Watergate Podcast

[Crossbow]

Hello all.

I have been interested in the Watergate Affair for some time now and just recently I noticed a rather good Podcast about this very subject on the Slate website.

http://www.slate.com/articles/slate..._content=SlowBurn_HPpromo&utm_source=homepage

SLOW BURN: A PODCAST ABOUT WATERGATE

You think you know the story, or maybe you don’t. But Watergate was stranger, wilder, and more exciting than you can imagine. What did it feel like to live through the scandal that brought down a president?

Join Leon Neyfakh for an eight-episode podcast miniseries that tells the story of Watergate as it happened—and asks, if we were living through Watergate, would we know it?

...

About half of the Podcast requires a paid membership, but the remaining portions are gratis and quite good as well.

If one is interested in the Watergate affair (especially since we will likely be dealing with another Presidential crisis sooner or later), then check it out some time.

 

[Venom]

My foreign language head professor once mentioned that he thought Watergate was overrated as hell, and was only as huge as it was because Nixon lied and covered it up; it wasn't some huge conspiracy hatched by him, just some amateur burglarly.

It was far before my time, but I'd still like to learn more.

 

[dann]

The words "just some amateur burglary" appear to be Nixon's description when he was trying to cover it up. According to Wikipedia in Danish (much shorter than the English version):

Det Hvide Hus behandlede sagen som "et tredjerangs indbrudsforsøg" og nægtede yderligere kommentarer.

"The White House treated the case as "a third-rate burglary attempt" and refused to comment on it any further."

Your foreign language head professor was probably a Nixon fan.

 

[CORed]

My foreign language head professor once mentioned that he thought Watergate was overrated as hell, and was only as huge as it was because Nixon lied and covered it up; it wasn't some huge conspiracy hatched by him, just some amateur burglarly.

It was far before my time, but I'd still like to learn more.

The burglary itself was an operation of Nixon's reelection campaign committee, approved by John Mitchell, the chairman of that committee, former Attorney General, and personal friend of Nixon. There is really no evidence that Nixon himself approved the burglary, or knew anything about it ahead of time.

However, Nixon did order the CIA to tell the FBI that the burglary was a CIA operation, in order to keep the FBI from investigating further, and he also approved the payment of hush money to the burglars to cover up the involvement of Mitchell and others in the campaign committee. It is these actions supporting a coverup that led to his resignation, and probably would have gotten him impeached and removed had he not resigned.

Whether the coverup was motivated by a fear that revealing the involvement of the campaign committee management would lose him the election, a desire to protect his friend Mitchell, or some combination of those, is something that can be speculated about endlessly, but, since Nixon never chose to explain his motivation, that is all we can really do.

 

[CORed]

The words "just some amateur burglary" appear to be Nixon's description when he was trying to cover it up. According to Wikipedia in Danish (much shorter than the English version):




"The White House treated the case as "a third-rate burglary attempt" and refused to comment on it any further."

Your foreign language head professor was probably a Nixon fan.

The term Nixon actually used to describe it was a "a third-rate burglary". Since the burglars were caught because a security guard noticed that they had taped over the locks on some doors, IMO, it was a pretty accurate description.