Watergate scandal. Causes and consequences. Watergate. The collapse of the White House Resigned due to the Watergate scandal

A serious political scandal that occurred in the United States in 1972-1974 went down in history as the “Watergate affair.” The result of this conflict was the resignation of the current President of America, Richard Nixon.

An interesting fact is that the case where the head of the United States had to leave his post early is so far the only one in the United States.

Today you will learn the causes of the Watergate scandal, as well as the consequences that it entailed.

The rise of Richard Nixon's political career

Richard Nixon won a Republican Senate seat when he was 33 years old. He was known for openly expressing his anti-communist beliefs, without fear of criticism.

Young Richard Nixon

His political career developed so quickly that already in 1950 he became the youngest senator in history.

First incident

However, as the saying goes, if everything goes too well for you, expect trouble. This is what happened to Nixon.

One American publishing house accused him of illegally using funds allocated for the election campaign. In addition to serious accusations, there were also quite funny ones.

For example, one journalist accused Richard Nixon of buying a cocker spaniel with money received from the state treasury.

However, the future president denied all these accusations, claiming that he had never broken the law in his life or made a deal with his conscience. According to the politician, the dog was purchased with personal funds and was a gift for his children.

Double fiasco

In 1960, he ran for the presidency of the United States for the first time. At that time, his main opponent was John Kennedy, who was the leader of the election race.

As a result, Kennedy became the President of America.

Less than a year later, Nixon took part in the gubernatorial elections in, but here too he failed.

Presidential post

In 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated during a campaign trip to Dallas. Then he was replaced by Lyndon Johnson, who achieved very good results in this post.

As his presidency came to an end, Johnson decided not to seek a second term.

For Nixon it was a real gift. In 1968, he wins the election and becomes President of America. An interesting fact is that he was ahead of his main rival by less than 1%.

Merits

Of course, Richard Nixon can hardly claim to be the best American president. However, he has serious merits in this post.

For example, he helped America get out of the Vietnam War and establish diplomatic relations with China.

Nixon is the first (since 1945) American president to visit Moscow. This happened in 1972.

The meeting turned out to be very productive. It raised important issues affecting both economic relations between states and the reduction of military potential.

It would seem, what else can one dream of in the presidency when everything is going well?

Historical reference

Surely you know that in America there are two political forces, between which there is a constant struggle for power. These are Democrats and Republicans.

Representatives of one or the other camp alternately govern the United States, trying with all their might to keep power in their hands for as long as possible.

From the recent past, we can recall how the Democrat Barack Obama was replaced by a Republican.

It is easy to guess that in such conditions, for a successful political struggle, the current president should be as prudent as possible in order to stay for a second term.

Nixon, elected from the Republican Party, had no equal in this regard. He worked on all fronts at once. And at the same time.

The Secret Service and Other Instruments of Power

When Nixon took over the reins, he organized a personal secret service. This apparatus monitored the president's competitors and opponents.

The head of the United States wiretapped the telephone conversations of his opponents, and also allowed special agents to conduct searches of “suspicious” persons.

His actions increasingly began to show signs of a dictator. In order to stay in power, he resorted to blackmail and bribery.

When the next presidential election came, the politician, in order to gain the support of officials, allowed them to engage in tax fraud.

Plumbers Division

In 1971, the famous New York Times newspaper decided to publish classified materials received from the CIA. The information related to the war and seriously compromised the current president.

Naturally, Nixon did not like this, and he immediately reacted to the attack in his direction. According to some reports, he took this data leak as a personal challenge.

So, by his decree, the so-called “plumbers unit” was organized. In essence, this group of people was engaged in espionage and carried out various orders of their “boss”.

They blocked any attempts at rallies by the Democrats, and also eliminated people who were objectionable to the authorities.

Republican Nixon went to great lengths to once again become head of the White House. However, such actions could not remain in the shadows for long.

It was precisely such events that preceded the historical case known as the Watergate scandal.

Watergate incident

And now briefly about how the Watergate scandal began.

The Watergate complex in Washington was the headquarters of the Democratic Party, Nixon's rivals.

On June 17, 1972, 5 people dressed in plumbers’ clothes entered the hotel (an interesting fact is that it was after this that Nixon’s spy group began to be called “plumbers”).

However, these “plumbers” failed to complete the special task. They were prevented by a simple security guard who, by luck, decided to make an unscheduled detour. Noticing suspicious faces, he immediately called the police.

