The Watergate Scandal

On June 16, 1972, a security guard at the Watergate Hotel in Washington , D.C. , discovered a piece of tape on the lock of the door that led to the National Democratic Headquarters. Nixon named the obscure Poppy to be UN ambassador in 1970 and then chairman of the national Republican Party in 1972. Even earlier, in 1968, Nixon actually put Bush Sr. on his list of vice presidential running mate prospects - this not long after Poppy was first elected to the House of Representatives. Similarly, Nixon's replacement, Gerald Ford, sent Poppy off as envoy to China and later made him CIA director, though by most accounts he was an odd choice for both of these sensitive jobs.

As soon as the attempted break-in at Watergate Hotel became know, president Richard Nixon ordered the entire affair covered up. It became clear that the Nixon presidency had been involved in serious manipulation and abuses of power for years. Millions of dollars coming from Nixon supporters were used to pay for the cover-up in an attempt to hide the truth from Congress and the American people. This foiled break-in attempt at the Watergate was part of a larger campaign by Nixon supporters to tarnish the reputation of Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party. Democratic candidates were harassed, subject to negative campaign ads, and on two separate occasions the National Democratic Headquarters were broken into. The investigation would ask two questions which would forever live in political infamy.The questions were, "What did the president know?" and "When did he know it?" The investigation into Watergate scandal revealed that Nixon knew about the break-in from the beginning and that he was involved in the cover-up as it progressed.

Nixon argued that the tapes contained only private conversations between the president and his advisors. The Supreme Court did not agree. The court ordered the president to release the tapes. As the Watergate scandal investigation began testimony revealed that there was a taping system which was installed to record conversations in the Oval Office, Camp David , the Cabinet rooms, and Nixon's hideaway office. But did you know that this type of office product dates back to the turn of the 20th century? And that it has ties to Nazism and also played a role in the Watergate scandal? Let us travel back in time and take a look at the interesting origins of the paper shredder. Nixon was implicated by a tape recording where he had apparently instructed some of his Republican fellows to bug the hotel rooms where the Democrats were staying. Eventually the tape recordings were destroyed by a Nixon associate, and so it was very hard to tell if Nixon was actually involved in the bugging. Nowadays, it seems he's gotten pretty desperate, being on and off pills, somehow threatening to rob the Football Hall of Fame for his old memorabilia and otherwise making hideous news stories out of his own peculiar antics.