Wednesday, April 26, 2017

W is for the Watergate Scandal

Image: Watergate Complex, Washinton, D.C. Indutiomarus [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons


The word Watergate or it's derivatives (pick your word-gate) are synonymous with secret, illegal activities.

In 1972, the Democratic National Committee had an office in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. A break-in occurred, five men were arrested, and cash found on the burglars was linked to a slush fund used to re-elect President Nixon.

Image: Tonynetone, famous image of Nixon leaving the White House, often paired with his now infamous quote, "I am not a crook."


It turned out that Nixon and his aides had abused their power, using the FBI, CIA, and IRS to investigate activist groups and their political opponents. Tapes of damaging conversations in the oval office "revealed that Nixon had attempted to cover up activities that took place after the break-in, and (he used) federal officials to deflect the investigation." Nixon resigned before he could be impeached, but received a pardon from his replacement, Gerald Ford. (Source)


Image: Anti-Ford button made for 1976 presidential election, Wikipedia Commons

One of the goals of the Watergate break-in was to install listening devices into the phones. More recently, President Trump accused former President Obama of wiretapping Trump Towers during the 2016 election although no evidence has been found to support his claims. Newsweek posted an article about surveillance on Trump Tower from 2011 to 2013, but this was aimed at a Russian crime ring involved in money laundering, sports gambling and extortion, not Trump. 

Have you seen the movie All The President's Men or studied the Watergate Scandal?


16 comments:

  1. This is an informative read! I had read about the Watergate scandal. out of curiosity to find out why the "gate" is used in media so often. I haven't watched the movie (All The President's Men), but if it is about this political scandal I shall look forward to watch it.
    Thanks for sharing
    Weltschmerz
    Best wishes!

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  2. This one I do remember - my father used to subscribe to both Newsweek and Time through the 70's. I was too young to be interested in politics/world events at the time, but used to love looking at the ads and recall pages and pages of coverage.

    Nilanjana
    Madly-in-Verse

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  3. Studied it? I felt that I lived it as it hit about the time I was becoming more attuned to politics as I was in between Jr. High and High School.

    http://sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com/2017/04/w-is-for-white-dwarf.html

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  4. Yes, I saw the movie, All the President's Men. Really well done. I watched the hearings, too. What's happening now re: the Russian investigation seems like a strange deja-vu — only worse.

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  5. Quite amazing that this scandal was so huge that all other scandals worthy of the name now have a -gate attached.

    Phillip | W is for White Shapes | What do you see?

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  6. I wish we had a government willing to do something about corruption these days. It seems that the majority party is cool with it as long as they profit.

    A to Z Challenge: Wolf

    Isa-Lee Wolf

    A Bit 2 Read
    @IsaLeeWolf

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  7. Watergate seems so minor in light of the corruption we see now.

    https://misspelicansperch.wordpress.com/

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  8. I remember the disgrace. And the odd thing was that he was likely to be reelected.

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  9. I have the movie All the President's Men but have not watched it yet. Will have to do that. Thanks for the reminder.

    Emily | My Life In Ecuador | Water. Clean Drinking Water

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  10. I haven't watched All the President's Men, nor have I investigated the scandal to any great degree. But I've heard it said that there've been presidents since Nixon's time who have done things just as reprehensible and not been impeached and put out of office.

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  11. I've watched all the President's Men but will admit to living through the scandal as a child, which dates me. It was an interesting time.

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  12. It was either the last A to Z or two years ago where I blogged about showing that movie to a class. And how they hated it. And I got to watch it three times in 50 minute increments...

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  13. I studied Watergate in high school. I also just finished a nonfiction book called Most Dangerous that mentioned it. I’d like to find more books about Watergate because it’s interesting.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  14. It was such a big deal back then, but stuff like this seems to go on all the time now. Everyone throwing around allegations that it's happening is really just a distraction to cover up that it is, indeed, happening. :-/

    X - Brother XII, Canada's Own Crazy Cultist!

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  15. Yes, I heard of this long ago. I, too, find it interesting that scandals now have "gate" attached. It says something gif the effect it had.

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