During the investigation, the police discovered a lot of irrefutable evidence, including a broken door to the Democratic headquarters, as well as wiretapping equipment.

From that moment on, a thorough investigation into the Watergate case began.

As soon as the incident became known to the public, President Nixon made every effort to hush up the scandal.

But nothing worked out for him, since every day more and more serious evidence appeared proving his involvement in the Watergate case. The discovered sound recordings played an important role in all this.

The President managed to destroy 20 minutes of valuable audio, but this did not save him. The materials found were quite enough to accuse Nixon of illegal actions towards his country.

The president's aides tried to justify the head of the United States, explaining the installation of listening equipment by saying that the sound recordings were made solely for history. But the investigation was not convinced by such arguments.

The Watergate scandal caused a storm of criticism throughout the country. The situation became especially aggravated when law enforcement agencies provided evidence that Nixon had repeatedly evaded paying taxes and used public funds for personal purposes.

Watergate verdict

If at the beginning of his political career Nixon easily managed to justify himself in buying a puppy, now things were much more serious.

Hearing daily accusations against him, the head of the White House, despite the gathering clouds, had no intention of leaving his post. However, they demanded impeachment (removal from office by court decision).

After conducting a thorough investigation, the Senate and House of Representatives made their decision on the Watergate scandal. They found incumbent President Richard Nixon guilty and removed him from office.

After studying all the audio recordings, it was discovered that not only Nixon, but also his associates abused their official position.

They resorted to blackmail and threats, and also extorted large sums of money from their “victims.” US citizens were amazed at the level and scale of corruption that came from the very top of power.

Resignation

All these things could have had a very detrimental effect not only on Nixon’s career, but on his life. When all the impeachment papers were ready, the president realized that he had lost.

That is why Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. Vice President Gerald Ford became President of the United States.

He pardoned Nixon “for all the crimes that he might have committed,” which he had the right to do, since impeachment had not yet begun to be considered in the Senate.

Ford later noted that this decision was one of the main reasons for his defeat in the 1976 election.

An interesting fact is that Richard Nixon never admitted his guilt in the Watergate case, and until the end of his days he denied the accusations against him.

Watergate and the press

When analyzing the Watergate scandal, it is very important to note that the case would not have received such resonance if it were not for the press. It was she who challenged the president and led him to a crushing fiasco.

In essence, the media did something that the intelligence services had never been able to do in the entire history of America until that moment.

That is why the Watergate scandal became so famous all over the world, and the word “Watergate” itself became a household word.

The word "Watergate" refers to a scandal that results in impeachment. The suffix "gate" is also used when talking about scandals. For example: Monicagate during the Clinton administration, or Irangate under Reagan.

The theme of the Watergate scandal has been repeatedly depicted in literature, cinema and computer games.

Conclusion

From all that has been said, it is clear that Watergate represents the scandal that led to Richard Nixon's impeachment.

In fact, Watergate touches on many more important aspects concerning the politics of world powers. But let each reader draw his own conclusions.

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The Watergate affair is a political scandal that occurred in America in 1972, which led to the resignation of the then head of state, Richard Nixon. This is the first and so far only time in American history when a president during his lifetime left his post early. The word "Watergate" is still considered a symbol of corruption, immorality, and criminality on the part of the authorities. Today we will find out what the background of the Watergate case was in the USA, how the scandal developed and what it led to.

The beginning of Richard Nixon's political career

In 1945, 33-year-old Republican Nixon won a seat in Congress. At that time, he was already famous for his anti-communist beliefs, which the politician did not hesitate to express publicly. Nixon's political career developed very rapidly, and already in 1950 he became the youngest senator in the history of the United States of America.

Excellent prospects were predicted for the young politician. In 1952, incumbent US President Eisenhower nominated Nixon for the post of vice president. However, this was not destined to happen.

First conflict

One of the leading New York newspapers accused Nixon of illegally using election funds. In addition to serious accusations, there were also some very funny ones. For example, according to journalists, Nixon spent part of the money on buying a cocker spaniel puppy for his children. In response to the accusations, the politician made a speech on television. Naturally, he denied everything, claiming that he had never in his life committed illegal or immoral acts that could tarnish his honest political career. And the dog, according to the accused, was simply given to his children as a gift. Finally, Nixon said that he was not going to leave politics and would not just give up. By the way, he will utter a similar phrase after the Watergate scandal, but more on that a little later.

