What political party was Richard Nixon trying to steal campaign secrets from

Written by: Anthony D. Bartl, Angelo State University

By the terminate of this department, you will:

• Explain the causes and effects of continuing policy debates near the part of the federal regime over time

Richard One thousand. Nixon was the starting time U.South. president ever to resign. He did so under threat of impeachment in the wake of the Watergate investigation, named for the hotel and office complex that housed the Autonomous National Commission headquarters, which individuals connected to his assistants had broken into and tried to problems (i.e., electronically eavesdrop) in advance of the 1972 ballot. When the burglars were caught, their White Firm handlers engaged in a criminal encompass-upwards, including perjury and obstruction of justice, in an effort to insulate the assistants from the investigation. These efforts had the opposite effect, even so, making the Nixon administration even more complicit and reflecting desperately on a president under whose picket such misdeed appeared to flourish. Since then, "Watergate" has become the symbol of loftier-level political scandal.

The road to Watergate begins with a covert White House unit called "the Plumbers," which was convened by Nixon'due south chief domestic advisor John Ehrlichman for the purpose of plugging information leaks from the White Business firm. Charles Colson was one of the conspiracy'south earliest and almost enthusiastic volunteers. He (and Nixon) believed in that location was a "counter-authorities" in the hierarchy that was undermining the assistants, with the aid of the liberal-dominated media and the Autonomous-controlled Congress. Only the "silent majority" who had voted for Nixon seemed to be on his side. "Some aspects of this perception were true, some were exaggerated, and some were neurotic," writes ane Nixon biographer. In any case, the creation of the Plumbers was a Rubicon of sorts for the Nixon administration, which allowed people with questionable ethical judgment to appoint in illegal activity to try to thwart the president'due south alleged enemies.

John Ehrlichman, shown in 1969, was a high-level advisor to President Nixon at the time of the Watergate scandal.

The most significant of the data leaks consisted of the "Pentagon Papers, " a top-secret seven,000-page regime report on the origins and deport of the Vietnam State of war, which the New York Times began to publish in installments in June 1971. The source for the documents was Daniel Ellsberg, a 40-year-erstwhile analyst at the RAND Corporation, where he had access to a copy of the report. Nixon wanted to ignore the whole episode because it was damaging to his two Democratic predecessors, non to him, and he even hoped it might confirm President Kennedy's role in the 1963 assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem (it did not).

This map of Indochina was a office of the Pentagon Papers, a secret government report about the Vietnam State of war leaked to the public in 1971.

Simply Henry Kissinger convinced Nixon that the Pentagon Papers contained sensitive cloth that would compromise U.S. Cold State of war intelligence operations, make the president expect weak on the world stage (specially to the Vietnamese), and undermine ongoing surreptitious negotiations (peculiarly with China). Nixon tried to employ the courts to halt publication, but the Supreme Court ruled in New York Times v. U.s.a. (1971) that the First Amendment forbids the government from restraining the freedom of the printing, even when it exposes sensitive military and intelligence-gathering secrets. The Plumbers formed the following month, and Ehrlichman authorized them to suspension into and steal files from the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

Some of the law-breaking Plumbers after went on to work with some other group, the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP). Individuals affiliated with Creep had already broken into the DNC headquarters once and tapped the phones when they were caught and arrested during a 2nd burglary on June 7, 1972. The often-assumed motive for the operation is that it was a standard instance of bugging political opponents to discover campaign strategies. Lyndon Johnson had used the FBI and Central Intelligence Bureau (CIA) to do the same to the Republican National Commission and the Goldwater campaign in 1964 and, indeed, to Nixon's ain campaign jet in 1968. (The practice was hardly invented by Johnson; Kennedy, Truman, and Franklin Roosevelt had all engaged in similar activeness.) Only in that location is no solid bear witness for this motive. In fact, Nixon considered his opponent George McGovern completely unelectable, and he hardly campaigned against him. When the election did come, Nixon won past one of the biggest landslide victories in presidential election history, losing simply the state of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. With the additional loss of 1 "faithless elector" from Virginia, the final electoral college tally was 520 to 13.

Nixon had no straight knowledge either of the Watergate break-ins or of the earlier break-in of Ellsberg's psychiatrist'due south office. He was aware that the Plumbers had generally engaged in sure "dirty tricks," in Ehrlichman'due south words, and information technology was surely understood from the offset that they would exist engaging in legally questionable action. Much of this the president might have rationalized equally a necessary response to the leaking of summit-secret data and other threats to national security. But such a defense force could not be plausibly invoked for Watergate.

A photograph of the Watergate complex where the initial burglary at the Autonomous National Committee headquarters occurred.

