Richard Nixon and the WaterGate Scandal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Richard Nixon and the WaterGate Scandal - Essay Example The edifice of the Watergate scandal has been based on corruption, espionage and antidemocratic activities, ostensibly based on ensuring President Nixon, a second term in the Oval Room. However, certain facts like the Vietnam war, the release of Pentagon papers, and growing public resentment for his policies were serious impediments to this objective and had to be dealt with a firm, and if necessary, strong arm methods. This was ensured by use of the CIA and other governmental agents to discredit the President's political opponents, and seek to ensure his victory in the Presidential elections. He was able to achieve re-elections but he was constrained to pay the final price in terms of loss of his office and personal humiliation amidst a political scandal that rocked the entire country and shocked the world into mute speechlessness. At the time of instigating the Watergate scandal, President Nixon was not aware, or did not make himself to visualize that his political career would leave him a bitter and disillusioned man, devoid of moral principles and ethics that are the hallmarks of a strong and committed leader.This entire episode started when, while conducting security checking at the Watergate hotel, a security guard noticed a door prevented from closed by the use of tape. He removed the tape and continued with his check However, he was dismayed to find, that on his return, the door was reaped. He informed the police about the burglary. The police arrested five persons from the office of the Democratic National Congress, who had been illegally repairing wiretapping equipment and taking photographs of documents. Likewise, before the burglary in the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972, when a group of five burglars, who were members of a group of anti-Castro Cuban refugees called 'Plumbers', broke into the Democ ratic Party's National Committee offices, the term "Watergate" had no greater implication to the Americans and the entire world, rather than an office and a sumptuous apartment complex in Washington, D. C. As a result of the 'third-rate burglary', "it came to be associated with the greatest political scandal of that century and would change the lives of the many people involved" - principally the then President Richard M. Nixon and as for the present day political system, it imparts great meaning. (U.S. History.com, 2008). In the current American Background, the term Watergate has become a common phrase which denotes and expresses the fall of Richard Nixon, one of the most outstanding political figures of the 20th century America and the world. He had refused to hand over incriminating tapes illegally recording the conversation he had when he served in the White House. He refused to hand over the tapes even during the Supreme Court Proceedings. The Court had no other option but to impeach the President, but he preferred to resign rather than face impeachment. The former President of the USA was the only conspirator in the Watergate scandal who did not go to jail. "The lessons learned by these events are enormous. The story of Watergate is a complex and deep one full