Watergate scandal

Watergate was the political crisis that brought down the American president Richard Nixon. It began with a burglary at the Democratic National Committee's offices in the Watergate complex in Washington on 17 June 1972, carried out by men working for Nixon's re-election campaign. The White House's cover-up unravelled over two years, and on 9 August 1974, facing near-certain impeachment, Nixon became the first president of the United States to resign.

The break-in grew out of the administration's efforts to stop leaks during the Vietnam War. A secret White House unit nicknamed the Plumbers was set up to plug them. Its members included the former intelligence officers E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, and in December 1971 Liddy became counsel to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, where he devised an espionage scheme called Operation Gemstone. After a first entry in May 1972, the team returned on the night of 17 June, and a security guard, Frank Wills, noticed tape on a door latch and called the police. Five men were arrested inside, including the campaign's security chief, James McCord. Why the operation was ordered, and by whom, is still debated.

Evidence was quickly destroyed at the campaign committee and the White House, and Nixon publicly denied any involvement. On 23 June 1972 he approved a plan to have the CIA ask the FBI to halt its inquiry on grounds of national security. Money was channelled to the burglars to keep them quiet. At The Washington Post, the reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein followed the money trail, helped by a confidential source known as Deep Throat, later identified as the senior FBI official Mark Felt. The cover-up held long enough for Nixon to win re-election by a landslide in November 1972.

At the trial of the burglars in January 1973, Hunt and the Cuban exiles on the team pleaded guilty, and Liddy and McCord were convicted. In March McCord told Judge John Sirica that perjury had been committed and that others were involved. The White House counsel John Dean and campaign official Jeb Magruder began cooperating with prosecutors, and Nixon's closest aides resigned at the end of April. Televised Senate hearings led by Sam Ervin began in May, and on 13 July an aide, Alexander Butterfield, revealed that Nixon had recorded his conversations in the Oval Office.

The special prosecutor Archibald Cox subpoenaed the recordings, and Nixon refused, claiming executive privilege. On 20 October 1973, in what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre, Nixon ordered Cox fired; Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned rather than do it, his deputy William Ruckelshaus was dismissed, and Robert Bork finally carried out the order. The public outcry forced the appointment of a new prosecutor, Leon Jaworski. One tape turned out to have an unexplained gap of about eighteen minutes.

In May 1974 the House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment hearings. On 24 July the Supreme Court ruled 8–0 in United States v. Nixon that the tapes must be handed over, and in late July the committee approved three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of Congress. On 5 August the White House released the 23 June 1972 "smoking gun" recording, proving that Nixon had joined the cover-up from the start. Republican support collapsed, and leading senators told him he would be convicted. Nixon announced his resignation on 8 August, and Gerald Ford was sworn in the next day.

On 8 September 1974 Ford granted Nixon a full pardon, a decision that hurt his popularity. In all, 69 people were charged in connection with Watergate, including two members of Nixon's cabinet, and most were convicted or pleaded guilty; the former attorney general John Mitchell went to prison. The Republicans suffered heavy losses in the 1974 midterm elections. The scandal is often seen as the gravest in American presidential history, and the suffix "-gate" has since been attached to scandals around the world.

Watergate changed no borders; our 1960 and 1985 maps show the United States in the Cold War era.