R e s p o n s e
G r o u p
A Cartoon History of the
Watergate Scandal
Overview
This Response Group activity introduces students to the Watergate scandal and
its effect on American politics. Groups analyze written information and political
cartoons to learn about five stages of the Watergate scandal—the Watergate
break-in, the start of the investigation, congressional hearings, the Watergate
tapes, and Nixon’s resignation. Afterward, a class discussion allows students to
assess the effect of the Watergate scandal on American politics.
A C T I V I T Y
23
Materials
• Transparencies
23A –23H
• Student Handout 23A
Procedures at a Glance
• Divide students into heterogeneous groups of three. Use the diagram at right
to direct students to move into their correct places.
• Tell students they will analyze political cartoons to learn about the Watergate
scandal and its effect on American politics.
• Project Transparencies 23A and 23B and use the information in the Teacher’s
Guide to introduce students to President Richard Nixon and the Watergate
scandal.
• Next, pass out Student Handout 23A. Have students read the information on
Stage 1 of the Watergate scandal and examine the incomplete political cartoon. Allow groups time to discuss Critical Thinking Question A.
• Appoint a Presenter in each group to share the group’s answers.
• Project Transparency 23C and have students quickly sketch the missing
portion of the cartoon on Student Handout 23A. Use the Teacher’s Guide to
reveal more information about the cartoon and the Watergate scandal.
• Repeat this process for the remaining stages. Rotate the role of Presenter for
each stage.
• Afterward, project Transparency 23H and discuss the conclusion of the
Watergate scandal and the Nixon presidency.
• Then hold a class discussion on the effect of the Watergate scandal on
American politics.
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P r o c e d u r e s
Procedures in Detail
1 Before class, decide how you will divide students into heterogeneous groups
of three. Use the diagram found below the Materials List to determine where
students should sit.
2 In class, direct students to move into their correct places. Tell them that in
this activity, they will analyze political cartoons to learn about the Watergate
scandal and its effect on American politics.
3 Project Transparency 23A, which shows a photograph of Richard Nixon on
the campaign trail as well as a map of the 1972 electoral college results.
Then project Transparency 23B, which shows a political cartoon of Nixon
sitting at his desk looking at a list of his enemies. Use the information in the
Teacher’s Guide to introduce students to President Richard Nixon, his firstterm successes, his paranoid tendencies, and the Watergate scandal.
Transparency 23A
4 Next, pass out Student Handout 23A: A Cartoon History of the Watergate
Scandal. Have students carefully read the information on Stage 1 of the
Watergate scandal—the break-in—and examine the incomplete political
cartoon. Answer any questions students have about this stage of the scandal.
Then allow groups time—about 5 minutes—to discuss Critical Thinking
Question A and record their answers.
5 Appoint a Presenter in each group to share the group’s answers with the
class. Encourage Presenters to point out details in the political cartoon or
information on Student Handout 23A that help explain the group’s answers.
Then project Transparency 23C and have students quickly sketch the missing
portion of the cartoon on Student Handout 23A. Use the Teacher’s Guide to
reveal more information about the cartoon and the Watergate scandal.
Transparency 23B
6 Repeat this process for the remaining stages. Rotate the role of Presenter for
each stage.
7 After groups have discussed all five stages, project Transparency 23H, which
shows President Nixon giving his farewell speech to his staff as well as his
signature from four points in his presidency. Ask the questions listed in the
Teacher’s Guide. Then use the information in the Teacher’s Guide to inform
students about the conclusion of the scandal and Nixon’s presidency.
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Activity 23
Student Handout 23A
P r o c e d u r e s
Wrap Up
Hold a class discussion about the effect of the Watergate scandal on American
politics. Center the discussion on these questions:
• Why is Watergate an important historical event?
• What do you think was the impact of Watergate on how the public perceives
the presidency and politicians?
• Do you think Nixon’s actions were very different from those of most other
politicians?
• Should Nixon be judged as a president more for his accomplishments or for
the Watergate scandal? Why?
• What lessons can be learned from the Watergate scandal?
• How can we prevent such scandals in the future?
I d e a
f o r
S t u d e n t
R e s p o n s e
Give each student a copy of one of the incomplete cartoons from this
activity. Have students show the incomplete cartoon to an adult who is
familiar with the Watergate scandal and ask the adult to try to figure out
what is missing from the cartoon. Have students then explain to the adult
what the cartoon tells us about Watergate and use the cartoon to discuss
Watergate. Tell students they must ask these questions in their conversation: How did Watergate affect your view of the government and the
presidency? Do you think Nixon got what he deserved? How would you
rate Nixon as a president? Afterward, have students glue the cartoons
into their notebooks and write a three-paragraph summary of their
conversation about Watergate below the cartoon.
