The investigation that took place questioned many motives of the white house and its connections in the scandal; however, the president denied all allegations. The president at the time was Richard Nixon, after his re-election in n November 1972 he had taken office for his second term. Initially the American people had chosen the president of their choice; however the tragedy that followed made most Americans loose trust in government and political leaders. The Watergate scandal in June 17th had five men caught in the offices of Democrats campaign headquarters. The uncovering of
Liddy, head of CREEP (Olson). This seemed to be working for a long period of time, until the tapes and the decision to cover up the investigation was revealed by one of Nixon’s trustees (Watergate). This went to the Supreme Court where Judge Sirica directed President Nixon to let him listen to the tapes (Watergate). Nixon refused the order, and stated that a president was untouchable from judicial orders and enforcing subpoenas under the concept of executive privilege, he could only decide what decision should be made (Watergate). In the end, Nixon decided to give Judge Sirica the tapes, but afterwards more suspicions grew because he had released edited transcripts (Watergate).
Nixon became the first president who was forced to resign and became one of the most of controversial presidents in United States history. Nobody can deny the damage of the Water Gate scandal, even the former president himself. At his the final interview with British journalist, David Frost, Nixon apologized and said that he “betrayed the American people and let American people down” (Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”, London, 2006). However, history and Americans will still remember former president Nixon and give him a fair evaluation for his contribution to the United States, and the world peace and
In one point we consider it torture, and another point we consider it necessary. There is also a divide in the political arena as to whether waterboarding is an acceptable way to interrogate prisoners. There is no middle ground; you are either for it or against it. It was approved by the Justice Department under President George W. Bush for use by the Central Intelligence Agency on so-called “high value” terrorism suspects, than barred by President Obama on his second day in office (New York Times, 2011). As you can see one President says yes and the other President says no.
The case then went to the Supreme Court. The case went to the Supreme Court under Chief justice Earl Warren in 1966 because it was dealing with issues that were being addressed. It took about three and a half months of deliberation where his conviction was overturned in a five to four decision. The majority opinion declared that criminals must be told their rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment, and any evidence obtained from them prior to hearing their rights will have been obtained illegally. This was a very controversial problem because people figured that other criminals would be let free due to courtroom technicalities.
The people in the movie did not take being part of the government very seriously and that is why all of this mishap happened to begin with. Towards the end of the movie, Dave confronts the United States people about all the faults of the real president, Bill Mitchell. In the end of the movie everything starts to get cleared up and the vice president becomes the president directly after the United States people were told about Bill Mitchell’s death. That was a good way of using governmental power because they did not hide his death from the people of the United States. I learned a lot from this assignment.
1970’s Politics -Richard Nixon • president from 1969-1974 • resigned in 1974 because of the Watergate Scandal. • was responsible for the US's withdraw from Vietnam. • 1972, on June 19th, an announcement was made that the FBI would start investigating the Watergate break in. • January 5, 1972, President Nixon announced plans for the space shuttle program. Gerald Ford • -was in office from 1974-1977 and took over for Richard Nixon • -became the first President to not be elected.
John Dean testified that the president was aware of the operation and had authorized the payment to the assailants to keep them in silence, something that was vehemently denied by the Nixon Administration. Thereafter, scandals followed with an unusual speed and virtually, everyday signs of new illegal acts by the Nixon team appeared. Finally, and to avoid almost certain impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. A month later, his successor, Gerald Ford, exonerated him of all crimes he might have committed during his mandate, getting him safe from any
One of the major reasons that Nixon even covered up the Watergate burglary was due to the fact that the government was not going to take much action they were just going to require that all parties involved resigned. Although Nixon was not about to stand by and let some of the men he was most dependant on resign without trying to help. The cover up included shredding all incriminating document, urging the FBI to stop the investigation on the grounds of “National Security”, the Committee to Reelect the President (CRP) gave out nearly $500,000 to the burglars to keep them silent due to an indictment by the federal
On March 23rd, charges against the president were made and the defense requested an additional 30 days to prepare evidence and witnesses but the request was denied; however, they were granted six more days by then Senate the next day in court. Johnson was impeached on eleven articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives. It was called to attention during the trial that the House passed the Tenure of Office Act, but the Senate amended it, causing the need for it to a Senate-House conference committee. It was revealed that the main purpose of the House was to keep Stanton in office, but the Senate disagreed. After all the witnesses testified, the Senate voted.