Nixon His Cover-Up Essays - Watergate Scandal, American Quakers

Nixon: His Cover-Up Nixon: His Cover-up Who would have knew a U.S. President would have done a crime? Unless it was a good reason that is. This incident is called the Watergate scandal. At the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. was where this all started. This led to even more complications. In this paper I hope to prove that even though Nixon had a cover-up plan it failed to succeed. In order to accomplish this several questions come to mind: Was Nixon trying to hide anything? Where there any evidence that Nixon had committed a crime? What proof did the detectives have? Did Nixons plan end up failing? Richard Milhous Nixon was born in 1913 in Yorba Linda, California, the second of five sons of Francis Anthony Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon (Nixon). Richard Nixon went to a public school in Whittier, California. After graduating he went to Whittier College, a Quaker institution, where he majored in history (Bowmen). Whittier was also where he met his future wife Thelma Pat Ryan. They got married on June 21, 1940, and had two daughters: Patricia, born in 1946, and Julie, born in 1948 (Lexicon). Nixon had many political roles. In 1946 Nixon became a congressman persuaded by Californias Republicans. Then in 1950 he became a member of the U.S. Senate from California (Nixon). Nixon with his running partner, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was elected to be the Vice President in 1952. And then they both were reelected for another term in 1956 (Lexicon). After that Nixons last term of Vice President he ran for President against John F. Kennedy. This election was one of the closest elections in U.S. history. Kennedy won by only 112,803 votes. After his defeat Nixon returned to California and ran for Governor and lost once again (Bowmen). So now Nixon had a break from political offices. But now, in 1968 Nixon ran for President once again against Hubert H. Humphrey and was successful. And once his first term was over Nixon ran and won the Presidency again (Lexicon). Now during his second term, however, was consumed by the Watergate Scandal (Nixon). Watergate was a major United States political scandal that started with the burglary and wiretapping of the Democratic Partys campaign headquarters (Genovese 6). And then started to create President Nixon and many of his supporters in even more illegal acts, and ended up with the first resignation of a U.S. President. The burglary was on June 17, 1972, by five men who were caught in the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate apartment and office in Washington, D.C. Their arrest uncovered that the White House was a part of espionage against political opponents (Lexicon). One main factor of the cover-up was the tapes. The taping system was a system that automatically recorded all conversations, which meant that the tapes would tell if Nixon was involved in the burglary and cover-up (Lexicon). In July 1973 was when White House aide Alexander Butterfield told the committee, on nationwide television, that there was a taping system that Nixon ordered installed in the White House. Then Archibald Cox immediately asked for the tapes to be revealed in court (Nixon). But Nixon refused to give them up. He was claiming executive privilege, saying they were vital to the national security (Nixon). Which let him hide certain documents because he didnt want to loose the presidency (Bowmen). This grew more doubts about Nixons integrity. On July 24, the Supreme Court voted 8-0 in the United States v. Nixon that Nixon must turn over the tapes (Nixon). Then the Judiciary Committee looked into impeaching Nixon (Bowmen). And on July 29 and 30, 1974, the House Judiciary Co mmittee had three articles of impeachment, charging Nixon with misusing his power in order to violate the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, obstructing justice in the Watergate affair, and defying Judiciary Committee subpoenas (Genovese 27). And the next day Nixon agreed to give in the tapes, but soon after, it was found that some of the tapes had been edited and the key parts of one had been erased (Nixon). Now this brought even more complications for President Nixon. During this madness there were many people that gave up. The year of 1973 was the