WATERGATE Essays - Watergate Scandal, Richard Nixon,

WATERGATE President Ricmard M. Nixon is refereed to as one of the most controversial presidents in the history of the United States of America. He is synonymous with this title, because of his involvement in the great "Watergate" scandal. It all started with the election of 1972, Nixon's bid for a second term of presidency. In his attempt at re-election, Nixon took on a different strategy than any other re-election campaign of the past. Instead of using the usual Republican National Committee for re-election, President Nixon divided his campaign into two separate committees. These two committees were named , the Committee for re-election of the president, headed by Attorney General , John Mitchell, and the finance committee to re-elect the president, headed by Secretary of Commerce, Maurice Stans. "Together these committees managed to raise over sixty million dollars for the president' campaign." (Sam J. Ervin, The Whole Truth, pg.36) The work of these two committees enabled Nixon to defeat democrat nominee, George S. McGovern, by a landslide. This decision, by Nixon, would, in the future prove to be the beginning of the end for a good old "Tricky Dick". In his second term, Nixon was known to be positively involved with foreign affairs. "For example, he worked out an agreement with Vietnam to order a stoppage of the war and commence a prisoner exchange program in 1973." (World Book, Nixon, Vol 17) Also in 1973, he worked hard to improve relations with China. His attempts allowed us to open diplomatic office in their capital and they in ours. His events at home also included many positive advancements. His major accomplishment was ending the military draft in 1973. Many of his efforts were thwarted by his inability to work cooperatively with congress. This began with his refusal to approve of a program, spending billions of dollars on projects created by congress. "In return, they refused to support his bombing of Kampuchea, which Nixon said was needed to prevent a communist takeover on their government." (Sam J. Ervin, The Whole Truth, pg. 79) In addition, congress also disagreed with a resolution introduced by President Nixon to reduce the war powers of the president. This resolution was the strongest action ever taken to spell out the war-making powers of congress and the President. Along with these problems, Nixon also had to endure economic setbacks. In January, 1973, he ended most of the government required limits that had been placed on wage and price increases in 1971, but prices still ballooned. Another brief use of controls resulted in a shortage of beef and other foods. By the end of 1973, inflation had risen to 8.8 percent nationally, the largest increase in any year since 1947. Also in 1973, a fuel shortage hit the nation. It led to reduce supplies of oil for home heating and industry, and to a form of gasoline. In 1974, congress approved Nixon's proposal to establish a Federal Energy Administration to deal with the energy shortage. As you can see, President Nixon had a very eventful term. The whole Watergate controversy came about in 1973, when many Nixon employees were arrested and convicted for the burglary of the democratic headquarters in the Watergate Building Complex in 1972. Two of the major figures of the case were James McCord and Gordon Liddy, two figureheads of Nixon's Committee for re-election of the President. Also, information linking many top White House aids to the break-in of Watergate or attempting to hide information concerning it, was released in 1973. This did not look good for our president, but he still denied involvement with the break-in and ordered an investigation. Nixon thought that he could walk right through this investigation unharmed, but he would find later that he had another thing coming. Archibald Cox, a Harvard law professor, was appointed to head the investigation. The chief witness in the case would turn out to be Nixon's own former counsel, John W. Dean. Upon questioning Dean, Cox learned of Nixon's awareness of the cover-up of the Watergate break-in. For his involvement, Dean served four months of a four year sentence that was handed to him. Also during the investigation, the Senate investigation committee learned of recordings of conversations that Nixon made