Entering the 1972 election race, Richard Nixon's team was counting on an inevitable victory. During his first presidential term, he managed to win the trust of the Americans. Nixon's call to end the Vietnam War met with a fiery response. In addition, he entered into negotiations with Moscow to limit missile defense systems. Voters accepted this initiative kindly: the tense atmosphere of the Cold War tired everyone out. Nixon also began the process of settling relations with communist China.

With Mao Zedong, February 1972. (wikipedia.org)

In the November 1972 elections, Richard Nixon was re-elected to a second term. George McGovern, his Democratic opponent, managed to win only one state and one federal district (Massachusetts and Columbia). However, the triumph of the newly elected president was overshadowed by a political scandal that erupted five months earlier. The Democrat headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. was infiltrated by unknown people. They were detained by the police. Uninvited guests thoroughly prepared for their visit: the police found two microphones and a whole set of various master keys. In addition, young people had a large amount of money with them. Later, experts studied the bills and came to the conclusion: this is money from the Nixon election fund.

Democrat headquarters in Watergate. (wikipedia.org)

The men were detained at the most inopportune moment - they were just setting up microphones and photographing documents belonging to the Democrats. The unlucky agents said they were doing robbery, but the police were not impressed by this story. One of those arrested was James McChord, a member of Nixon's election committee. The FBI became interested in the case, and an investigation began. And here we get to know the new actors who contributed a lot to the further resignation of Nixon. We are talking about the employees of The Washington Post newspaper Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. They began to cover the complicated case with true journalistic zeal and from the very beginning claimed that the White House was involved in the scandal. Woodward and Bernstein's investigation is like a real detective. The reporters made no secret of the fact that they were collaborating with a high-ranking informant. The latter kept his name secret, and only in 2005 did it become clear that FBI deputy director Mark Felt had “leaked” information to journalists. Newspapermen, big jokers, gave him the pseudonym "Deep Throat." Thousands of Americans followed the publications of Woodward and Bernstein, and new details of the case were also covered on television.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. (wikipedia.org)

The President denied any involvement in the Watergate scandal. Even after the court recognized Howard Hunt, an intelligence officer, White House consultant, as the technical organizer of the wiretapping at the hotel, and Nixon's confidant Gordon Liddy as the head of the operation. By the way, a recording of Nixon's conversation with the head of the presidential administration, Harry Haldeman, was later found, which took place a few days after the Watergate incident. “Hunt knows too much. Everything can end in a fiasco,” says Nixon.

The investigation managed to get this and other records thanks to the "bugs" that the head of the United States installed in the White House. On one of the tapes, the President speaks of the need to end the investigation in the interests of national security. As Mark Felt later admitted, it was this outrageous position that inspired him to pass the classified information to The Washington Post journalists.

Despite demands from the prosecutor's office, Nixon steadfastly refused to release the tapes (until July 1974) and continued to deny any involvement in the Watergate scandal. All this caused irreparable damage to his reputation. In addition, he did not want to communicate with the press - a fatal, unacceptable mistake in the conditions of general distrust.

The Americans are demanding the president's resignation. (wikipedia.org)

It must be admitted that his relationship with journalists did not work out at the dawn of his career - the politician clearly underestimated the capabilities of the media. What are some television debates in 1960, when he lost to John F. Kennedy. The chances of winning were almost equal, but Nixon seemed to have forgotten about the huge influence of television on the average American and failed miserably. Unlike Kennedy, who diligently built his image, Nixon refused to make up, which made him look sick. I chose a suit that blended into the background. Completely unprepared for the camera. His eyes darted from one camera to another, which gave the viewers the feeling that the politician was hiding something. Nixon refused to participate in the last round, in fact, admitting his defeat in advance. The debate, which was watched by more than 60 million Americans, clearly influenced the balance of power in the election race. Nixon lost, although he had been the favorite up to that point.

By the beginning of the Watergate case, the president did not seem to have mastered the intricacies of dealing with the press. He responded to the attacks of journalists with silence. Meanwhile, Nixon's domestic policy adviser John Ehrlichman and chief of staff Bob Haldeman resigned over their involvement in the wiretapping scandal. In 1974, the court sentenced them to imprisonment. In total, more than 20 people were found guilty - all of them were somehow connected with the presidential administration.

The situation was complicated by the fact that for Nixon this was not the first major scandal. We are talking about the secret "Pentagon Papers", which were published in 1971 by The New York Times. The history of the Vietnam War, set out in these documents, did not characterize the American government from the best side. Washington made an attempt to hush up the unpleasant story, but to no avail. The US Supreme Court later ruled that newspapers had the right to publish these papers.

The second process, which thundered all over America thanks to the efforts of journalists, left Nixon no chance. In February 1974, a resolution was adopted to start the impeachment proceedings. On August 9, the president resigned. Gerald Ford, who took office, pardoned Richard Nixon for all crimes.

Video message August 8, 1974: Richard Nixon announces his resignation

Most of the audio recordings made on behalf of Nixon at the White House have been released to the public. At the moment, about 3300 hours of presidential talks have been published, another 700 remain classified for reasons of national security.

After his resignation, Richard Nixon took up writing memoirs and works on geopolitics.

The only case in the history of the United States when the president has prematurely terminated his duties during his lifetime.

Encyclopedic YouTube

1 / 2

✪ Moments of the 20th century 1972 Watergate

✪ Watergate.

Subtitles

The Watergate Incident

In August, Nixon refused to provide prosecutors with comments about the government's audio monitoring system and the tapes recorded in the Oval Office documenting Nixon's conversations with aides (the existence of these tapes became known to the court from the testimony of some officials). The President also ordered Attorney General Richardson to fire the prosecutor. A. Cox who made such a request. This negatively affected his authority. Richardson refused to bow to Nixon and resigned along with his deputy in October. These resignations became known as " saturday massacre". In the meantime, a string of investigations affecting the Nixon administration reached his vice president, Spiro Agnew, who also resigned in October 1973 (over a non-Watergate financial case). On February 6, 1974, the US House of Representatives decided to start Nixon's impeachment proceedings, but even here Nixon persisted. He categorically refused to show the tapes he had to the investigation, referring to the privilege of the executive power. However, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in July 1974 that the president had no such privileges and ordered him to immediately hand over the tape to prosecutors.

The final

A number of Nixon's closest associates were, however, put on trial. Holdman, his chief of staff and the president's interlocutor on the controversial tape, was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice on January 1, 1975, and served a year and a half in prison.

