| [pending revision] | [pending revision] |
Content deleted Content added
Sub-topic titles needed capital letters |
rv good faith but misguided capitalisation of subheadings. See Wikipedia:Manual of style. Have left note on his/her talk page. |
||
Line 5:
The '''Watergate Scandal''' ([[1972]]–[[1974]]) (or just '''"Watergate"''') was an [[United States|American]] political [[scandal]] and [[constitutional crisis]] that led to the resignation of President [[Richard Nixon]].
==The
On [[June 17th]] [[1972]], [[Frank Wills]], a security guard working at the office complex of the [[Watergate Hotel]], [[Washington, D.C.]], noticed a piece of tape on the door between the basement stairwell and the parking garage. It was holding the door unlocked, so Wills removed it, assuming the cleaning crew had put it there. Later, he returned and discovered that the tape had been replaced. Wills then contacted the D.C. police.
Line 23:
On [[January 8]], [[1973]], the original burglars, along with Liddy and Hunt, went to trial. All except McCord and Liddy pleaded guilty, and all were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. The accused had been paid by CRP to plead guilty but say nothing, and their refusal to [[allocution|allocute]] to the crimes angered the trial judge [[John Sirica]] (known as "Maximum John" because of his harsh sentencing). Sirica handed down thirty-year sentences, but indicated he would reconsider if the group would be more cooperative. McCord complied, implicated CRP in the burglary and the payoff for the burglars' silence, and admitted to [[perjury]].
== The
[[Image:Nixon E2679c-09A.jpg|thumb|left|President Nixon giving televised address explaining release of edited transcripts of the tapes on [[April 29]], [[1974]].]]
Line 37:
This issue of access to the tapes went all the way to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]]. On [[July 24]], [[1974]], in ''[[United States v. Nixon]]'', the Court (which did not include the recused [[William Rehnquist|Justice Rehnquist]]) ruled unanimously that Nixon's claims of executive privilege over the tapes was void and they further ordered him to surrender them to Jaworski. On [[July 30]] he complied with the order and released the subpoenaed tapes.
==Articles of
[[Image:Richard Nixon letter of resignation 1974.png|thumb|left|Nixon's resignation letter, [[August 9]], [[1974]].]]
Line 69:
So much did the Watergate scandal affect the national and international consciousness that many scandals since then have been labelled with the suffix "[[List of scandals with "-gate" suffix|-gate]]"—such as [[Contragate]] or [[Whitewater scandal|Whitewatergate]], [[Travelgate]], [[Filegate]], and even [[PEMEXGATE]] and [[Toallagate]] in [[Mexico]]. In 2003 a scandal involving a group of Poland's key political figures and a Polish media magnate [[Lew Rywin]] was frequently referred to in Polish media as "Rywingate." The idea of scandals ending in "-gate" is itself lampooned in [[Tim Dorsey]]'s novel ''[[Orange Crush (novel)|Orange Crush]]'', where a fraudulent campaign manager is overjoyed to find that after years of trying to get a "-gate" scandal of his own, he has committed "Seniorgate" at a retirement home.
== See
{{commons|Category:Watergate}}
*[[List of scandals with "-gate" suffix]]
Line 75:
*[[Deep_Throat_(Watergate)|"Deep Throat" is Unmasked]]
== External
*[http://www.archives.gov/nixon/tapes/transcripts.html White House tape transcripts]
*[http://www.c-span.org/executive/presidential/nixon.asp The White House tapes themselves]
| |||