Expert: Michael Troy - 3/16/2006

Question
what was it that Nixion did wrong to provoke the watergate scandal?  Mostly what i am asking is what is it that Nixon did wrong, and why did he try to cover it up?  If you could give me a few resource links that would be wonderful.

Mattie  

Answer
The Watergate scandal started when several low level people from Nixon's Presidential campaign broke into Democratic party headquarters to place bugs.  Nixon did not even know that was happening, so he could not have done much about it.

What got him in trouble was his attempt to cover up the scandal by telling the FBI that they should drop their investigation because it involved CIA operations.  From there, things just got out of control until he had to resign or face impeachment.  

I'm sure in retrospect, Nixon wishes he had not tried to cover it up.  In that case, it probably would have been a news story for a few weeks and then largely forgotten.  He tried to cover it up because he did not want his second term immediately rocked by a scandal.  He thought it would distract from his agenda.  He probably would have gotten away with it had it not been for the great reporting work by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

For more info, check out the following sites:

http://www.washintonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/front.htm

http://www.watergate.info/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate

I hope this helps!
- Mike