10 Things You May Not Know about the Watergate Scandal

The Watergate scandal was a major political controversy that started when five men got arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C. The operation was a botched one, and the arrest of the five culprits would spark a chain of events that would see Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States of America, resign his position. We assume that you already know that the Watergate scandal is the most widely reported political event in history; however, there are ten things you may not know about Watergate.

Related: 10 Scurrilous Royals and Nobles Who Were Involved in Juicy Scandals

10 The Watergate Scandal Was Caused by a Movie

The Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972 was planned by highly intelligent people. People intelligent enough to serve as White House officials; however, one small detail ruined everything. When Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard Baker, James McCord, Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis went into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, they were sure that the operation would be successful because there was a spotter at the Howard Johnson’s Hotel across the street. But the “plumbers,” as they were called, were in for a chock.

Alfred Baldwin was the crew’s lookout and was positioned to inform them if a police car showed up or if they got any other company. If the spotter had been up to his duties, the police would not have caught the burglars, as they would have had enough time to escape. Rather than be on the lookout, Baldwin was distracted, watching the movie Attack of the Puppet People (1958) on television. Thus, he did not see the police as they arrived at the premises. By the time Baldwin noticed the presence of the police and radioed the burglars, it was already too late.^[1]

9 The Reappearing Tape

Now that we know that Alfred Baldwin was “watching a movie on duty,” allowing the “plumbers” to be caught red-handed, we need to also let you know that the police didn’t go to the Democratic National Committee headquarters to drink some tea. They were dispatched to the place when Frank Wills, a Watergate Complex security guard, noticed tape covering the latches on some of the complex’s doors leading from the underground parking garage to several offices.

The tape would allow the doors to close but remain unlooked. This was an innovative plan by the burglars to allow them unrestricted access to the Watergate Complex at midnight. Frank Wills removed the tapes without suspecting anything; however, he was surprised to find out that someone had replaced them when he patrolled the area a short while later. This discovery made him call the police, and the rest is now history.^[2]

8 President Nixon Had an Enemies List

President Nixon had an enemies list, which was compiled by Presidential Adviser George T. Bell for Charles Colson. Colson was the infamous “hatchet man” of Richard Nixon. The goal of the enemies list was to target the President’s opponents and outspoken critics using federal machinery. The list became public knowledge on June 27, 1973, when John Dean—President Nixon’s White House counsel, mentioned during hearings with the Senate Watergate Committee that a list existed containing those whom the president did not like.

Journalist Daniel Schorr, who happened to be on the list, managed to obtain a copy of it later that day. A longer second list was made public by Dean on December 20, 1973, during a hearing with the Congressional Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation. There is a consensus among historians and political scientists that the vindictive attitude of President Nixon and the atmosphere he created in his administration are responsible for the decision to break into the office of the Democratic National Congress.^[3]

7 Neither Bob Woodward nor Carl Bernstein “Broke” the Story

The duo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein will always be remembered for their role in investigating the scandal and bringing many crucial details to light. Without these two journalists, there is no doubt that President Nixon would have gone unscathed. For several months, Woodward and Bernstein researched the story, and Nixon won the election in November 1972. Eventually, they wrote front-page stories exposing links between the Watergate break-in and the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP), often mocked as CREEP. That was the beginning of Nixon’s downfall.

However, contrary to the popular opinion of many, it was Alfred E. Lewis who first reported the story of the Watergate break-in for the Washington Post. Lewis was a familiar and trusted figure of the police at that time and had early access to the crime scene. In fact, he was there when police were still gathering evidence. Then, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein took over the reporting almost immediately, and we never again heard from Alfred E. Lewis as far as Watergate was concerned.^[4]

6 The Watergate Scandal Created Two Record Presidents

Richard Nixon was privileged to serve as the 37th President of the United States after serving as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from California. Nixon would have gone down in history as one of the most remarkable presidents if not for Watergate. He ended the American fighting in Vietnam and improved relations with the U.S.S.R and China. Nixon ended the draft, moving the United States military to an all-volunteer force. Nixon would eventually resign his position as president of the United States, the first and only president to do so.

Gerald Ford served as the vice president under Richard Nixon. He was appointed vice president on December 6, 1973, following the resignation of Spiro Agnew from that office for tax evasion. Ford then succeeded to the presidency when Nixon resigned, thereby becoming the only person to date to serve as president without winning an election for president or vice vresident. Gerald Ford served 895 days in office, the fifth-shortest length of any president. He ran for the office of the president in 1976 but lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter.^[5]

5 Nixon’s Own Paranoia Created the Evidence That Sunk Him

It is possible that President Nixon would have been able to distance himself from the Watergate scandal if he hadn’t had his conversations recorded. Before President Nixon, no other president recorded conversations extensively. Under Nixon, everything that was said in his office and some other rooms in the White House was recorded on tape.

