WatergateI. President Richard Nixon

A. Early CareerB. Electoral StrugglesC. Nixon and Divided America

II. The Election of 1972A. Attack PlanB. The McGovern Debacle

III. WatergateA. The Cover UpB. ExposureC. Resignation, PardonD. Impact

Richard Milhous Nixon• Bitter

– Anti-Establishment

• Whittier or Harvard

– Losses• 1960-- President• 1962-- CA Gov.

• Unprincipled– Red Baiting

• Voorhis• Douglas• Hiss

– Checkers Speech

A Nation Divided

• Breakdown of Cold War Liberal Consensus– Issues

• Vietnam

• Civil Rights

– Events• Showdown at

Democratic Convention

• The South defects

• Nixon wins

“Peace With Honor”

• Vietnamization

– 1969: 25K men

leave

– 1971: only 160K

remain

• Secret Bombings

Southern Strategy

Enemies List

• Daniel Ellsberg– The Pentagon

Papers

• Paul Newman• Barbra

Streisand• Jane Fonda• James Reston• Jack Anderson

The Break-Ins

• Early Attempts– Ellsberg’s

Psychiatrist’s Office– The Brookings Inst.

• The Watergate Hotel

• The Plumbers– G. Gordon Liddy– Howard Hunt– The Cubans

George McGovern

• Thomas Eagleton

• Sargent Shriver

Landslide

The Cover-Up

• Charles Colson

• John Dean

• H.R. Haldeman

• John Erlichman

• John Mitchell

Exposure

• Washington Post• Carl Bernstein• Robert Woodward• Katherine Graham

The Battle• Spiro Agnew

• The Tapes

• “I’m not a crook”

Resignation

• August 9th 1974

The Pardon

• September 8, 1974