502 ChaPter^10
Nixon’s views on being president were similar to the idea of the Catholic
Pope being infallible—“if the president does it,” he said after leaving office,
“that means it’s not illegal.” Obviously, most Americans, including most
importantly the U.S. Congress and courts, did not feel the same way and
Nixon remains the only president to have resigned from office before his term
expired. Since Nixon’s presidency there have been scandals associated with
virtually every president and some, Iran-Contra especially, were probably
much worse, but Nixon was the only American head-of-state to be forced out
of office, so Watergate remains the ultimate symbol of political corruption to
this day.
So, what was Watergate and why was it so serious that a president had to
leave office? In its most basic form, it was a political scandal that began in
mid-1972 when Nixon gave orders to a handful of spies to break into the
office of the Democratic National Committee [DNC] to get secret informa-
tion on possible opponents in the presidential race that year. Nixon’s organiza-
tion was called CREEP, for The Committee to Re-Elect the President, and it
had more money and resources than the Democrats. The DNC office wasFIGuRE 10-2 Watergate Hotel