Double fiasco

In 1960, he ran for president of America for the first time. His opponent was someone who simply had no equal in that race. Kennedy was very popular and respected in society, so he won by a huge margin. 11 months after Kennedy's appointment to the presidency, Nixon nominated himself for the post, but lost here too. After the double defeat, he thought about leaving politics, but the craving for power still took its toll.

Presidential post

In 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, he took his place. He coped with his task quite well. When the time for the next election approached, the situation in America greatly worsened - the Vietnam War, which dragged on too long, caused protests throughout the United States. Johnson decided that he would not run for a second term, which was quite unexpected for the political and civil community. Nixon could not miss this chance and announced his candidacy for the presidency. In 1968, beating his opponent by half a percentage point, he headed the White House.

Merits

Of course, Nixon is far from the great American rulers, but it cannot be said that he was the worst president in US history. He, together with his administration, was able to resolve the issue of America's withdrawal from the Vietnam conflict and normalize relations with China.

In 1972, Nixon came on an official visit to Moscow. In the entire history of relations between the USA and the USSR, such a meeting was the first. It brought a number of important agreements concerning bilateral relations and arms reduction.

But at one point, all of Nixon’s services to the United States literally became worthless. Only a few days were enough for this. As you may have guessed, the reason for this is the Watergate affair.

Political wars

As you know, the confrontation between Democrats and Republicans in America is considered a common thing. Representatives of the two camps almost take turns taking control of the state, nominating their candidates for elections and providing them with massive support. Of course, every victory brings great joy to the winning party and great disappointment to the opponents. To gain the levers of power, candidates often engage in very intense and unprincipled struggles. Propaganda, compromising material and other dirty methods come into play.

When one or another politician takes the reins of power, his life turns into a real fight. Every, even the slightest mistake becomes a reason for competitors to go on the offensive. To protect himself from the influence of political opponents, the president has to take a huge number of measures. As the Watergate case showed, Nixon had no equal in this regard.

The Secret Service and Other Instruments of Power

When the hero of our conversation, at the age of 50, came to the presidency, one of his first priorities was the creation of a personal secret service. Its goal was to control opponents and potential opponents of the president. The framework of the law was neglected. It all started when Nixon began wiretapping the telephone conversations of his competitors. In the summer of 1970, he went even further: he gave the go-ahead for the Secret Service to conduct non-sectional searches of Democratic congressmen. The President did not disdain the “divide and conquer” method.

To disperse anti-war demonstrations, he used the services of mafia militants. They are not police officers, which means no one will say that the government neglects human rights and the laws of a democratic society. Nixon did not shy away from blackmail and bribery. When the next round of elections was approaching, he decided to enlist the help of officials. And so that the latter would treat him more loyally, he asked for certificates about the payment of taxes by people with the lowest income level. It was impossible to provide such information, but the president insisted, demonstrating the triumph of his power.

In general, Nixon was a very cynical politician. But if you look at the political world, from the point of view of dry facts, it is extremely difficult to find honest people there. And if there are any, they most likely just know how to cover their tracks. Our hero was not like that, and many knew about it.

"Plumbers Division"

In 1971, when there was only a year left before the next presidential election, the New York Times newspaper published in one of its issues classified CIA data regarding military operations in Vietnam. Although Nixon's name was not mentioned in this article, it called into question the competence of the ruler and his apparatus as a whole. Nixon took this material as a personal challenge.

A little later, he organized the so-called plumbers unit - a secret service engaged in espionage and more. An investigation conducted later showed that employees of this service were developing plans to eliminate people who were interfering with the president, as well as disrupting rallies held by Democrats. Naturally, during the election campaign, Nixon had to resort to the services of “plumbers” much more often than in normal times. The president was ready to do anything to be elected for a second term. As a result, the excessive activity of the spy organization led to a scandal that went down in history as the Watergate affair. Impeachment is far from the only result of the conflict, but more on that below.

How it all happened

The headquarters of the US Democratic Party Committee at that time was at the Watergate Hotel. One June evening in 1972, five men entered the hotel, carrying plumbers' suitcases and wearing rubber gloves. This is why the spy organization was later called the Plumbers. That evening they acted strictly according to the plan. However, by chance, the sinister deeds of the spies were not destined to take place. They were interrupted by a security guard who suddenly decided to conduct an unscheduled inspection. Confronted with unexpected guests, he followed instructions and called the police.

The evidence was more than irrefutable. The main one is the broken door to the Democratic headquarters. Initially, everything looked like a simple robbery, but a thorough search revealed grounds for more serious charges. Law enforcement officers found sophisticated recording equipment from the criminals. A serious investigation began.

