Watergate: Nixon's Downfall

Read Chapter 32-2 in your online history textbook, The Americans.

1. How were the "plumbers" connected to President Nixon?
They were hired by Mitchell, the leader of the CRP(committee to reelect the president) to break into somewhere and see the Democrat's campaign ideas.

2. Who was the judge? Why did he hand out maximum sentences?
John Sirica was the judge. He handed out maximum sentences because he wanted to scare them into telling on others that were involved.

3. How were Mitchell and Dean connected to Nixon?
Mitchell was the attorney general and Dean was the presidential counsel. Mitchell ran the CRP-committee to reelect the president, which was the group that broke into the campaign headquarters.

4. How were Haldeman and Erlichman connected to Nixon?
Haldeman was the chief of staff and Ehrlichman was the chief domestic advisor.

5. What did the following men tell the Senate about Nixon?
a. Dean said that Nixon had been deeply involved in the cover-up.
b. Butterfield revealed that Nixon had taped nearly all of his presidential conversations.

6. Who was fired or forced to resign in the "massacre"?
Cox (special prosecutor) was fired, Attorney General Richardson resigned, and the deputy attorney general also was fired.

7. Why weren't investigators satisified with the transcripts?
They wanted unedited copies, but Nixon refused. Unedited transcripts would be more useful in finding evidence than edited ones. Even without the unedited tapes, they had enough evidence to charge Nixon with obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of congress for refusing to obey a congressional subpoena to release the tapes.

8. What did the tapes reveal?
The tapes had many gaps. The most important tape was six days after Watergate. There was a conversation between Nixon and Haldeman that showed that Nixon had known about the role of members of his administration in the burglary, and he had agreed to plan to cover it up.

9. Why did Vice President Spiro Agnew resign?
He was not involved with watergate. He was receiving illegal payments and bribes.

10. What did the House Judiciary Committee charge President Nixon with?
Obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of congress for refusing to obey a congressional subpoena to release the tapes.

11. How did the Watergate scandal create a constitutional crisis?
The whole country looked bad because the president had done something bad enough to have him impeached. Also, the executive branch had too much power and Nixon may have thought he could have gotten away with anything. This goes against the constitution.