On August 9, 1974, 37th President of the United States of America Richard Nixon resigned from his executive post. Nixon was and still is, the only US President to ever resign. The Watergate Scandal had brought Nixon’s second term to an abrupt end and diminished of retaining some form of respectability and honor among not only Americans, but citizens of the World. Although the questions about Watergate still remain. One in particular is had the Watergate scandal exposed a logical problem requiring structural resolutions, or was it the unfortunate combination of a poor president and his unethical advisors? Essentially, how did Watergate deepen the mistrust established in the office of the President and in what ways did this affect America.
Statistically, Americans are profoundly unhappy with their government. While the majority of Americans feel proud to be American; in the 1990s, never more than 40% of Americans said that they trusted their government most of the time or just about always (McKay, Houghton, & Wroe, 2002, p.20). A evident majority think that politicians do not act in the best interest of the people, and believe that government is controlled by investments from corporation. During the Watergate scandal, Americans had been shocked by the crimes of the Nixon Presidency. Investigations by the press and congress had exposed previously unimaginable levels of corruption and conspiracy in the executive branch. Following Watergate, the publics faith in government had been shaken, since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the trust placed in government had been in decline. The assassination had stolen the remainder of President Kennedy’s life and deprived him of a impartial, balanced historical judgement. Watergate had done the same to Nixon, and taken the same opportunity for a fair assessment from him, although Nixon himself had pushed it to happen. In order to fully assess how Watergate damaged the trust placed in President Nixon, his whole Presidency needs to be evaluated; domestic policy, foreign policy, if Watergate was really to blame for this mistrust, or was the mistrust already there and Watergate had just agitated it.
In Monica Crowley’s 1996 book Nixon off the Record, President Nixon brings up some points for consideration which not only challenge Watergate, but question it’s actual Impact of the scandal. ‘As President, until Watergate, my approval polls were never really below 50%. Neither were Eisenhower’s’ (Crowley, 1996, p.115). The significance of this is that Nixon refers himself to Eisenhower, one of the highest regarded Presidents in modern history. Nixon’s Domestic policy involves not only his own policies but the policies of who came before him; President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society was a war on Poverty and both, racial injustice and gender inequality. Some of the policies were carried-on by Johnson, as part of President Kennedy’s New Frontier Legacy. The Civil Rights Bill that JFK promised to sign was passed into law. The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination based on race and gender in employment and ending segregation in all public facilities. Yet, African Americans all over the country were still denied the right to Protection from law enforcement, access to public facilities, and fair financial prospects. Nixon saw this as unjust abuse of the system, calling it both unfair to African American’s and a waste of human resources which would benefit America’s development. Johnson also signed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964; The law that created the Office of Economic Opportunity aimed at attacking the roots of American poverty. Although this was dismantled under Nixon and Ford, which allocated poverty programs to other government departments. Johnson\’s popularity had dropped due to Vietnam; members of his own party were seeking the nomination for President and in March 1968, he announced to the people of the United States that he would not seek a second term. Despite criticism, under LBJ the Great Society did impact many of the poorer Americans the program was aimed at. The total number of Americans living in poverty fell from 26 percent (1967) to 16 percent (2012), Government action is literally the only reason we have less poverty in 2012 than we did in 1967 (Matthews, 2016). The Great Society was however, deemed ahead of its time, combining both the this and the Vietnam war created massive budget deficits and thus, as Howard Zinn neatly puts it, Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 60s became a Victim of the War in Vietnam (Zinn, 2005, p.601). Nixon’s major economical objective was to decrease inflation, by doing so he had to effectively end the Vietnam War. This he did not do, in fact, he expanded it despite announcing on December 8th 1969 that the war was soon to end due to ‘a conclusion as a result of the plan that we have instituted’ (History.com, 2009). While ending the war was not something Nixon could do instantly, the U.S. economy continued to helplessly fluctuate during 1970, this in turn resulted to a very poor performance from the Republican party in the midterm elections – The Democrats held major seats and was heavily in control throughout Nixon\’s presidency.
His Presidency was not completely shadowed by Watergate, although it has stained his Legacy, looking beneath the surface of Nixon’s Administration, his domestic policy clearly impacted America’s poorest; Total domestic spending by the federal government rose from 10.3 % of the gross national to 13.7% in the six years he was President. Granted a portion of the increased domestic spending under Nixon was due to the delay in starting Great Society initiatives, but a lot of it was due to Nixon\’s own plans. The New Federalism agenda, essentially pointed out that all others before Nixon had failed to impact, let alone solve both social and growing urban problems. His new federalism has been credited as a highlight of his presidency, “Nixon’s New Federalism provided incentives for the poor to work” (Nathan, 1996). Despite his efforts, Nixon could not take away the feeling from the American People that the American Dream was failing following the Assassination of all the Major Civil Rights figures. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcom X, and Robert F. Kennedy all within the space of 5 years. Upon this, the process of desegregation was also taking place in many southern states, which created an immense amount on tension between minority groups and whites. Although Nixon was for desegregation, many traditional Right Wing Republicans in the southern states would have felt very different about this matter and thus, alienated by the Nixon administration.
