Richard Milhous Nixon's political career began in 1947 when he was elected to the House of Representatives. .By 1952 Nixon was chosen as Dwight Eisenhower's Vice-Presidential running mate.  Nixon had served as Vice-President for eight years, then he lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy.  In the 1968 election, Nixon was chosen again as the Republican party's candidate.  On January 20,1969 the following year of 1968 turmoil, included two political assassinations, Nixon became the 37th president.  He was sworn into his second term January 1973. 

Nixon
      On June 17th,1972 Watergate burglars broke into the Democratic Party's National Committee offices (The Watergate Complex).  The Watergate Complex is a series of modern buildings with balconies.  It is located on the Potomac River in Washington D.C. and it consists of many hotel rooms and offices.  At about 2:30 a.m. the police found walkie talkies, forty rolls of unexposed film, two 35 millimeter cameras, lock picks, pen sized tear guns, and bugged devices.  
      The five men and two co-plotters were charged with conspiracy and wire-tapping on September 1972.  The four men out of the five were from Miami, Florida and their names were Bernard L. Barker, Frank A. Sturgis, Virgillio R. Gonzelez, and Eugenio R. Martinez.  The other man was from Rockville, Maryland. His name was James W. McCord Jr.  The two co-plotters were G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt.

G. Gordon    Liddy
    Nixon made two big speeches on the Watergate scandal during 1973 and 1974.  The first speech was on April 30th,1973 and that was when the announced the departure of Halderman (to the right) and Ehrlichman.  By May 1973, Nixon was forced to agree to the naming of a special prosecutor for the case, Archibald Cox (to the right under Halderman).  Cox was subpoenaed secret tape recordings of the presidential meetings and telephoned conversations.  Nixon refused to release the tapes.  October 1973 Nixon fired Cox.

Halderman

Archibald Cox
       Initial investigation of the Watergate was influenced by the media.  Political investigations began February 1973 when the Senate established a committee to investigate the Watergate Scandal. 
    Late October 1973 Nixon was pressured to release more of the tapes.  One of the tapes was found to have eighteen and a half gaps.  The electronics exeperts say the gaps was the result of are least five separate erasures.  Tose Mary Woods, Nixon's secretary denies deliberately erasing bits of the tapes
    During the early 1974's there were calls coming in for Nixon to resign.  The Congress began to consider impeachment.  April 30th,1974  Nixon released more transcripts of tapes.  The public was shocked by his foul language. July 27th through the 30th the House of Representative Judiciary Committee voted (27-11) to request Nixon to be impeached on three charges, obstruction of justice was included 
       August 5th,1974 Nixon had released three more tapes that proved he ordered a cover-up of the Watergate burglary on June 23rd,1972, which had been six days after the break-in.  The tapes showed that he knew about the involvement of the White House officials and the campaign for the Re-election of  the President. That tape is now known and the "Smoking Gun" tape.
    Nixon's last day in office came in late July and early August, 1974.  The Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release more tapes.  The Smoking Gun tape showed that Nixon participated in the Watergate cover-up back on June 23rd,1972. The eleven Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who voted against impeachment changed their vote.  On August 9th, 1974 Nixon resigned and he was the first president to ever do so.
 

 

 

Jenny Kolbek
8th Grade American History
Rossville Jr. High                                                     Bibliography
Nixon and the Watergate Scandal
May 2002