How did the Watergate affair happen?

Answer 1

President Nixon didn't just want to win the 1972 presidential election, but he wanted to win it big. He paid burglars to break into the Democratic Headquaters to get information so he could win the re-election. Basically, Watergate happened because Nixon wanted to win so badly that he cheated.

Answer 2

The Watergate scandal was a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. by members of Richard Nixon's administration and the resulting cover-up which led to the resignation of the President. A number of them were from the "plumbers unit", originally set up to "plug leaks," and some of them were former members of the CIA. Though then-President Nixon had endured two years of mounting political embarrassments, the court-ordered release in August 1974 of a "smoking gun tape" about the burglaries brought with it the prospect of certain impeachment for Nixon; he resigned only four days later, on August 9, 1974, making him the only U.S. President to have resigned from office. When Frank Wills, a security guard, found proof of the break in, he called the police. On June 17, 1972, police apprehended five men attempting to break into and wiretap Democratic Party offices. The five men were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez and Frank Sturgis. With two other accomplices they were tried and convicted in January 1973. All seven men were either directly or indirectly employees of President Nixon's Campaign to Re-elect the President, CREEP, and many people, including the trial judge, John J. Sirica, suspected a conspiracy involving higher-echelon government officials. In March 1973, James McCord, one of the convicted burglars, wrote a letter to Sirica charging a massive coverup of the burglary. His letter transformed the affair into a political scandal of unprecedented magnitude. The scandal revealed the existence of a White House dirty tricks squad, an enemies list, a plumbers unit to plug leaks and a secret campaign slush fund associated with the CRP, all with high level administration involvement. It brought into the open the involvement of the Attorney General, John N. Mitchell, in the dirty tricks, funds and cover up, as well as key White House advisors, all of whom went to prison for these crimes.

Answer 3

It turned out that the arrest of five men on 17 June 1972 who were trying to install electronic listening devices in the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC was just one of several surreptitious activities sponsored by the Nixon Administration. After many Senate hearings and the fact that impeachments proceedings were being prepared, on 9 August 1974, Nixon resigned as President of the United States, thus ending the period known as "the Watergate Crisis." Even though President Richard M. Nixon was well ahead of the Democratic candidate for President, George McGovern, Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) wanted to learn more about the tactics of the Democrats and what they were and were not planning as far as the election campaign was concerned. It turned out that the arrest of five men on 17 June 1972 who were trying to install electronic listening devices in the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC was just one of several surreptitious activities sponsored by the Nixon Administration. Nixon’s aides had also engineered the burglary of a Los Angeles psychiatrist’s office to try and obtain damaging information about Daniel Ellsberg, a Defense Department employee who leaked the Pentagon Papers, revealing the activities of the administration regarding Vietnam. The press and public began to view Nixon’s administration and activities as “the Imperial Presidency” because Nixon and his advisors became so arrogant in their possession of power. They seemed to believe they were above the law. Nixon even went so far as to claim that if something was done by the president, that means it was not illegal. The public began to distrust the power that had been amassed in the office of the Executive. The separation of powers did not seem to be working as designed by the Founding Fathers. Others saw the resignation of the president of confirmation that the Constitution was working, and even the President was not above the law. The Watergate Affair also served as a civics lesson to the public. Many began to pay close attention to their representatives and to begin to question the leaders in Washington and in local and state offices. An immediate effect was a closer examination of the activities of the executive office by the legislative and judicial branches.