The Watergate scandal is arguably one of the largest scandals to come out of theWhite House since Andrew Johnson was impeached in the 1870’s. It originally startedas a small break-in at the Watergate complex in Washington DC, which was theDemocratic National HQ. Five men were arrested in the wee hours of June 17, 1972 onthe sixth floor of the Democratic National HQ. That was the start of a case that wouldlead up to the most powerful man in the country, president Richard M. Nixon. One of the men arrested was named James McCord who worked for the chairman who ran theCommittee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). Which would mean that he worked for the Republican Party. It seems strange that a man, who works for the Republican Partyis breaking into the Democratic National HQ, doesn’t it? The Watergate scandal is anextremely interesting topic and it goes into much depth as time progresses. Plenty of powerful political people went served time because of their role in the Watergatescandal. People who helped cover-up the scandal, people who leaked out information,they all played a large part in the Watergate scandal and trial. The involvement of President Richard M. Nixon was probably the most important part of the entireWatergate scandal. He was the commander and chief of his country and he lied to hispeople under oath. He not only broke the law, but he tried to cover it up. The judicialpart of Watergate is probably the most memorable part because it was the part whereNixon gets himself tangled up in his lies. The Watergate scandal is one of America’smost shameful memories but it will remain in history books because it’s an event that itchanged presidential trust forever.In the early morning of June 17, 1972 five men were caught breaking into theWatergate complex. These men were James McCord, Bernard Baker, EugenioMartinez, Frank Sturgis, and Vigillo Gonzalez. Bernard Baker was a Cuban exile livingin Miami at the time. He had taken photographs of various documents that were in theDemocratic National headquarters. Martinez and Gonzalez were also Cuban exiles thatwere helping Frank Sturgis. Sturgis was a former American solider who was a verystrong supporter of Nixon. The head of the plan was James McCord. McCord was aformer CIA agent. They were all helping place a wiretap on the phone of the DemocraticParty Chairman Lawrence O’Brien. That night, in a hotel room at the Watergate Hotel,two very important men waited for the four helpers and McCord to come back. These

men were E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. They had employed the four menalong with McCord to break into the complex and fulfill their dirty deed. Earlier thatmonth, McCord had planted the wire but he was back again to adjust the wire for better sound quality. Frank Wills was the security guard on duty that night. He was roamingthe garage when he noticed that a piece of masking tape was holding a lock. Heremoved the tape presuming that a worker had left it their earlier that day. He continuedwalking around. Later that night, he walked passed the same door and noticed thatsomebody had replaced the tape. He quickly knew that somebody had been workingthe lock and called the police. McCord had a walkie-talkie on him, which would connecthim with Liddy and Hunt. On the other side of the street, Alfred Baldwin had a walkie-talkie too that was connected to Libby, Hunt, and McCord. He was the lookout for McCord and the other burglars. While they were readjusting the wire, a loud static wascoming from the end of one the walkie-talkies, so McCord told Baker to turn off thewalkie-talkie. A few minuets later, a few police cars pulled up to the front of the buildingand the police marched into the building. Baldwin tried to contact McCord and theothers to run for it, but because they had switched off their talkie, no contact was made.A few minuets pass two; the five men were caught by police. The police found sevenpieces of evidence during the break-in. A bag, a wig, a flat file, rubber gloves, ChapStick with a hidden microphone inside, screwdriver, and a walkie-talkie were the items.The most interesting thing found was an address book carried by Sturgis. The bookcontained a number that police would have to investigate. The number was marked,“HH” at “WH.” That number turned out to be Howard Hunt at White House. Also, takenoff Baker was carrying a wad of new $100 dollar bills. This was odd because thenumbers were all in sequence and were traced back to where they came from. This wasbad because the person who cashed the check and was responsible for the money, thisperson was Liddy. (Time of Transition, “Watergate,” 51-57) (Kilian, 1-6)Liddy was the special assistant to the secretary of treasury in the White House.Hunt was a White House Consultant who was a part of CREEP. This committee washeaded by Liddy. He was the one who helped organize all of the things that happenedduring Watergate. The break-in was used to gain information that the Republicans coulduse against the Democrats in a debate or to make the opponent look bad. After the

Police had captured the burglars, the FBI had started searching the complex for cluesand other information. This is not what the White House wanted. They were veryfrightened that the FBI might be on to them. So they sent the CIA to stop the FBI and tellthem that the CIA would cover the investigation instead of the FBI. They did thisbecause the government could control the CIA and stop investigating. The FBI refusedand they started asking questions. They put hundreds of agents on the case but in theend, they came out empty handed.Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were reporters for the

Washington Post

at thetime of the burglary. They started investigating on their own and they came up withsome very powerful information. Bob Woodward had a source that he called DeepThroat. He would tell Bob everything that he knew about Watergate. They startedputting pieces together about the scandal. To find more info, they went door to door topeople that worked in the White House or for CREEP to see if they knew anything aboutthe Scandal. They didn’t find a lot of info but enough to break open the case. Woodwardalways kept Deep Throats identity a secret from the public and even now, it remains oneof the unsolved mysteries of Watergate. After the scandal was finished and life wasreturning to normal, they went on to co-write books about their investigation. They wonthe Pulitzer Prize for the book All The Presidents Men, which was about the scandal.They also wrote The Final Days, which was about Watergate as well. The book All ThePresidents Men became such a hit that Hollywood made it a movie that won four Oscars at the 1977 Academy Awards. (“Woodward and Bernstein,” EncartaEncyclopedia CD-ROM)Many people were involved in the Watergate scandal. Most of these people wereeither working in the White House or they were working for somebody who worked inthe White House. E. Howard Hunt was one of the first people to be prosecuted in thetrial, he was the consultant to Nixon and he was a big part of the cover-up plan. He wasfound guilty in 1973 and was sentenced to a two and a half year sentence but was puton parole thirty-two months into his sentence. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/keyplayers.html)G. Gordon Liddy was another player in the Watergate scandal. He was apart of the break-in and ended up serving four and a half years in prison. After that, he was