Watergate

On June 17th of 1972, the security guard, Frank Wills was doing his job and checking each floor of the Watergate hotel, when he stumbled upon a room that was unable to close. This room was located between the basement stairwell and the parking garage of the hotel. The room was open due to a piece of tape that was stuck on the lock so it would not close. It was early morning when the police arrested five burglars inside the office of the Democratic National Committee. This burglary was connected to Nixon’s reelection campaign. The five arrested had been caught attempting to wiretap phones and steal important documents. The five burglars were later identified as Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and James W. McCord Jr. When all was said and done, Nixon tried to cover it up as much as he could. He started raising ‘money’ to stop the FBI from investigating anymore in the attempt burglary, but the press had already got the story. Nixon never really got any blame for it. By the time his role in the scheme, he had already resigned. After Watergate, people didn’t really trust the government anymore. They started actually caring who was their president and didn’t want a ‘crook’ anymore. “People Disagreed over policy, but not over honesty,” said Dennis Goldford, a Drake University political science professor.