Social Unrest and Watergate Individual Project

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HIST101-1403B-05 Modern American History: 1950 to the 21st Century Phase 2 Social Unrest and Watergate Individual Project September 1, 2014 The Watergate burglaries, took place May 28 and June 17, 1972. There were five men who were apprehended inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building during the second burglary. After being caught during the second burglary these individuals implicated themselves on other counts and charges by voluntarily telling investigators about having committed a previous break in. During the investigation of one of the 5 men arrested James McCord turned up information that Nixon had known of the burglary and attempted to cover up any White House involvement. The evidence that surfaced was able to link Nikon to destroying key documents to cover-up of the break in as well as uncovering that the Nixon reelection committee had run “dirty schemes and tricks” during the campaign against the Democrats. It also shed light on the administrations illegal wiretapping of phones of “the enemies” or journalists that had been extremely critical of Nixon. Even though Nixon continued to maintain that he was innocent it was later revealed after numerous attempts to obtain the evidence that he secretly taped routine conversations that were had in his office. After the amount of incriminating evidence and the endless wonder about the depth of his involvement on August 8, 1974 during a televised special announcement Richard Nixon gave a one line speech vaguely admitting his involvement and public stepping down from office as President. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford who later pardoned Nixon from his crimes. As a result of the Watergate scandal Nixon and several of his appointed aides either resigned or were let go from their perspective positions. One of those individuals was Attorney General Richard Kleindienst.

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