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The word Watergate refers to the hotel located in Washington, D. C. Key players in the Watergate Scandal included names such as John Mitchell, the first United States Attorney General to serve a prison sentence and W. Mark Felt also known as Deep Throat. “In 1972, there was a break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters In the Watergate Office Complex. This began a series of events that would shake the publics confidence In Its most visible symbol of American authority and prestige: the presidency’ (Task List, 2013).
In the midst of turmoil, deceit, scandal, and America’s outrage; bouncing back in a time of chaos was tumultuous. In the year of 1972; there was a break-in at the Democratic National Convention headquarters. This event became known as Watergate. Richard Onion’s administration attempted to cover-up its involvement in the scandal. W. Mark Felt, known In this investigation as Deep Throat was a secret source, Insider and Informant In the happenings of the Watergate scandal.
Felt was a FBI agent who had the sources and Internal means to help discover the internal spies, secret surveillance, and tricky cover ups… Hence the name given to Nixon; Tricky Dick. Speculated by Nixon as an informant, Felt was never discovered and went on to hold his secret identity for 30 plus years. The tape recorders that were in question In this scandal were installed and maintained by the U. S. Secret Service. Recordings of President Nixon and cohorts were caught discussing several different Issues unknown to the public. The senate hearings mesmerism’s the nation and they were covered by television gavel to gavel. By happenstance Ralph Thomas, owner and developer of the Spy and Private-Eye Museum, was setting in the audience of the hearing room the day Butterflies testified hat there was a secret tape recording system in the White House. At the time, Thomas was In his ass’s. The tapes were of course, subpoenaed and Nixon quickly refused to release them. The Nixon administration fought a legal battle on the US Supreme Court ruled that Nixon must release the tapes” (The Watergate Bug, 2009).
These secret tapes included conversations such as “Discussion of Bugs Tape” and “The Smoking Gun. ” One of the most baffling mysteries in the Watergate Scandal is the 18 h minute gap. Though no definite ruling was ever made as to what happened to this 18 h minutes of cracking and popping, many were lead to believe hat Rose Mary Woods, Onion’s loyal secretary erased the full 18 h minutes. Woods openly admitted first to deleting 4 h to 5 minutes; then came back to clear up that she may have erased 5 h to 6 minutes of the recording.
That gap in the recording still remains unknown; sources do not know what caused the sounds heard; and questions still buzz as to why Woods would have deleted any, if not all of the recording. When the scandal first emerged it was very contained and quiet kept. Nixon ran for a second term in office as President of the United States and won; by a landslide might I add. Soon after elections; on July 16 everything that had been kept quiet changed. Alexander Butterflies, a White House aide, before the Senate committee revealed that there was existence in the White House of a secret taping system.
In the end the tapes revealed that Nixon had recorded all of his telephone conversations, including those in which he ordered his subordinates to cover up the fact that they had hired burglars to break into the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. During the Watergate Hearings, the Commission investigating the break-in learned of these tapes and demanded that Nixon turn hem over to them. At first he refused, but eventually he gave them the tapes.