Watergate: A Foiled Burglary Attempt
Watergate Paper
Hist/145
Jessica Lee
5/21/11
Brooklyn Sawyers
Watergate was a foiled burglary attempted by five men, nicknamed the “plumbers”, who were hired by President Richard Nixon. The Nixon campaign denied any involvement and the administration just dismissed the break-in as “a two bit burglary” (Wall Street Journal, May 1973). The Vice President Agnew and Senator Proxmire thought that the charges were careless and misdirected and felt that the press should be criticized for printing non truths about the Watergate investigation.
President Nixon told his cabinet that he would not resign but let the impeachment process take its course. President Nixon’s staff even encouraged him to resign to save face with the Americans and those that already had a lack of faith in our government.
Both Time and Newsweek reported that John Dean the counsel to President Nixon was ready to give interviews stating that President Nixon knew about the Watergate cover up. Mr. Dean was given minimum exposure to criminal charges in order to give him maximum leverage for usage when trying to make a plea bargain for his role in the Watergate scandal. Even before the allegations made by Mr. Dean surfaced, the polling of the public made it clear Americans felt that the president was well aware of the misdeeds and was try to get out of being linked to Watergate by denying any knowledge at all.
The public’s opinion varied about if Nixon was actually took part in Watergate and if he should be impeach or not. In an opinion survey given by The Roper organization, those that took part felt that President Nixon should be impeached. The ACLU, which stands for American Civil Liberties Union used their survey findings as a part for a formal campaign to impeach the President. The survey given by the ACLU was taken by voters between March 29 and April 13, 1973. When only 1,984 people had given their reasoning behind why they felt the government should go ahead with impeachment
Hist/145
Jessica Lee
5/21/11
Brooklyn Sawyers
Watergate was a foiled burglary attempted by five men, nicknamed the “plumbers”, who were hired by President Richard Nixon. The Nixon campaign denied any involvement and the administration just dismissed the break-in as “a two bit burglary” (Wall Street Journal, May 1973). The Vice President Agnew and Senator Proxmire thought that the charges were careless and misdirected and felt that the press should be criticized for printing non truths about the Watergate investigation.
President Nixon told his cabinet that he would not resign but let the impeachment process take its course. President Nixon’s staff even encouraged him to resign to save face with the Americans and those that already had a lack of faith in our government.
Both Time and Newsweek reported that John Dean the counsel to President Nixon was ready to give interviews stating that President Nixon knew about the Watergate cover up. Mr. Dean was given minimum exposure to criminal charges in order to give him maximum leverage for usage when trying to make a plea bargain for his role in the Watergate scandal. Even before the allegations made by Mr. Dean surfaced, the polling of the public made it clear Americans felt that the president was well aware of the misdeeds and was try to get out of being linked to Watergate by denying any knowledge at all.
The public’s opinion varied about if Nixon was actually took part in Watergate and if he should be impeach or not. In an opinion survey given by The Roper organization, those that took part felt that President Nixon should be impeached. The ACLU, which stands for American Civil Liberties Union used their survey findings as a part for a formal campaign to impeach the President. The survey given by the ACLU was taken by voters between March 29 and April 13, 1973. When only 1,984 people had given their reasoning behind why they felt the government should go ahead with impeachment
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