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Watergate Scandal: Nixons
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The Watergate scandal was the most devestating political scandal in U.S. history from 1972 to 1974. It invloved many of President Richard Nixon top advisors and eventually led to the resigning of Nixon himself. It has effected the history of the United States ever since the time of Watergate with new campaign laws and many people's reputation never the same. It was named after the Watergate complex holding the offices of the Democratic National Commitee headquarters. The burglars were "bugging" the building to destroy the campaigns of possible Democratic presidential canidates. Eventually, all campaigns were destroyed except for senator George McGovern of South Dakota, who became Nixons opponent.
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While Watergate salad clearly gets its name from the scandal that caused Nixon's resignation, the connection between politics and the dessert is pretty ambiguous. For instance there are some connections to the Kraft Company because in 1975 they introduced the pistachio instant pudding mix used in both recipes. Even so, Kraft refuses to take credit for the name. Pat Risso of Kraft Corporate Affairs explains, "We developed the recipe for Pistachio Pineapple Delight. It was in 1975, the same year that pistachio pudding mix came out." In a 1999 article for The Richmond Times Dispatch, titled The proof is in the pudding; crashing Watergate Louis Mahoney notes in his research that Kraft didn't refer to it at all by this name until consumers started demanding a recipe for "Watergate Salad."
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[T]he effects of the Watergate scandal did not by any means end with the resignation of President Nixon and the imprisonment of some of his aides. Indirectly, Watergate was the cause of new laws leading to extensive changes in campaign financing. It was a major factor in the passage of the Freedom of Information Act, as well as laws requiring new financial disclosures by key government officials. While not legally required, other types of personal disclosure, such as releasing recent income tax forms, became expected. Knowing he was comfortably ahead in the 1972 election, Nixon refused to debate his opponent, George McGovern. No major candidate for the presidency since has been able to avoid debates.
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The greatest similarities between the para-politics scandal and Watergate exist in the drama that unfolded after the initial crimes were committed. In both cases, Senate hearings and other investigations revealed links between government officials and the covert activities being perpetrated by the illegal groups. Investigations in Colombia have revealed the existence of “hit lists” containing the names of unionists and other political opponents of President Uribe. High-ranking intelligence officers drew up the lists and then passed them to AUC leaders who threatened or killed the targets. Similarly, the Nixon administration drew up an “enemies list” of political opponents who were to be targets of illegal investigations by US federal law enforcement agencies.
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Since Nixon and many senior officials involved in Watergate were lawyers, the scandal severely tarnished the public image of the legal profession. In order to defuse public demand for direct federal regulation of lawyers (as opposed to leaving it in the hands of state bar associations or supreme courts), the American Bar Association launched two major reforms. First, the ABA decided that its existing Model Code of Professional Responsibility (promulgated 1969 ) was a failure, and replaced it with the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in 1983. The MRPC has been adopted in part or in whole by 44 states. Its preamble contains an emphatic reminder to young lawyers that the legal profession can remain self-governing only if lawyers behave properly. Second, the ABA promulgated a requirement that law students at ABA-approved law school s take a course in professional responsibility (which means they must study the MRPC).
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Sometimes called simply Watergate, most historians note that there actually was no scandal at all and Watergate was simply a fictional short story written as a joke by Nixon's dog Checkers. The story encompassed a ficticous incident involving a ficticious covert White House Special Investigations Unit known as White House Plumbers. The story involves a plot centered around Nixon ordering the Plumbers to break into the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Hotel in search of the Holy Grail which was believed to be in Democrat posession. The rest of the story is uneventful but needless to say, the Democrats led by Cindy Sheehan attempt to bring down the Nixon administration. But fortunetly the scandal never happened in real life and Nixon served his full term in the Presidency.
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