Influence

The role of the media

The role of the media in the emergence and development of the scandal can be considered predetermining. American researcher Samuel Huntington, in a report compiled for the Trilateral Commission created in the 70s, wrote: “In the two most dramatic internal political conflicts of the Nixon administration period - the conflicts caused by the publication of the Pentagon documents and Watergate - the country's media outlets challenged and defeated head of the executive branch. The press has actually played a leading role in what so far no single institution, grouping, or combination of institutions in American history has succeeded in removing from office a president who was elected less than two years ago, winning the support of a majority that has become one of the most significant in American History".

Common noun

The word "Watergate" entered the political vocabulary of many languages ​​of the world in the sense of a scandal leading to the collapse of the career of the head of state. The second root in the name of the hotel - "gate" (eng. gate) - has become a suffix used to name new scandals, cf. Irangate under Reagan, Monicagate or zippergate (from the English zipper - zipper) under Clinton, Kuchmagate (see Case Gongadze), Modjigate, Kazakhgate, failed in Kazakhstan Rahatgate, Dieselgate - a scam of the Volkswagen concern, Gulyargate in Azerbaijan ( deputy a woman from the ruling party).

In art

Two years after Nixon's resignation (in 1976), director Alan J. Pakula made All the President's Men starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford (Hoffman played Carl Bernstein and Redford played Bob Woodward). The script was written by both journalists investigating Watergate. The film won four Oscars: Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Set and Best Sound.

In 1999, the comedy film The President's Girlfriends was released. The plot is based on the assumption that the main informant in the case is 2 schoolgirls who gave a tape of Nixon's conversations to two reporters.

Watergate scandal as a poltergeist

Richard Nixon

The fact that walls have ears and that privacy is a myth in the modern world has long been known. Americans, on the other hand, consider their state the most democratic in the world, forgetting that the most high-profile political scandals occurred in the United States, and the Watergate scandal has become a household name and has not subsided to this day: after 30 years, more and more details of the case are being discovered. , which put a fat cross on the most sacred - "American democracy" ... So, quite recently it became known who was the very "drum" who initiated the Watergate scandal.

In 2005, the United States stirred up another scandal. It became known that President Bush actually allowed the secret services to secretly listen to telephone conversations and read emails of ordinary Americans with impunity, arguing this with the fight against terrorism. "If you're getting a call from al-Qaeda, we want to know why," Bush Jr. said, and got away with it. Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, was much less fortunate. Under the threat of impeachment, he was forced to resign. The betrayal of American confidence caused the collapse of his political career. Perhaps Nixon would go down in history as one of the most prominent presidents, but, carried away by foreign policy, he forgot about domestic. The owner of the White House believed that it was possible to suppress the opposition by strengthening control over the media and total wiretapping. At the last Nixon, in fact, got burned.

And this is the backstory of this case. On the night of June 17, 1972, five burglars wearing business suits and rubber surgical gloves were arrested at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, which was located in the Watergate Hotel in Washington. They broke into the office and were preparing to install listening devices in the room. The "unknown" also found a set of master keys and "crowbars" and $ 5,300 in cash in 100-dollar bills with consecutive numbers. Later it turned out that they were equipped with cameras and the latest electronic surveillance devices and were rummaging through folders with party documents. That is, they did not hunt, as they say, for good, but for information. And that means they were not thieves, but spies ... This espionage with burglary laid the foundation for the Watergate scandal.

At first, the case was presented as an ordinary scandal, which was soon forgotten. But in 1973, Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward published a sensational report about the theft at the Watergate. They paid particular attention to the possible content of the Oval Office recordings. (Incidentally, their brilliant investigation of the unfolding scandal helped win the paper the Pulitzer Prize for Special Achievement.)

But even as the FBI, the Justice Department, Congress, and reporters began to pay increasing attention to the story, Nixon won the election. However, the members of his headquarters, trying to completely hush up the matter, overdid it. The Washington Post, close to the Democrats, again fanned the scandal, the echoes of which are still heard. Newspaper reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein conducted their own investigation, as a result of which 40 high-ranking government officials lost their posts, and some of their freedom. However, at that time it was not possible to establish a direct connection between the burglars and the head of state. It emerged that the burglars were connected to the Central Intelligence Agency. Four of them - two Cubans and two Americans - flew to Washington from Miami. These were recruited, well-paid people who hated Fidel Castro and Castro's Cuba. One of the Americans and one of the Cubans used to serve in the CIA and were associated with Howard Hunt, a former CIA agent and then White House consultant.

The fifth member of the Watergate hack - and the main one - was James McChord, also a retired CIA officer; he served as chief of security for the Committee for the Re-election of the President (PPC).

The motivation for the actions of those arrested was consistent with their biographies: they spied at the headquarters of the Democrats, who share political power in the United States with the Republicans, but anti-communism became their main line of defense - they say they suspected that the then Democratic presidential candidate, Senator George McGovern, was too tolerant refers to communism.

Nixon got nervous and immediately declared publicly that he had nothing to do with the events at Watergate. And then tapes were taken into the light of day (by the way, recorded by the president himself), which testified that he had lied. Nixon once installed a tape recorder in the Oval Office, and the archive located in the basement kept records of all the negotiations held there since the spring of 1971. This served as proof of his guilt and became a stone that pulled him to the bottom. It was immediately recalled that on May 9, 1969, just a few months after Richard Nixon was sworn in for his first term as president, the New York Times reported that the United States was bombing North Vietnamese bases in Laos and Cambodia. Phones of possible informants were ordered to be tapped.

When Nixon became the owner of the White House, one of the most important tasks for him was the organization of his own secret service, which could control potential political opponents without being limited by the law. The President began by wiretapping his opponents (in 1967, unauthorized wiretapping was prohibited). In July 1970, he went further: he approved a plan by the secret services to conduct unauthorized searches and screen the correspondence of Democratic congressmen. Nixon was never shy about using the old divide and conquer method. To disperse anti-war demonstrations, he used mafia fighters. Militants are not policemen: no one will accuse the government of violating human rights and the laws of a democratic society.

The president more than compensated for his lack of wisdom with a wide arsenal of means: he did not shy away from bribery and blackmail. Before the next round of elections, Nixon decided to enlist the support of officials. And in order to ensure their loyalty, he requested information about the payment of taxes by the most unreliable. When his team tried to argue that the tax department does not issue such certificates, Nixon made it clear that he was only interested in the result. "Damn it! Sneak in there at night!" - he said. Agree, a somewhat cynical statement for a representative of power and legitimacy in America ... But if you look at the facts impartially, you should admit that in big politics rule violations happen all the time, so Nixon was no exception.

