Watergate scandal Essay Example for Free

Watergate scandal Essay In 1972, five burglars tried to break into the Watergate office building but were arrested at the crime scene by the police. The burglars were planning to enter and bug the Democratic National committee offices which were the Democrats headquarters. After investigations it was later revealed that the burglars were employed by the campaign committee for re-election of President Nixon. Furthermore, it came to be known that the Watergate incident was one of the spying and sabotage political campaigns conducted by President Nixon and his campaign staff (Lewis, 1972). The President and his campaign team were spying on the activities of the Democrats who happened to be their major political opponent. By spying on them they might be able learn the tactics or the methods they were using in campaigning and this will enable them to adopt new and better ways than those of the Democrats. Similarly, if the Democrats campaigning methods were better of than theirs they could use them earlier before the Democrats had a chance to implement them. Later, in 1973, after investigations were done two former officials of President Nixons campaign team, Liddy and McCord, were arrested and arraigned in court and convicted of bugging, burglary and conspiracy. More than 60 witnesses testified and about 100 evidence pieces were collected and used in the court hearing. In accordance to the testimony from the one of the witnesses, Liddy was given more than $332,000 by the deputy campaign director to carry out a spying operation. Liddy was found guilty of burglary and conspiracy and was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment and fined $40,000. McCord was found guilty of burglary, conspiracy and attempted bugging and was therefore sentenced to 45 years imprisonment and fined about $60,000 (Meyer, 1973). The scandal led to the resignation of two White House aides and the attorney general. The President accepted their resignations and proceeded to fire the counsel of the White House. By accepting their resignations the President was attempting to conceal his involvement in the scandal and was trying to avoid the occurrence of another scandal by firing the Counsel of the White House. The president goes forward and creates a committee to investigate the Watergate scandal and prosecute the suspects (Stern Johnson, 1973). In a televised interview, President Nixon declared himself to be clean of any involvement in the Watergate scandal. He goes on to say that he never profited from the Watergate issue and did not obstruct justice in any way while performing his national duties. At the White House, the President recorded all his conversations in tapes and hence any information about Watergate scandal discussed in the White House must have been recorded and saved in the tapes. This therefore made him refuse to reveal the tape recordings since they might contain some information which could destroy his presidential career. However, in spite of him refusing to provide the tape recordings, to ensure his innocence, he promised to provide more evidence through documents and tapes and even give more details about his financial accounts. The President went forward to accuse the Democrats for conspiring to remove him from office because he had refused to boost their high support prices. Consequently, he admitted for not supervising his campaign staff adequately thereby leading to the Watergate scandal. During the televised speech, the President was noted to be nervous and was even misspelling some of his words but he still managed to control himself and plead his innocence (Kilpatrick, 1973). In spite of President Nixons plead for innocence, all activities done by his campaign team needed his consent, and hence they is no way his campaign team would get involved in an illegal activity without him knowing. In addition, his Chief Campaign Director must have been notifying him daily on the progress of the campaign and hence there is no way he was innocent. Students protest in the 1960s The needs and problems experienced by students are usually common in peer groups and communities. In campuses, the students of the same peer group are brought together to learn and hence gain knowledge. The campus environment provides a good place for the development and formation of organized groups since the students are given relatively much freedom and have enough time. In campuses, students use to participate in social activities depending on their culture or race. Groups were therefore formed according to race or culture. Students of the same culture will usually experience similar problems and thus have similar ways of solving the problems. By organizing themselves in cultural groups the students were therefore able to mobilize a large number of people for protest. During the years of 1960s there was racism, poverty and the war in Vietnam and this led to much student activism. Even though racism was not something new in America, the learning institutions perpetuated it thereby leading to protest by the black students since they could not tolerate it any longer. In colleges, the students are supposed to interact well with the learning environment for them to learn but with much racism they cannot interact well and this become a barrier to learning. For instance, in some cafeterias black students were not allowed to eat and in some colleges they were not allowed to vote (Churney, 1979). Furthermore, the war in Vietnam made students to form anti-war movements in order to stop the government from participating in the war. Because of the war many soldiers lost their lives and the newspapers were keen in reporting the number and even the names of the soldiers who had lost their lives. In addition, there was much poverty experienced by the community and the government was reluctant in solving the problem. Poverty was affecting the students adversely thereby becoming a barrier to learning. With education, the students acquired knowledge and were therefore able to find protest as a way of solving their problems. Reference List Churney L. (1979). Student protest in the1960s. Retrieved May 27, 2009 from http://www. yale. edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79. 02. 03. x. html Kilpatrick C. (1973, November 18). Nixon Tells Editors, Im Not a Crook. Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved May 27, 2009 from http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/111873-1. htm Lewis A. E. (1972, June 18). 5 Held in Plot to Bug Democrats Office Here. Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved May 27, 2009 from http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2002/05/31/AR2005111001227. html Meyer L. (1973, January 31). Last Two Guilty in Watergate Plot. Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved May 27, 2009 from http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2002/05/31/AR2005111001234. html Stern L. and Johnson H. (1973, May 1). 3 Top Nixon Aides, Kleindienst Out; President Accepts Full Responsibility; Richardson Will Conduct New Probe. Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved May 27, 2009 from http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2002/05/31/AR2005111001235. html