At first, Nixon tried to hush up the scandal, but almost every day new facts were discovered that revealed his true face: “bugs” installed in the headquarters of the Democrats, recordings of conversations that took place in the White House and other information. Congress demanded that the president provide all the records to the investigation, but Nixon produced only part of them. Naturally, this did not suit the investigators. In this matter, not even the slightest compromise was allowed. As a result, all that Nixon managed to hide was 18 minutes of sound recording, which he erased. It could not be restored, but this no longer matters, because the surviving materials were more than enough to demonstrate the president’s disdain for the society of his native country.

Former presidential aide Alexander Butterfield claimed that conversations in the White House were recorded simply for the sake of history. As an irrefutable argument, he mentioned that during the time of Franklin Roosevelt, legal recordings of presidential conversations were made. But even if one agrees with this argument, there remains the fact of listening to political opponents, which cannot be justified. Moreover, in 1967, unauthorized listening was prohibited at the legislative level.

The Watergate case in the United States caused a great stir. As the investigation progressed, public outrage grew rapidly. At the end of February 1973, law enforcement officers proved that Nixon had committed serious tax violations more than once. It also revealed the fact that the President used huge amounts of public funds to fulfill his personal needs.

Watergate case: verdict

Early in his career, Nixon managed to convince the public of his innocence, but this time it was impossible. If then the president was accused of buying a puppy, now it was about two luxurious houses in California and Florida. The "plumbers" were accused of conspiracy and arrested. And the head of state felt more and more every day not the owner of the White House, but its hostage.

He persistently, but unsuccessfully, tried to dispel his guilt and put the brakes on the Watergate case. The president’s state at that time can be briefly described with the phrase “struggle for survival.” With remarkable enthusiasm, the president refused his resignation. According to him, under no circumstances did he intend to leave the post to which he was appointed by the people. The American people, in turn, did not even think about supporting Nixon. Everything led to impeachment. Congressmen were determined to remove the president from high office.

After a full investigation, the Senate and House of Representatives rendered their verdict. They recognized that Nixon had behaved in a manner unbecoming of a president and was undermining America's constitutional order. For this he was removed from office and brought before the court. The Watergate affair caused the president's resignation, but that's not all. Thanks to audio recordings, investigators established that many political figures from the president’s entourage regularly abused their official positions, took bribes and openly threatened their opponents. The Americans were most surprised not by the fact that the highest ranks went to unworthy people, but by the fact that corruption had reached such a scale. What until recently was an exception and could lead to irreversible consequences has become commonplace.

Resignation

On August 9, 1974, the main victim of the Watergate case, Richard Nixon, left for his homeland, leaving the presidency. Naturally, he did not admit his guilt. Later, recalling the scandal, he would say that as president he made a mistake and acted indecisively. What did he mean by this? What decisive actions were discussed? Perhaps about providing the public with additional compromising evidence on officials and close associates. Would Nixon really agree to such a grandiose confession? Most likely, all these statements were a simple attempt to justify themselves.

His role in the development of the scandal was clearly decisive. According to an American researcher, during the Watergate scandal, it was the media that challenged the head of state and, as a result, caused him irreversible defeat. In fact, the press did what no institution in American history had ever managed before - it deprived the president of his post, which he received with the support of the majority. This is why Watergate and the press still symbolize the control of power and the triumph of the press.

The word “Watergate” has become entrenched in the political slang of many countries around the world. It refers to the scandal that led to impeachment. And the word “gate” has become a suffix that is used in the names of new political, and not only, scandals. For example: Monicagate under Clinton, Irangate under Reagan, the Volkswagen car company scam, which was nicknamed Dieselgate, and so on.

The Watergate case in the USA (1974) has been depicted more than once to varying degrees in literature, cinema and even video games.

Conclusion

Today we found out that the Watergate case is a conflict that arose in America during the reign of Richard Nixon and led to the resignation of the latter. But as you can see, this definition describes the events rather sparingly, even taking into account the fact that, for the first time in US history, they forced a president to leave his post. The Watergate case, the history of which is the subject of our conversation today, was a great revolution in the consciousness of Americans and, on the one hand, proved the triumph of justice, and on the other, the level of corruption and cynicism of those in power.

