Scandal of Watergate

The Scandal of Watergate or business of Watergate pushed the President of the United States Richard Nixon with Démission ner in 1974. The business begins with the burgling of local of the Democratic party in the building of the Watergate to Washington in 1972, and develops then with many ramifications. The investigations journalists and a long senatorial investigation raise the veil on illegal practices to large scales within the presidential administration.

Context

Policy

The year 1972 is one year of presidential election with the the United States. In the republican camp , Richard Nixon is presented for a second mandate. It can be prevailed of a foreign politics inspired by Henry Kissinger and followed successfully: relaxation with the USSR (agreements SALT), preparation of “peace in the honor” with the Vietnam (concretized by the signature of the treated of Paris in January 1973), while waiting for the re-establishment of the diplomatic relations with the China. However, the cost in human lives due to the policy followed in Southeast Asia, in particular the invasion of the Kampuchea in 1970, causes a sharp agitation among youth, being expressed by demonstrations sometimes violently repressed (Fusillade of Kent State University). On the internal plan, the policy of its administration is based on the slogan of “the law and the order”, implying a strict and repressive justice. The Republican party had undergone one crushing demolished in 1964, but its candidate of then, Barry Goldwater, centred the party on more preserving values, which in the long term, were more anchored in the electoral strategies of the Republican party. Moreover, the introduction of the Civic rights signed by president Johnson ( Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act ), improving the statute of the minority Afro-American E, diverted the traditionally democratic electorate of the Vieux South ( Deep South ), favorable to the segregation, which rocked on the republican side. The chances to carry it are thus excellent for Nixon, which had failed in 1960, after having been vice-president of Eisenhower during eight years. Opposite, the democratic camp is weakened by its internal quarrels. The presidency of Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969), was marked by the Guerre of Vietnam, the racial riots in the Ghetto S blacks ( Hot summers ), and the project of the Great Society , developing the État-providence (education, social security, fight against poverty) with the price of expensive expenditure. In 1968, four tendencies clash at the time of the democratic primary educations. Hubert Humphrey represents the trade unions and the apparatus of the party; Robert Kennedy, minorities black and catholic; Eugene McCarthy, students and the anti-war; and finally George Wallace, segregationist of the South, opposed to the Civic rights, is presented in the form of an independent candidate. Robert Kennedy leaves favorite, but is assassinated, the same year as the black leader Martin Luther King. It is Humphrey which is invested, but it is beaten by Nixon at the time of the presidential election of 1968. In 1972, it is an initially unexpected candidate, George McGovern, which is invested at democratic Convention in July 1972. It is a liberal (with the American direction, of left), and for this reason, its chances to overcome are reduced. More especially as its countryside starts badly: its candidate with the vice-presidency, Thomas Eagleton, must give up when the press reveals that it accomplished stays in psychiatric hospitals.

Media and information

In May 1972, John Edgar Hoover, director of FBI dies. It occupied this function, depend on the ministry for Justice, since 1924, having been useful under eight presidents. It is him which developed this government agency, concentrate its means for the fight against the Communisme, in particular for the period of the Maccarthysme, while he denied the existence of the Maffia, and generalized the wires tapping like means of investigation or espionage.

Since its creation, the shortly after the Second world war and in the context of the Cold war, the CIA used its know-how in several “blows”, of which most resounding are realized in the years 1950, when Allen Dulles is the director. In 1961, following the failure of the Invasion of Bay of the Pigs, initiated under the presidency Eisenhower, Dulles is dislocated of its functions by the president John Kennedy. Its successor is moderated more, but with Richard Helms as from 1966, one returns from there to a style and a motivation anticommunist closer to those of Dulles. With the come to power of Nixon, the CIA intensifies its monitoring program of thousands of American citizens (Operation CHAOS), although any activity of information of the CIA on the American territory is prohibited.

