watergate
*richard
nixon’s first term as president was amazingly successful.
his visit to
*in
1972, however, nixon won re-election by the widest margin (18 million
votes) in
american history. he carried every state
but
*nixon
won by appealing to the silent majority of americans who were disgusted
by the
free-loving, war-protesting, acid-dropping hippies and by the race
riots in
detroit, los angeles, and elsewhere.
this helped him win the traditionally democratic working-class
vote. he also won using a southern
strategy,
becoming the first republican to win every southern state (which he did
partly
be exploiting racial divisions—for example, he put less pressure on
schools to
desegregate).
*although
did not support school desegregation—most famously by ending the policy
of
forced bussing, in which students were bussed across town to make sure
there
was a mix of races throughout each school district—he also created the
philadelphia plan, which supported affirmative action in labour unions
and
among federal contractors.
*nixon
had problems, though. government
spending on the great society and the vietnam war put a lot of money
into the
economy, creating inflation. however,
high taxes to pay for this spending and competition from foreign
imports
(particularly in heavy industry like steel and automobile production)
hurt
american businesses, leading to a recession.
typically during a depression or recession, prices go down, but
in the
late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, american experienced
‘stagflation,’ when
the economy stagnated but prices inflated.
*congress
tried to deal with american stagflation through a 90-day wage and price
freeze
in 1971. because price freezes meant
that some products could only be sold at a loss, some things
(particularly
meat) were simply not sold at all.
although freezing prices temporarily helped american consumers,
ultimately it did not help the economy.
*another
problem for the american economy began in the
*in the
*by
1973 nixon was having problems. his
vice-president, spiro agnew, was imprisoned for accepting bribes and
not paying
his income taxes. nixon chose house minority leader gerald ford
as
agnew’s replacement and the senate confirmed him (according to the xxv
amendment).
*furthermore,
some of nixon’s actions during the 1972 presidential campaign were
coming back
to haunt him. always paranoid, he had
hired a group of group of men with undercover experience to stop leaks
in the
president’s system. they were called plumbers.
in june, 1972, he sent his plumbers to break
into the democratic national committee chairman’s office in the
watergate hotel.
they had to go back after the first trip, and were caught. the
money they
carried could be traced to the president, or at least to creep, the
committee
to re-elect the president. nixon immediately tried to quiet the
plumbers
down. bribes and threats were both offered.
*despite
this, an fbi agent named mark felt (although his identity was not known
for
over 30 years, as he insisted the reporters use the code name deep
throat),
began leaking information to bob woodward and edward bernstein of the washington post. soon the post
began publishing damaging articles about the watergate scandal.
*beginning
in january 1973, congress began investigating and trying people known
to be
involved in the watergate break-in. the plumbers refused to talk
until
offered a short stay in prison as opposed to 40 years.
*the
senate held hearings all 1973 and nixon put all his effort into hiding
any
evidence he had been involved in burglary, intimidation, or other
criminal
activities. they found out that nixon had a secret recording
system in
the white house that had taped all his conversations during his
presidency. the special prosecutor chosen by the senate committee
asked
for the tapes, nixon refused, and fired him. nixon gave the next
prosecutor transcriptions of part of the tapes, but that was not
enough.
*congress
had seen and heard enough evidence to feel sure that nixon had broken
the law
somewhere, probably many places. breaking and entering,
wiretapping, using
the power of the government to abusing people on his enemies list, and
nixon’s
other problems had led even republicans to oppose him. it was
only a
matter of time until nixon would be tried and removed form office.
*to
preserve his dignity, nixon did not want to be impeached and
imprisoned.
he knew there would be the 2/3 majority in both the house and the
senate to impeach
and convict him, so instead he resigned on
*gerald
ford was sworn in the same day as nixon, and said ‘our long national
nightmare
is over.’ ford planned to do a different kind of job than nixon
had
done. he also told people to stand by their government because
even during
the watergate scandal, the government ultimately worked.
unfortunately,
after nixon, no-one would ever fully trust a president again.