On June 13, 1971, the same New York Times began publishing excerpts from a secret Pentagon report on the country's difficulties in Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg himself, a former Department of Defense analyst, gave reporters a 7,000-page report. It was then that the already mentioned Howard Hunt advised Nixon and his political strategist Charles W. Colson. They decided that henceforth the administration's confidential analytical materials should not be made public. Together with White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and Chief Assistant to the President for Internal Affairs John D. Ehrlichman, they formed a secret group code-named "Plumbers" to "fix leaks."

The created secret service was engaged not only in espionage. During the investigation, it turned out that its employees were considering options for eliminating people objectionable to the president, as well as operations to disrupt the rallies of the Democrats. Of course, during the campaign, Nixon, who was determined to win re-election to a second term, used the services of "plumbers" much more often than before. This excessive activity led first to the failure of one of the operations, and then to the scandal.

Hunt joined the venture with former provincial prosecutor J. Gordon Liddy (formerly of the FBI), but they failed on their first mission: a raid on the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. All together began to disown this case. Even when it turned out that one of the burglars was James McChord, Nixon maintained that "the White House had nothing to do with it." However, Lawrence F. O'Brien, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called the raid "a flagrant act of political espionage" and sued the CPT for a million dollars.

The Watergate Seven - Howard Hunt, Gordon Liddy and five burglars - were the first to enter the dock. For the time being, they took the fire upon themselves, trying to cut off the threads of the investigation and cover up the larger figures. They were secretly paid for their silence from generous Republican campaign funds. Then, in the wake of the theft, came the second and longest stage of the "watergate" - an attempt to hide the truth and evade justice. At their trial in September 1972, all seven pleaded guilty but declined to say if anyone else was involved in the case.

Erlichman, Haldeman, Mitchell, and young lawyer John Dean tried to buy the silence of Hunt, Liddy, and the five immediate burglars. Everyone was promised a presidential pardon, but McChord—under heavy pressure from District Judge John Sirica—confessed in March 1973 that Dean and Jeb Magruder, the former deputy director of CPR, knew of the impending break-in. Erlichman tried to destroy the evidence - the tapes on which Nixon spoke about the break-in, which the prosecutor requested. Dean testified in court that Haldeman ordered an aide to "remove and destroy incriminating material" from the White House archives. After that, Nixon fired Dean, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman.

As it turned out, Acting Director of the FBI Patrick Gray personally destroyed some of the documents fabricated by the defendant Hunt, and after being exposed on April 27, 1973, he was forced to resign. John Dean, legal adviser to the President of the United States, was involved in the trial. President Nixon entrusted him with the investigation of the Watergate case, but he was engaged, as it later turned out, not in revealing, but in concealing the truth. Finally, on April 30, the biggest "bomb" exploded. Under pressure from the press and the public, including Republican senators, two of Nixon's top aides, Bob Haldeman and John Erlichman, resigned. On the same day, Nixon fired John Dean, and Attorney General Richard Clyndist left his post. He was replaced by Elliot Richardson, who left the post of Secretary of Defense.

On the evening of the same day, Richard Nixon delivered a special television address to the nation, in which, in particular, he also stated that he had given Elliot Richardson "absolute authority" to investigate the case. The president's speech provoked mixed reactions. The Senate passed a resolution calling on the president to appoint a special, independent prosecutor to investigate all the circumstances of the scandal.

Watergate, meanwhile, continued to build momentum. Back in January 1973, in Washington, under the chairmanship of John Sirica, the trial of the Watergate burglars began, during which the true background of their actions and a secret connection with high-ranking Nixon advisers was revealed. The most prominent members of the Nixon administration came through the federal court in succession, either as witnesses or defendants. In May, a Senate Commission of Inquiry led by Sam Erwin began televised hearings in which Nixon aides confessed to a four-year campaign of espionage and sabotage against Democrats and liberal critics of the administration, funded in part by illegal sources.

Soon Nixon was forced to appoint a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, to investigate the case. Almost all of the president's advisers had to resign, and he himself was under suspicion. When Cox demanded tape recordings of Nixon's conversations relating to the scandal, the president fired him, but Leon Jaworski, who was appointed to his place, grabbed the White House with a real bulldog grip ...

Nixon was pressed to hand over the Watergate-related tapes, and he persisted, resisting attempts by Congressional commissions and the Special Counsel to obtain all the tapes from him, citing executive privilege and immunity from subpoena to testify. In the end, the President handed over several tapes with suspicious gaps, as well as a number of edited transcripts, rudeness of language and cynical attitude towards the law only increased public outrage. The surviving material was enough to demonstrate Nixon's utter disregard for the society that elected him president of the country. In July 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the courts' right to listen to recordings from the Oval Office. Even on partially worn films, there were a lot of interesting things. Thus, in a tape dated June 23, 1972, Nixon spoke with Ehrlichman about how to cover up traces of the Watergate break-in. L. Jaworski, appointed as the new prosecutor, nevertheless forced Nixon to recognize the authenticity of the tapes. As a result, the impeachment proceedings were launched.

At the same time, Nixon got into trouble in connection with the investigation of his financial affairs, in particular tax evasion, as well as in connection with the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, who was accused of bribery. As the investigation progressed, public outrage grew. By the end of February 1973, it was proven that the president had committed a number of serious violations regarding the payment of taxes. There was no doubt that a huge amount of public funds was used for personal purposes. This time, Nixon failed, as at the beginning of his career, to convince journalists of his complete innocence: it was no longer about a "gifted puppy", but about two luxurious mansions in the states of Florida and California.

The plumbers were arrested and charged with conspiracy. And since June 1974, Nixon himself has become not so much the owner of the White House as its prisoner. He stubbornly denied his guilt. And just as stubbornly refused to resign: "I do not intend under any circumstances to resign from the post to which I was elected by the American people." The American people, on the other hand, were very far from supporting their president, and the Senate and House of Representatives were determined to remove Nixon from power. The conclusion of the legislative committee of the House of Representatives was: Richard Nixon behaved inappropriately for the president, undermined the foundations of the US constitutional order and should be removed from office and stand trial. The scandal affected not only the president and his closest aides. Tape recordings and testimonies of witnesses helped to establish that many prominent political figures took bribes and used their official positions for personal gain. The greatest shock among the Americans was caused not even by the fact that the "unworthy" were able to break into the highest echelons, but by the scale and scope of corruption. What until recently was considered an unfortunate exception turned out to be the rule.

On July 30, 1974, members of the House Committee after public hearings voted to initiate impeachment on three counts: obstruction of the court, abuse of presidential powers and an attempt to obstruct the impeachment process itself, violations in the payment of taxes, the use of a huge amount of public money to equip mansions in the states of Florida and California .

