Watergate Break-In (1972)
At 2:30 AM on June 17, 1972, a security guard at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC found tape over door latches in a parking garage and called police. Officers arrested five men inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters. It was not an ordinary burglary. The break-in set in motion the Watergate scandal, which consumed the Nixon presidency and ended in the first presidential resignation in American history.
Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect
By 1972, President Richard Nixon was running for re-election against Democrat George McGovern, and his political team was determined to win by any means necessary. The Committee to Re-Elect the President — quickly dubbed CREEP — amassed a secret slush fund used to finance dirty tricks, political espionage, and intelligence-gathering operations against Democrats. The Watergate operation was part of this campaign. The five men arrested on June 17 were connected to CREEP: they included James McCord, the committee's security director, and four Cuban-American operatives. They had planted listening devices during a previous break-in in May and had returned to fix a malfunctioning bug and photograph documents. A torn piece of tape — placed horizontally across a door latch to prevent it from locking — was noticed by 24-year-old security guard Frank Wills, who made the call that unraveled a presidency.
Did You Know?
The mysterious "Deep Throat" — the FBI insider who fed investigators critical information — was not identified publicly until 2005, when W. Mark Felt, former FBI Associate Director, revealed himself. He had been passed over for FBI Director after J. Edgar Hoover's death and bore a deep grudge against the Nixon administration.
Cover-Up and Unraveling
Nixon was not aware of the break-in in advance, but he quickly moved to contain the damage. Within days of the arrests, the White House was deeply involved in obstruction of justice: paying hush money to the burglars, pressuring the CIA to interfere with the FBI investigation, and working to limit congressional inquiries. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, guided by tips from their source "Deep Throat," tracked the money and connections to the White House over months of reporting that most news organizations dismissed. A Senate investigation began in 1973, and its hearings were televised nationally. The crucial revelation came when aide Alexander Butterfield disclosed in July 1973 that Nixon had secretly recorded all Oval Office conversations. Nixon's attempts to withhold or destroy the tapes led to the "Saturday Night Massacre" in October 1973, when he fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and two senior Justice Department officials rather than comply with a subpoena.
Resignation and Legacy
The "smoking gun" tape, released in August 1974, revealed that Nixon had personally ordered the CIA to obstruct the FBI investigation just days after the break-in — confirming obstruction of justice. Republican congressional leaders told Nixon he faced certain impeachment and conviction. On August 9, 1974, Nixon became the only US president to resign from office. He was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford, one month later — a pardon Ford insisted was necessary for national healing but which badly damaged his own political career. Watergate reshaped American politics: it spawned lasting cynicism about government, produced sweeping campaign finance reforms, and cemented the practice of adding "-gate" to any political scandal. It also demonstrated that no person, not even a president, was above the law.