Richard Nixon
President of the United States, 1969–74
Won re-election in 1972, resigned on 9 August 1974 after the smoking-gun tape and impeachment articles. Pardoned by Ford. Never tried. The mixed status of the dossier is his legal afterlife.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety97
Mystery20
Scale75
Evidence88
Legal impact96
Culture94
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
What was Watergate?
A political scandal that began with a 17 June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in Washington's Watergate complex and became a White House cover-up. It ended with President Richard Nixon's resignation on 9 August 1974 and convictions of many aides and burglars.
Who was arrested on 17 June 1972?
Five men inside the DNC offices, including James McCord of CRP. They were tied to E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. The burglary was a political intelligence operation, not a random theft. The scandal was the lying that followed.
What did the Washington Post do?
Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, with editor Ben Bradlee, kept publishing links between the burglars, CRP cash and the White House through 1972–73. An FBI source, later named as Mark Felt, helped. The paper did not act alone: courts and Congress built the public record.
What was the Saturday Night Massacre?
On 20 October 1973 Nixon ordered special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired for insisting on the White House tapes. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than comply. Solicitor General Robert Bork carried out the firing. The crisis forced a new prosecutor and deepened impeachment talk.
Why did Nixon resign?
After the Supreme Court ordered the tapes released in United States v. Nixon (24 July 1974), the 23 June 1972 'smoking gun' conversation showed him joining an effort to halt the FBI. The House Judiciary Committee had approved impeachment articles. Senate conviction looked certain. He resigned on 9 August 1974.
Did Nixon go to prison?
No. President Gerald Ford pardoned him on 8 September 1974 for federal crimes he 'committed or may have committed'. Many subordinates were convicted. That split is why this atlas marks the status mixed.
The named cast is large. The six below are the ones English civic memory still uses to explain burglary, cover-up, press, court, Senate and pardon.
Mark Felt's 2005 unmasking closed a side mystery; it did not rewrite the tapes.
People
John Dean
White House counsel, then witness
Warned of a cancer on the presidency and testified to the Senate in June 1973. His turn from insider to witness is a central beat. He later served a sentence on a reduced path.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Washington Post reporters
Kept the CRP money story alive with Bradlee's backing. All the President's Men made them the English hero-reporters. They share credit with prosecutors and Congress.
John Sirica
Chief judge, U.S. District Court
Refused to treat the burglary as a quiet guilty plea. McCord's letter to him opened the White House file. The bench, not only the press, forced the case upward.
Sam Ervin
Chair, Senate Select Committee
The North Carolina Democrat's televised 1973 hearings made Dean, Butterfield and the tapes a living-room event. The committee is the civic classroom of the scandal.
Gerald Ford
President; issued the pardon
Sworn in on 9 August 1974. Pardoned Nixon on 8 September. He said the country needed to move on. Many voters treated the pardon as the last Watergate act and punished him in 1976.
Aides filled the dock. The president left by resignation and pardon. That is the people map of a mixed case.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.