These activities, almost unknown of the American general public, start to appear at the great day with the beginning of the year 1970, in the press, and during investigations, as from 1970, of the legal sub-committee of the constitutional laws of the Sénat. In June 1971, the NewYork Times , then the Washington Post , publish extracts of a secret report/ratio, the Pentagon Papers, which were given to him by Daniel Ellsberg, an expert of the RAND Corporation, Think tank working for the Secretariat with Defense. These documents clear up governmental decision makings and soldiers during the Guerre of Vietnam, informing for example of the will of president Johnson to intensify the conflict, when he promised not to imply himself there more. It follows a legal arm wrestling between the government of Nixon, which wants to prohibit the diffusion of confidential informations, and the two newspapers, which obtain finally win, after decision of the Supreme court, in the name of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees the Freedom of the press.

Unfolding

Burgling

The scandal of Watergate starts when, in the night of the June 17th 1972, five burglars (including two Cubans), located by an security agent, are stopped in a building of the Watergate, with the seat of the Democratic party. Transporting material of listening, these men resemble secret agents more than with burglars. On address books found in their possession, one finds the coordinates of some Howard Hunt. One of them, James McCord, draws the attention particularly: it is a colonel reservist of the air force, old of FBI and the CIA, and especially a member of the Comité for the re-election of the President. The FBI, in spite of the convincing elements, does not continue the investigation.

June 22nd, president Nixon evokes for the first time the business while stating: “The White House is implied in no manner in this incident. ” During the six months which follows, the business is forgotten, and at the time of the presidential election of November 1972, Richard Nixon gains against the democrat George McGovern more crushing electoral victory of all the history of the United States.

The investigation of the journalists

Two journalists of the Washington Post , Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, inquire to disentangle a complicated hank of which all the wire lead to the White House, through the Committee for the re-election of president (CRP) of Richard Nixon. Young journalists of investigation, they use much the telephone and do not hesitate to contact several hundreds of interlocutors, digging tracks which had initially seemed thin. Initially, starting from the information collected directly on the burglars, they manage to go up wire of the secret funding of the electoral campaign of Nixon in 1972, in particular operated by the means of intermediaries in Mexico. They are helped by an unknown adviser being made call “Deep Gorge” (“Deep Throat” in English), whose identity was revealed 30 years later.

Obsessed by the business and follow-ups by their fellow-members, Woodward and Bernstein (called Woodstein) manage to clarify the subject, which is then relayed by American justice, then by a senatorial board of inquiry . It is one of the most obvious cases, in the American history, of the influence of the “Fourth capacity”.

One to defer, the “inventor” of the Journalisme gonzo Hunter S. Thompson, which does not hide its contempt towards Nixon and its men (qualified sometimes mackerels, fascists or incompetents), gives a shifted analysis and not less impassioned hearings of Watergate for the magazine Rolling Stone (articles gathered in two books: Great Hunting for the shark and New Testament Gonzo ).

Senatorial board of inquiry

In January 1973, the judge of the District of Columbia, John Sirica chairs the lawsuit of the five burglars, like that of their chief, Howard Hunt (old agent of the CIA) and of their direct silent partner, Gordon Liddy (old of the FBI and member of the Committee for the re-election of the president). Persuaded that they do not say all the truth, the judge prolongs the investigation. One of the defendants, James McCord, writes to the judge a letter in which he affirms to be himself perjury in front of the court, because of pressures emanating of the White House, and indicating that high ranking officials are implied.

A senatorial commission, directed by the democratic Sam Ervin, is then setting-up to inquire into the business, with the democrats (majority with the Senate) Hermann Talmadge, Joseph Montoya, Daniel Inouye, and the republican Howard Baker, Edward Gurney, Lowell Weicker. They are assisted by the advisers Sam Dash (democratic) and Fred Thompson (republican).

The senatorial board of inquiry is based on the principle of Subpoena , i.e. the possibility of calling witnesses, with the possibility of continuations by a jurisdiction in the event of Parjure or if any illegal act is revealed.

Revelations

The senatorial Commission arrives, during an instruction which lasts one year and half (March 1973 - August 1974) with the conclusion that certain close relations of Richard Nixon were guilty obstructions with justice, false witnesses, wires tapping, embezzlements, etc.

