action was carried out by the local police.
It all happened during the routine rounds performed by guard Frank Wills . He was walking through the corridors of the building when he identified that a door had a tape to prevent it from being locked. He removed the tape and continued his rounds, but when he returned to the scene, he noticed that the tape had been put back on.
He became suspicious of the situation and then called the police, who carried out thearrest of five men: Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard Barker, James McCord and Eugenio Martínez. These men were in possession of amounts of money and instruments to carry out the wiretapping installation. The case gained proportions when it began to be investigated by two journalists from The Washington Post .
The two journalists were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein . They carried out investigative coverage that involved a secret informant, who was then named Throat Deep . This informant confirmed or denied the information obtained by the two during the course of the investigation.
When the police started investigating the case, it was identified that the money in the possession of the arrested men had been obtained from the Comitee for the Re-Election of the President , the Creep, a committee that worked to secure the re-election of the then President of the United States, Richard Nixon . In time, it was also discovered that the Creep had deposited $25,000 into the account of Bernard Barker, one of the men arrested during the Watergate break-in.
The purpose of this invasion, as already mentioned, was related to espionage actions . The five men were part of a group known as The Plumbers , who carried out similar actions for the Nixon administration. On the day they were arrested, they intended to fix a bug that had been installed on May 28, 1972.
This, therefore, was not the first break-in to the Democratic Party's office. It was carried out because the Nixon administration was interested in acquiring information from the Democrats about possible opponents in the 1972 presidential election. These investigations were carried out both by the two aforementioned journalists and by the US investigative agency, the FBI .
In the course of the investigation, it was discovered that Nixon had recordings of all conversations and meetings held in the Oval Office of the White House. By force of justice, he was obliged to hand over the recordings, in which it was possible to identify that he had deliberately tried to interfere with the investigations of the Watergate case.
This discovery started an impeachment process against Nixon, who lost political support from the Republicans, the party that elected him. All of this took place between 1972 and 1974. In that last year, he was already enjoying his second term, having comfortably won the 1972 election. Perceiving himself isolated, Nixon decided to resign on August 8, 1974. His resignation was only made official the following day, August 9.
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Reasons for Invasion
The Watergate break-in was aimed at getting insider political information from the Democrats. Espionage was Nixon's way of neutralizing his political opponents. The president had a distorted view of politics and saw his opponents and the press as enemies .
As he imagined being in a war, he believed that everything was valid to remain in power. Actions of this type began to be carried out by the Nixon administration after confidential government documents were leaked in 1971. This case became known as the Pentagon Papers and involved a military analyst named Daniel Ellsberg , The New York Times and the Nixon administration.
In this case, documents were leaked that reported details of the US government's action in Vietnam since 1947. These documents caught the public's attention precisely because the United States was involved in the Vietnam War that moment. The Nixon administration was not compromised, but feared that further leaks would happen.
To prevent this from happening again, the Nixon administration led the creation of The Plumbers, a group focused on monitoring dos opponents government and for obtaining from information privileged . It is not known for certain how many spying actions this group did, but it is known that they received funding from the Creep.
Among the members of The Plumbers, were Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy, responsible for coordinating this spy group. The two were also part of the Creep and were part of the Nixon administration.
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Outcome
The investigation conducted by the FBI took place between 1972 and 1974. During this period, the further the investigation progressed, the more people directly connected to the Nixon administration were compromised. Over time the links between the president and the invasion of the Democratic office became clear.
The men arrested during the Watergate invasion were tried in January 1973. In the following months, an inquiry was opened for the Senate to investigate the case, members of the government resigned and the famous Nixon recordings were discovered. As he became politically isolated, Nixon decided to resign from the presidency.
He was the only US president in history who resigned. The vice president, Gerald Ford , assumed the presidency and, in September 1974, pardoned Nixon from any crimes committed during his administration.
It was only in 2005 that the identity of the informant of the journalists responsible for the consecrated investigation of the case was discovered. The “Deep Throat” was actually William Mark Felt , then the vice president of the FBI.
Image credits:
[1] mark reinstein and Shutterstock
[2] Albert H. Teich and Shutterstock
[3] nyker and Shutterstock