Nixon knew that the balance of power had changed and was no longer in his favor, so he agreed in advance with his vice president Gerald Ford that he would resign only if the charges against all the defendants in the case were dropped. Ford agreed only to let one Nixon go, and he had to put up with it. In the face of imminent impeachment and further prosecution, Nixon resigned as president on August 9, 1974. I must say that, despite the unprecedented decline in prestige, the beginning of the impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives of Congress, Richard Nixon held out to the last. So, in accordance with the agreement on annual meetings from June 27 to July 3, 1974, he paid a visit to the USSR, communicating with L. I. Brezhnev as if nothing had happened. True, the press dubbed this visit an attempt to seek political asylum.

The indictment, which was followed by the jailing of many of his "accomplices," including Mitchell, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman, lists Nixon as "an unindicted collaborator in the conspiracy." The next president, Ford, while already in office, declared an amnesty for "all crimes" against the United States that Nixon might have committed during his tenure as head of the White House. The Watergate scandal was hushed up, but, as it turned out, only for a while.

On August 27, 2000, The New York Times reported that former U.S. President Nixon used psychotropic drugs and that evidence for this sensational allegation is provided in Anthony Summers' newly published book The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon. The author reported that Nixon used dylantin, a drug used by psychiatrists to treat depression, irritability, feelings of fear or panic. This drug, according to the newspaper, the director of the pharmacological clinic at Cornell, Dr. Friedman, cites dangerous side effects that adversely affect the mental state. As it turned out, the secretary of defense in the Nixon administration, James Schlesinger, was also worried about the president's sanity. In an interview with the same New York Times, he confirmed that he ordered the military not to respond to Nixon's commands unless they were confirmed by him or the Secretary of State.

And on April 9, 2003, American journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who in 1972 published data on the illegal activities of the administration of US President Richard Nixon, sold the documents of their investigation for $3.2 million. They were acquired by the University of Austin (Texas). Compromising evidence consisted of 75 boxes - notebooks, individual papers, audio cassettes and other materials. The drafts contain the names of more than a hundred informants who helped reporters in the investigation (although none of these people are already alive), but the main “drum”, who went by the nickname Deep Throat (Wheeper), was never named. The press put forward different versions: from former FBI director Patrick Gray to the father of the current president, George W. Bush. Some researchers believed that this was not one person, but a collective image, but the journalists themselves claimed that Deep Throat was a real person.

Thirty years after the Senate Watergate hearings riveted the nation's attention and sealed Nixon's fate as president, his former aide Jeb Stuart Magruder, now a retired Presbyterian minister, said he had a new scandal information: allegedly Richard Nixon personally ordered the doors of the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex to be broken into. In a PBS documentary, he claimed to have heard Nixon's voice over the phone instructing then-U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell about the break-in. The position that Magruder then occupied made it possible for him to hear the conversation he was describing. At the same time, he interacted regularly with Gordon Liddy, who was planning the break-in. "I didn't hear every word," Magruder stated. According to him, Nixon said: “John, we need to get information about the head of the Democratic Party, Larry O'Brien. And the only way is Liddy's plan. You have to do it".

Perhaps it was this recording that was erased from the tapes that Nixon was forced to hand over to Congress. The only surprise is that this statement was made three decades later. It turns out that McGruder lied in court. McGruder told his version in an interview for the documentary “Watergate” 30 years later. The Shadow of History, which PBS made in collaboration with The Washington Post. Magruder stated that the reason for his silence is very simple: he hoped that Nixon would pardon him. In addition, the other three participants - the president himself, Mitchel and Haldeman - would most likely deny what was said. But now they are all dead and Magruder's career is over. However, not a single page of Haldemann's unpublished diaries, in which he is often extremely frank, does not confirm this version. Until now, it was believed that Nixon could have known about the plans to break into the headquarters of the Democrats. But the scam was associated mainly with the FBI, and personally with agent Gordon Liddy, who served five years in prison in this case for refusing to testify. The president himself, who chose the tactics of denial, was accused of obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of Congress. In any case, this is how the congressmen formulated the conclusion on impeachment. After the recognition of Magruder, the case appeared in a different form. John Dean, Nixon's personal lawyer and adviser, commented on this in an interview with CNN: "It's a pity that he said this only thirty years later, when all this is nothing more than history."

Only in June 2005 did the name of the initiator of the Watergate scandal become known. "The number two man in the FBI is a pretty good source," said Benjamin Bradley, who served as editor-in-chief of the Washington Post in the 1970s. Deep Throat's name is Mark Felt. In the last years of his life, Richard Nixon repeatedly mentioned him as a possible source of information in the Watergate case. The president of the Nixon Center, political scientist Dimitri Saime, who was close to the ex-president in the last years of his life, spoke about this. "In our conversations with Richard Nixon, Felt's name came up a number of times as a possible candidate for this role," Sime said. However, as he noted, Nixon never said that he "knows or is sure" one hundred percent that the FBI officer was involved in this leak.

John Dean, a former Nixon adviser, says Felt's confession raises more questions than it answers. For example, how Felt got access to the information he gave to the newspaper, and how the employee who was in charge of FBI operations at that time found time to meet with reporters in garages at night and leave secret messages.

Journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, as well as former editor-in-chief of this newspaper Benjamin Bradley, confirmed that one of the main sources of information was Mark Felt, who at that time served as deputy head of the FBI. “Mark Felt was our source, known as Deep Throat, and he provided us with invaluable assistance in working on hundreds of publications related to the Watergate scandal. Many other sources, officials and journalists have also helped us in this work,” said Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

In accordance with an agreement with Mark Felt, journalists did not reveal the identity of their main source for more than 30 years. His name was only to become known to the public after Deep Throat's death. However, Felt himself, now 91, said he served as a source of information for Washington Post correspondents for several years. He first revealed his secret to his family, and then gave an interview to Vanity Fair correspondent John O'Connor. "Mark wants public respect, wants to be treated like a good person," O'Connor said after talking to the California retiree.

Felt was persuaded to reveal the secret by his daughter Joan, who did not want all the fame (and all the money) to go to newspaper journalist Bob Woodward after her father's death. Taki appeared in a revealing article in Vanity Fair magazine.

Then, in 1972, the fact that the White House has a system of automatic tape recording of all conversations was reported to the Senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal by former White House employee Alexander Butterfield. In an interview with VOA, he said he was not surprised by the Vanity Fair report: “I have always said that Mark Felt is a leading figure in this case, because he was the second most important post in the FBI. And if you read what exactly Bob Woodward of the Washington Post learned from Deep Throat, then there are details that the average FBI officer could not know.