A Cartoon History of the Watergate Scandal
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Te a c h e r ’ s
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Transparency 23A
In this transparency, we see President Richard Nixon with his daughters and their
husbands during his 1972 reelection campaign. We also see the electoral college
results for the 1972 presidential election.
Nixon’s first term as president (1968–1972) yielded a number of achievements.
He pressed for creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and pushed civil
rights initiatives forward. He enacted the National Cancer Act in 1971 to battle
cancer. And, by the 1972 election, he had taken significant steps toward ending
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Nixon had also substantially improved the
United States’ relationships with China and the Soviet Union.
In 1972, Nixon won one of the most sweeping presidential victories in U.S.
history when he defeated Democratic nominee George McGovern, a senator from
South Dakota. Nixon received almost 61 percent of the popular vote. McGovern
won just 38 percent. Nixon also swamped McGovern in the electoral college vote
by winning every state except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Transparency 23B
In this transparency, we see a cartoon of a sinister-looking Richard Nixon at his
desk, buried in lists of enemies. The caption reads, “His own worst enemy.”
Nixon was a practitioner of hardball politics who frequently viewed opponents or
detractors as enemies. While campaigning for Congress during the 1940s and
1950s, he openly declared opponents to be dangerous left-wingers with possible
pro-Communist sympathies. After serving eight years as Dwight Eisenhower’s vice
president, in 1960 Nixon lost the closest presidential election yet in U.S. history.
John F. Kennedy won the vote, and Nixon fled to California. There in 1962 he lost
the race for governor—a defeat he blamed on his political enemies and the media.
In 1968, Nixon made a comeback. He won the Republican presidential
nomination and then narrowly defeated Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey.
Despite the accomplishments of his first term in office, by 1972 Nixon and his
advisors had become increasingly paranoid about his political opponents. They
feared that dissent over the continued U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was
growing. As well, government leaks to the press disturbed Nixon. (The Pentagon
Papers—a secret government study about the U.S. role in the Vietnam War—had
been leaked to the New York Times in 1971.) As a result, Nixon and his advisors set
out to punish the president’s long list of real and imagined political enemies.
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Te a c h e r ’ s
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Transparency 23C
In this transparency, we see a cartoon that shows a group of middle-aged, clean-cut
men in business attire and a group including a woman and three young men with
longer hair, beards, and mustaches and dressed in casual attire. The figures in the
top portion represent the Watergate burglars. The cartoonist highlights the irony
that those who appear to be solid, clean-cut citizens have been charged with crimes
that many would associate with citizens who are younger and more unkempt.
G. Gordon Liddy first proposed the burglary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices. Liddy was a member of an undercover group, nicknamed
“the plumbers,” that Nixon and aide John Ehrlichman had set up. The plumbers had
considered an expensive plan—to be funded by the vast pool of campaign money
pouring into Nixon’s reelection campaign coffers—to discredit and destroy many of
Nixon’s political opponents. Liddy’s proposed scheme included plans to disrupt the
1972 Democratic Convention, spy on Democratic candidates, and bug Democratic
campaign communications. Although the administration rejected the complex plan,
Attorney General John Mitchell—who became Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign
manager—eventually approved a toned-down plan to bug the DNC and the campaign headquarters of Democratic candidate George McGovern.
The night of the break-in, Liddy was not among those arrested because he and
several other plumbers observed the burglary from a nearby hotel room. The five
burglars who police arrested were James W. McCord Jr., director of security for the
Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP); Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez,
and Eugenio R. Martinez, all anti-Castro Cuban exiles with CIA connections; and
Frank Sturgis, a U.S.-born anti-Castro fighter.
Transparency 23D
In this transparency, we see a cartoon that shows a letter on White House stationery and addressed to the editors of the Washington Post. The letter reads, “Lay
off—or else!” The caption reads, “Anonymous letter received by the Washington
Post, Sept. 15, 1972.” The cartoon portrays White House efforts to intimidate the
Washington Post so it would not pursue the Watergate story.