Some have the opinion that it wasn’t so much Nixon that created or perpetuated this aura of Mistrust in his office, as it was the Government Agencies that served him. It is believed that a number of federal services contributed to this mistrust, The CIA was secretive and faceless in a sense but the FBI took on a more public role, taking credit for their actions and influencing the press, on numerous occasions. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover morphed the FBI into what Richard Gid Powers called ‘ one of the greatest publicity generating machines the country has ever seen’ (Powers, 1983, p.95). Americans having a favourable opinion of the FBI fell from 84% (1965) to 52% (1973). This fell again to 37% in 1975. On top of this, The FBI’s creditability was also damaged by Watergate. L. Patrick Gray, Nixon’s nominee after Hoover died, destroyed critical Watergate evidence. The Watergate investigation had revealed that all too often Nixon had used the FBI for political purpose. Kathryn S. Olmsted narrates how federal agencies abused their privilege; Watergate did what the Bay of Pigs had not; ‘it had undermined the consensus of trust in Washington which was a truer source of the agency’ s strength than it’s legal charter’ (Olmsted, 1996, p.15) – it showed that ‘national security’ claims could and would cover up activities which were nothing but illegal. In brief, Nixon’s New federalism was not new, throughout his political career he opposed Big Government programmes and had fought to restore more power to state and local level establishments. President Nixon did achieve a number of things, the restoration of power to lower level government and away from federal jurisdiction, is one example. A number of critics argue that although his domestic policy benefited minorities, the poor and women, his new Federalism, failed to surpass his administration as he fought a losing battle to preserve his presidency following Watergate.
Foreign Policy is where Nixon’s Presidency becomes more believable to have caused mistrust in his office. During his time in office, he and certain federal agencies covered up a number of major mistakes created by the government. The Tonkin Incident is essentially where it began for Nixon, on 2 August 1964, United States claimed that North Vietnamese forces had twice attacked American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Known today as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, this lead to open war between North Vietnam and the United States. It furthermore foreshadowed the major escalation of the Vietnam War in South Vietnam. This incident brought Congressional support for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed unanimously in the house, and with only two opposing votes in the senate. This gave Johnson the power to take military action as he saw fit in Southeast Asia. By 1968, There were more than 500,000 American Troops in south Vietnam (Zinn, 2005, p.477). This Resolution was applicable to Nixon when he was sworn into office. Nixon soon introduced U.S. troop withdrawals but also authorized invasions into Laos and Cambodia. Nixon announced the ground invasion to the American public on April 30, 1970. He expanded the Vietnam war in a time that called for its end, this led to widespread protests across America, and his popularity among younger American’s plummeted after this. Not only was there disturbances from this, it was considered a military failure, Congress resolved that Nixon could not, and should not use American troops in extending the war without congressional approval. Historian Harry Howe Ransom states, \'[Nothing in public hearings] suggests that Congress intended to create, or knew it was creating, an agency for paramilitary operations’ when accepting the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (Howe Ransom, 1975, p.155-156). Suggesting that it was Nixon’s own doing that created this mistrust when concerning the Vietnam War. Although, Nixon was not to blame for the entry into the Vietnam war, LBJ took adavantage of an compliant Congress quietly to increase American involvement In vietnam, and so without telling the people what he was doing. LBJ’s time in office, then, saw the emergence of ‘Presidential Imperialism’.