Universal Pictures and Public Affairs have agreed to pay almost a million dollars for the rights to a book and film about the life of FBI agent Mark Felt, who played a pivotal role in the Watergate scandal. There is no doubt that the interest in the history of Felt is enormous. Published in 1974 by journalists Woodward and Bernstein, All the President's Men jumped from No. 400 to No. 43 in the day after the top informant's name was revealed. Requests for the film of the same name in video distribution increased 12 times. Brad Pitt is producing the new Watergate film, tentatively titled Dirty Tricks, and directed by Ryan Murphy.

One of the biggest mysteries in US political life, the Watergate scandal that has troubled Washington for more than 30 years, can be considered solved. Along with the unpopular Vietnam War, as is commonly believed in the United States today, the Watergate scandal created a deep public distrust of secret government actions and "executive privileges."

From the book Scams with counterfeit money. From the history of counterfeiting banknotes the author Vermusch Günther

Scandal The next day after his arrival in Rotterdam, Colonel Jankovic appeared at the bank and handed the cashier a thousand-franc note with a request to exchange francs for guilders. The cashier took the money, glanced at the bill, apologized, saying that he had run out of

From the book Lawyer of the Subtle World the author Zammit Victor

Scandal in Karlsruhe For many residents and guests of Karlsruhe, the two-storey building at Stefanistrasse 28, built in the spirit of classicism, is an object worthy of respect. The activities of the 50 employees who worked in this building were associated with ideas of exceptional accuracy,

From the book Literaturnaya Gazeta 6256 (No. 52 2010) author Literary Newspaper

24. Poltergeist Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open. Lord Thomas Dewar The word "poltergeist" is German, literally meaning "noisy spirit". Research in this area conducted in the USA, Brazil, England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada,

From the book How I was a "South Korean spy" author Moiseev Valentin Ivanovich

Scandal or philosophy? Bibliomaniac. Book dozen Scandal or philosophy? Andrey Astvatsaturov. Henry Miller and his "Paris Trilogy". - M.: New Literary Review, 2010. - 334 p. The first scientific monograph in the history of Russian philology dedicated to the cult

From the book Time Ch. the author Kalitin Andrey

Who and how reacted to the “spy scandal” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the offensive of the FSBFSB from the very beginning launched a wide campaign in the press to provide propaganda for its action to expel Cho Song Woo from the country and arrest me. The aim of this campaign seems to be

From the book of Makukh, abo Strokes to a political portrait of the “Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko” author Chobit Dmitry

Scandal with "Bezek" At the end of March 2001, the department for international investigations of the Israeli police detained and brought to the police department, as it is still called by the newspapers, "a well-known Israeli businessman of Russian origin, Mikhail Chernoy", as well as

From the book No One Knows Our Names author Davydov Yury Vladimirovich

4. Scandal due to Chergov's enormity, a cynical attack on the President of Ukraine, boorish and imaginative D. Zhvaniy revisited a banal metaphor - making David Vazhayovych a victim of political repressions in Ukraine. Same day General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine

From the book Cooperative "Lake" and other projects of Vladimir Putin author Pribylovsky Vladimir Valerianovich

1. A scandal in a noble family A certain “unidentified person” - there is such an intriguing note on archival documents - wrote down from the words of Adjutant General Ryleev: “The sovereign said that the mother of the future Yuryevskaya came out to him at one of the stations of the southern roads and became

From the book Putin's Loop. Debriefing for 10 years author Kostin Alexander Lvovich

From the book 50 famous scandals author Sklyarenko Valentina Markovna

1.3. "Licensing scandal" Licensing, as one of the technical regulation procedures in general, and the issuance of licenses by state authorities for the right to export scarce products from the country, in particular, are a kind of catalyst for corruption,

From the book Age (March 2009) author Russian life magazine

Clinton + Monica =… Scandal? Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky United States President Bill Clinton flirted with a young intern for a while

From the book Newspaper Tomorrow 29 (1078 2014) author Tomorrow Newspaper

SCANDAL IN A NOBLE FAMILY All Kingdom for Love Wallis Simpson Edward VIII

From the book Life Lessons author Conan Doyle Arthur

Roman Polanski's Endless Scandal Few directors nowadays make films based on their own view of the world.

From the author's book

Scandal instead of drama It is important that the author is interesting to the world not only "clean". Everyone will love us clean. "Persona" is a priori worthy of attention, even being "dirty", disgraced. Moreover, for the authenticity of the “black” in the image of the creator, there must be

From the author's book

Scandal girl Anastasia Belokurova July 17, 2014 2 Culture "Yes and Yes" (Russia, 2014, director - Valeria Gai Germanika, starring - Agnia Kuznetsova, Alexander Gorchilin, Alexander Vinogradov, Vladimir Dubossarsky, Oksana Zemlyanikova) A young teacher in dreadlocks named Sasha

From the author's book

Empire News Appeal Scandal May 5, 1929 Sir! Since you have always been an important ally of Oscar Slater and supported all my attempts to achieve justice for this man, I would like to inform you about some things concerning me personally.

The Watergate case is a political scandal that occurred in America in 1972, which led to the resignation of the then head of state, Richard Nixon. This is the first and so far the only case in the history of America when a president left his post ahead of schedule during his lifetime. The word "Watergate" is still considered a symbol of corruption, immorality, and criminality on the part of the authorities. Today we will find out what prerequisites the Watergate case had in the USA, how the scandal developed and what it led to.

Early political career of Richard Nixon

In 1945, the 33-year-old Republican Nixon won a seat in Congress. At that time, he was already famous for his anti-communist convictions, which the politician did not hesitate to express in public. Nixon's political career developed very rapidly, and already in 1950 he became the youngest senator in the history of the United States of America.

The young politician was predicted excellent prospects. In 1952, President Eisenhower nominated Nixon for vice president. However, this was not destined to take place.

First conflict

One of the leading New York newspapers accused Nixon of illegal use of campaign funds. In addition to serious accusations, there were also very funny ones. For example, according to journalists, Nixon used part of the money to buy a Cocker Spaniel puppy for his children. In response to the allegations, the politician made a speech on television. Naturally, he denied everything, arguing that he had never in his life committed illegal and immoral acts that could tarnish his honest political career. And the dog, according to the accused, was simply presented to his children. Finally, Nixon said that he was not going to leave politics and just did not give up. By the way, he will say a similar phrase after the Watergate scandal, but more on that later.