On September 15, 1972, Liddy, E. Howard Hunt (another plumber who worked
closely with Liddy), and the five burglars were indicted. President Nixon and his
advisors felt that since no one else had been charged, they were off the hook—as
long as nobody pressed the investigation forward. They decided to try to make sure
that the Washington Post and others did not pursue the story further. A number of
times, Nixon and his advisor Charles Colson discussed plans for retaliating against
the Washington Post, which they held responsible for revealing the Watergate
scandal. In a follow-up conversation in late October, Nixon told Colson, “We’re
going to [get] them [the Post] another way. They don’t really realize how rough I
can play. I’ve been such a nice guy around here a lot of times, and I always play on
a hard-hitting basis. But when I start, I will kill them. There’s no question about it.”
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Shortly after his arrest, Hunt blackmailed CREEP officials. Since he could
produce information that could lead to the president’s impeachment, he demanded
money and a promise of clemency to keep quiet. Colson assured Hunt on both
counts, and Hunt agreed to plead guilty and say he knew of no involvement of
higher-ups.
Just a few weeks later, the Washington Post reported that the burglary was
part of “a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage . . . directed by officials of the White House and the Committee for the Re-election of the President.”
CREEP officials and other Nixon supporters responded with righteous indignation,
calling the report “vicious and contemptible” and “a senseless pack of lies.” But
two months later, a plane crashed approaching Chicago. Hunt’s wife and 29 other
passengers died. Investigators found $10,000 in Mrs. Hunt’s purse—funds later
believed to be hush money intended to buy the Watergate defendants’ silence.
Transparency 23E
In this transparency, we see a cartoon that shows the Oval Office of the White
House flooded with several feet of water. President Nixon is barely holding on to
his desk as it floats, along with other office furniture, in the turbulent water. More
water is crashing through the door.
Nixon’s hope in fall of 1972 that the Watergate scandal would quickly fade from
public view was dashed when Senators Sam Ervin and Mike Mansfield received
unanimous backing for a resolution authorizing a Senate Select Committee to
conduct televised hearings on Watergate. On March 23, 1973, before the hearings
had begun, Judge John Sirica was preparing to sentence Hunt and the Watergate
burglars when he received a confession letter from James McCord. In the letter,
McCord said that he had been pressured to maintain silence, that some witnesses
had lied during the trial of the burglars that had just finished, and that there were
others involved in the Watergate affair.
Sirica went forward with sentencing Hunt and the four burglars other than
McCord. But he made clear that the stiff sentences were provisional; the men could
reduce their prison time if they helped identify others involved in the crime. He
later reduced the sentences of all the men except Liddy.
On March 26, in response to McCord’s letter, the grand jury that had indicted
the Watergate burglars met again to hear new charges related to Watergate. Two
days later, McCord revealed that John Mitchell, John Dean, Charles Colson, and
Jeb Magruder, one of Mitchell’s top aides, had known about the Watergate break-in
before it happened. Soon thereafter, L. Patrick Gray, the acting director of the FBI,
resigned after admitting that he had destroyed Watergate evidence. At the end of
March 1973, when he was sure the cover-up was falling apart, Dean decided to hire
a criminal lawyer and testify to the Senate Watergate Committee about Nixon’s role
in the Watergate cover-up.
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Te a c h e r ’ s
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Transparency 23F
In this transparency, we see a cartoon that shows President Richard Nixon suspended between two reels of tape with the words “I am” and “a crook” on the tape
still connected to the reels. The word “not” is on a piece of tape that Nixon is
holding in his mouth.
Late in 1973, Nixon asserted on national television, “I am not a crook.” However,
the material heard on the tapes—plus the infamous gaps, erasures, and otherwise
missing conversations—suggested otherwise. Sirica later said that upon listening
to the tapes, he had been shocked by the president’s vulgar language and ethnic
insults. In fact, the documents were so full of the phrase “expletive deleted” that
the term quickly became a national joke. Sirica said he was especially dismayed
by Nixon’s March 21, 1973, conversation with John Dean, in which the president
stated that it would be possible to get $1 million to pay off Hunt and the other
burglars for several years. Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski later wrote of hearing
the tapes for the first time: “Listening to [Nixon] scheme, knowing he was the
president of the United States, I felt as if my heart was shriveling inside of me.”
After Rose Mary Woods’ account of accidentally erasing part of a taped conversation left the nation still wondering what had happened to the tape, Alexander
Haig, who replaced H. R. Haldeman as Nixon’s chief of staff, facetiously blamed
the tape erasure on a “sinister force” at work in the White House. Others suspected
Nixon himself was responsible, but the president denied it in his memoirs. No one
has ever admitted to erasing the tape.
