The Watergate scandal stands as one of the most significant political scandals in U.S. history, unfolding during the early 1970s. It involved accusations against President Richard Nixon’s administration for wiretapping political opponents, exploiting security agencies as weapons against them, and covering up its role in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. Five individuals were arrested at the Watergate office complex. The press and the U.S. Department of Justice investigated, uncovering links between the intruders and members of the Nixon administration, which intensified the investigation. New evidence emerged, leading to Congressional hearings where witnesses testified that Nixon had approved plans to cover up his administration’s involvement in the break-in and attempted to obstruct the investigation by not cooperating. The hearings resulted in charges against 69 individuals, including 48 senior Nixon administration officials. An impeachment process was initiated, but Nixon preemptively resigned, passing power to his vice president, Gerald Ford, who then issued a pardon for Nixon. The Watergate scandal remains a historical benchmark for subsequent political scandals.
The Watergate scandal began early on June 17, 1972, when police arrested five burglars at the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate complex. They were caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents after a security guard reported suspicious activity. Four of the intruders were former CIA operatives, while the fifth, James McCord Jr., was the head of security for Nixon’s re-election committee. The arrest was reported by the Washington Post, with details published the next morning by journalists Alfred Lewis, Carl Bernstein, and Bob Woodward. Shortly thereafter, Woodward, Bernstein, and FBI investigators identified two conspirators involved in the break-in: E. Howard Hunt Jr., a former senior CIA officer recently appointed to the White House, and Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent.
The connection of some of the intruders to the White House and U.S. agencies led White House spokesperson Ron Ziegler to downplay the burglary as a third-rate incident. Early media reports, driven by a successful White House public relations campaign, claimed no connection between the Nixon administration and the arrested individuals. On June 23, 1972, Nixon ordered the FBI to scale back its investigation and directed the CIA to impede the inquiry, a move later revealed as evidence of Nixon’s involvement in the cover-up. During this time, journalists Woodward and Bernstein received leaks from an anonymous source known as “Deep Throat,” later identified as FBI Deputy Director W. Mark Felt. These leaks provided evidence of direct involvement by Nixon’s associates in the Watergate break-in and illegal funding for the operation. A major article published on October 10 by the Washington Post explicitly stated that the Watergate incident was part of a massive political spying and sabotage campaign directed by White House officials.
Despite these allegations, the White House successfully dismissed the reports of Woodward and Bernstein as a liberal newspaper’s vendetta against the President before the elections. This coincided with a two-part television report by CBS News summarizing the Watergate scandal’s connection to the White House. After the first part aired on October 27, the report’s producer received threats, and the second part was cut. Meanwhile, Nixon-supporting newspapers defended him, and a Gallup poll taken just before the elections showed overwhelming confidence in Nixon over Democratic candidate George McGovern. Nixon was re-elected in a landslide victory and began what appeared to be a second term.
The Watergate Trials and Aftermath
Less than two weeks before Nixon’s second inauguration, the trial of the five burglars and two accomplices began in federal court. The indictment was relatively small, concerning burglary, conspiracy, and federal wiretap violations. It seemed the White House had managed to contain the scandal. Nevertheless, Judge John Sirica, who presided over the hearings, provoked the defendants and witnesses on issues not covered in the indictment, related to the financial and institutional involvement of the White House and the re-election campaign.
All defendants, except for Liddy and McCord, pleaded guilty by late January 1973. The court was set to reconvene on March 23 to hear sentencing. During this period, the Senate voted to establish a special committee to investigate the 1972 presidential campaign violations, led by Democratic Senator Sam Ervin. The Senate hearings uncovered startling revelations about corruption at the heart of American power. The committee, led by Ervin, included three Republican senators and was broadcast on television, capturing high viewership. University students gathered around TVs during class breaks, reflecting the public’s fascination with the hearings. Some critics considered the hearings a biased trial of government officials, while others were annoyed at the timing of the broadcasts during their favorite TV shows.
On June 25, 1973, in a seven-hour statement before the Ervin Committee, watched by a large TV audience, aide John Wesley Dean implicated President Nixon as the principal orchestrator of the Watergate scandal and its cover-up. Despite Dean’s confession, many remained skeptical, and it appeared the hearings might reach an impasse, with Nixon’s word against one of his aides. It was then discovered that evidence existed in White House tapes. The Ervin Committee immediately requested several presidential tape recordings, but Nixon refused, citing executive privilege and national security concerns. When Judge Sirica ordered Nixon to surrender the tapes, and this order was upheld by the Court of Appeals in October, Nixon instead proposed to provide written summaries of the tapes in exchange for a guarantee not to seek additional presidential documents. This proposal was rejected.
On October 20, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the special prosecutor in the case, an event known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.” Richardson and his deputy resigned in protest, and the compliant Attorney General Robert Bork carried out the dismissal. Amid a storm of pressure and protests, Nixon finally agreed on October 23 to release the nine tapes requested by Judge Sirica. However, only seven of the nine tapes were delivered, and one of these had an 18½-minute gap, increasing suspicions and prompting an official impeachment inquiry by the House Judiciary Committee in May 1974. On May 20, Judge Sirica ordered Nixon to produce additional tapes. On July 24, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Nixon had to release the recordings. Between July 27 and 30, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against the President. On August 5, Nixon provided copies of three tapes clearly showing his involvement in the cover-up. With these revelations, Nixon lost his remaining congressional support and announced his resignation on August 8, 1974, citing a lack of political support. He left office the next day, August 9, and his vice president, Gerald Ford, assumed the presidency.
Pardon and Aftermath
On September 8, 1974, following Nixon’s resignation, President Gerald Ford decided to grant Nixon a full, unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed while in office. Many Americans at the time believed Nixon was guilty and thought Ford’s pardon was a political trade-off for becoming President, leading to a rapid decline in Ford’s popularity and a significant loss of trust between him and the public. After 27 months of the Watergate scandal, some of Nixon’s closest aides were eventually imprisoned. Throughout the remaining part of the decade, both popular and political culture were marked by disappointment in the presidency, which was later countered by President Ronald Reagan’s rhetorical skills. Reagan managed to dispel the lingering shadow of the scandal, which had become a common benchmark for evaluating subsequent political scandals in the U.S. After Nixon’s death, his family spent a substantial amount on a legal campaign to prevent the full release of his tapes, but this effort ultimately failed. The complete White House recordings of President Nixon became available to the public, revealing that Nixon had ordered incendiary devices to be placed at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. (a plan that was never executed) in an attempt to destroy records indicating his conspiracy to sabotage the Paris Peace Accords of 1968.