The beginning of the Watergate scandal is considered to be June 17, 1972. On this day, Frank Willis, a security guard at the Watergate Hotel complex, during a routine tour of the premises, discovered a film on the doors of the headquarters of the Democratic Party candidate McGovern that prevented the lock from being locked. Willis at first did not attach any significance to the find and simply removed the film - but it reappeared. Suspecting something was wrong, Ullis called the police. A team of plainclothes cops, known in narrow circles as “The Bum Squad,” responded to the call. Its members dressed like hippies and drove a regular car without special markings. The pseudo-hippies entered the premises without attracting attention and immediately detained five suspicious subjects, who were found to be carrying listening devices, cameras, films and thousands of dollars in cash. This “incident” immediately became known to the general public, and the media seized on it - after all, the election campaign was in full swing.

This case, one of the most notorious in the history of journalism, ended in a well-known way. Nixon's resignation, which looked like the result of a journalistic investigation, so shocked the public that the Watergate scandal became not only a subject of study in journalism departments, but also a bottomless source of texture for works of fiction - as well as gossip and misinterpretations. We have examined the five main ones.

MYTH #1: President Nixon was overthrown by The Washington Post journalists

As will be clear from the following story, the press rather contributed to the development of the media scandal than to the progress of the administrative and criminal investigation against the president.

From the very beginning of the Watergate scandal, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein received information from a high-ranking intelligence source. Already on June 20, 1972, Woodward first met with a mysterious person nicknamed Deep Throat, who began to supply him with secret information about spying on Democrats.

On August 1, a note appears in The Washington Post about the amount of $25,000 that was paid from Nixon campaign funds to one of the Watergate detainees. September 29 in the same place about a whole secret fund created to spy on Democrats with the active participation of US Attorney General John Mitchell.

When Bernstein approached Mitchell for comment, he launched threats against him and at the same time against The Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham. Without thinking twice, Bernstein published a threat. On September 15, the five burglars (called "plumbers" by handlers), along with Nixon Re-election Committee (CRP) financial adviser G. Gordon Liddy and former CIA officer Hunt, were indicted on charges of conspiracy, illegal wiretapping, and burglary. In October 1972, Bernstein and Woodward announced that the FBI had established a connection between the Nixon administration and the Watergate burglars.

Liddy and Hunt belonged to Nixon's inner circle - the ring around the president was tightening, and it seemed to the general public that journalists played a key role in this - and they were actually engaged in publishing FBI leaks.

30 years later, Deep Throat revealed: it turned out to be Mark Felt - no less than the then deputy director of the FBI.

MYTH #2: Nixon's involvement in the Watergate break-in has been proven.

Everett Collection/East News

Richard Nixon addresses his Cabinet and White House staff after resigning. From left - Edward and Tricia Nixon

In fact, this never happened, although the Woodward-Bernstein duo certainly provoked a split in society and increased distrust in the White House.

Even State Prosecutor James Neal was confident that President Nixon did not know about the impending penetration into the Democratic lair, evidence of which he saw in the question that Nixon asked his chief of staff Haldeman on June 23: “What kind of idiot did this?” During the investigation and trials, five “plumbers” and two organizers, Hunt and Liddy, were convicted directly for the intrusion into the Democratic headquarters, but it was not proven that they acted with Nixon’s knowledge.

The investigation received evidence that a brigade of “plumbers” was created with the knowledge of the president back in 1971 in order to stop the leak of information about the dark aspects of US participation in the Vietnam War. Among their exploits was breaking into the apartment of the psychiatrist of American anti-war activist Daniel Ellsberg, whom Nixon's minions apparently intended to blackmail with the materials they found. This hack gave Nixon's team nothing, but became another highlight in his political career.

But until his resignation on August 9, 1974, Nixon never admitted to organizing the Watergate break-in, and his successor as president, Gerald Ford, granted him a full pardon and thus stopped further official investigation. Richard Nixon died on April 22, 1994, having a very controversial reputation, but his involvement in the hack was not proven in court - and he himself did not confess either.

MYTH No. 3: Watergate wiretapping of Democrats was the main reason for Nixon's downfall.

Bettmann/Capital Pictures/East News

In fact, Nixon's main mistake was a clumsy attempt to hush up the June 17 incident - this is what, after the trial of the direct perpetrators of the Watergate invasion, both the FBI and a specially created committee in the Senate investigated.

To get the burglar witnesses to talk, the harsh judge John J. Sirica (a Republican, by the way) gave them preliminary sentences of 40 years in prison, confirming his nickname John Maximum. And already on March 23, 1973, Judge Sirica read before the court a letter from one of the “plumbers” - James McCord, in which he, in fear of the prospect of dying in prison, pointedly hinted that he was forced to remain silent about his high-ranking patrons.