Transparency 23G
In this transparency, we see a cartoon that shows a king’s crown lying on the
ground. The crown is decorated with tiny dollar signs and reels of tape that evoke
the Watergate scandal. It is topped by a sad elephant who represents the Republican Party. The caption reads, “The King Is Dead. . . . Long Live the Presidency!”
The “smoking gun” in the case was Nixon’s conversation with his chief of staff,
H. R. Haldeman, on June 23, 1972, just six days after the break-in at the Watergate
complex. On the tape, Nixon and Haldeman discussed having the CIA slow down
the FBI’s investigation of the break-in. This conversation devastated Nixon’s case.
The president had claimed that he knew nothing about his aides’ plans to cover up
CREEP’s involvement in Watergate until March 1973, when he said John Dean
had explained everything to him. But the June 1972 tape revealed that Nixon had
known about the cover-up soon after the break-in. The tape also showed that Nixon
had tried to interfere with the FBI’s investigation of Watergate. Nixon claimed he
wanted the CIA to intervene because he was trying to protect national security, but
the tape showed that he was really trying to keep secret his aides’ involvement in
the break-in.
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Transparency 23H
In this transparency, we see Nixon giving his post-resignation farewell speech to
his staff in August 1974. The inset shows Nixon’s signature over the course of his
presidency, demonstrating one manifestation of the stresses of the presidency.
Before sharing the information below, ask students the following questions:
• What do you see here? How would you describe President Nixon?
• What happened to Nixon’s signature over the course of his term in office? What
might explain the changes in his signature?
• How did the Watergate scandal affect Nixon?
• How might Watergate have affected the country?
In his good-bye speech to his staff on August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon offered a
short message for the many Americans who had watched what had happened to
him and to the presidency over his five years in office. Nixon said, “Those who
hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”
A month after resigning, Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him. The
pardon made Nixon immune to prosecution for any crimes that he might have
committed during his presidency. For most Americans, after a burst of initial outrage over Ford’s decision, Nixon faded rather quickly from view. Many felt it was
time to move on and focus on other problems in the nation.
Nonetheless, the impact of Watergate on the government and the American
people was strong and lasting. The scandal undermined the nation’s respect for and
trust in the office of the president and politicians in general. It also changed the
relationship between the media and the nation’s leaders—making it more combative, confrontational, and, many would argue, intrusive. Still, some saw a positive
outcome of Watergate, claiming that it showed how well the democratic system in
the United States can work in a crisis.
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S t u d e n t
H a n d o u t
2 3 A
Cartoon History of the Watergate Scandal
Stage 1: The Watergate Break-In
In the early morning hours of Saturday, June 17, 1972,
Frank Wills discovered a piece of tape over a basement
door lock in the Watergate apartment and office building
in Washington, D.C. Wills, who was a night watchman at
the complex, removed the tape and went on his way.
When he returned less than an hour later, he found that
the same lock had been taped again. Wills then called the
local police.
Plainclothes officers responded to the call. On the
sixth floor of the building, they confronted five burglars
in the offices of the Democratic National Committee. The
burglars wore business suits and thin rubber gloves. They
carried cameras and film, a walkie-talkie, lock picks,
electronic surveillance equipment, and stacks of hundreddollar bills. At first, the men offered false identifications.
However, the police soon discovered that the burglars
were connected to the Committee to Re-Elect the
President, popularly known as CREEP. They had entered
the Watergate complex to install electronic bugging
equipment in telephones to transmit information about
the Democratic campaign back to CREEP.
Most newspapers downplayed or ignored the initial
story of the break-in. However, the Washington Post ran
an article on the front page of its Sunday edition. Post
reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein soon began
an in-depth investigation of the curious circumstances
surrounding the Watergate complex burglary.
In response to the story, President Nixon’s campaign manager, John Mitchell, denied that the burglary
was part of a spying operation run by the president’s men.
Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler stated that he would not
even comment on what he called “a third-rate burglary
attempt.” And within days of the break-in, President
Nixon himself denied that the White House had been
involved in any way.
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
Critical Thinking Question A The top half of the cartoon
is missing. With your group, discuss and be prepared to
defend answers to these questions:
• What four figures might be pictured in the top half
of this cartoon?
• What might they look like?
• How might they be dressed?
• What message do you think the cartoonist intended
to convey?