The investigation showed that this type of practices was not summarized with isolated cases. The business of the Papers of the Pentagon in 1971, was also the demonstration, when an expert of the Pentagone, Daniel Ellsberg provides to the press a copy of a long secret report/ratio revealing of the dissimulated aspects of the Guerre of Vietnam. The psychiatrist of Ellsberg had thus been burglarized consequently team that of Watergate, carried out by Howard Hunt. This team, specialized in the installation of material of listening, is called, during the business, the team of the “plumbers”.

One learned at the time of the investigation that members of these teams, whose Howard Hunt, had been dispatched, on July 18th, 1969, with Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, at once after the car accident of the Democratic senator Ted Kennedy, which cost the life the one of its collaborators, and broke forever the presidential ambitions of the brother of old the president Kennedy.

It was also established that the Nixon administration had constituted an abstract black list of supposed adversaries, to make badger by the tax department or to discredit by legal proceedings. This list was compiled by Charles Colson, special adviser of the president, shown by John Dean to have also projected to place a bomb in the buildings of the Brookings Institution, to fly there of the documents.

On the end, the senatorial commission is interested in the financial operations related to the electoral campaigns, relating to in particular a contribution of the billionaire Howard Hughes of: 100000 dollars, and its diversion by Baby Rebozo, intermediary and close friend of Nixon. This part of the investigation was not carried out until its term.

Audiences and resignations

The audiences, retransmises on line on television starting from May 18th, or being the subject of broad reports in the newspapers, are followed by most of the American public, which is impassioned for the multiple bounces which follow one another and which reveal an unknown aspect of the practices of the supreme institution.

During the investigation, three successive testimonys are great turnings of the scandal, true bombs. The first, that of James McCord, revealed the existence of a team of spies to the service of members of the staff of the White House. The second, that of John Dean, legal adviser of the presidency, reveals in June, the conspiracies being woven in the Oval office. The third, that of Alexander Butterfield, high-civil servant, reveals in July that a secret system of listening could allow more.

Any share thus of the consents of James McCord, in February 1973, which, initially, blame John Mitchell, old Attorney General, John Dean, legal adviser of the president, and Charles Colson. John Mitchell is the first high ranking official blamed, as a president, in 1972, of the Comité for the re-election of the president, who was used as intermediary between the White House and the burglars, in particular for the financing of their operations. His wife, Martha, are spread then in charges against the presidential administration in front of the journalists.

April 27th, the director of FBI, Patrick Gray, resigns, after it was revealed, following its hearing in front of the Senate to ratify its recent nomination, that it destroyed document concerning with the investigation into burgling.

April 30th, Bob Haldeman, general secretary of the White House, and John Ehrlichman, adviser for the Interior matters, resign. Called together “the Berlin Wall”, because of their tendency to make stopping around the president while drawing aside from the collaborators or visitors, they were the two principal advisers of Nixon. It was established by the investigation as they were in the beginning, with Charles Colson, who resigned on March 10th, of the orders given to the team of the “plumbers”, as well for Watergate as for the case Ellsberg in 1971. John Dean as for him is returned by the White House, after having refused to sign a text recognizing its responsibility in the business for Watergate.

The same day, the Attorney General Richard Kleindienst also resigns. Kleindienst is replaced by the secretary with the Defense Elliot Richardson, which names an independent special prosecutor at once to inquire into Watergate. Archibald Cox, old n°3 of the ministry for Justice under Kennedy, accepts this station on May 18th, 1973.

June 3rd, John Dean, which refuses to be used as scapegoat, starts to testify before the Commission. It compromises several members of the Nixon administration, whose Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson, and chair it itself. It reveals in particular that several meetings took place between Nixon, Haldeman and Ehrlichman, to supervise the smothering of the business of Watergate, and to discuss the naps being able to be committed to encourage with silence the stopped “plumbers”.

Recordings of the White House

July 16th, 1973, Alexander Butterfield, assistant of Bob Haldeman and witness surprised, reveals that there was a system of listening sophisticated recording all the conversations, without the knowledge of the people concerned, within the building of the supreme executive. Such recordings were already punctually practiced under the administration of Kennedy. This information is widely disseminated by the press, and implies the dissimulation of evidence of the implication of Richard Nixon and her collaborators in the events of Watergate. The president tries to withdraw from the investigation the magnetic bands comprising the recordings of the conversations carried out in the oval office, and brought back by the witnesses.