Two arguments have been advanced to defend President Nixon’s actions; some political scholars believe that Nixon ordered the recordings as a way to preserve an accurate account of the inner workings of the presidency so that he could write very lucrative memoirs upon his retirement. On the other hand, some historians also believe that Nixon recorded his conversations in order to gain political leverage over his staff and advisors and potentially use the tape against them if needed.

Those who know him personally believe that it was either of the two. Whatever the case, without the recordings, Nixon would have escaped being caught up in the Watergate scandal. The game was over for President Nixon when the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the tapes of 42 White House conversations that dealt with the break-in and subsequent cover-up.^[6]

4 Nixon Enjoyed Popular Support until Smoking Gun Tape Released

The Watergate break-in had already happened when President Richard Nixon won re-election by a landslide victory. However, by the middle of 1973, the scandal was in full-blown swing. There were a series of investigations and public hearings. Even as the cover-ups began to unravel, only about a quarter of Americans were in favor of Nixon’s removal. This is despite the fact that virtually all the evidence had been brought forward.

Richard Nixon was an incredibly popular president because of his foreign policies. It was when the Supreme Court ordered the Nixon administration to hand over the withheld tapes (which included the “Smoking Gun” tape) that a majority of Americans favored removing Nixon from office. On August 5, 1974, the “Smoking Gun” tape was released— facing imminent impeachment in both houses of the legislature, President Nixon opted to resign his presidency.^[7]

3 The Saturday Night Massacre

The “Saturday Night Massacre” refers to an event-filled evening during the Watergate scandal. It happened when Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox became aware of the existence of White House recordings from the testimony of one of Nixon’s aides. Cox secured a subpoena for some of the tapes. President Nixon was infuriated with Cox because of the subpoena and ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire him. Richardson refused and resigned. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. Ruckelshaus also refused and resigned.

Then, Nixon sent for the third most senior official in the Justice Department, Solicitor-General, Robert Bork. He was brought to the White House in a Limousine and immediately sworn in as Acting Attorney-General. As soon as he was sworn in, Nixon ordered Bork to fire Cox. Bork carried out the order of President Nixon that same evening—his first assignment as Acting Attorney-General. The “Saturday Night Massacre” phrase is a veiled reference to the effort of an American president to overhaul and corrupt the Department of Justice in a single evening.^[8]

2 President Nixon Was Not Allowed to Leave with the Recordings

President Nixon’s idea of taping his conversations in the White House would continue to be on the list of the biggest and most ridiculous mistakes ever made by a president. The federal government took control of all the tapes under the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974. President Nixon tried to leave with the recordings, but he wasn’t allowed to do so. Nixon battled for the custody of the tapes from the moment he exited the White House till his death. His legal argument was that the 1974 Act was unconstitutional because it violated the constitutional principles of separation of powers and executive privilege.

Nixon also argued that the seizure infringed on his privacy rights and the First Amendment right of association. Four years after his death, the courts ruled that some tapes and documents were his personal property and should be returned to him. The fact that Richard Nixon was not able to make away with the recordings reveals their value to him. However, they only destroyed all he had built over the years.^[9]

1 “Gate” Is the New Word for “Scandal”

The Watergate scandal had a long-lasting effect on the English vocabulary. Virtually all the scandals that were reported after Watergate had the word “gate” attached to it. The Watergate itself is a complex of buildings, including a hotel and offices, located in Washington D.C. However, since its symbolic involvement in the Watergate scandal, more than one hundred other scandals have had the word “gate” attached to them.

For instance, the notorious incident that happened in 2004 when Arsenal went to Old Trafford unbeaten in their previous 49 league matches, and Manchester United ended up defeating Arsenal. In the aftermath of Arsenal’s defeat, someone threw a slice of pizza at Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. The incident was referred to as “Pizzagate”—not to be confused with the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory in America during the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

In 2013, foods advertised as beef were found to contain horse meat. The incident was quickly tagged “Horsegate.” And who can forget 2015’s “Deflategate” after the Super Bowl that involved the New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, accused of deflating footballs? There are at least two hundred cases where the word “gate” was used to denote a scandal.^[10]

fact checked by
Darci Heikkinen