Richard Nixon Scandal

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Pages: 5

On November 5, 1968 Richard Milhous Nixon, a fifty-five year old former vice president who suffered a loss in his presidential run for the Republican Party in 1960, recouped it by triumphing over Hubert Humphrey in the most evenly matched of elections. Nixon, a Duke Law School graduate and America’s 37th president began his presidency in stride, ending United States involvement in Vietnam, opening diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China, starting détente, and signing the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union(Hillstrom). Although Nixon had a brilliant public face his internal workings were at times much more covert, evident in his creation of the White House Plumbers Unit who were established in 1971 to snuff out …show more content…
It was during the burglar’s fourth attempt at breaking into the Watergate complex that they were caught. The first three attempts were unsuccessful due to broken wire taps or misplaced equipment. A night watchman named Frank Wills detected evidence of intruders in the building and immediately called the Washington police (Hillstrom). Wills had been a tedious note taker and marked every incident in a security log ranging from the most miniscule things such as papers scattered astray to the massive discovery of a single piece of tape left on a door by the robbers to allow re entry. If it had not been for the alert actions of Frank Wills the scandal may never have …show more content…
Nixon made three considerable speeches on the Watergate affair over the course of 1973 and 1974. Nixon’s initial speech on April 30, 1973 publicized the withdrawal of Dean, Haldeman and Ehrlichman(CREEP head members). Although a more definite speech was conveyed on August 15, 1973 in which Nixon derailed the blame of the break in further from the culprit. Conceivably the most significant speech was Nixon’s third Watergate address on April 29, 1974, in which Nixon publicized incomplete productions of the White House