The Watergate Scandal

The mistrust most Americans feel toward the government officials and political parities of today can be traced back to the Watergate scandal of 1972, which led to the resignation of an American president. The crimes of the Watergate scandal included political burglary, bribery, extortion, wiretapping (phone tapping), conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tax fraud, illegal use of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), illegal campaign contributions, and use …

…Gerald Ford was sworn in as president of the United States the next day. Watergate was not just a “third-rate burglary,” as Nixon called it. It was much more. It led to many heinous crimes. It contributed many words and phrases to our present-day vocabulary. Because of this scandal, the suffix “-gate” will now be acquainted with every Washington mishap. Because of this scandal people look at government officials differently today than they did before 1970.