WATERGATE!

1. WATERGATE! 1972 – Washington, D.C. A team of burglars was arrested inside the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington.

2. Washington Post – Woodward and Bernstein • $25,000 check for Nixon's reelection campaign had been deposited in the bank account of one of the burglars • Tapes/Supreme Court • 18½ minute portion of one recorded tape had been erased. Nixon's longtime personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, Later forensic analysis determined that the tape had been erased in several segments at least five, and perhaps as many as nine.

3. Nixon discussing how $1 million could be raised and paid out in blackmail money to the burglers. "How much money do you need?" the President asked Dean early in the March 21 conversation, according to the transcript. "I would say these people are going to cost a million dollars over the next two years," Dean replied. "We could get that," the President continued. "On the money, if you need the money you could get that. You could get a million dollars. You could get it in cash. I know where it could be gotten. It is not easy, but it could be done. But the question is who the hell would handle it? Any ideas on that?" Even Nixon's most loyal conservative supporters voiced dismay about profanity-laced discussions in the White House around how to raise blackmail money and avoid perjury.

4. Evident that the President had lied for over 2 years. In the week before Nixon's resignation, Ehrlichman and Halderman unsuccessfully tried to get Nixon to grant them the pardons which Nixon had promised them before their April 1973 resignations.

5. On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation. "By taking this action," he said in a subdued yet dramatic television address from the Oval Office, "I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America." In a rare admission of error, Nixon said: "I deeply regret any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision." In a final speech to the White House staff, a teary-eyed Nixon told his audience, "Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself."

6. Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn into office on Aug. 9, 1974, declaring "our long national nightmare is over." One month later, Ford granted Nixon a "full, free and absolute pardon" for all crimes that Nixon "committed or may have committed" during his time in the White House. Deep Throat revealed/All the President’s Men

7. Other “gates” • Monicagate • Plamegate(also called Leakgate) • Travelgate– The 1993 firings of White House Travel Office employees at the start of the Clinton administration. • Whitewatergate– Better known as the Whitewater controversy.

8. Sources http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/part1.html Wikipedia – Watergate scandal http://watergate.info/background/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/