The five men arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices at Watergate apartment and office complex in Washington, D.C., included Charles Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, and Howard Hunt Jr. Collectively, the group was known as “the White House plumbers,” given the name for their ability to plug White House information leaks. As history would record, however, their duties extended to spying and other odd jobs. The arrest was the result of a piece of tape left over a door lock that had tipped off security.

The DNC office break-in targeted the Democratic Party leader Larry O'Brien, who had connections dating back to the 1960 election that Nixon had lost to Kennedy. The two Washington Post journalists assigned to cover this story — dubbed a “third-rate burglary” by the White House — were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. As they gathered clues, the two pieced together a trail of money and cover-ups that led back to the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP) and to the Oval Office. U.S. District Court Judge John Sirica remained persistent in his questioning, which also helped crack the case. During the 1973 trial, they learned that this group had attempted to steal documents and placed wiretaps on telephones.

For nearly thirty-three years, the identity of the main source for Woodward and Bernstein was kept secret and known only as “Deep Throat.” William Mark Felt Sr., a retired agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, who retired in 1973 as the Bureau's number two official, revealed himself on May 31, 2005, to be the Watergate scandal whistleblower called “Deep Throat.”

A Senate committee on the Watergate scandal convened, as did an investigation by special prosecutor Archibald Cox. This investigation truly shed light on the espionage conducted against Nixon's political rivals. With each revelation, it seemed as if one more official in the Nixon administration was forced out or resigned. The president's own counsel, John Dean, testified that there was a cancer on the presidency. Dean confessed to everything, and one by one, Nixon's inner circle was implicated in the Watergate scandal.

When it was disclosed that the president routinely taped Oval Office conversations, investigators had the tool they needed to chip away at the deception and reveal the truth. Yet President Nixon, claiming executive privilege, refused to hand over the tapes. He viewed them as his personal property. When he did finally surrender them, they were extensively edited versions, one with an eighteen and a half minute gap. In the end, Nixon only bought himself some time as pressure mounted to release the tapes in unaltered form.

The Fall of a President

In October 1973, the House Judiciary Committee began considering impeachment proceedings against Nixon, who was stalling with subpoenaed material. The appointment of yet another special investigator, this time Leon Jaworski, did little to quell the outcry. On July 24, 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an appeal, United States v. Nixon, that the president could not use his claim of executive privilege in refusing to hand over tapes. Not even the president was above the law. The House voted to introduce three impeachment articles that same month with the charges of obstructing justice, abusing presidential power, and refusing to obey subpoenas by the House of Representatives.

On August 5, bowing to pressure, Nixon released tapes that clearly showed his involvement in the Watergate cover-up as early as June 1972. The tape that did the most damage, recorded on June 23, became known as “the smoking gun,” for the president could be heard discussing payoffs and other illegal actions.

What little support remained to President Nixon quickly eroded. House impeachment and Senate conviction seemed certain. After a visit from Republican leader Barry Goldwater and others, Nixon announced that he would resign from office. On August 9, 1974, he flew away from the White House in a helicopter, and shortly thereafter, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as president, inheriting a nation in shock and dismay at the problems in their government. He was the first vice president and the first president to ascend to both positions without being elected to those offices.

Aftermath of Watergate

Richard Nixon never did admit guilt over the Watergate affair, and historians believe that if it were not for the man's suspicion, smear campaigns, and illicit activities, his presidency would have been remembered for its foreign policy strides rather than for scandal. Almost everyone agreed that the surreptitious behavior was unwarranted, as Nixon would have won election without the covert activities that tried to guarantee victory.

In September 1974, President Ford issued a pardon to Nixon for all federal crimes he may have committed during his administration. It was an unpopular decision and may have cost Ford re-election in 1976. Yet it spared the nation a great deal of lingering turmoil.

In the wake of Watergate, citizens remained distrustful, and government officials and politicians had to earn back that trust. Reflecting national skepticism, journalists began digging into candidates' past behaviors, and journalism schools were inundated with students who aspired to be like Woodward and Bernstein. Almost everyone associated with Watergate went on to pen memoirs or accounts of the political saga, including John Dean with his book Blind Ambition. In his retirement, former president Richard Nixon wrote books on political affairs, including No More Vietnams (1985), In the Arena (1990), and Beyond Peace (1994). Nixon traveled and gradually regained some respect for his foreign policy expertise. He died of a stroke in 1994 and was buried next to his wife Pat on the grounds of his presidential library.