1972 Election

Triumph of the Dark Side

CREEP

1972• (R) Richard Nixon

– VP – Spiro Agnew• Economic Recovery???• Vietnam nearly over?• Foreign Affairs Genius?

•(D) George McGovern• Outsider

• Extremist

• Lack of popular support

CREEP

ISSUES

• Vietnam War– Nixon had escalated the war to end it…

bombing Cambodia and Laos– While we withdrew troops, the ones left there

invaded Cambodia in search of Ho Chi Minh Trail

– McGovern was “peace-nik”… dove, tried to be hip, cool, appeal to youth

CREEP

CREEP

• Committee to Re Elect the President– Unofficial campaign organization working on

Nixon’s reelection– Used dirty tricks and illegal monies to fund

and direct campaign– Train… pizza… shoes… wiretaps… bribes…

spying

Spiro Agnew

• In 1973 in was discovered that VP Agnew, while governor of Maryland, took bribes, laundered money and was guilty of tax evasion

• October 1973 Agnew resigned

• Nixon appoints Gerald Ford to replace him…Senate confirms Ford

Spiro Agnew

Gerald Ford

Watergate Background

• The Nixon administration’s corruption did not begin with Watergate

• In September of 1971, “The Plumbers” broke into a psychiatrist’s office to steal files on Daniel Ellsberg

Watergate• During 1972 campaign members of and

people hired by CREEP broke into Democratic Headquarters (located in the Watergate Hotel and office complex in DC)

• They were arrested

• Nixon denied any knowledge of the crime

• By 1973 rumors began to surface that Nixon participated in the cover-up

Watergate• Nixon began to hold press conferences…

“I am not a crook”…

• Congressional committees and Independent Prosecutor investigated– Archibald Cox

• Saturday Night Massacre

Leon Jaworski

• Witnesses implicated Nixon

• Whitehouse tapes also had incriminating evidence

• Nixon refused to turn over tapes

Watergate

• Supreme Court intervened…

• Tapes doomed Nixon, who continued to lie

• As House of Reps prepared impeachment … Nixon Resigned … August 9, 1974

• Gerald Ford becomes President

• Using Constitutional power of Pardon, Ford Pardons Nixon

• Ford appoints Nelson Rockefeller VP

Aftermath

• USA now had BOTH a President and Vice President who were not elected

• The pardoning of Nixon left Ford politically impotent