All the Presidential Investigations

The Watergate incident, occurring late in President Richard Nixon's first term, has been one scandal that has scarred our country well into the present. Many books and articles exist that analyze the incident itself, the events surrounding it and Nixon's resignation and about the political implications and precedents that it set. Two of the authors of these books and newspaper articles are Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. In the book, All the President's Men, they recount, illustrate, and analyze this period of time and their work on reporting and revealing these events for The Washington Post.

"June 17, 1972. Nine o'clock Saturday morning. Early for the telephone." This telephone call starts the book off with Bob Woodward awakening to his editor's voice, who is calling about a break-in at the Democratic headquarters. It apparently had occurred late, the previous night and five suspects were in custody. The five, four of whom were Cuban-American Miami citizens, were found to be in the possession of high-tech surveillance and communication devices, along with collectively, hundreds of dollars, mostly in $100 bills, in sequential order. When the address books of these suspects turned up, there appeared to be a telephone number for a member of the White House which read: "Howard E. Hunt, W.H." This was the first indication that the President and his cabinet might be involved in dirty tricks and/or illegal sabotage. Through Woodward and Bernsein's investigation of this lead, they turn up larger and larger crimes and higher and higher up involvement. Eventually, the pressure that they put on the President through their articles printed in The Post and through the FBI's investigations, became too great which ultimately led to his resignation.

Now, when Bernstein and Woodward were writing this book and their articles, they must have had some idea of the significance of their work. After all, they were printing a series of articles that pointed straight to the President. At this time, only one other impeachment inquiry existed, so their work had to be as accurate as possible. They made sure of this through a few precautionary measures. First, they agreed never to let an article go to print unless they both fully agreed that it should. When they were investigating the truth of a fact or statement, they always made sure that they checked it with at least two sources. When they made larger implication such as that of H. R. Haldeman, Assistant to the President, they checked with as many as four or five sources. Also, in order to make sure that they were not overly ambitious or biased, they frequently ran their story ideas, topics, and facts, over with their editors. Just like in their articles, the book was very fair and detailed, which adds significantly to their credibility, which was their main thing they protected and looked out for.

Woodward and Bernstein had a motivation driving their investigation and reporting that was very unlike one would likely find today. They seemed to be enticed simply by their love for writing and the strife for the truth. Many times today, you see journalists that obviously are motivated by fame, wealth, or politics. Many people would have written those articles simply to go down in the history books or in order to bring down high up officials for personal gain, but this aspect was not present in the book. Although you have to take into the consideration that Woodward and Bernstein wrote it themselves, it still seems to hold true.

Bernstein and Woodward are acknowledged as being the ones to uncover Nixon's "dirty tricks." While they were uncovering these events, they must have been considering the political shock waves that it would send out as well as the political precedent that it set. Using these events as a comparison to today's investigations of our President, Woodward and Bernstein must be a little reluctant for immediate removal. In comparison, Nixon covered up his rigging of elections and destruction campaigns. Clinton covered up his inappropriate affair.