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The Break-In: How a Strip of Tape Unravelled a Presidency
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
On June 17, 1972, five men were caught inside the Watergate complex — and a security guard's eye for a strip of tape set in motion the most consequential political scandal in American history. From Deep Throat's parking garage to Woodward and Bernstein's relentless pursuit, this is how the cover-up began to crack.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Before Watergate, a break-in was just a crime. After Watergate, it was a constitutional crisis.
When police arrived, they found the five men inside. The evidence on them was striking.
Most news organizations treated the Watergate break-in as a local crime story. A burglary.
One source was different from all the others. Woodward had a contact inside the FBI, a senior official he'd known since before joining the Post.
By nineteen seventy-three, Watergate had moved from the newspapers into Congress. The Senate established a Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities.
The special prosecutor investigating Watergate was a Harvard law professor named Archibald Cox. He subpoenaed the tapes.
The legal battle over the tapes continued for months. Nixon released partial transcripts.
On the evening of August eighth, nineteen seventy-four, Richard Nixon addressed the nation from the Oval Office. He didn't admit to wrongdoing.
The bigger picture matters here. What Watergate established wasn't just that a president had broken the law.
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