Sirica did not trust Nixon and his team from the very beginning and willingly reopened the investigation. Thus began the hot phase of the scandal: it turns out that the White House is involved in covering up and hushing up the crime.

Already on April 9, 1973, news appeared in the New York Times: McCord informed the Senate Watergate Committee about the large sums that the Nixon campaign paid to “plumbers.”

Then events developed with dizzying speed: in the same month, witness testimony began to reveal facts of concealment of details of the hack by influential Nixon advisers: Harry Robbins Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Dean.

All three were forced to leave their posts (and subsequently serve different prison terms), and Dean was also forced to begin cooperating with the investigation. Among other things, in his 245-page report, Dean admitted that he had repeatedly discussed with Nixon ways to hush up the matter - that is, obstruct justice, in legal parlance. Now the Senate committee was most concerned with the question of how much the president himself was aware of the hacking.

At the worst possible moment, Nixon's former secretary Alexander Buttersfield appeared on live television in front of millions of amazed Americans. told senators about the multi-day wiretapping of the Oval Office, which was carried out on the orders of the president himself.

It became obvious to the committee members, as well as to millions of Americans, that these tapes would shed light on Nixon's role in the conspiracy.

But President Nixon refused to release the tapes, and instead ordered Attorney General Richardson to fire the obstinate prosecutor Archibald Cox, who demanded their release. An outraged Richardson refused to comply and resigned in October.

The chain reaction of investigations and resignations continued, and on February 6 the House of Representatives decided to begin impeachment proceedings against the president himself. Bureaucratic red tape dragged on until August 5, 1974, when the Supreme Court demanded that the contents of the tapes be made public.

As expected, the tapes turned out to be a “smoking gun”: on them, Nixon directly discusses with his subordinates ways to hush up a sensitive matter. Among other things, he suggested that CIA officials lie to FBI investigators that the Watergate hack was carried out in the interests of national security.

By the way, in one of the recordings, Advisor Haldeman assures Nixon that his man in the FBI named Mark Felt (yes, that same Deep Throat, as it turns out later) will help cover his tracks.

It was these tapes, and not the Watergate wiretaps, that became the main evidence of Nixon’s guilt and one of the key reasons for his downfall.

MYTH No. 4: The famous phrase of the vice-chairman of the Senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal, Howard Baker, “What did the President know and when did he know it?” was incriminating

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

On June 29, 1973, after John Dean finished his monstrous two-day report, it was Tennessee Senator Howard Baker's turn to ask questions. It was then that Baker uttered his historic question.

In fact, Baker, like many members of the commission, did not pursue the goal of proving Nixon’s guilt at any cost. The minutes show that this question from Baker, an active member of the Nixon administration and a staunch Republican, was intended to show that Nixon did not know about the impending hack. Witnesses could not say for sure that the president was aware of the idea, and therefore Richard Nixon was never criminally liable, unlike many of his associates.

By the way, this sacramental phrase found a new life in 2016, at the height of Russiagate - this time liberal journalists addressed it to Trump in an accusatory manner. By the way, the situation repeated itself: it was not possible to prove the awareness or involvement of the current US President in the actions of Russian hackers.

MYTH #5: The Washington Post investigation began after Deep Throat's FBI source told reporters, "Follow the money."

This effective line is as much pious fiction as a very large part of the Oscar-winning Watergate film All the President's Men. In the aforementioned Washington Post article from September 29, 1972, the newspaper's own staff spoke of "reliable sources" who provided them with information about the impressive spending on dubious purposes from the Nixon campaign fund.

In reality, Mark “Deep Throat” Felt never uttered this advice, not least because he and his FBI colleagues themselves investigated the spending of the Committee to re-elect President Nixon (“follow the money”) and at the right moments reported their observations to the press .

In general, the story of Watergate became a pop-cultural phenomenon largely thanks to the book “All the President's Men” by Carl Bernstein himself and the aforementioned film of the same name, where he co-wrote the screenplay, and the roles of the fearless journalists of The Washington Post were played by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford. Generated by the exalted imagination of the scriptwriters, the phrase “Follow the money!” appeared only in the film, and then went viral as an idiom romanticizing the inquisitive spirit of a reporter.