Double fiasco

In 1960, he ran for the presidency of America for the first time. His opponent was who in that race simply had no equal. Kennedy was very popular and respected in society, so he won by a huge margin. Eleven months after Kennedy was appointed to the presidency, Nixon nominated himself for the presidency but lost here too. After a double defeat, he thought about leaving politics, but the craving for power still took its toll.

Presidency

In 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, he was replaced. He did his job quite well. When the time for the next election approached, the situation in America deteriorated greatly - the Vietnam War, which dragged on too long, caused protests throughout the United States. Johnson made the decision that he would not run for a second term, which was very unexpected for the political and civil society. Nixon could not miss this chance and put forward his candidacy for the presidency. In 1968, ahead of his opponent by half a percentage point, he headed the White House.

Merits

Of course, Nixon is far from the great American rulers, but it cannot be said that he was the worst president in US history. He, along with his administration, was able to resolve the issue of America's withdrawal from the Vietnam confrontations and normalize relations with China.

In 1972, Nixon paid an official visit to Moscow. In the entire history of relations between the US and the USSR, such a meeting was the first. She brought a number of important agreements regarding bilateral relations and arms reduction.

But at one point, all of Nixon's merits to the United States literally depreciated. It only took a few days to do this. As you may have guessed, the reason for this is the Watergate affair.

Political wars

As you know, the confrontation between Democrats and Republicans in America is already a common thing. Representatives of the two camps, almost in turn, take control of the state, nominating their candidates for elections and providing them with massive support. Of course, each victory brings the greatest joy to the winning party and great disappointment to the opponents. To get the levers of power, candidates often go to a very sharp and unprincipled struggle. Propaganda, compromising evidence and other dirty methods come into play.

When this or that politician receives the reins of power, his life turns into a real duel. Each, even the slightest mistake, becomes a reason for competitors to go on the offensive. To protect himself from the influence of political opponents, the president has to take a huge number of measures. As the Watergate case showed, Nixon had no equal in this regard.

Secret service and other instruments of power

When the hero of our conversation, at the age of 50, came to the presidency, one of his primary tasks was the creation of a personal secret service. Its purpose was to control the opponents and potential opponents of the President. The limits of the law were neglected. It all started with the fact that Nixon began to listen to the telephone conversations of his competitors. In the summer of 1970, he went even further: he gave the go-ahead for secret services to conduct non-sectional searches of Democratic congressmen. The President did not disdain the "divide and rule" method.

To disperse anti-war demonstrations, he used the services of mafia militants. After all, they are not policemen, which means that no one will say that the government neglects human rights and the laws of a democratic society. Nixon did not shy away from blackmail and bribery. When the next round of elections was approaching, he decided to enlist the help of officials. And in order for the latter to treat him more loyally, he asked for certificates of payment of taxes by people with the lowest income level. It was impossible to provide such information, but the president insisted, demonstrating the triumph of his power.

In general, Nixon was a very cynical politician. But if you look at the political world, from the point of view of dry facts, it is extremely difficult to find honest people there. And if there are any, then they, most likely, just know how to cover their tracks. Our hero was not like that, and many knew about it.

"Plumber Division"

In 1971, when the next presidential election was only a year away, the New York Times published in one of its issues secret CIA data regarding military operations in Vietnam. Despite the fact that Nixon's name was not mentioned in this article, it called into question the competence of the ruler and his apparatus as a whole. Nixon took this piece as a personal challenge.

A little later, he organized the so-called plumbing unit - a secret service engaged in espionage and more. An investigation later revealed that the service's employees were developing plans to eliminate people who interfere with the president, as well as disrupting rallies held by the Democrats. Naturally, during the campaign, Nixon had to resort to the services of "plumbers" much more often than usual. The president was ready to do anything to be elected for a second term. As a result, the over-activity of the spy organization led to the scandal that went down in history as the Watergate case. Impeachment is far from the only result of the conflict, but more on that below.

How it happened

The headquarters of the US Democratic Party Committee was at that time in the Watergate Hotel. One June evening in 1972, five men entered the hotel, with suitcases of plumbers, wearing rubber gloves. That is why the spy organization was later called plumbers. That evening they acted strictly according to the scheme. However, by chance, the sinister deeds of the spies were not destined to take place. They were thwarted by a guard who suddenly decided to make an unscheduled round. Faced with unexpected guests, he followed instructions and called the police.

The evidence was more than irrefutable. The main one is the broken door to the Democrats' headquarters. Initially, everything looked like a simple robbery, but a thorough search revealed grounds for more weighty charges. Law enforcement officers found sophisticated sound recording equipment from the criminals. A serious investigation began.

At first, Nixon tried to hush up the scandal, but almost every day new facts were discovered that reveal his true face: "bugs" installed at the headquarters of the Democrats, recordings of conversations that took place in the White House and other information. Congress demanded that the president provide the investigation with all the tapes, but Nixon presented only a part of them. Naturally, this did not suit the investigators. In this case, not even the slightest compromise was allowed. As a result, all that Nixon managed to hide was 18 minutes of audio recording, which he erased. They could not restore it, but it doesn’t matter anymore, because the surviving materials were more than enough to demonstrate the president’s dismissive attitude towards the society of his native country.

Former presidential aide Alexander Butterfield claimed that conversations in the White House were recorded simply for history. As an irrefutable argument, he mentioned that even in the days of Franklin Roosevelt, legal recordings of presidential conversations were made. But even if he agrees with this argument, the fact of listening to political opponents remains, which cannot be justified. Moreover, in 1967, unauthorized listening was banned at the legislative level.

The Watergate case in the United States caused a great resonance. As the investigation progressed, public outrage grew rapidly. In late February 1973, law enforcement officers proved that Nixon had repeatedly committed serious violations regarding the payment of taxes. It was also discovered that the president used huge amounts of public funds to meet personal needs.

Watergate case: verdict

Early in his career, Nixon managed to convince the public of his innocence, but this time it was impossible. If then the president was accused of buying a puppy, now it was about two luxurious houses in California and Florida. The plumbers were accused of conspiracy and arrested. And the head of state every day more and more felt himself not the owner of the White House, but his hostage.

He stubbornly, but unsuccessfully, tried to dispel his guilt and put the Watergate case on the brakes. Briefly describe the then state of the president can be, the phrase "struggle for survival." With remarkable enthusiasm, the President refused his resignation. According to him, under no circumstances did he intend to leave the post to which he was appointed by the people. The American people, in turn, did not even think of supporting Nixon. Everything led to impeachment. Congressmen were determined to remove the president from high office.

