Watergate is the name of the scandal in which the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Watergate Office Building were broken into by people associated with president Richard Nixon. The event took place in June 1972, but the criminal investigation continued for another two years and ended with Nixon’s resignation.
It’s difficult to imagine what the contemporary political climate of the US would have been if not for Watergate. This event is perhaps one of the most significant events in 20th century history. After all, whenever a massive scandal happens nowadays, we attach it to the suffix -gate.
Nixon – The Man, The President
Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States when he won the 1968 elections. He won with 301 electoral votes, while his front-runner, the Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey, gathered 191 electoral votes. The situation with the popular vote was a bit different.
However, the two candidates were closely tied for the popular vote, which might have given Nixon a reason to worry about re-election. Nixon had already lost one election to the charming John F. Kennedy in 1960, and he perhaps wanted to take precautions this time. Nixon has always been a bit insecure.
Although he excelled in sports and academics, he was never popular with his classmates. This continued into young adulthood when he attended Whittier College. Political analysts have given much thought to his formative years and said that Nixon remained an outsider even when he held the highest office in the land.
Plagued by feelings of insecurity and inferiority for years, Nixon didn’t shake them off when he moved to the White House. He abstained from using the Oval Office (except for ceremonial purposes) and instead retreated to Office 180 where he worked alone for long hours every day. He also tried to limit contact with White House aides to the bare minimum.
Covering Up a Cover Up
There is another possible reason for Nixon’s involvement in Watergate. Ken Hughes, an expert on the notorious scandal, has a plausible theory about the origin of Watergate.
The Theory
Hughes argues that Nixon might have ordered the wiretapping in a bid to cover up his involvement in US diplomatic relations before he became the president. Nixon had allegedly set up a meeting with South Vietnam’s ambassador through a mediator (Anna Chennault) a few days before the 1968 presidential elections.
The meeting did occur in Washington DC on October 30th 1960, and the subject was the War in Vietnam and what Nixon would do about it if he won the election. It’s illegal for private citizens to engage in diplomatic missions, even more so ones that concern war.
Unbeknown to Chennault, her movement was tracked by the FBI and the agency had also wiretapped South Vietnam’s embassy where the meeting happened. The FBI report remarks that Chennault instructed the ambassador to hold on, rather than accept a halt, because ‘we are gonna win.’ This instruction, she said, came from her boss (no name mentioned).
Relation to Watergate
In June 1971, the New York Times published the leaked The Pentagon Papers containing US involvement in Vietnam.
Nixon worried that the secret meeting would come to light, which would reveal not only his illegal involvement in the war, but also the fact that the war could have ended earlier if not for him. President Johnson ordered a halt right before the 1968 election, but South Vietnam didn’t accept it.
Nixon then created the Special Investigation Unit, “The Plumbers”, in his bid to stop the leaks. Their first mission was to break into the office of a psychiatrist who was treating Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked The Pentagon Papers, in an attempt to discredit him. The mission, however, was unsuccessful.
The Plumbers reportedly also looked for other information that could hurt the Democrats in the upcoming election, such as the Ted Kennedy-Chappaquiddick incident and the alleged involvement of the Kennedy administration in the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
The Plumbers also took part in the Watergate burglary and they might have been tasked to look for evidence that Nixon’s opponents knew about his involvement in Vietnam.
The Watergate Scandal
In January 1972, the plans for Watergate began. The main participants were G. Gordon Liddy, John Mitchell, John Dean, E. Howard Hunt and James McCord, among others. McCord tasked FBI agent Alfred Baldwin with carrying the wiretapping mission and then listening to the wiretapped conversations.
On May 28 1972, the burglars successfully entered the Watergate Complex and wiretapped the phones of Robert Spencer Oliver and Larry O’Brien. However, it turned out that the devices needed repairs, so another burglary was planned.
On 17 June 1972, Baldwin stayed at the Howard Johnson’s hotel across the street from the Watergate Complex while the wiretapping was taking place. His role was to alert the burglars if needed.
A security guard at the complex noticed some tape on a door and removed it, without releasing it was used to keep it open. When he returned, however, the door was retaped and he alerted the authorities. Baldwin failed to see the police coming, which led to the arrest of Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard Barker, James McCord, Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis.
The Cover Up
The Nixon’s administration cover-up of the Watergate break-in is more infamous than the break-in itself. The White House denied any involvement in the incident and there’s a good chance that Nixon didn’t know about it beforehand. In a wiretapped conversation between him and his chief of staff, Nixon asked “Who was the asshole that did that?”.
However, the Watergate break-in brought up the names of Hunt and Liddy who were also involved in the Plumbers’ operations, so Nixon and his administration were concerned that this too would be revealed. Nixon’s aide John Ehrlichman ordered for Hunt’s safe to be destroyed by Dean to cover up the Plumbers’ missions.
Nixon’s press secretary called the break-in “a third-rate burglary attempt”, while Nixon said that Dean brilliantly investigated the incident and found no involvement of White House staff.
Another problem arose when Martha Mitchell, wife of John Mitchell, attempted to talk to reporters about Watergate. In June 1972, the conversation between Martha and a reporter ended abruptly. A few days later, Martha was found with bruises all over her and during the Watergate trial, McCord confessed that Martha was essentially kidnapped and beaten to shut her up.
The conclusive evidence of Nixon’s re-election campaign’s involvement in Watergate was the bank records showing payments to Bernard Baker, one of the Watergate burglars. Through his multiple bank accounts, it was found that he was paid by the presidential campaign, and more specifically that private legal donations to the campaign were funneled into his accounts.
All five burglars were found to be connected to the campaign in one way or another.
Conclusion
This is the story about the factors that led to Watergate and the immediate aftermath. The long court case eventually found the Watergate Seven (Liddy, Hunt, Barker, Gonzalez, Martinez, McCord, Sturgis) guilty and ended with the resignation of president Nixon in 1974.