But, as can be seen from the above, the investigation against the Nixon team was carried out by the leadership of the American intelligence agencies, supported by the respectable conservative judge John Sirica and the political elites in Congress. The American power system has discovered sufficient immunity to resist the Machiavellian methods of the Nixon administration, and the story of the struggle of dedicated lone journalists against the powerful repressive state machine turns out to be just another urban legend.

Entering the 1972 election race, Richard Nixon's team expected an inevitable victory. During his first presidential term, he managed to win the trust of Americans. Nixon's call to end the war in Vietnam found a passionate response. In addition, he entered into negotiations with Moscow on limiting missile defense systems. Voters accepted this initiative favorably: the tense atmosphere of the Cold War had tired everyone out. Nixon also began the process of reconciling relations with communist China.

With Mao Zedong, February 1972. (wikipedia.org)

In the November 1972 elections, Richard Nixon was re-elected to a second term. George McGovern, his opponent from the Democratic Party, managed to win only one state and one federal district (Massachusetts and Columbia). However, the triumph of the newly elected president was overshadowed by a political scandal that erupted five months earlier. Unidentified assailants entered the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington. They were detained by the police. The uninvited guests thoroughly prepared for their visit: the police found two microphones and a whole set of various master keys. In addition, the young people had a large amount of money with them. Later, experts examined the bills and came to the conclusion that this was money from Nixon’s election fund.

Democratic headquarters at Watergate. (wikipedia.org)

The men were detained at the most inopportune moment - they were just setting up microphones and photographing documents belonging to the Democrats. The unlucky agents said that they were engaged in robbery, but the police were not impressed by this story. One of those detained was James McCord, a member of Nixon's campaign committee. The FBI became interested in the case and an investigation began. And here we meet new characters who greatly contributed to Nixon’s further resignation. We are talking about employees of The Washington Post newspaper Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. They began to cover the complex case with true journalistic zeal and from the very beginning argued that the White House was involved in the scandal. Woodward and Bernstein's investigation resembles a real detective story. The reporters did not hide the fact that they were collaborating with a high-ranking informant. The latter kept his name secret, and only in 2005 it became clear that FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt had leaked the information to journalists. The newspaper men, great pranksters, gave him the pseudonym “Deep Throat.” The publications of Woodward and Bernstein were followed by thousands of Americans, and new details of the case were also covered on television.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. (wikipedia.org)

The president denied any involvement in the Watergate scandal. Even after the court found that Howard Hunt, an intelligence officer and White House consultant, was the technical organizer of the wiretapping at the hotel, and Nixon's confidant Gordon Liddy was the head of the operation. By the way, a recording of Nixon’s conversation with the head of the presidential administration Harry Haldeman, which took place a few days after the Watergate incident, was later found. “Hunt knows too much. It could all end in fiasco,” Nixon says.

The investigation managed to obtain this and other records thanks to the “bugs” that the head of the United States installed in the White House. In one of the tapes, the president talks about the need to stop the investigation in the interests of national security. As Mark Felt later admitted, it was this outrageous position that inspired him to transmit secret information to journalists at The Washington Post.

Despite prosecutors' demands, Nixon stubbornly refused to hand over the tapes (until July 1974) and continued to deny his involvement in the Watergate scandal. All this caused irreparable damage to his reputation. In addition, he did not want to communicate with the press - a fatal, unacceptable mistake in conditions of general mistrust.

Americans are demanding the president's resignation. (wikipedia.org)

It must be admitted that his relationship with journalists did not work out even at the beginning of his career - the politician clearly underestimated the capabilities of the media. Just look at the televised debates of 1960, when he lost to John Kennedy. The chances of victory were almost equal, but Nixon seemed to have forgotten the enormous influence of television on the average American and failed miserably. Unlike Kennedy, who carefully built his image, Nixon refused to wear makeup, which made him look sick. I chose a suit that blended into the background. I was completely unprepared for working on camera. His eyes darted from one camera to another, which gave viewers the feeling that the politician was hiding something. Nixon refused to participate in the last round, essentially admitting defeat in advance. The debate, which was watched by more than 60 million Americans, clearly influenced the balance of power in the election race. Nixon lost, although up to this point he was the favorite.

By the time of the Watergate affair, the president never seemed to have mastered the intricacies of communicating with the press. He responded to attacks from journalists with silence. Meanwhile, Nixon's domestic policy adviser, John Ehrlichman, and the president's chief of staff, Bob Haldeman, resigned due to their involvement in the wiretapping scandal. In 1974, the court sentenced them to prison. In total, more than 20 people were found guilty—all of them were in one way or another connected with the presidential administration.

