Watergate: Inside the scandal that took down a presidency

it was a political Scandal that changed our country forever beginning with a break-in at Democratic National headquarters in the Watergate office complex in ending in the resignation of President Richard Nixon tonight on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the Watergate Breakin we take an in-depth look at the events that led to his downfall the president is going to address the nation and presumably announce his resignation in a half an hour from now people will be at television sets and radios tonight to hear what the president has to say this is the political crime story of the century in just a moment now the president of the United States will begin his speech perhaps his last speech from the White House he always saw enemies he always saw people in the shadows and his motto I believe was do unto others before they have a chance to do unto you that's enough there was an obsession with leaks you don't blame the leaks when facts come out that are showing wrongdoing no there no there will be no picture this is the funny thing had it not been for Watergate I think this man could have could have gone down in history as one of the more significant presidence in the history of this country out you don't have to stay do you we were witnessing the implosion of an American presidency the president has taken his place at the table in the white house where he's going to speak here now the next picture will be the president of the United States I have never been a quitter to leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every Instinct in my body but as president I must put the interests of America First therefore I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow it was the Scandal that took down a president a plot of lives Espionage and secret dealings that shattered how the Nation viewed their presidency and the truth it all started here the now Infamous Watergate office building when police were called to investigate a strange Breakin I was a sergeant assigned to the people on the street called us the bum Squad what I looked like in 1972 was like a junior Charles Manson Georgetown Friday night going in Saturday is always crazy back then on June 17th 1972 there was a Breakin at the Democratic National committee's headquarters in the Watergate office complex this was the start of what would be the political crime of the century at the center of it all were two men G Gordon litty an ex FBI agent who had been hired by President Nixon's campaign to run covert operations he recruited James mcor the security chief of the committee to reelect the president the plan was to get Negative information about the potential nominee of the democratic party but how are you going to get the negative information a lot of people would say breaking into the Democratic National Committee was way out off the charts yes but not that far off mcord would go into the Watergate building and put in tapes in the door it was tape so it would would not lock the hero of that night was a man named Frank Wills Frank Wills was the security guard at the Watergate office building you found the door taped once and and you took the tape off and then you found to tape the second time it was something that told me that you should check not only check the door but they should call the police 531 about 1:52 in the morning the call comes out for a ledged burglary at the Watergate Hotel I just kind of blinked my eyes yeah we'll take the call I had on a old funky golf cat I think I had just like a t-shirt underneath try to give me the image I wasn't police officer if a uniform car had answered that call it could have been a whole different ball game there's a lookout Alfred baldwi who's supposed to warn the burglars if there's trouble the police unit that responds to the call they're not dressed like police officers so Balwin doesn't even notice them our adrenaline is is pumped we get to this room here I kick the door open I pulled my revolver Balwin was supposed to be the lookout across the street he was watching a show called a attack of the puppet people by the time Alfred Baldwin had notified them it was too late and they had to run and hide like rats we're rolling down this hallway checking the offices on both sides of the hallways make sure that nobody's hiding from behind us I was startled by an arm hitting next to the glass on the petition it scared the living but Jesus out of me a scream something to the effect come out with your hands up on to blow your head off 10 hands went up and they came out and that's where the arrest occurred right here the five burglar that were arrested inside the DNC mcord Barker Sturgis Martinez and Gonzalez this was not your normal typical burglary there was bugging devices tear gas pens many many rolls of film locksmith tools thousands of dollars and $100 bills consecutively ordered who goes into the Democratic National Committee looking for money or looking for Jewels no you go looking for political information and who wants that why you're opponent naturally people weren't saying oh my God this is clearly going to implicate Richard Nixon it just seemed bizarre it would take some enterprising young journalists to faret out the importance of the story Woodward and Bernstein were assigned to this burglary just as a matter of routine editors kind of said we got this strange burglary they were young reporters trying to make their way up the ladder in the Washington Post when you talk about the people who made a difference when it came to Watergate you talk about Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein they sent me to the courthouse where the five burglars caught in the Democratic headquarters were being arraigned the judge asked the leader James mcord where did you work and mcord went CIA it was stunning and they discovered that McCord was a security chief for the committee to re-elect the president well okay folks this was a political Breakin there was a notebook belonging to one of the burglers that had the name in it H hunt W house and of course it turned out to be Howard hunt who had worked for the CIA who had been hired at the White House really to undertake dirty tricks you knew that this smoke that was billowing up from the Oval Office there had to be some fire there it's like the Dylan song it don't take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows presidential press secretary Ron Ziggler called it a third rate burglary attempt and said it was nothing the president would ever be concerned with Richard Nixon is obstructing justice from the beginning but what would be known as The Smoking Gun was when he approves a plan to use the CIA to blunt an FBI investigation into the money that the burgers had it's clear in the conversation this is being done for political purposes basically to save the skin of the White House and the President says he approves it Woodward and Bernstein had scores of sources but there was one source that was special a guy really high up he was known as deep throat we would learn years later that deep throat was Mark felt number two at the FBI he was in the perfect position to understand what was coming into the investigation as well as what he could observe maybe from above the inves instigation I want to talk about Watergate not going to talk about that subject all the president men created a sense of danger they were constantly risking things by trying to find out the truth you can trust me you know that the other thing the movie did was create that expression follow the money just follow the money and put it into American culture deep throat made it clear that the money was important that there was a trail to follow and Carl established that a $25,000 check had actually gone into the bank account of one of the Watergate burglars the $25,000 check linked contributions to President Nixon's reelection campaign to the slush fund used to pay the burglars who broke into the Watergate office complex I I said oh my God this now establishes an undeniable connection between the committee for Nixon's reelection and the burglars John Mitchell was the Attorney General he was a Nixon loyalist the highest law enforcement officer in America controlled a secret fund that paid for undercover activities against Nixon's political opponents Bradley said they're about to call the Attorney General of the United States a crook there's never been a story like this in our history and we took a deep breath and said yeah and ABC News has projected that Richard Nixon has in fact been reelected to the presidency to a second term so the question now I suppose is how big will Mr Nixon win it was a giant Landslide there was virtually no reaction to the stories we did and it was a way of saying Watergate who cares and whatever happened to Watergate I don't know I don't know apparently nothing they've got a trial of the of the uh accused in that case and that's going to be tried in due course and I think that's probably the end of the [Music] story

Channel: ABC News

Views: 682,605

Keywords: President, Richard, Nixon, Watergate, resignation, resign, secret, tapes, 1973, pentagon, papers, scandal, politics, us, abc, abcnews

Id: OZSGMMUC7FQ

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2017