Watergate Sandal: The Worst Scandal In American History

The Watergate Sandal began to slowly unravel on June 17th, 1972 and would later become known as the worst scandal in American history. The beginning of the end started with the arrest of five men, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzales a locksmith, Eugenio Martinez a licensed real estate agent, Frank Sturgis a former Cuban Military army intelligence and Edward Martin aka James McCord, a retired CIA employee who was working on the Committee to Re-elect President Nixon at the time. They were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, DNC, at the Watergate office and hotel in Washington D.C.. They were there to copy documents and swamp out eavesdropping equipment that had been placed there during previous burglaries; this was reportedly the third burglary like incident at the DNC since May 28th. All five men were charged with felonious burglary and with possession of implements of crime. Initially, the White House Press Secretary, Ron Ziegler, stated the break-in was a “third-rate burglary” in an attempt to ensure and convince the public that the Presidential administration and the

With help from a source known as “Deep Throat”, they were able to bring details of the scandal to the public. Deep Throat was later revealed to be William Mark Felt Sr in the May 2005 issue of the Vanity Fair magazine. Felt was serving as the No. 2 official in the FBI at the time he was supplying Bernstein and Woodward with information. The Washington Post later won the Pulitzer Prize, in 1973, for Public Service for Bernstein and Woodward's coverage of the scandal. Bernstein and Woodward also released a New York Times Best Selling book about the scandal, All The President's Men, which was later brought to the big screen winning 4 Oscars in the 1976 Academy Awards for actor in a supporting role, art direction, sound and