A Cartoon History of the Watergate Scandal
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S t u d e n t
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2 3 A
Stage 2: Investigations Begin
In the early days after the break-in at Watergate, few
Americans suspected that there was a direct connection
between the burglary and the White House. But details of
the brewing scandal began to emerge in the pages of the
Washington Post shortly before the 1972 election. The
story continued to unfold long after it.
As the young Post reporters Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein pursued the story, they logged thousands
of investigative hours. The two followed up on hundreds
of leads, including ones from anonymous sources. They
slowly began to link Nixon’s advisors, and eventually
Nixon himself, to a cover-up of the administration’s
involvement in the burglary.
Other groups also pursued information about
Watergate. A number of newspapers and magazines
aggressively covered the story. As well, a grand jury
convened to investigate the consequences of the break-in.
It conducted its initial investigations in September 1972.
The grand jury then indicted, or charged with a crime,
White House aides Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt.
It also indicted the five burglars—James McCord,
CREEP’s director of security, and four other men who
had been recruited for the job. Hunt and the burglars other
than McCord later pleaded guilty to having taken part in
the burglary.
The investigations into the Watergate scandal
ultimately revealed that more than just a burglary had
occurred. Woodward, Bernstein, and others obtained
evidence that White House officials had made numerous
efforts to ensure that Nixon was reelected. They planned
to discredit and sabotage several Democratic presidential
contenders. They pledged to do whatever was necessary
to stop government leaks to the press. And they
extorted—that is, illegally used their official positions to
obtain—millions of dollars in campaign contributions
from corporations seeking government favors. They even
tried to convince the Internal Revenue Service to pressure
Nixon’s “enemies.”
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As the news stories increasingly connected top
government officials to such sordid activities, the White
House issued stronger denials. It also put pressure on the
Washington Post and others to back off.
Critical Thinking Question B The cartoon is missing the
letterhead imprint (which tells who wrote the letter), three
words after “editors of,” and the caption. With your
group, discuss and be prepared to defend answers to these
questions:
• On whose stationery do you think this letter was
written?
• What three words do you think follow the words
“editors of”?
• What might be the caption of this cartoon?
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
S t u d e n t
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2 3 A
Stage 3: Congressional Hearings
In March 1973, Judge Sirica sentenced Liddy, Hunt, and
four of the burglars to 20, 35, and 40 years in prison,
respectively. McCord admitted just before the sentencing
that there was more information to be shared. Thus Sirica
delayed sentencing him. Soon thereafter, L. Patrick Gray,
the acting director of the FBI, admitted to having
destroyed Watergate evidence. He then resigned. In May,
North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin, the chairman of the
Senate Select Committee on Presidential Activities, convened televised hearings on Watergate. Many Americans
watched the hearings with great fascination.
In June, John Dean, whom Nixon had fired as White
House counsel in April, testified before the Senate Select
Committee. He revealed that the former attorney general,
John Mitchell—who had become Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign manager—had ordered the Watergate
break-in. Dean explained that the White House was
covering up its involvement. He also testified that the
president had authorized payments of hush money to the
burglars to keep them quiet. Nixon’s aides vehemently
denied this charge.
On July 16, White House aide Alexander Butterfield
testified. He revealed startling information—that Nixon
had had a taping system installed in the White House to
automatically record all conversations there. Only a handful of people had known about the system. Now, the
hearing’s key questions—what did the president know,
and when did he know it—could be answered by listening
to the tapes.
Special prosecutor Archibald Cox, appointed by
Nixon to investigate the break-in, immediately subpoenaed—or summoned to court—nine tapes that could
confirm Dean’s testimony. Nixon refused to give up the
tapes, claiming they were vital to national security. But he
offered to provide a summary of them.
In October 1973, Cox stood firm that he needed the
actual tapes. Nixon responded by ordering first Attorney
General Elliot Richardson and then Deputy Attorney
General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. Both men
resigned in protest, but Nixon still had Cox fired. Nixon’s
actions aroused an outpouring of objection, which
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
included 350,000 angry telegrams sent to Congress and
the White House. The president responded by appointing
another special Watergate prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, and
then turning over the subpoenaed tapes. By this time,
many of Nixon’s top aides had been indicted for crimes
related to Watergate.
Critical Thinking Question C The cartoon of President
Nixon in the Oval Office is missing one key element.
With your group, discuss and be ready to defend answers
to these questions:
• What is Nixon holding on to?
• What key element—that is disrupting the door and
furniture—might be missing in the cartoon?
• What message do you think the cartoonist intended
to convey?
