by Chris Allen

Created on: August 12, 2010

Richard Nixon had longed to be President of America for many years. He ran for office as the Republican party candidate in 1960 against the Democrat candidate John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Kennedy won by a tiny margain, and it appears that he may have bought the election, with the help of the mafia. Nixon felt he had been robbed. When he finally won election to the presidency in 1968, replacing the unpopular Lyndon B Johnson (thanks to the countries failings in Vietnam), he became extremely paranoid that he would have his presidency robbed again, and was prepared to go to extreme lengths to ensure another term in office.

A committee was established that would attempt to ensure a second term for Nixon by whatever means necessary. The Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) was set up in 1972 (election year) by John Mitchell, a close adviser of Nixon's. CREEP illegally collected over $60 million for use in the presidential campaign, and for dirty tricks on Nixon's opponents. CREEP then bugged the Democrat offices in the Watergate building, Washington DC using 5 burglars, disguised as plumbers who were hired especially for CREEP.

However, the 5 burglars were arrested by police on the night of 17 June 1972, and many pieces of embarrassing evidence were found that could be traced back to the White House. Two journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward also carried out their own investigations, and discovered more damning information the White House. CREEP had been unearthed as the employers of the burglars, and it was soon discovered that CREEP had a fund run by the White House. Despite this, Richard Nixon swore that nobody in the White House was involved in "this bizarre incident", whilst at the same time secretly authorising $460,000 of CREEP's funds to be paid to the Watergate burglars.

Nixon won the 1972 election, and Watergate seemed to have been forgotten. But when the five burglars were put on trial, one of them, James McCord admitted that the White House had lied about their involvement in the burglary. The Senate launched its own investigation into the Watergate scandal, causing many of Nixon's close advisers to resign, but still "Tricky Dicky" remained in denial of any involvement in the scandal. Over the next few months, many more accusations came Nixon's way, from advisers, senate officials, friends and enemies alike, all of which Nixon denied.

Then in the summer of 1973, a White House aide told the Senate Committee about a tape-recording system Nixon

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