The Watergate Scandal Analysis

Words: 439
Pages: 2

The quiet summer night was disturbed by howling sirens outside the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972. Five men in suits were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Convention; all were members of the White House Re-election committee, and four were linked to the Central Intelligence Agency. Further investigation led to the conclusion that the burglars were supported by the government and within days, President Nixon found himself stuck in the country’s highest political scandal. A desperate cover-up attempt was made by erasing the infamous eighteen and a half minutes from the Watergate tapes, but that outraged Congress and the people more. The Watergate Scandal went so far that Nixon was forced to resign before he could be impeached …show more content…
In the year of 1973 many felt confused as to what to make of corruption, but knew that what was exposed was beneficial as now it could be fixed. The release of Watergate shocked many into uncertainty of who they should really trust. A paper hypothesised how the greatest decrease was found in the people voted for Nixon in 1972; showing the true importance of the relationship between government and the people (Zimmer). This pointed how government officials had to be careful as Americans depended on them; driving a social change in politics. Richard Nixon himself understood how his terrible actions had affected the people as he said, “I let down our system of government -- dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government that will think it's all too corrupt.”(Chicago Tribune) Nixon stated very well how many Americans believed that corruption had taken over the government and they would now forever associate politics with corruption. Although, those same people new that their government had to change to stop scandals like Watergate from occurring again. By 1974 tremendous transformations occurred in government and polls showed how Americans took every development more seriously than the one before (Bowman). The citizens were able to look past the corruption and seek reforms as they had seen the highest type of political scandal. Fraud was perceived in a more common way, changing politics and allowing people to push for a better