Arm wrestling for the restitution of the bands

The independent special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, request at the White House restitution, for the investigation, of the magnetic bands, in order to confirm the consents of John Dean. Nixon is opposed, in the name of the “privilege of the executive”, and requires to it of the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, to relieve Cox. Richardson, who had named Cox, refuses, like his second, William Ruckelshaus. They resign on October 20th, 1973. This episode, which caused a deep indignation in the public opinion, remains famous in the American history under the name of “Massacre of Saturday evening”.

Archibald Cox, finally dislocated its functions by Robert Bork, number 3 of the ministry for Justice, is replaced at once by Leon Jaworski, which claims in his turn the bands, 64 of them precisely. Nixon tries to save time. October 30th, 1973, it forwards part of the bands, but there is a 18 ½ minute old hole on one of them. The secretary of Nixon, Pink Mary Woods, testifies that it is about an handling error. January 10th, 1974, a committee of expert appointed by the judge John Sirica, concludes with a deliberated obliteration. Nixon tries then, in the months which follow, to give only of the written retranscriptions of these recordings, certain passages being censured or alleged inaudible. In these retranscriptions made public, many passages where one hears the president are very ambiguous, morally compromising, even revealing, but not sufficiently to consider legal proceedings.

The resistance of Nixon concerning the restitution of the bands is explained not only by the concern of dissimulating compromising information confirming the declarations of the witnesses, but probably also by the degrading image of the lower parts of the capacity and the president himself which they could reveal. “I found all that disgusting”, declares John Sirica, just after having finally heard the contents of the bands. According to the journalist and Price Pulitzer Seymour Hersh, the bands would have revealed the alcoholism of Nixon and the role of the to advise with the national security (then Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger, which would be person in charge urgent when the president was in incapacity to manage them.

The intervention of the Supreme court and impeachment

Jaworski ends up requiring of the Supreme court to come to a conclusion about the legitimacy of president Nixon to be opposed to the restitution magnetic bands. July 24th, 1974, although formed of four judges out of nine named by Nixon, she decides unanimously (less one abstention) for the restitution of the bands.

Nixon and completely is then definitively insulated politically. The back with the wall and without another legal remedy, the White House thus gives the bands at the end of July. One of them is called Smoking Gun Tape . It is about a conversation held six days after burgling, on June 23rd, 1972, between Nixon and Haldeman. One intends the president to authorize his collaborators explicitly to approach the director of the CIA, Richard Helms, so that he asks to the director FBI, Patrick Gray, to bury the federal investigation into burgling for safety reasons main road.

It is the decisive proof, not only lies, but especially of the legal culpability of Nixon in a criminal conspiracy having for goal to make obstruction with justice, reason amply justifying a procedure of Impeachment (dismissal by the Congrès), which is highly likely to succeed. Members of his own party, whose Barry Goldwater, has a presentiment of it to resign. Progressively of the revelations, of increasingly many crowd presented themselves in front of the grids of the White House or during displacements of the president, to claim his departure.

On July 27th, 29th and 30th, the Members of the legal Commission of the Chambre of the Representatives vote on the articles of impeachment of the president, and retain the loads of obstruction to justice, abuse of power and insult to the Congress.

The resignation of Nixon

Nixon forever ceased pleading its innocence, pled until the end by its spokesperson and Spin doctor Ron Ziegler. November 17th, 1973, the president had made a famous speech, state: I amndt not has crook (I am not a swindler).

After being itself savagely defended, he prefers nevertheless to give his resignation when the Impeachment is engaged against him. Nixon is the only president of the history of to have resigned United States. It leaves its functions the August 9th 1974, one week after the release of the procedure. After a speech in front of the personnel of the White House and the journalists, it leaves the building on line, in a helicopter of the army.

The vice-president, Gerald Ford, named by Nixon in December 1973 after the resignation of Spiro Agnew for a distinct corruption affair, succeeds to him immediately. Its first official action, very discussed, is of gracier Richard Nixon, which causes to stop any procedure. Nixon, lawyer, are not less erased by it a bar of the State of New York in 1976.

