My ballot arrived yesterday and I discovered I’m being asked to make 37 separate decisions, some quite complex. Really? 37? I can go a year without making 37 decisions and I had a college education. And the choice for President? I’ve sensed that a substantial number of voters would prefer a different candidate. I looked…that option doesn’t exist.
My generation has, unfortunately, lived through a number of zany cliffhangers. But, thinking back, nothing compares with having watched the drama of Watergate as it unfolded.
You’d have to be a senior already on Social Security to remember the daily chaos known as the Watergate scandal. Oh, it made a great movie. Who am I to complain about watching a gorgeous Robert Redford skulking around a dark parking garage. I enjoyed the movie but two years prior it was more fascinating as each day more details unfolded.
It all centered around the 1972 Presidential election. Let me set the scene for you.
The assassinations of MLK, JFK, and RFK a few years earlier continued to numb the entire country. Civil rights battles were ongoing. Television reports showed an increasing number of body bags cradling young dead Americans from Vietnam! This boy from Cleveland, another from Seattle. A gruesome reality as the trust that Americans had always felt in their government continued to plummet.
Nixon had won the 1968 election by a wide margin on the promise of ending the war …he hadn’t, and now the early Primaries were demonstrating that the antiwar movement was gaining strength. Nixon and his close advisors…Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson, Mitchell, Dean, and the rest, were worried about the upcoming November election.
The Democrats were in disarray. Their nominee, George McGovern, had the personality of a gerbil and when it was revealed that their V-P nominee, Thomas Eagleton, had gone through electrotherapy to rid himself of demons, the likelihood of another one-sided victory loomed. Still, Nixon’s team was taking no chances. They decided to install listening devices in the offices of the Democratic party, located at the Watergate complex, and that’s how it all began.
On the night of June 17, 1972 five men picked the lock of the Democratic Party offices and set about installing ‘bugs.’ A young security guard, making his rounds, spotted the door left ajar, entered, and proceeded to arrest the five men inside. It was a botched job and should have gotten no notice until the identity of the men was revealed. Two of the men had been affiliated with the C.I.A. and were now associated with the Committee to Reelect the President, a direct link to the White House.
The plan was the warped brainchild of two ex-spooks, Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, and ultimately approved by John Mitchell, Attorney General, and Nixon advisor.
Both the Washington Post and the Justice Department kept asking questions as to the source of the money involved. ‘Follow the money.’ And they did! More revelations.
Both the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate opened investigations…who knew what and when did they know it? How high up the chain did this travesty go?
The drama continued as Nixon professed his innocence, distancing himself as best he could, and putting roadblocks in the way of the investigation.
A Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox, was appointed to investigate, and then fired by the President in what was called ‘the Saturday night massacre.’ Cox had attempted to serve a subpoena for tapes recorded in the Oval Office. When the President refused to release them multiple Justice Department heads resigned in defiance.
The impeachment process began a week later. On August 9, 1974, prior to its finding, Richard M. Nixon resigned in disgrace. Gerald Ford assumed the Presidency.
And now back to my ballot!