|
Watergate Scandal
Facts for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting facts and information on the Watergate Scandal.
Watergate Scandal
Facts for kids
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 1: President Richard
Nixon was a forceful, serious, introvert who suffered
from a low self-esteem with feelings of inadequacy. He
became convinced that 'radicals' were plotting to bring
down his administration and became secretive, highly
defensive and resentful of anyone who criticized him, or
his administration.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 2: Nixon became
vengeful and was so consumed with his opponents that he
compiled a list of "enemies", who he considered to be a
threat to his presidency and his re-election.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
3: The leak of the
Pentagon Papers in June 1971 had heralded a new era
of skepticism about the Vietnam War and the US
government in general.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 4: Nixon engaged in numerous acts
of duplicity and became paranoid about possible leaks regarding the
activities in his own administration - he surrounded himself with a
special group of trusted aides, who later became known as the
"Washington Plumbers" ("We stop leaks").
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 5: During the summer
of 1970 Tom Huston produced a document called the
'Huston Plan', that greatly expanding domestic
intelligence-gathering by the FBI, CIA and other
agencies.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 6: Much of the Huston
Plan was "clearly illegal" involving covert operations
to gain access to private mail, bugging telephones and
surreptitious entries or break-ins to gather information
about the "enemies", radicals and communists.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 7: President Nixon
first approved the Huston plan, but quickly rescinded
his approval in light of opposition from FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover. (Hoover died in May, 1972, and L. Patrick
Gray was appointed acting director in his place)
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 8: The 'Huston Plan'
was discarded but illustrates the atmosphere in the
White House and why the White House-based 'Inter-agency
Group on Domestic Intelligence and Internal Security'
and the "Washington plumbers" emerged. And the type of
covert operations that would be used in the
administration's progression to the Watergate Scandal.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 9: The secret team of "Washington
Plumbers", all working for the Committee to Re-elect the President
(CREEP), were charged with fixing "leaks" and focusing on Domestic
Intelligence Gathering.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 10: The "Washington Plumbers"
included Special Counsel Charles Colson, John Erlichmann (counsel
and Assistant to the President ), John Dean (White House
Counsel), Bob Haldeman (White House Chief of Staff), Tom Huston
(White House aide), ex-FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy and ex-CIA officer
Howard Hunt.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
11: It was ex-CIA
officer Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, the chief
operative in the White House Plumbers, who
engineered the Watergate burglary and other undercover
operations for the Nixon Administration.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 12: The events that culminated in
the Watergate Scandal began when Howard Hunt arranged for the
burglary and bugging of the Democratic National Committee at the
Watergate office building. The purpose was to collect information
that could prove useful to Nixon winning the 1972 presidential
election and place wire taps on the phones.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 13: In the early hours of June 17,
1972 five men broke into the Watergate office building. Bernard
Barker photographed documents, Virgilio Gonzalez picked the locks
and James W. McCord Jr. handled the bugging. Eugenio Martínez
and Frank Sturgis acted as lookouts.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 14: Frank Wills, a security guard
at the Watergate Complex, noticed some suspicious tape over door
locks and reported evidence of a break-in to the police. The
burglars alerted Liddy and Hunt, who were managing the operation by
two-way radio contact in room 214 of the Watergate Hotel, just
before the five were arrested.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 15: G. Gordon Liddy
and Howard Hunt immediately vacated their hotel room.
Hunt hired a lawyer to quickly bail the men out and
Liddy went to his office to start a shredding operation
to eliminate any evidence of his involvement in the
burglary.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 16: The police
discovered wire-tapping equipment, two cameras, rolls of
film and two hotel room keys, one of which was for the
room where G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt had stayed.
The keys would eventually implicated Liddy and Hunt and,
as employees of the Nixon administration, the White
House was also implicated.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 17: The newspapers
discovered that one of the burglars, James W. McCord,
was not only an ex-CIA official but also a member of the
Committee for the Re-election of the President (CRP)
establishing a connection between the Watergate break-in
at the Democratic National Committee office and the
White House.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 18: The investigations
of two reporters from the Washington Post, Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein and their meetings with their
mysterious informant who they nicknamed "Deep Throat",
began on June 20, 1972, just 3 days after the Watergate
break-in.
Watergate Scandal
Facts - 19: Reports soon
surfaced that the burglars had been paid to undertake
the break-in from a secret Republican fund, controlled
by John Mitchell at the White House, that was used to
pay for spying on the Democrats.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
20: The Watergate
Cover-up began as interest in the people who knew about
the burglary, and their connection to the White House,
increased. Administration officials destroyed
incriminating documents and gave false testimonies to
investigators.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
21: President Nixon
made his first Statement on Watergate during a News
Conference on June 22, 1972 in which he said "...The
White House has had no involvement whatever in this
particular incident."