As for the recordings which caused interminable legal battles, president Ford gives control of it to Nixon, which is only the ability to give the authorizations for their consultations.

Legal proceedings

At the conclusion of the lawsuit of the burglars in January 1973, pleading guilty, Howard Hunt spends 33 months in prison. Gordon Liddy, him, is condemned to a 20 years sorrow, but is amnestied 4 years later by the president Jimmy Carter.

In November 1973, John Dean pleads guilty, in front of Sirica judge, of obstruction to justice. He testifies against Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichman and profits then from the same program of protection as that of the witnesses against the organized crime; he spends 4 months in prison.

March 1st, 1974, seven collaborators of Nixon, whose Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson and Mitchell, are accused for conspiracy within the framework of the business of Watergate. In June 1974 Charles Colson pleads guilty obstruction with justice in the Ellsberg business. It avoids other continuations thus, and spends only 7 months in prison. In January 1975, John Ehrlichman and Bob Haldeman are recognized guilty of conspiracy, obstruction to justice and perjury; they spend 18 months in prison. In February 1975, John Mitchell is recognized guilty same crimes; it spends 19 month in prison.

In all, more than 70 people were prosecuted within the framework of this scandal.

The mystery of the identity of “deep Throat”

The identity of the adviser deep Gorge (Bob Woodward gave this nickname in reference to the pornographic film bearing this title, deep Gorge ) is a subject which made run much ink. During the history, several famous political personalities, whose Henry Kissinger, George H.W. Bush, Ron Ziegler, John Dean, Alexander Haig or Pat Buchanan is presented like this adviser mystery.

The only people knowing her identity are the two journalists and their editor association of the time, Benjamin Bradlee. The true identity of deep Throat is finally revealed by the magazine states-unien Vanity Fair of the May 31st 2005. It is about W. Mark Felt, assistant editor of FBI under Richard Nixon. He declares that at the 91 years age, it wishes “to release his conscience”. The Washington Post confirms information later a few hours. Bob Woodward tells that he knew Mark Felt since 1970, and that the relations between the FBI and the White House had been seriously degraded. It was also mentioned spite of Felt not to be named with the head of the FBI with died of John Edgar Hoover.

Heritage of Watergate

Watergate became one of the most famous businesses of the history of the United States and is irremediably attached in the name of Nixon. It durably tarnished the image of the presidential function and increased the mistrust of the Americans towards their leaders, more especially as the Nixon administration was claimed of “the law and the order”.

The scandal of Watergate in itself has in fact put at the day a whole series of scandals made by the Nixon administration, whose operating process became, with the wire of the revelations, “the” great scandal. According to the American historian Melvin Small, “the scandals of Nixon revealed an attempt to subvert all the American political system”.

This business gave again a breath with the Journalisme of investigation, whose Woodward and Bernstein became the symbols. It also significantly fed cynicism in the political comments.

The scandal, and in particular the lessons of the episode of the “massacre of Saturday evening” and its effects on the public opinion, increased de facto the importance of the role of the independent special prosecutor. An aspect is the reinforcement of the independence of the judicial power. But this evolution was sometimes considered to be excessive, in particular at the time of the political instrumentalisation of the function, with for example the survey carried out by Kenneth Starr against Bill Clinton, at the time of the Monicagate.

The revelations of Watergate pushed to call into question the integrity of the administration and in particular of the government agencies of information. This climate succeeds, in 1975-1976, at boards of inquiry to the Congress, the Commission Pike (Chambre of the representatives) and the Commission Church (Sénat), which reveal certain illegal activities of the CIA, like the Projet MKULTRA, or the implication in the inversion of several Heads of State, whose assassination was legally interdict under the presidency of Gerald Ford. The operational means of the CIA leave there reduced, and its role in the American apparatus of information decreases with the profit of the National Security Agency.

The discredit of the republican camp benefitted with the democrats, and in particular the unexpected candidate Jimmy Carter, governor of the Georgia and owner of a peanut plantation, at the time of the presidential election of 1976. The preserving current of the Republican party also benefitted from it to gain more influence within the party and to carry one as of his, Ronald Reagan, with the capacity in 1980.