A Cartoon History of the Watergate Scandal
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2 3 A
Stage 4: The Secret Tapes
When President Nixon finally turned over the tapes to
Judge Sirica, two tapes and some of the conversations the
special prosecutor had requested were missing. One tape
included a mysterious gap of 18.5 minutes. Experts said
it resulted from five separate erasures. Nixon’s aides
maintained that no intentional erasures had occurred and
blamed the gap on an unintentional erasure by Nixon’s
secretary, Rose Mary Woods. Woods told Judge Sirica
that she had accidentally erased the tape while transcribing it. However, her description seemed implausible. And it accounted for only 5 minutes of erasure. This
left 13.5 minutes of missing tape unexplained. Americans
increasingly came to believe that the missing conversations were part of a larger White House effort to hide
damning evidence.
In March 1974, a grand jury indicted seven top
White House officials—including Mitchell and Colson—
for their roles in the Watergate cover-up. It did not indict
Nixon. However, special prosecutor Leon Jaworski
released to Sirica a secret report and two bulging
briefcases full of evidence against the president. Jaworski
asked Sirica to send the material to the House Judiciary
Committee, which was considering impeachment charges
against the president.
The House Judiciary Committee followed up by
requesting from Nixon tapes of 42 more conversations.
Instead of releasing the tapes themselves, at the end of
April Nixon released transcripts of the tapes. White
House aides had prepared the transcripts, editing out all
irrelevant material. The release of the transcripts caused a
sensation. The Government Printing Office sold close to
800 copies in less than four hours, and various presses
printed 3 million paperback book versions within a few
days. The transcripts had been somewhat sanitized for
public consumption. Wherever vulgarities existed on the
tape, the aides had replaced them with “expletive
deleted” on the transcripts.
The transcripts revealed an overwhelming desire
among Nixon and his aides to punish political opponents
and thwart the Watergate investigation. Now, even Nixon’s
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most steadfast supporters began to suggest that he step
down. Two months later, Jaworski requested 64 more
tapes as evidence in the cases against the indicted White
House officials. Nixon refused to comply. However, the
Supreme Court voted 8-0 in July 1974 that he must turn
over the tapes.
Critical Thinking Question D The cartoon shows Pres-
ident Nixon holding the ends of something. With your
group, discuss and be prepared to defend answers to these
questions:
• What is Nixon holding on to?
• What do you think Nixon is doing?
• What is he holding in his mouth?
• What might be written on it?
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
S t u d e n t
H a n d o u t
2 3 A
Stage 5: Nixon Resigns
After the Supreme Court ruled in late July of 1974 that
the president must turn over the remaining tapes, the
House Judiciary Committee adopted three articles of
impeachment against him. They charged Nixon with misusing presidential power to violate the constitutional
rights of U.S. citizens, obstructing justice, and defying
Judiciary Committee subpoenas.
In early August, Nixon provided transcripts of the
subpoenaed tapes. The tapes contained the “smoking
gun”—the irrefutable evidence that Nixon had knowingly
violated the law and that he had known about and
participated in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in
from almost the beginning. He had steadfastly denied the
latter up until that time.
Before the tapes were forced out, the idea of such
dealings and conversations in the White House seemed
beyond belief. One tape revealed Chief of Staff Bob
Haldeman telling the president, “The great thing about
this is it is so totally [messed] up and so badly done that
nobody believes” they could have done it. The tapes also
revealed that the president and his advisors were petty
and mean, constantly using vulgar and offensive language in their conversations. Republican Senate leader
Hugh Scott described the tapes as “a shabby, disgusting,
immoral performance.”
The backlash to the last set of tapes was overwhelming. Congressional Republicans—members of Nixon’s own
party—concluded that Nixon was guilty, making him a
liability they could no longer afford. Explaining that his
impeachment by the House of Representatives and his
removal from office by the Senate were both foregone
conclusions, they urged the president to resign.
Rather than face the near certainty of being forced
from office, Nixon announced his resignation on August
8, 1974. In his farewell address, he admitted making
some “judgments” that “were wrong.” But he insisted
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
that he had always acted “in what I believed at the time to
be the best interests of the nation.” The next day, he
climbed the stairs of the presidential helicopter, turned
and gave one last victory salute to his staff, and flew off
to political exile in California.
Critical Thinking Question E The cartoon is missing its
caption. With your group, discuss and be prepared to
defend answers to this question:
• What caption might accompany this cartoon?
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