The situation was complicated by the fact that this was not the first major scandal for Nixon. We are talking about the secret “Pentagon Papers”, which were published in 1971 by The New York Times. The history of the Vietnam War, as set out in these documents, did not characterize the American government from the best side. Washington attempted to hush up the unpleasant story, but to no avail. The US Supreme Court later ruled that newspapers had the right to publish these papers.

The second trial, which spread throughout America thanks to the efforts of journalists, left Nixon no chance. In February 1974, a resolution was adopted to begin impeachment proceedings. On August 9, the president resigned. Gerald Ford, who took office, pardoned Richard Nixon for all his crimes.

Video message August 8, 1974: Richard Nixon announces his resignation

Most of the audio recordings made on behalf of Nixon in the White House were made public. At the moment, about 3,300 hours of the president's conversations have been published, another 700 remain classified for reasons of national security.

After his resignation, Richard Nixon began writing memoirs and works on geopolitics.

“Watergate” is an example of how a politician’s personal traits influence his activities. Richard Nixon was an extremely suspicious man, prone to secrecy, secrecy and underhanded actions. He loved intrigue and always suspected those around him of plotting against him. Its natural habitat would have been the court of Catherine de' Medici or Ivan the Terrible. Nixon satisfied part of his suspicion by collecting materials on his competitors and opponents, incl. by listening. For example, he was the only one of all presidents who gave the order to bug the Oval Office - the president's work office, which ultimately led to his political collapse and resignation under the threat of impeachment. After him, none of the presidents, naturally, allowed such eavesdropping.

In 1972, amid a tense presidential election campaign in which Nixon wanted to be re-elected to a second term from the Republican Party, he agreed on a plan proposed by his aides to wiretap the Democratic Party office rented in the luxury Watergate housing complex in downtown Washington. Nixon and his campaign hoped to gather more data on Democratic tactics during the election.

On the night of June 17, 1972, a security guard at the complex's management company, during a routine tour of the premises, accidentally noticed that the front door to the Democrats' office was not closed tightly. Opening it slightly, the guard made sure that there was no one in the office. The door lock tongue was covered with tape, which aroused the security guard's suspicions. He called the police. Five people were found inside the premises and were detained. The burglars were found to have stolen Democratic campaign documents from desks and cabinets. Later it turns out that this was the second time they entered this office - the initially installed listening equipment was malfunctioning and it was necessary to repair it. At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary robbery, but the burglars found phones and contacts of employees of the Republican headquarters.

Nixon said that his headquarters had nothing to do with this hack, voters believed it and in November 1972 Nixon won a landslide victory, continuing his activities as President of the United States, and an investigation began against the burglars, which was greatly helped by a parallel investigation by two journalists from an influential newspaper Washington Post. After some time, the investigation led to the very top - Nixon's closest and trusted assistants. At some point, when everything began to point to the president's involvement in this scam, Nixon publicly declared: “I am not a crook.”

A special prosecutor was appointed, which meant giving the investigation an extremely important status. Everything would be fine, but one of the suspects accidentally blurted out that there were tapes of conversations in the Oval Office. The special prosecutor also demanded extradition, was refused and then fired, which caused a political crisis in Washington and made impeachment inevitable.

To avoid it, Nixon resigned and left the White House on August 8, 1974, in the middle of his second term in office. J. Ford, who replaced him, exercised the right of pardon, and Nixon thus avoided trial and punishment.

Although Watergate's motives were largely personal, its consequences were political, severe, and long-lasting. It is generally accepted among Americans that Watergate dealt a severe blow to the institution of the presidency. Ordinary swindlers are condemned for lying under oath, but here the president himself turned out to be a swindler, a swindler, from whom they expect clear moral guidelines and an example in observing the laws. The perception of scandal was aggravated by the defeat at that time in the Vietnam War, i.e. American society received a double blow at that time. Society was shocked by the revelations of abuses of power and ordinary criminality at its highest levels.

The national trauma from Watergate began to be overcome only with the coming to power of R. Reagan in 1981.

Nixon faced impeachment not for the hack itself, but for lying and obstruction of justice.

History is repeating itself now with Trump, and surprisingly in many details. There was a hack (of servers), there are traces pointing to the very top, there is a statement from the president that he was not responsible, there is the dismissal of the FBI director who led the investigation, there is a special investigator whom Trump also wants to fire, the first accused have appeared, the Congress has already appointed the question of impeachment.