Watergate: A Constitutional Crisis

· What two specific crimes did President Nixon commit?

· How did Nixon defy both the legislative and judicial branch during the Watergate investigation?

· What examples of the system of checks and balances can be found in the Watergate Case?

The Watergate saga began in early 1972 when President Richard Nixon’s Attorney General _________________________ authorized the formation of the group that became known as the “White House _______________________.” Heading this group were _________________________, a former FBI agent and currently an attorney working for the _______________________________________________(CREEP), and _____________________________, a former CIA agent. Hunt then recruited a team of Cuban exiles to carryout the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the _________________________. These burglars were financed with money from _____________________________________________. The break-in occurred on _________________________ and five burglars were caught and arrested by the police. It was soon learned that one of the burglars, _________________________, worked for the Committee for the Re-election of the President.

The day after the burglary, ____________________, issued a statement denying any White House connection with the burglars, and the president’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, called it a “_________________________.” Six days after the break-in, on June 23, 1972, chief presidential aide _________________________ told the president that ______________________________________________________. Nixon then ordered the FBI not to __________________________________. In order to maintain the silence of the men arrested in the burglary, the White House began to _________________________________. One of the men who had planned the break-in, _________________________, soon began to demand _________________________. When his wife died in a plane crash with _________________________________ _____________________, it raised additional questions about the possibility that there was an attempt to cover up the circumstances of the burglary. In January 1973, the seven men (the five burglars as well as Hunt and Liddy) were put on trial. All seven ________________________________________________, but days later one of the men, _________________________, told Judge _______________ that he had been pressured to plead guilty and that ____________________ at the White House were also involved. In the meantime, the Senate had formed a special committee chaired by ____________________ to investigate the Watergate case. In a March 21, 1973 meeting with the president, the President’s chief counsel (attorney) _______________________ was told by Nixon to _________________________________________________. Less than a month later _____________ began to talk to prosecutors and admit his role in the wrongdoing. On April 30, 1973, Nixon announced that four of his top aides had _______________________________. In May, Archibald Cox was named as a ________________________ to investigate the White House’s role in Watergate.

The nationally televised Senate hearings began in May. __________________ was the star witness as he told the committee that the president had ordered the FBI to ___________________________________ and _________________________ to gain the silence of the burglars. The president insisted that ____________ was ____________. On July 16 former presidential aide _________________________ revealed that conversations in the White House had been taped. Both the ___________________________ and the _________________________ demanded that Nixon release these tapes to them for their investigations. Nixon refused, but then _________________ asked Judge Sirica to order the president to turn over the tapes. When the judge did so, Nixon appealed to the ______________________________, but it also to ordered him to release the tapes. Nixon still refused and instead offered to _____________________________________________. When ______________ refused this offer, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to ______________________. Richardson and his chief deputy both refused and instead resigned, but eventually Solicitor General Robert Bork complied with Nixon’s request. This combination of the firing of _________________ and the resignations of Richardson and Ruckleshaus became known as the “_________________________.” The president did eventually agree to turn over some of the tapes to Judge Sirica, but refused to disclose all of them on the grounds that national security would be endangered. It was soon also discovered that a key tape __________________________________________________.

Throughout the winter and early spring of 1974, many former White House employees were __________________________________________________________. In January, a panel of experts told Judge Sirica that the famous ___________________________ could not have been an accident. The House Judiciary Committee and the new ___________________________, Leon Jaworski, again demanded that Nixon _________________________. Nixon once again refused but did agree to release _________________________________________. This did not placate the House Judiciary Committee, and on May 9, 1974 they formally began _________________________________________. In late May, Judge Sirica once again ordered the president to turn over all of the tapes. The president then appealed to the Supreme Court, which unanimously decided on July 24, in United States v. Nixon (1974), that __________________________________. Three days later, all 21 Democrats and 7 of the 17 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted to approve articles of impeachment against the president, charging him with obstruction of ________________, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. When the tapes were finally released on August 5, the famous “___________________________” tape clearly indicated that Nixon had told H.R. Haldeman on June 23, 1972 to “Play it tough,” and to order the FBI to “Stay the hell out of this [and not] go any further on it.” Told by Republican congressional leaders that he faced certain __________________ in the House and eventual ____________________ in the Senate, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. President Gerald Ford later created a major controversy by _____________________________.

A good book to read on Watergate is Theodore H. White, Breach of Faith (New York: Atheneum, 1975).

Jeffrey T. Stroebel, The Sycamore School, 1996. Revised 2002.