Major historic events are quite hard to evaluate as exactly positive or negative, mainly because there are extremely many people involved, some of them benefitting, some of them taking considerable losses. However, it goes without saying that some of the historic events are incredibly confusing and leaving an entire nation or even the whole world at a loss of words.
Such is the infamous President Nixon’s impeachment, sadly known as the Watergate scandal. Tracking the course of events that led to a turn in Nixon’s presidential career, one can rethink the event and possibly decide whether the Watergate scandal is as scandalous as it is believed to.
No matter how weird that can sound, one of the first steps towards Nixon’s impeachment was made by Nixon himself, and this step was the president’s foreign policy. Although Richard Nixon did manage to establish cooperation with China and the Soviet Union, the issues with the Latin America and the losses taken in the Vietnam War did have their impact on the United States economy, causing people’s discontent.
In addition, the home policy that Nixon used to address the above-mentioned issues was not welcomed with open arms – the Nixon shock was quite an unfortunate experience for the USA. To top it all, the oil embargo of OAPEC made the economical prospects even gloomier and became the straw that broke the camel’s back.
However, the economical and financial crises were only the settings for the final act of Nixon’s career as a president. The third step that brought Nixon’s retreat closer was the secret operation carried out in the White House and bearing the name of the White House Plumbers.
At first believed to be an attempt at burglary, the break-in into the White House turned out a cover-up for setting wire-tapping equipment in the premises, which raised a tremendous scandal and triggered further investigations. Since the people nicknamed as “plumbers” belonged to Nixon’s administration, the president was supposed to be considered the primary suspect – and he was.
However, it was not only the fate to blame for Nixon’s impeachment – the way the president reacted to the fact that the entire nation mistrusted him could hardly be seen as adequate. After his attempts to make Cox, the special prosecutor, to dismiss Attorney General Richardson and William Ruckelshaus, Richardson’s deputy, the notorious Saturday Night Massacre took place, which led to another surge of distrust towards the president.
At first it might seem that Nixon was to blame for what had happened. On a second thought, however, one must remember that there has never been the evidence that could prove completely Nixon’s involvement into the Watergate case. In addition, it is important to remember that the mass media played incredibly important role in the case, shaping the nation’s opinion about the Watergate scandal.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the Watergate scandal was quite a painful yet necessary step in the USA political and social development. A stage in the progress of the country, it provided a lesson to learn and a peculiar study on the world of politics and the way it works.
Despite the fact that the accusations that Nixon had to face seem quite legit, the evidence used as the main proof of the quote-unquote fraud is still quite questionable and the reasons that Nixon provided for his self-defense seem rather logical. Making people think of responsibility rather than the politics, this is one of those events that people never speak of and yet never forget.