Free Report On History

Water Gate Scandal

The Water Gate Scandal became one of the major political controversies in America in which took place in the 1970s. The event was a result of the break-in of the headquarters of then President Richard Nixon in Washington that occurred on June 17, 1972 (Anderson 50). It was called the Water Gate scandal because it happened at the Water Gate Office complex of the President. There was a strong attempt by then President Nixon’s administration to conceal its involvement to the scandal. However, after the conspiracy was made known to the public after the investigation conducted by the American Congress, it resulted to a constitutional crisis after the Nixon administration resisted to cooperate with the investigation (Anderson 51) It was revealed that members of the Nixon’s administration engaged in several illegal activities which included invasion of the offices of the President’s political opponents that were regarded by his officials as suspicious. Nixon ordered the harassment of some of the political figures and activist groups by instructing the FBI, CIA and the IRS to conduct the probe (Anderson 51). After the scandal, many of the abuses committed by Nixon’s administration were made known to the public, which led to the filing of his impeachment, and his eventual resignation. The Water Gate Scandal caused the the indictment of sixty nine (69) people, who had to undergo trials that resulted to 48 being top administration officials, who were later found to be guilty of crimes that led to their imprisonment (Anderson 52).
I. List of Prepared Questions for the Interview:

What are the major events do you remember during the Watergate scandal?

What was the reaction of the people during the scandal?
What were the illegal activities that were discovered during the event?
Will you still vote for President Nixon?
Do you feel safe and secured after the occurrence of this event?
How do you feel after the reports of manipulation involved top ranking officials?
Do you still believe in that Nixon administration will be able to resolve the problem?
II. List of people interviewed

One student in the year 1973

History professor in the year 1974
III. Analysis
For this study, I was two resource persons were interviewed to gather data about the Water Gate scandal. One of them is a student in 1973 and the other resource person was a former history professor in the year 1974. According to the professor, one of the most memorable events according to the students who have been interviewed is the wire-tapping of the headquarters of the Democratic Party. He also said that based on the interview with the teacher in 1973, he was able to watch the televised hearings of the Water Gate scandal. He said that a security guard named Wills, who was assign at the Watergate Complex, testified that he noticed tape that covered the latches on the doors of the complex that was near the underground parking garage that led to other offices. He said that when he removed the tape, he came back one hour later to check again. He was surprised to see that there were tapes again on the lock and that was the time he reported it to the police. The police saw five men inside the DNC office and they were arrested. President Nixon denied he had knowledge of what happened. However, during the course of the investigations, several high cabinet-level officials of the administration were implicated in the scandal (Garrett and Wallace 71). President Nixon had two times made nationally televised statements that he had no knowledge of the Water Gate break in and the subsequent cover-up. However, the people doubted his innocence.
The student said that based on the survey that their group conducted during that time for their study on the involvement of President Nixon in the Water Gate scandal, it was revealed that 41 percent of the sample population believed that Nixon had advanced knowledge of the Water Gate bugging, and 58 percent of those who participated believed that the cover-up was also done by his administration (Garrett and Wallace 71). The student also said that another 44 percent of the participants of the survey felt that the President should be removed from his office through impeachment if proven that he was indeed involved in the scandal. Another 24 percent of the survey population revealed that the President should be impeached if he had knowledge of the cover-up that later ensued.
The statement of the student was affirmed by the poll survey that was conducted by Time magazine that was reportedly given to a large number of undergraduates (Garrett and Wallace 71). These students were also asked to rate the extent to which the Water Gate scandal distressed them, after having voted for Nixon in the 1972 Presidential election. Some of the responses showed that there were some students who said that they will no longer voted for Nixon if an election will again take place. There were also some of them who said that they will still vote for him, if an election will be held on that same day.
However, since the Water Gate scandal had opened many issues concerning morality in the government, it was expected that the moral judgment of majority of the Americans believed that President Nixon should be removed from office, despite the fact that they voted for him in the Presidential elections in 1972. During the interview, the former professor said that most of the Nixon supporters changed their attitude towards him and said that they will no longer vote for him if another election is to be held.
The student also revealed that she no longer felt safe after the Water Gate scandal broke and many of her classmates also said that Nixon should be removed from office. She also said that the lack of faith in the government has divided the nation and impeaching the President is the only way to unite the country.
The former professor also mentioned that there was money involved in the scandal after it was discovered that several donations amounting to $86,000 that were given by individuals believed that they made donations through cashier’s checks for Nixon’s re-election. There was corruption after investigator’s report showed that bank records in Miami company was managed by one of the burglar’s of the Water Gate scandal named Barker revealed that said account was personally controlled by him. He said that he had been depositing checks and transferring the funds to his account.
Aside from this, there are several recorded telephone conversions that had been preserved and can be accessed in You Tube, which shows that Nixon conspired with this aide. After listening to the tapes that pertain to Water Gate, one will think that Nixon is trying to demonstrate more knowledge than what he already possessed as he tried to convince his aides that he’s was on top of things (Mallon 117).

Work Cited:

Anderson, Dale. Watergate: Scandal in the White House. Minneapolis: White-Thomson
Publishing, 2007. Print.
Emery, Fred. Watergate. New York: Touchstone, 1994, Print.
Garrett, James B., and Benjamin Wallace. “Cognitive Consistency, Repression-Sensitization,
and Level of Moral Judgment: Reactions of College Students to the Watergate
Scandal.” Journal of Social Psychology 98.1 (1976): 69.
Mallon, Thomas. “Forty More Years: Nixon and Me.” Ploughshares 38.2/3 (2012): 110-118.