After a full investigation, the Senate and the House of Representatives delivered their verdict. They acknowledged that Nixon behaved inappropriately for a president and undermined America's constitutional order. For this, he was removed from office and presented before the court. The Watergate case caused the president's resignation, but that's not all. Thanks to the audio recordings, investigators found that many political figures from the president's entourage regularly abused their positions, took bribes and openly threatened their opponents. Americans were most surprised not by the fact that the highest ranks went to unworthy people, but by the fact that corruption had reached such proportions. What until recently was an exception and could lead to irreversible consequences has become commonplace.

Resignation

On August 9, 1974, the main victim of the Watergate case, Richard Nixon, left for his homeland, leaving the presidency. Naturally, he did not admit his guilt. Later, recalling the scandal, he will say that, as president, he made a mistake and acted indecisively. What did he mean by this? What kind of decisive action was discussed? Perhaps, about providing the public with additional compromising evidence on officials and close associates. Would Nixon have made such a grandiose confession? Most likely, all these statements were a simple attempt to justify themselves.

The role in the development of the scandal was clearly decisive. According to an American researcher, during the Watergate scandal, it was the media that challenged the head of state and, as a result, inflicted an irreversible defeat on him. In fact, the press did what no other institution in American history had ever done before - stripped the president of his post, which he had obtained by enlisting the support of the majority. That is why the Watergate case and the press still symbolize the control of power and the triumph of the press.

The word "Watergate" is fixed in the political slang of many countries of the world. It refers to the scandal that led to the impeachment. And the word "gate" has become a suffix that is used in the name of new political and not only scandals. For example: Monicagate under Clinton, Irangate under Reagan, the scam of the Volkswagen car company, which was nicknamed Dieselgate, and so on.

The Watergate case in the USA (1974) has been depicted more than once in varying degrees in literature, cinema and even video games.

Conclusion

Today we found out that the Watergate case is a conflict that arose in America during the reign of Richard Nixon and led to the resignation of the latter. But as you can see, this definition describes events rather sparingly, even considering the fact that they, for the first time in US history, forced a president to leave his post. The Watergate case, the history of which is the subject of our conversation today, was a big upheaval in the minds of Americans and, on the one hand, proved the triumph of justice, and on the other, the level of corruption and cynicism of those in power.

On the night of June 17, 1972, a security guard at the Watergate hotel complex, where the headquarters of the Democratic Party was located, discovered traces of forced entry. The law enforcement officers who arrived at the call tracked down five burglars in the building, one of whom turned out to be a former CIA agent, and the rest were also connected with the special service. This marked the beginning of the Watergate scandal - the most powerful blow to the state apparatus in American history, which ended in the resignation of the president. It was the first and last case of its kind with an American leader. But how was it done? What was the "Watergate affair" really?

Nixon

Richard Nixon's path to the presidency was long and difficult. Nixon, a former naval officer, began his political career immediately after the war. Then the Cold War was just beginning and the search for communists under the bed was the main trend of American politics. It was on this that Nixon made his name by becoming a member of the Commission on Un-American Activities. Nixon, with his regular denunciations of secret communists, was remembered by voters and already in 1946 he won the election and became a senator.

In 1953, the former Allied commander in Europe, General Eisenhower, won the presidential election, and former officer Nixon, by then a prominent figure in the Senate, became vice president.

Therefore, when Eisenhower left office after two terms, it was Nixon who became the Republican candidate. But he wasn't very lucky. Just at this time, the explosion of television technology began, which made it possible to organize the first live televised debates of presidential candidates in American history. Nixon underestimated the magic power of the TV screen and tried to defeat his rival John F. Kennedy in the traditional way, by out-arguing him. But he miscalculated. The charismatic Kennedy, using his charm, looked in the frame much better than his rival, who was nervous, sweating, shuddering and gave the impression of an insecure person. Kennedy won a landslide victory in both the debate and the election.

The next chance presented itself to him in 1968. And this time, Nixon won. The elections were held in the atmosphere of thousands of anti-war protests and racial conflicts (shortly before the start of the campaign, Martin Luther King was shot dead). In addition, the most popular Democratic candidate, Robert Kennedy, was shot dead on the eve of the start of the presidential race, and they had to field the less popular Hubert Humphrey. Nixon went under the slogan of restoring order and won.

His first term was highly successful. The Americans took revenge for their defeat in the space race by landing on the moon. Nixon mended relations with a previously isolated China, and also began a policy of detente in relations with the USSR. Nevertheless, America continued to seethe. Hundreds of thousands of anti-war activists marched on Washington to demand an end to the senseless war in Vietnam. The new presidential campaign was won by the candidate who promised to end this war. Nixon understood this and prepared to take on anti-war slogans. Everything was confused by an unexpected event. On May 2, 1972, Edgar Hoover, one of the most influential and key figures in the American system, died.

Hoover

FBI chief Edgar Hoover was one of the backbone figures in American politics. Presidents and eras changed one after another, but Hoover was unchanged. He took over the FBI in 1924 and remained its director for almost half a century, until his death in 1972. During this time, the FBI has grown from a small agency with 600 employees to a giant corporation with tens of thousands of employees and almost absolute powers. Hoover survived the rampant crime and mafia structures during the years of Prohibition, several bursts of the popularity of communism, the hippie movement, anti-war demonstrations, the struggle of racial minorities for civil rights. Hoover turned the FBI into one of the most influential structures, and he himself became the patriarch of American politics and one of its key figures. No president, no matter how popular, strong and stubborn he was, dared to challenge the influence of Hoover and remove him.

Only Kennedy made a timid attempt to limit the influence of the powerful head of the FBI, but it all ended in the mysterious death of the president.

After the Second World War, the FBI had a very strong and influential competitor - the CIA, created on the basis of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) that operated during the war years. Formally, the field of activity of the CIA and the FBI was not supposed to intersect. In fact, this happened periodically. It is clear that Hoover's attitude towards the CIA was extremely cool, especially considering that after the war the expansion of the United States began and the CIA began to receive much more attention and budgetary funds than the FBI.

The confrontation between the FBI and the CIA has always existed, and it was she who contributed to the collapse of Nixon's career.

Nixon makes a big mistake

On May 2, 1972, a month and a half before the start of the Watergate scandal, the all-powerful Hoover dies. While he was alive, no leader would have been able to challenge his authority, which was facilitated by the extensive compromising evidence accumulated by the Hoover department on almost all American politicians. It was the CIA who always danced to the tune of the president, and Hoover's FBI was an independent player.

