Watergate

Watergate showed up yesterday in a grammar class and once again I was met with blank stares. One brave soul asked what Watergate was and so I gave the class my "Watergate in a nutshell" lecture. It goes something like this...

Richard M. Nixon...does anyone know who he was?

Blank stares...crickets chirping.

Okay.

Richard Nixon was president of the United States from 1969 to 1974 and if you are good at math you can see that that is neither 4 nor 8 years. Nixon is the only president in U.S. history to resign and his resignation and the preceding scandal is all called the Watergate Scandal.

It all started on June 17, 1972 when there was a break in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel (this is where the name Watergate comes from).  The burglars were caught and arrested and through an investigation is was determined that the burglars were paid from an account that belonged to the Re-Elect Nixon campaign. There were investigations and the media focused on this connection between the burglars and the source of payments. At the Washington Post, two reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward received tips from an anonymous source whom they referred to as "Deep Throat". The identity of Deep Throat was a mystery for over 30 years until William Mark Felt Sr. wrote a book in 2005 identifying himself as Woodward and Bernstein's source. At the time of the Watergate Scandal, Felt was Deputy Director of the FBI.

Through many official investigations, it was found that White House Staff were implicated in an attempt to cover-up the connection between the burglary and the President. Key evidence was found in audio recordings of conversations within the Oval Office. Nixon recorded all his conversations in the Oval Office and some of these tapes revealed that he knew people were being bribed to not speak about the situation. Ultimately there was evidence that Nixon knew about the cover up and Congress was prepared to impeach him. Nixon chose to resign on August 8, 1974, rather than being removed from office.

A dramatized version of these events can be seen in the movie "All the President's Men" and a recreation of an interview with Richard Nixon after Watergate can be seen in the movie "Frost/Nixon".

As always, this is a simplification of events that are complex, but this is enough so that you have an idea when Watergate is referenced.