Nixon also introduced new trends in diplomatic international relations for America. Nixon argued that the communist world had two rival powers — the Soviet Union and China. Nixon and close advisor Henry Kissinger exploited the relationship between the two to benefit America. During the 1970s, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev agreed to import American wheat into the Soviet Union. Creating trade and improving the economy. Nixon surprised the nation when he announced that he would travel to Communist China in February 1972, and meet with Mao Zedong. Following this visit, the United States dropped its opposition to Chinese entry in the United Nations and groundwork was laid for diplomatic relations. Just as anticipated, this caused concern from the Soviet Union. Nixon hoped to establish a Détente, in May 1972, he made an equally significant visit to Moscow to support a nuclear arms agreement. The United States and the Soviet Union pledged to constraint the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles each would manufacture. It does seem that Nixon and Kissinger were playing with fire, simultaneously establishing relationships with both China and the USSR, but ultimately, it was a tactical move from the duo. From a foreign policy opinion, it was wise to establish foundations for a diplomatic relationship. However, in terms of domestic policy, the American people were mortified, Nixon had built his reputation as an anti-communist supporter, following this it could easily be seen as nothing more than horrible irony; it was believed that Nixon was inspiring Left-wing enthusiasts to form and act on these international relations. Furthermore, President Nixon is responsible for the My Lai Massacre cover up. On March 16th 1968, a squad of Us soldiers mercilessly killed between 200 and 500 unarmed civilians at My Lai, a small village near the north coast of Southern Vietnam. My Lai was successfully covered up by US commanding officials in Vietnam for well over a year. Nixon, even prior to Watergate was the main culprit in yet another crime, in this case a crime of humanity, one that could have led to his impeachment. In hindsight it is now apparent that the President initiated the corruptive actions against the trials of those found guilty at My Lai – so that no US solider would be convicted of War Crimes (History.com, 2010).
Finally, we reach the crown Jewel of Nixon’s presidency; Watergate. Just as Clinton is associated with Lewinsky, Kennedy with Oswald, Lincoln with Slavery, Obama with Bin Laden and Nixon with Watergate. Nixon in his second term became ruthless with his domestic opponents, he withheld grants and funding appropriated by congress, he often sought to withhold information from congress; Nixon was denied an injunction to prevent the publication of the Pentagon Papers and then later during the Watergate crisis, was forced to release tapes of recording from the White House (Mervin, 1992, p.99). On top of this, he allowed secret missions to spy on his political opponents, this included tapping phones and harassing the liberal brookings institution. This is how the Watergate scandal occurred – initiated by a break-in at the democratic party’s headquarters and followed by a presidential cover up. Eventually bringing to resign in 1974, before he could be prosecuted. The severity of Watergate has been played down in the aftermath of it all, Nixon himself justified it in the worse possible way, that no one in government made financial profit from Watergate (Crowley, 1996, p.215), in this case, Nixon compares his behaviour to previous presidents such as JFK and even, Presidents after him like Clinton. He is very critical of both Executives as he feels Kennedy was just as corrupt during the Bay of Pigs affair. Principally, JFK had not been in effect long enough for anything to take place. The Cuban Missile Crisis was corrupted by Kennedy’s Administration, and the released transcripts were sanitized and passages removed – very similar to what Nixon had done with the Watergate tapes. Clinton, was also a sore topic for Nixon as he had been able to get away with Whitewater. In later years, Nixon felt that he was unfair penalised for Watergate as Clinton was able to evade the repercussions of Whitewater. ‘ Watergate was wrong; Whitewater is wrong. I Paid the price; clinton should pay the price. Our people shouldn’t let this issue go down. They shouldn’t let it sink.’ (Crowley, 1996, p. 219). This was a reference to those who wouldn’t let Nixon forget Watergate and what he had caused. Nixons final comment on Clinton were to have whitewater pursued and Clinton held responsible to what extent was necessary – it would be easy to see how Nixon resented Clinton for his indiscretions, many of which he was able to evade the consquences. Watergate had shattered the liberal consensus, Americans had learned of the covert operations and dirty tricks that their secret warriors had carried out at the height of the Cold War. Following this, the American people had learned about the murderous plots, drug testing, and harrassment of dissesedents that had been carried out in their name. They had been taught a very diluted version of the World. The intelligence investigations forced Americans to face difficult questions regarding the competence of their intelligence agencies, the Executive office of Government, and the tensions between secrecy and democracy. The many inquiries asked them to doubt the decency of Americans they believed to be heroes such as J.Edgar Hoover and John F. Kennedy- and whether their nation truly adhered to it’s professed ideals. It can ultimately be determined that the failures of the American political system-true or false, have undermine trust in the American people.
In conclusion, At the beginning of Nixon’s Presidency it is likely that events in every single Presidency would have added to the suspicion of that Office, Watergate would have had an significant impact on American trust in government. Most Americans are more likely to include factors like Vietnam and Watergate when regarding Nixon as both fit well into the decline of trust, and increasingly negative perceptions of American Political leaders. However, it would be an unfair to put too much emphasis on the incompetence and dishonesty of various presidents and members of congress. Many believed that Ford would restore faith in the Office of President, and trust in the government. Ford was everything Nixon wasn’t: Honest and Open and he received an 71% approval rating shortly after he was sworn into office. – However, in his inaugural address, incoming President Gerald R. Ford declared, “Our long national nightmare is over.\” A month later, he granted Richard Nixon a full pardon, by doing this Ford damaged the American optimism, and had shown that he had more loyalty to Nixon and his Party than to the American People. This increased the growing trend of cynicism about the office of the President even after Nixon.
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