Several commentators have advanced that this scandal weakened the American presidency, even the American power itself in the years which followed. The fall of Saigon, in 1975, would be an illustration. The independence of the Southern Vietnam was guaranteed by the treaty of Paris signed in 1973 for the withdrawal of the American troops, and Gerald Ford did not give the order to the American army to intervene against the troops of the Northern Vietnam when those invaded the South. Nixon had not hesitated to order very destroying bombardments at the time of an offensive of North in spring 1972, during the peace negotiations.

Following this scandal, the American media took the practice to use the suffix “spoils” to indicate businesses of State, actions illegal or lies of the American governmental authorities: Irangate, Monicagate, etc the word spoils means door in English.

Actors of this business

Presidents of the United States

Richard Mr. Nixon

Gerald R. Ford, starting from August 8th, 1974

“men of the President”

Alfred C. Baldwin III, agent with safety Committee for the Re-election of President (CRP)

Alexander P. Butterfield, technical adviser with the presidency, attache with the Cabinet of H.R. Haldeman

John J. Caulfield, member of the cabinet of John Ehrlichman

Dwight L. Chapin, technical adviser with the presidency, attache charged with the presidential diary

Kenneth W. Clawson, assistant editor of the Communications at the White House

Charles W. Colson, special adviser of the President

Kenneth H. Dalhberg, director for Midwest of finances of CRP

John W. Dean III, legal adviser of the President

John D. Ehrlichman, adviser for the interior matters of the President

W. Mark Felt, assistant editor of the FBI

L. Patrick Gray III, director of the FBI

H. Robert Haldeman, principal private secretary (chief off staff) of the White House

E. Howard Hunt Jr, consultant at the White House

Herbert W. Kalmbach, assistant editor of Finances of CRP, personal solicitor of the President

Henry A. Kissinger, adviser for the Businesses of national security of the President

Richard G. Kleindienst, Minister for the Justice (Attorney General) of the United States

Egil Krogh Jr., adviser associated with the presidency for the interior matters, attache with the Cabinet of Ehrlichman

Frederick C. Larue, assistant adviser of CRP, attached at John Mitchell

G. Gordon Liddy, financial adviser of CRP, former attache with the cabinet of Ehrlichman

Clark MacGregor, director of the presidential campaign (successor of Mitchell)

Jeb Stuart Magruder, assistant editor of the countryside at CRP, former attache with the cabinet of Haldeman and assistant editor of the communications at the White House

Robert C. Madiran, political Coordinator at CRP, former assistant public prosecutor

John NR. Mitchell, director of the presidential campaign at CRP, former Attorney General

Powell Moore, assistant editor of the press services of CRP, former press attaché at the White House

Robert C. Odle Jr, director of the administration and the personnel to CRP, former attache with the presidential cabinet

Zenneth W. Parkinson, lawyer at CRP

Herbert L. To carry, director of planning at CRP, former attache at Haldeman

Charles Gregory " Bebe" Rebozo, business man and close friend of the President

Kenneth Rietz, director of service of youth at CRP

Donald H. Segretti, acknowledged

DeVan L. Shumway, director of the public relations of CRP, former press attaché at the White House

Hugh W. Sloan Jr, treasurer of CRP, former attache with the cabinet of Haldeman

Maurice H. Stans, director of finances of CRP, former Secretary with the trade

Gordon C. Strachan, attache with the cabinet of Haldeman

Gerald Warren, assistant press attaché of the presidency

David R. Young, member of the cabinet of the National council of safety, attached at Kissinger, Erhlichman

Ronald L. Ziegler, spokesperson of the White House

the burglars

Bernard L. Barker

Virgilio R. Gonzalez

Eugenio R. Martinez

James W. McCord Jr

Frank has Sturgis

the charge

Henry E. Patersen, assistant public prosecutor

Earl J. Silbert, federal prosecutor associated for the District of Columbia (Washington city)

