by Suzette Baker

Created on: October 20, 2010   Last Updated: October 21, 2010

Despite the often overlooked accomplishments of his presidency, Richard Nixon will always be remembered for his role in the Watergate affair. In his later years, Nixon was heard to say, “It’s not the crime that kills you, it's the cover-up”.

Although he proved to be unpopular in his first term because of his failure to end the Vietnam War, Nixon's other endeavors with foreign policy served to boost his ratings as the 1972 Presidential elections approached. It was, however, his own paranoia that led to his downfall and which forced him to leave the White House in disgrace.

His paranoia of the political system affected both Nixon's decisions and those of his aides in the months prior to the 1972 Presidential Elections. This paranoia led him to create an “enemies” list that included names of politicians, sports personalities, and newsmen.

When the Pentagon Papers were leaked to the press by former State Department employee, Daniel Ellsburg, a special investigative unit known as the Plumbers was created to plug the leaks. This special team included Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent. The first move on the Plumber's agenda was to break into the office of Ellsburg’s psychiatrist and search for incriminating evidence that could be used against him. In the meantime, other Nixon aides set about playing dirty tricks on his opponents. Political rallies were cancelled without his opponent's knowledge and large orders of pizza were delivered to the opposing campaign offices.

On June 16, 1972, Security Office assistant James McCord led a group of four men into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee located in the Watergate Hotel for the purpose of finding and copying important files and installing surveillance devices. When the men were caught, the money they had on them was quickly traced back to the White House payroll.

Nixon became part of the cover-up when he made a public announcement denying any White House involvement in the break-in. He also tried to convince the CIA to stop their investigations of the Watergate scandal. This attempt marked his first illegal act regarding the cover-up.

Prior to the 1972 elections, the burglars were paid with Nixon re-election campaign money to deny that he had any knowledge of the break-in. If not for the efforts of two reporters, the scandal would have soon died. But, the investigative efforts of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who were aided by an anonymous source

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