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In the summer of 1972, in an attempt to save his policies and, he believed, America’s position in the Cold war as well, Nixon sent his own group of ex-CIA operatives, the Plumbers, to break into the Democratic Party’s national headquarters located at the Watergate office/apartment complex in Washington DC, to gather crucial information to help the Republican party in the upcoming elections. In the process of carrying out their operation the ‘plumbers’ were caught and arrested.Here are some other things to consider when trying to understand Nixon’s state of mind and motivations. First, with all the social transformation and upheaval the task of trying to govern a nation bitterly divided was an almost impossible one. Look at BOTH Nixon’s and Johnson’s presidencies and see the toll it took on them and the different ways they chose to respond to the challenge. Johnson thought he could reach out and convince those who disagreed with his Vietnam policies. He took the avalanche and intensity of criticism directed towards him very personally and ultimately it broke him. He wanted people to at least understand his position and how he was acting in good faith.It is sure when Nixon went to the White House to take over after Johnson gave up the fight for the presidency, he could sense the mood of the Johnson administration and very understandably thought and hoped he could succeed where Johnson had failed. Nixon, not surprisingly, took a different tack. He would not be broken because he would do the opposite of Johnson. He would FIGHT. Under Nixon the White House had a kind of siege mentality. They would not be friends with the press. They would not try to reach out to the opposition and seek conciliation. Nixon’s method of ruling or authority as President was secrecy, stealth, and control. Regarding the upcoming elections in 1972. There was more at stake for Nixon than just his reelection. Winning the presidency with a hostile Congress is no victory for a man who wants accomplish things as President. Nixon was very much worried that the anti-war movement was gaining momentum at the exact time that his policies in Vietnam were coming to a head and feared that if the anti-war Democrats increased their numbers in Congress in the 1972 election it would convince N. Vietnam that America had reached the end of its political will to continue fighting and would therefore grant nothing to Nixon at the peace table and his policies would fail. He had already secretly expanded the war into Cambodia and increased bo

mbing, all at a time when we were supposedly ending the war, and this was causing serious divisions within the country. Anti-war protests were growing in size and scope and many candidates in the Democratic party were calling on Congress to cut-off funding for the war–four protesters were killed by national guard troops at Kent State. n order to save his policies and he believed America’s position in the Cold war as well, Nixon sent his own group of operatives, the Plumbers, to break into the Democratic Party’s national headquarter to gather crucial information to help the Republican party in the upcoming elections. Presidents had gone to great lengths during the Cold War in order to maintain the Containment strategy, including all sorts of dirty tricks such as tampering with the elections of foreign nations. Every single ‘left-leaning’ social and political organization in the US was monitored by the FBI as a potential communist front organization. Convincing himself that the Democratic Party might be overrun by dangerous radicals was not such a leap of logic. If Nixon was paranoid, it cold well be argued that the Cold War was a well spring of paranoia for the whole nation. When the break-in investigation eventually made its way closer and closer to his office, Nixon went on national TV to try and defuse the issue being described by his own advisers as a ‘cancer on the presidency.’ At the key moment of the speech Nixon looked directly and candidly into the TV camera, right a the American people saying: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.” He commissioned a special prosecutor with sweeping powers to ‘get the bottom of this situation.’ But when the special prosecutor discovered that Nixon had a special taping apparatus installed in the Oval Office and subpoenaed the recording, Nixon refused to comply, citing executive privilege.Eventually, articles of impeachment were drawn up in Congress and Nixon announced his resignation. He left the office of the presidency in 1974. He is still the first and only US president to ever resign and his resignation was a significant blow to the power and prestige of the US government during the Cold War, but on the other hand it did send a more positive message that in the US no one is above the law, even Presidents. Unfortunately, in the years since Nixon, Presidents have actually become even more secretive and controlling so rather than Watergate creating a more open and free environment in Washington the lesson of Watergate has sadly led to less trust and a greater interest in control and subterfuge by those in power.