Donald E. Campbell, assistant federal prosecutor

Seymour Glanzer, assistant federal prosecutor

the judge

John J. Sirica, principal judge with the court of district of the District of Columbia

Members of the Commission of senatorial investigation

Howard H. Baker, Republican senator of Tennessee

Samuel Dash, democratic adviser

Sam J. Ervin, president of the commission, Democratic senator of North Carolina

Edward J. Gurney, Republican senator of Florida

Daniel K. Inouye, Democratic senator of Hawaii

Joseph Mr. Montoya, Democratic senator of New Mexico

Hermann E. Talmadge, Democratic senator of Georgia

Fred D. Thompson, republican adviser

Lowell P. Weicker, Jr, Republican senator of Connecticut

Washington Post

Carl Bernstein, journalist

Bob Woodward, journalist

Benjamin C. Bradlee, editor association

Katherine Graham, editor

Howard Simons, director of the drafting

Harry Mr. Rosenfeld, editor association associated for the local businesses

Barry Sussman, chief of the service of the local businesses

Chronology of the events

November 5th, 1968 : Election of Richard Nixon

January 20th, 1969 : Richard Nixon becomes officially the 37e president of the United States

May 12th, 1969 : Following a revelation in the press of secret bombardments in Kampuchea, installation of 17 listenings aiming of the assistants of the White House and the journalists to the title of the “national security”.

June 13rd, 1971 : NewYork Times begins the publication from the “Files of the Pentagon” (Pentagon papers)

3 September 4th, 1971 : E. Howard Hunt and G Gordon Liddy organize the burgling of the office of the psychiatrist Daniel Ellsberg

June 17th, 1972 : Arrest of five men to the seat of the Democratic party in the building of Watergate in Washington, of which James W. directing McCord of safety at the Committee for the re-election of the President. Thereafter, E. Howard Hunt and G Gordon Liddy, are associated with burgling

June 20th, 1972 : The President and John NR. Mitchell discuss the arrests on the telephone. The same day, the President and Haldeman are seen to speak about the arrests. On the tape containing this conversation, there is a 18 minute old hole

June 23rd, 1972 : The President and Haldeman envisage to utilize the CIA to obstruct the enquiête FBI on burgling in Watergate

September 15th, 1972 : Hunt, Liddy and the five burglars of Watergate are accused of offenses falling sour the blow from the federal laws. The president meets John Dean and congratulates it for the way in which it dealt with the problem

November 7th, 1972 : Re-election of Richard Nixon with 60,8% of the votes and the majority in all the States except Massachusetts

8 January 30th, 1973 : Judgment of the 7 accused of the cambriologe of Watergate. All plead guilty, except Liddy and Hunt, which are both condemned by the jury

February 7th, 1973 : The Senate decides by 70 votes against 0 to create a charged commission to inquire into Watergate

February 27th, 1973 : First interview of Dean with the president since September 15th, 1972. The two men discuss the camouflage of the business

March 21st, 1973 : Crucial interview between Dean and Nixon. The subject relates to means of making sure final silence of the burglars and people implied in the camouflage. One evokes to pay for their silence and of the promises of leniency. The same day, the lawyer of Howard Hunt receives 75.000 dollars

April 30th, 1973 : The President announces that Haldeman, Ehrlichman and the Public prosecutor (Attorney General) Richard Kleindienst give their resignation and that Dean is dislocated of its functions. Leonard Garment succeeds Dean as legal consultant of the White House and Elliot Richardson replaces Kleindienst

May 4th, 1973 : The White House announces that the general Alexander Mr. Haig is named principal private secretary (Chief off staff) temporary of the White House

May 10th, 1973 : The White House announces that J. Fred Buzhardt is engaged as special legal consultant of the President for the business of Watergate

May 17th, 1973 : The senatorial Commission on Watergate begins its televised audiences

May 18th, 1973 : Archibald Cox is named extraordinary prosecutor in the business of Watergate

May 22nd, 1973 : The President again contradicts to have been with the current of burgling or the camouflage. He admits however having wanted to limit the extent of the investigation on Watergate for safety reasons main road

25- June 29th, 1973 : Dean testifies before the senatorial commission and shows the President to have taken part in the camouflage