Of course, this situation suited few people, but while Hoover was alive, it was impossible to change it. The chance to change the alignment came after his death. And Nixon immediately tried to take advantage of this and take the FBI under his direct control. He made a mistake that cost him the presidency.

On May 3, Nixon announced the appointment of Patrick Gray as head of the FBI. He had nothing to do with the FBI and was Nixon's confidant. Shortly before Hoover's death, Nixon appointed Gray deputy attorney general, but urgently withdrew after the death of the FBI chief.

Of course, his appointment was extremely negatively perceived by the FBI. After all, the bureau has always kept aloof, for almost 50 years of the Hoover era, it has developed its own special corporate culture, its own spirit. And, of course, everyone expected that the FBI would be headed by someone from the previous Hoover team, for example, one of his deputies. But instead, they were sent a protege of Nixon from Washington. The bureau held a grudge.

Watergate

On the night of June 17, the watchman at the Watergate hotel complex noticed traces of a break-in and called the police. Among the unlucky burglars were a former CIA officer and members of the Nixon campaign headquarters, and they found two sound recording devices on them, after which the bureau joined the case, since such cases related to the equipment were within their competence.

Nevertheless, this scandal was not directly linked to the name of Nixon.

The Watergate scandal did not prevent Nixon from winning a resounding and crushing victory in the 1972 elections. The problems began a month after the victory. The FBI is very hard on the investigation of the break-in. Perhaps even very strong. So much so that Nixon's henchman at the head of the Gray bureau actually failed to hush up the matter. If Hoover were alive, the investigation would most likely have been stopped with his direct participation, but under the new conditions, the bureau was interested in promoting the case.

Nevertheless, the "Watergate case" did not at first arouse much interest. The FBI needed allies to take down Nixon. And journalists became these allies.

Deep Throat

Aspiring journalist for The Washington Post, Robert Woodward, and his slightly more experienced colleague, Carl Bernstein, periodically published materials that were relevant to the case. They were distinguished from all the rest by one thing: they had an excellent exclusive source who knew all the inner workings of this case and, in general, the relationship within the American system. Initially referred to in the entries as "My Friend", but at the urging of a newspaper editor, he was named "Deep Throat", after a recent and sensational porn film.

"Deep Throat" was extremely knowledgeable about the case, and at Nixon's urging, a search for the "traitor" in the bureau was undertaken, but ended in nothing. For more than 30 years, the identity of the mysterious informant was a mystery, until 92-year-old Mark Felt made a sensational confession in 2005. It was he who actually destroyed Nixon. Felt was the deputy director of the FBI at the time, but he had reason to dislike Nixon, since he was still deputy director of Hoover himself and could expect that the post of director of the bureau would go to him, and not to Nixon's henchman.

According to materials obtained from Felt, journalists described the schemes used by Nixon, how he collected compromising evidence on competitors, organized surveillance of them and compromised them in every possible way. The accusations sounded so convincing that when the trial of the burglars began in January 1973, it became clear that there was no way to get off with a simple trial. The formation of a Senate commission began, which conducted its own investigation of the facts published in the media.

Nixon is cornered

After several independent investigations began at once, the president was squeezed into a corner. The FBI leaks were so convincing that Nixon simply couldn't leave them without comment and cover up his team. Attempts to obstruct the investigation ended unsuccessfully, the old Hoover team actually sabotaged the orders of the new chief. Many of the names from his entourage were already heard in the investigations, and Nixon had no choice but to get rid of them.

This was the cause of Nixon's downfall. The comrades-in-arms dismissed by him considered themselves no longer bound by an oath of allegiance to their patron and did not want to go to prison for his sins, preferring to actively cooperate with the investigation. Former presidential adviser John Dean admitted in court that he discussed with Nixon a plan to obstruct the investigation, and did so repeatedly.

But the FBI had significant trump cards in addition to testimony. The bureau knew that Nixon was taping all conversations in the White House "for history." Later, it was even rumored that back in the days of Hoover, there was a good tradition of stealing these tapes and spinning them at parties at the FBI to laugh at some of the president's ridiculous expressions. Then the films came back. However, it was impossible to directly tell the investigation about the tapes, since this was an automatic admission that the FBI went far beyond the law in dealing with the president. Therefore, it was required that someone from the Nixon team testify about the existence of the tapes.

And this testimony was given in the summer of 1973 by a dismissed employee of the Butterfield apparatus. Immediately after that, both the Senate commission and the prosecutor's office demanded to provide the films for review. Nixon flatly refused, offered to provide a printed transcript, but this did not suit the prosecutors. Then the President demanded that Attorney General Richardson fire Attorney Cox. Richardson now refused, and together with Cox they resigned in protest.

In the meantime, the investigation revealed some murky financial affairs of Vice President Spiro Agnew, who had to resign. Nixon was left alone, without a team. He himself fired some of his associates in order to distance himself from them, others realized that Nixon was bogged down so thoroughly that it would not end well, and, in the interests of their career, they preferred to leave him.

Resignation

All meetings of the commissions were broadcast live, the press daily reported new sensational details. The behavior of Nixon himself, no one doubted that he was directly involved in all these cases. In the fall of 1973, Nixon delivers an acquittal speech, declaring his innocence, and gives away the treasured tapes. But it turned out that a piece of recording lasting 18 minutes was erased on the film. In addition, he did not pass all the tapes. It wasn't until the summer of 1974 that the Supreme Court ordered the president to release all available records, including the record for June 23, 1972, which was expected to be a real "bomb" because on that day he met with the head of the presidential administration, Haldeman.

After the release of the tape, Nixon's career was over. Even his most fanatical supporters no longer had any doubts that the president was doing his best to obstruct the investigation. No Republican in Congress ever thought of speaking out in defense of a president whose shady dealings had been made public. The first impeachment in American history was imminent. Without waiting for him, on August 9, 1974, Nixon resigned. He lost his post not so much for wiretapping competitors, but for repeated attempts to obstruct the investigation.

Nixon was soon pardoned by President Ford, who replaced him, but some of the former president's associates received short prison terms.

Journalists Woodward and Bernstein became absolute stars of the American press. The status and prestige of journalism in America has skyrocketed. But behind the scenes of a beautiful story about how two David journalists overthrew a Goliath president, there is much left. Arrogance and faith in Nixon's own invulnerability, the irresponsibility and mistakes of his entourage, who played spy games, the corporate spirit and special ethics of the Hoover FBI, which does not tolerate outsiders. The combination of these factors led to the fact that the triumphant Nixon, who won one of the most confident victories in history in the 1972 elections (520 electoral votes against 17 for his competitor), literally in a few months turned into the main outcast of American politics in the entire history of its existence.