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(Photo: CBS)
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The Watergate affair is perhaps the greatest scandal in American political history. It led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, as well as the conviction of many White House aides.
On June 17, 1972, a group of burglars were caught in Washington's Watergate office-apartment complex, which was being used as the headquarters for the Democratic National Committee during the presidential campaign of George McGovern. It was revealed that the intruders were actually officials in Mr. Nixon's Committee to Reelect the President, and a cover-up of White House links to the burglary ensued, orchestrated by some of Mr. Nixon's closest staffers, and with the president's participation.
Two years of investigations and revelations by Congress and the press, especially the investigative reporting of The Washington Post's team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, followed. After numerous forced resignations and indictments, President Nixon was finally done in by the Supreme Court-mandated release of the tapes of his White House meetings about Watergate. The tapes, made secretly by Mr. Nixon, contained direct evidence of his involvement in the cover-up.
Faced with impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate, Mr. Nixon became the only president ever to resign, on Aug. 9, 1974. In an unrelated scandal, Vice President Spiro Agnew had resigned his office earlier after a bribery and corruption probe.
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