President Richard Nixon was running for reelection in 1972. It was during the Vietnam war and so it was a very harsh political climate. Forceful tactics were needed. But Nixon’s tactics led to illegal espionage. Members of Nixon’s reelection team broke into the Watergate and stole top-secret files and bugged the office. The bugs however didn’t work so they returned on June 17 to bug the phones again. When they were getting ready to break in the guards noticed tape on the buildings locks so they called the police and caught the burglars red-handed. At first there was no connection between the burglars and Nixon but the police found the re-election committee’s number with the burglars.

Richard Nixon denied having any knowledge of the Watergate incident. Most people believed him and he won for reelection by a land slide. Later more “evidence” came to light thanks to a couple of Washington Post reporters. A few days after the incident thousands of dollars were given to the burglars to keep them quiet. While they were on trial it came to light that the President had recorded the conversations and the Supreme Court ordered him to hand them over. It was suggested that he would be impeached for abuse of presidential power, covering up criminal activity and other violations of the constitution. Nixon thought it would be best for him to leave on his own terms and resigned August 8, 1974 and Gerald Ford took over as an “un-elected” President.

http://watergate.info/