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 22: On September 15,
1972 the five Watergate burglars were indicted, along
with E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
23: The American
public took the word of the president and interest in
the Watergate burglary declined. Richard Nixon won
re-election on November 7, 1972 by one of the largest
margins in US history, with nearly 61% of the popular
vote. The electoral vote was 520 votes for Richard Nixon
and 17 for George McGovern.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
24: On January 8,
1973, the five Watergate burglars pleaded guilty at
their trial. Then, on January 30, 1973, just ten days
after Richard Nixon's second inauguration, Liddy and
McCord were convicted on charges of conspiracy,
burglary, and wiretapping.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
25: On February 7,
1973 the Senate Select Committee on Presidential
Campaign Activities was established with Senator Sam
Ervin (D-NC) as its chairman.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 26: The Senate
Watergate Committee hearings began on May 17, 1973 and
were televised across the nation. On the fifth day of
the hearings, Nixon made a public statement about
Watergate saying, "I had no prior knowledge of the
Watergate operation. I took no part in, nor was I aware
of, any subsequent efforts that may have been made to
cover up Watergate."
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 27: One of the
burglars, James W. McCord, agreed to cooperate with the
Senate’s Select Committee on Presidential Campaign
Activities, under Senator Sam J. Ervin. The testimony of
James McCord opened a floodgate of confessions from
White House and campaign officials.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 28: The confessions
exposed stories of conspiracy and illegal acts over the
next several months. Acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray
testified that White House counsel John Dean had
"probably lied" to FBI investigators about his role in
the Watergate scandal.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 29: White House
Counsel John Dean, a member of the president's inner
circle, responded to his questioning by leveling
allegations against other senior officials in the
administration and against President Nixon himself.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 30: John Dean
testified that former Attorney General John Mitchell had
ordered the Watergate break-in and that President Nixon
had played an active role in attempting to cover-up the
involvement of the White House.
Continued...
Watergate Scandal
Facts for kids
Facts
about the Watergate Scandal for kids
The following fact
sheet continues with facts about the Watergate Scandal.
Watergate Scandal
Facts for kids
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 31: On April 17, 1973,
President Nixon made a brief statement before the White
House Press Corps in which he concluded, "I condemn any
attempts to cover up in this case, no matter who is
involved." Later that day, the White House issued an
official statement saying that the President had no
prior knowledge of the Watergate Affair.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 32: On April 30, 1973
President Nixon appeared on national television, to
announce the dismissal of John Dean and the resignations
of his closest advisors, Bob Haldeman and John
Ehrlichman (Assistant to the President for Domestic
Affairs).
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 33: On July 7, 1973
Nixon refused to grant the Senate Watergate committee
access to presidential documents, claiming executive
privilege.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 34: As the Senate Select Committee tried
to establish the truth behind all the allegations and
subsequent denials, the testimony of White House aide
Alexander Butterfield provided the key to answer their
questions.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 35: On July 16, 1973
Alexander Butterfield testified that President Nixon had
ordered a taping system to be installed in the White
House to record all conversations in order to help him
write his memoirs after he left office. The 'Nixon
tapes' would provide details and the dates of exactly
what the president knew.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 36: The president
refused permission for investigators to have access to
the 'Nixon Tapes' claiming executive privilege in that
White House conversations should remain confidential to
protect national security.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
37: On August 9, 1973
the Senate committee subpoenaed the tapes, Nixon refused
to comply and the Senate committee decides to take legal
action via the Supreme Court.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
38: On August 29, 1973 President Nixon
lost his first court battle when Judge John Joseph
Sirica ordered him to hand over nine tapes for private
review.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
39: A special
prosecutor, Archibald Cox, had been appointed by the
president to handle the Watergate cases. Cox, took
President Nixon to court in October 1973 to force him to
give up the recordings of the tapes. The president
offered a compromise, proposing to hand over summaries
of the subpoenaed tapes.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 40: On Saturday October 20, 1973 an
extraordinary series of events occur:
● Archibald Cox declined the
compromise and Nixon immediately demands his
resignation resign.
● Cox refused to resign and the
president ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson
to fire Cox.
● Richardson refuses the
president's request and resigns.
● President Nixon then ordered
Elliot Richardson 's assistant, William
Ruckelshaus, to fire Cox but he also refuses and
resigns.
● President Nixon then ordered
his solicitor general, Robert Bork, to fire Cox.