July 13rd, 1973 : Alexander Butterfield reveals at the senatorial commission the existence of a system of listening at the White House

July 18th, 1973 : The system of listening is disconnected

July 23rd, 1973 : Cox launches a summation to produce the recordings of new recorded conversations

July 25th, 1973 : President Nixon refuses to give the soundtracks while pretexting the privilege of the executive

August 29th, 1973 : Sirica judge decides that the President owes remttre the bands being the subject of the summation. The White House announces that it will appeal

October 10th, 1973 : The Agnew Vice-president gives his resignation

October 12th, 1973 : The Court of Appeal of the United States confirms the decision of Sirica judge concerning the bands. The same day, the President names Gerald L. Ford Vice-Président

October 20th, 1973 : “The massacre of Saturday evening”. Cox is dislocated of its functions. The Richardson public prosecutor and the public prosecutor associate William Ruckelshaus, refuse to dislocate Cox and give their resignation

October 23rd, 1973 : Charles Alan Wright announces to Sirica judge that the recordings will be given

November 1st, 1973 : Leon Jaworski is named extraordinary prosecutor in the business of Watergate to replace Cox

November 21st, 1973 : The lawyers of the White House reveal the “hole” 18 minutes in the band of June 20th, 1972 to Sirica judge. The judge makes immediately this information public

January 4th, 1974 : The White House announces that James St-Clearly becomes the principal legal consultant of the President for the business of Watergate

March 1st, 1974 : The Large Jury charg3e d' affaires of the camouflage accuses Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Robert Madiran, Charles W. Colson, Gordon Strachan and Kenneth W. Parkinson. Richard Nixon is quoted like conspirator not accused, but this information is held secret

April 11th, 1974 : The legal Commission summons the President to produce 42 recordings

April 18th, 1974 : The Jaworski prosecutor summons the President to produce 64 additional recordings

April 29th, 1974 : In a short televised speech, the President announces that it will give to the legal Commission of the “caviardées” transcriptions of the conversations being the subject of the summations and that it will make them public

April 30th, 1974 : The lawyer St-Clearly announces that the President refuses to give the magnetic bands and the documents requested by the extraordinary prosecutor

May 9th, 1974 : The legal Commission of the Room begins its meetings on the dismissal from President (Impeachment)

May 20th, 1974 : Sirica judge refuses an application of the White House aiming at cancelling the summation of the extraordinary prosecutor

May 24th, 1974 : Jaworski requires of the Supreme court of the United States to slice about its summation to produce the 64 magnetic bands

July 24th, 1974 : The Supreme court decides by 8 votes against 0 that the President must give the 64 magnetic bands asked by the extraordinary prosecutor

27- July 29th, 1974 : The legal Commission of the Room votes by 27 votes against 11 the first count of indictment for the dismissal of President (Impeachment), showing the President to have made obstacle with justice while trying to camouflage the business of Watergate. 2nd and 3rd count of indictment are voted the following days

August 5th, 1974 : The White House publishes transcriptions of the three conversations of June 23rd, 1972

August 8th, 1974 : During a short televised speech, the President announces that it will give his resignation

August 9th, 1974 : Gerald L Ford becomes the 38e President of the United States

September 8th, 1974 : President Ford grants an amnesty to Richard Nixon for the facts related to the investigation into Watergate, as well as the exclusive use of the magnetic bands

The “Watergate” with the cinema

the film of Alan J. Pakula, the Men of the president ( All the President' S Men ), drawn from the book of the same name, tells the history of the journalists who revealed the scandal, and left two years only after the end the scandal. The role of Bob Woodward is taken again by Robert Redford, and that of Carl Bernstein by Dustin Hoffman.
the film of Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump , makes a wink with this event, when Forrest Gump of the window of its room in Washington, surprises in middle of the night “of the lights” in the Watergate building.
the biographical film of Oliver Stone, Nixon , grants a broad place the episodes of Watergate seen of the interior of the White House, by implicitly taking again the theses according to which the bands would have revealed the coarse and aggressive language of the president, and contained references to occult operations of the CIA.

Appendices

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