The connections betwixt the burglars and Pitter-patter were before long discovered. Because the FBI had jurisdiction over wiretapping, information technology took upward the investigation. Mark Felt, the bureau's second in command, began leaking data to Washington Mail service reporter Bob Woodward, who was roofing the story with swain reporter Carl Bernstein (Felt'south identity every bit the source dubbed "Deep Throat" remained cloak-and-dagger until 2005). The media covered the investigation with interest, but the Postal service, whose editor Ben Bradlee believed Nixon was impeding the paper'south application for broadcasting licenses, pursued the story with special fervor. Yet, the investigation had trivial affect on the election and might have petered out if Nixon had handled the matter better – for instance, if he had immediately ordered his subordinates to cut all ties with all those involved – or if the burglars had drawn a more lenient judge than "Maximum John" Sirica. Nether threat of severe sentencing, six of the seven individuals arrested in connection with the Watergate break-in cooperated with the prosecutors. Only G. Gordon Liddy refused, and Sirica sentenced him to 20 years in prison, plus a $40,000 fine.

Connections to Pitter-patter shortly led to the highest levels of the Nixon assistants, including Ehrlichman, White House counsel John Dean, and Nixon's chief of staff H. R. Haldeman. Dean began to cooperate with the U.Southward. attorneys in charge of the investigation and afterwards testified that he had destroyed prove as part of a cover-up that involved Ehrlichman and Haldeman. When Nixon institute out, he fired Dean and asked Ehrlichman and Haldeman to resign. Soon subsequently, newly appointed Chaser General Elliot Richardson named Archibald Cox as "special prosecutor" to investigate Watergate and related crimes. Cox was a shut associate of Nixon'south old political enemies, the Kennedy brothers, and he filled his investigative team with partisan Democrats, many of whom were hostile to Nixon.

During routine questioning by a Senate staffer, White House aide Alexander Butterfield revealed the being of a vocalisation-activated taping system in the Oval Office that stayed on at all times. Estimate Sirica granted Cox's request to subpoena the tapes, simply Nixon refused to comply with the subpoena, claiming presidential executive privilege gave him total discretion over the privacy of the conversations. Nixon also ordered Cox to drop the asking, and when Cox refused, Nixon ordered Richardson to fire him. Richardson resigned rather than comply, and when Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus refused to do it, Nixon fired him as well. This left Solicitor Full general Robert Bork in charge of the Justice Department, and he carried out Nixon'southward gild to burn down Cox. The media dubbed this consequence the "Saturday Night Massacre."

The political backfire from Cox's firing led Nixon to let Bork appoint Leon Jaworski to replace Cox as special prosecutor, and Jaworski besides demanded the tapes. Nixon again refused, and the example went to the Supreme Court as U.s.a. v. Nixon (1974). In a unanimous opinion (minus Justice Rehnquist, who recused himself), the court said that a coating claim of executive privilege, absent whatever specific claims that national security would be jeopardized, could not justify a president'south refusal to comply with a judicial amendment. "The generalized assertion of privilege," wrote Main Justice Burger (a Nixon appointee), "must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for testify in a pending criminal trial." Nixon turned over the tapes.

Meanwhile, a m jury had indicted Ehrlichman, Haldeman, and the rest of "the Watergate Seven" for crimes related to covering up the CREEP conspiracy or otherwise impeding the Watergate investigation – crimes such as conspiracy, obstacle of justice, and perjury. Nixon was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. The House Judiciary Committee had as well been busy gathering evidence, and it opened formal impeachment hearings on May 9, 1974. On July 25, Texas Democrat and Judiciary Commission fellow member Barbara Jordan delivered a speech communication discussing the nature of ramble checks and balances and the Firm'southward responsibility to serve every bit a check on executive ability. It is considered past some to be ane of the most important political speeches of the twentieth century.

View this video of Barbara Hashemite kingdom of jordan's speech to learn more.

At the end of July, the Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to recommend articles of impeachment. On August viii, Nixon appear he would resign his office the following twenty-four hours. In his televised resignation speech, he said he was stepping down against his personal inclination, considering the nation needed a Congress and a president working full fourth dimension on its behalf, and because "the interest of the Nation must always come before whatsoever personal considerations". When Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president, he expressed what was surely the common mood of the day: "Our long national nightmare is over." But it was not.

Former President Nixon parting the White House aboard Marine One shortly later on his resignation on August nine, 1974.

Fearing the continuation of "bad dreams that continue to reopen a affiliate that is closed," Ford granted Nixon "a total, free, and accented pardon" for crimes he "committed or may have committed" during his presidency. Ford did not recall it was good for the land to see an ex-president put on trial, nor did he recollect Nixon could hope to get a fair trial under the circumstances. Ford's public approval plummeted as a effect, destroying whatever hopes he might have had of winning the 1976 presidential election. It was his plow to put the expert of the nation before his own interests.

When Nixon left the White House, as Henry Kissinger observed, "the presidency was in shambles." The strong executive branch promoted past intellectuals like Arthur Schlesinger had given style to fears of an "regal presidency" under Nixon, which, in plough, led to fears of an "imperiled presidency" nether the administrations succeeding him. The book of Congressional legislation aimed at restraining executive power during this flow demonstrates the people's new distrust of government in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate. The division and distrust that arose then continues to ripple through American politics today.