Bork, at last, complies with the president's
request, and is appointed Acting Attorney General
The media dubs this astonishing
series of events as the "Saturday Night Massacre", badly
damaging Nixon’s reputation with the public.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 41: In October 1973
yet another scandal hit the Nixon administration
when Vice President Spiro Agnew was charged with having
accepted bribes totaling more than $100,000 while
serving as Maryland's governor. He was replaced by
Michigan congressman Gerald R. Ford.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 42: Following the
dismissal of Archibald Cox, and the frenzy surrounding
the Watergate Scandal, infuriated members of the House
of Representatives begin drafting resolutions calling
for the
Impeachment of the president.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 43: Nixon was under enormous pressure due
to the Watergate Scandal and agreed to release some of
the tapes to Judge John Sirica.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 44: The president also
announced that he was instructing Acting Attorney
General Bork to appoint a new Special Prosecutor for the
Watergate matter and on November 1, 1973 Leon Jaworski
its new special prosecutor.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 45: At a press
conference on November 17, 1973, President Nixon urged
the nation to move beyond Watergate and famously
defended himself, saying "...I have never obstructed
justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my
years of public life, that I welcome this kind of
examination, because people have got to know whether or
not their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.
I have earned everything I have got.".
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 46: His famous "I am
not a crook" statement backfired almost immediately
when, on November 21, 1973, the White House reports that
two of the subpoenaed tapes are missing and one contains
an erased gap of 18 ½ minutes. It seemed obvious to many
that evidence was being destroyed.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 47: The debate
surrounding the Watergate Scandal continued to rage and
the House voted to authorize the Judiciary Committee to
investigate grounds for impeaching the president.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 48: On April 16, 1974
special prosecutor Leon Jaworski subpoenaed sixty-four
additional tapes. Nixon subsequently ignored the
subpoena and provides edited transcripts instead.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 49: In United States
v. Richard Nixon, on July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court
denies his claim of executive privilege during the
Watergate Scandal and decides 8-0 that the president
must surrender the subpoenaed tapes, .
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 50: Between July
27-30, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee adopted three
articles of impeachment against President Nixon for his
role in the Watergate Scandal:
● Obstructing the Watergate
investigation
● Misuse of power and violating
his oath of office
● Failure to comply with House
subpoenas
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 51: On August 5, 1974
Nixon voluntary made public three of the subpoenaed
tapes. One of these tapes would become known as the
"Smoking Gun" tape
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 52: The "Smoking Gun"
tape includes a conversation, recorded just six days
after the Watergate break-in, in which Nixon orders Bob
Haldeman to use the CIA to hold back the inquiry into
Watergate by the FBI.
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 53: Following this revelation in the
"Smoking Gun" tape, Nixon lost his few remaining
supporters
Watergate
Scandal Facts - 54: On August 8, 1974
President Nixon announced in a televised address to the
nation that he will “resign the Presidency, effective at
noon tomorrow.”
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
55: The Watergate
scandal with the break-in, the cover-up, the lies of
President Richard Nixon, his abuse of executive
privilege and his knowledge of illegal acts committed by
his aides had culminated in the president's resignation
on August 9, 1974.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
56: Nixon's
resignation prevented his Impeachment by the Senate.
President Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon one month later on
September 8, 1974.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
57: The disgraced
Nixon was granted a “full free and absolute” pardon for
"all offenses against the United States" committed
between January 20, 1969 and August 9, 1974, so
preventing any criminal charges from being filed against
the former president.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
58: Following the
Watergate Scandal Congress passed a series of laws to
limit the executive branch of the government. The new
laws included the Federal Campaign Act Amendments and
the Ethics in Government Act. The FBI Domestic Security
Investigation Guidelines restricting the FBI’s political
intelligence-gathering activities.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
59: The name of
mysterious informant of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
nicknamed "Deep Throat" was revealed 30 years after the
Watergate Scandal. The name of "Deep Throat" was Mark
Felt (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008), an FBI
special agent who retired as the Bureau's Deputy
Director in 1973. Mark Felt admitted to being "Deep
Throat ," the whistleblower in the Watergate scandal, on
May 31, 2005.
Watergate Scandal
Facts -
60: The Watergate
affair was the worst political scandal in the history of
the United States of America and was the only
scandal to bring down the presidency.
Watergate Scandal
Facts for kids
Watergate Scandal - President Richard Nixon Video
The following
Richard Nixon video will
give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the
37th American President
whose presidency
ended on August 9, 1974 with the Watergate Scandal.
Watergate Scandal
●
Interesting Facts about Watergate Scandal for kids and schools
●
Summary of the Watergate Scandal in US history
●
Facts about the Watergate Scandal
●
Richard Nixon Presidency from
January 20, 1969 to August 9, 1974
●
Fast, fun, Watergate Scandal
about major events in his presidency
●
President Richard Nixon and the Watergate Scandal
● The
Watergate Scandal for schools,
homework, kids and children |
