Things I Never Knew About Watergate

Posted by Tina

I needed a break from the sickening garbage that surrounds the election, so when I came across an article about Richard Nixon and Watergate in the Washington Examiner I perked up. This story is over forty years old. Today is the anniversary of Nixon’s resignation but, other than that, what could possibly make this story interesting today?

Remember the big flat over the “outing” of CIA “operative” Valerie Plame? Even though Plame had been “operating” at a desk at the CIA for several years and all of her neighbors knew where she worked, the media hyped story did provided cover for news that her husband was involved in the transfer of yellow cake Iraq. It provided another opportunity to target the Republican administration. The media was outraged. Democrats went into full prosecutorial mode. Ultimately, Scooter Libby paid the price. His crime? Inaccurately recalling the date he attended a dinner, a fact that had nothing to do with “outing” Valerie Plame. What has this to do with Watergate? The CIA is the connection but it’s Nixon’s integrity that makes the news both timely and interesting:

Six of the seven members of Nixon’s White House staff who carried out the burglary of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972 had many years of experience working for the CIA. Two members of this burglar team had held leadership positions with the CIA. Nixon was also in charge of Operation 40, a CIA counterintelligence group in 1960. As was shown in the Valarie Plame incident, it was Nixon’s duty as president to do all he could to keep the names and activities of these former CIA agents secret. … The FBI’s final report never mentioned the burglars’ connections to the CIA and the FBI’s final report never determined what the burglars were looking for at the DNC. The burglars were convicted of attempted burglary and attempted wiretapping. Most of the other Watergate conspirators were convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. Only one specific crime was mentioned in the FBI’s final report. One Watergate conspirator was convicted of two misdemeanors for distributing illegal political campaign literature. The FBI produced no proof that the burglary was committed for political purposes. … Nixon never stonewalled. When he disagreed with a special prosecutor’s request, he legally went through the U.S. court system. In addition, President Obama has proven on many occasions that no order given by a president is inappropriate or illegal until the courts and finally the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the president’s order was inappropriate or illegal. When the Supreme Court ruled that Nixon had to turn over his private taped conversations on July 24, 1974, Nixon complied immediately. However, it should be pointed out that the Supreme Court’s order was unconstitutional. Under the United States Constitution, everything that a president says or does is considered to be legal until challenged in the courts. The Supreme Court cannot issue a search and seizure order based on an assumption that a president might have done something illegal. The FBI’s final report contained no evidence that Nixon knew about or took part in the Watergate burglary.

Nixon put the office of the Presidency above his title as president. He put the nation above his own personal reputation, agenda, ambitions, legacy, and ego. The moral integrity displayed in his decision to step down is rare in the political realm and yet, thanks to the opposition’s commitment to the politics of personal destruction, and the medias bias, Nixon is seen as a dark, evil figure in American politics.

The fourth estate was complicit in the effort to destroy Nixon, an effort that stained the Republican Party and skewed the political conversation for decades to come. Incredibly, this smearing of Nixon and the Republican Party has lent cover for decades of media bias and Democrat malfeasance and failure.

Thanks to retired teacher, Kenneth Berwick, and the Examiner, for bringing history into sharper focus.