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Review Questions

ane. The top-secret study Daniel Ellsberg leaked to the New York Times was

1. the Warren Report
2. the White Business firm tapes
3. the Pentagon Papers
4. the Ellsberg Dossier

ii. The organization that hired the Watergate burglars to break in to the DNC headquarters was the

1. Federal Bureau of Investigation
2. National Security Quango
3. White House Plumbers
4. Committee to Re-Elect the President

3. What did President Richard Nixon cite to justify his refusal to hand over the White House tapes in response to the court-ordered subpoena?

1. Executive privilege
2. Prerogative powers
3. Confidentiality
4. National security

4. In United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court determined that

1. President Nixon could use a blanket claim of executive privilege to keep secret the tapes of Oval Role conversations
2. the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox was justified
3. President Nixon needed to testify how national security would exist jeopardized by release of the tapes
4. Justice John Sirica was overstepping his authority as a federal judge in regard to sentencing the "Watergate burglars"

v. The "Saturday Night Massacre" resulted in the dismissal of

1. Attorney General Elliot Richardson
2. Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus
3. Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox
4. Solicitor General Robert Bork

6. Which of the following occurred as a event of the Watergate scandal?

1. The impeachment of President Richard Nixon
2. The resignation of President Richard Nixon
3. The firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox
4. Growing trust in the checks and balances system established by the Constitution

Gratis Response Questions

1. Clarify the events that led to the Watergate scandal.
2. Draw the significance of the 'Sabbatum Night Massacre.'

AP Exercise Questions

We accept elected to apply an adversary system of criminal justice in which the parties contest all issues before a court of police. The demand to develop all relevant facts in the antagonist system is both central and comprehensive. The ends of criminal justice would exist defeated if judgments were to be founded on a partial or speculative presentation of the facts. The very integrity of the judicial organisation and public confidence in the system depend on full disclosure of all the facts, within the framework of the rules of evidence.

In this instance nosotros must weigh the importance of the general privilege of confidentiality of Presidential communications in performance of the President'southward responsibilities against the inroads of such a privilege on the fair administration of criminal justice.

We conclude that when the ground for asserting privilege as to subpoenaed materials sought for apply in a criminal trial is based but on the generalized interest in confidentiality, information technology cannot prevail over the fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair assistants of criminal justice. The generalized exclamation of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for testify in a pending criminal trial.

Majority Opinion past Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, U.s.a. v. Nixon, July 24, 1974

Refer to the extract provided.

1. This Supreme Court decision was written in response to

1. the Saturday Night Massacre
2. the bombing of Cambodia
3. President Nixon's refusal to mitt over the White Firm tapes
4. the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox

2. Which of the following is the reason given for the decision in this case?

1. Presidential privilege must supplant the demand for prove in a criminal trial.
2. Due procedure and presidential privilege are mutually exclusive.
3. Full disclosure of all facts is required for the judicial system to office properly.
4. Public confidence in the presidency must be maintained.

3. Which of the following was a direct result of the ruling of this case?

1. Public faith in the courtroom organization declined.
2. The Supreme Court proceeded with an impeachment trial of President Nixon.
3. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned.
4. President Nixon handed over all of the White House tapes.

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Primary Sources

Manufactures of Impeachment Adopted past the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, July 27, 1974. https://world wide web.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/articles-impeachment-adopted-the-house-representatives-committee-the-judiciary

Ford, Gerald R. "Address to the Nation Pardoning Richard Nixon," September 8, 1974. Text: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/geraldfordpardonofnixon.htm Video: https://www.c-span.org/video/?153623-i/president-gerald-fords-pardon-richard-nixon

Jordan, Barbara. "Argument on the Articles of Impeachment." July 25, 1974. Text: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordanjudiciarystatement.htm Video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/UG6xMglSMdk

New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/the states/403/713/

Nixon, Richard Thousand. "President Nixon's Resignation Address." August 8, 1974. Text: https://world wide web.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/richardnixonresignationspeech.htmlVideo:https://www.c-bridge.org/video/?320753-1/president-nixons-resignation-accost

Us five. Nixon, 418 U.S. 663 (1974). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/u.s.a./418/683/

Suggested Resource

Bernstein, Carl, and Bob Woodward. All the President'southward Men. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.

Black, Conrad. Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007.

Buchanan, Patrick. Nixon'southward White House Wars: The Battles that Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever. New York: Crown Forum, 2017.

Kutler, Stanley l. The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon. New York: Westward. W. Norton & Co., 1992.

Milkis, Sidney, and Michael Nelson. The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-2018, 8th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Printing, 2019.

Small-scale, Melvin. The Presidency of Richard Nixon. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1997.

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Source: https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/richard-nixon-and-watergate

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