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DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION This question is based on the accompanying documents (1???5). The question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Some of the documents have been edited for the purposes of the question. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document. Historical Context: During Richard Nixon’s term of U. S Presidency, he was part of a series of scandals called The Watergate Scandals.
The scandals began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington, D. C. on June 17, 1972. Investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and later by the Senate Watergate Committee, House Judiciary Committee and the press revealed that this burglary was one of many illegal activities authorized and carried out by Nixon’s staff.
They also revealed the immense scope of crimes and abuses, which included campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations. This secret fund was also used as hush money to buy silence of the seven men who were indicted for the June 17 break-in. Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A.
Your answers to the questions will help you write the Part B essay in which you will be asked to: ?Is Nixon a crook? ?How is the Watergate scandal one of the biggest of all time? DOCUMENT 1 1. What is the significance of these newspapers? 2. According to these two newspapers which statements were made by the President? DOCUMENT 2 1. In this document why is Nixon displayed like this ? DOCUMENT 3 1. What is the author of this political cartoon trying to state about President Nixon? DOCUMENT 4 The Committee to Re-elect the President, often abbreviated to CRP or CREEP (an acronym used derisively by critics of the Nixon administration), was a Nixon White House fundraising organization. This organization was found to have employed money laundering and slush funds, and was involved in the Watergate Scandal. ” “CRP funds, a sum of $500,000 U. S. dollars, were used to pay legal expenses for the five Watergate burglars after their indictment in September 1972. The link of the break-in back to the White House and the President’s campaign fundraising committee turned the burglary into an explosive political scandal.
The burglars, as well as G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt, and John Mitchell, went to prison over the break-in and their efforts to cover it up, along with other members of the Nixon Administration. One illegal action that CRP committed was breaking into the office of the psychiatrist of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg in an attempt to find material to discredit Ellsberg. The leak of the Pentagon Papers, military records about the Vietnam War, helped sway American sentiment towards opposing the war. ” 1.
What does CREEP stand for and what affilation does it have with the Watergate scandals? 2. Why do you think Nixon did what he did? DOCUMENT 5 In August, the previously unknown tape from June 23, 1972, was released. Recorded only a few days after the break-in, it documented Nixon and Haldeman formulating a plan to block investigations by having the CIA falsely claim to the FBI that national security was involved. The tape, which was referred to as a “smoking gun,” destroyed Nixon politically. With few exceptions, Nixon’s remaining supporters deserted him.
The ten congressmen who had voted against all three articles of impeachment in the committee announced that they would all support impeachment when the vote was taken in the full House. Impeachment by the House and subsequent removal from office by the Senate now appeared certain. Throughout this time, Nixon still denied any involvement in the ordeal. However, after being told by key Republican Senators that enough votes existed to convict and remove him, Nixon decided to resign. In a nationally televised address on the evening of August 8, 1974, he announced he would resign, effective at noon Eastern Time on Friday, August 9, 1974.
Shortly after his resignation took effect, a helicopter took him from the White House to Andrews Air Force base in Maryland. Nixon later wrote that he remembered thinking “As the helicopter moved on to Andrews, I found myself thinking not of the past, but of the future. What could I do now?… “. At Andrews base, he boarded Air Force One to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in California and then to his new home in San Clemente. 1. Why do you think Nixon denied to having any evolvement to the Watergate scandals even though the evidence was stacked against him?