Nixon and the Watergate Scandal - Mrs....

Nixon and the Watergate Scandal

• 1960 Nixon lost to Kennedy (barely)

• 1962 lost race for governor in CA – blamed his defeat on political enemies and media

• 1968 he made a comeback and narrowly defeated Hubert Humphrey

• By 1971 Nixon was increasingly paranoid about his political opponents

• 1972 Nixon won reelection by a landslide against George McGovern

“His Own Worst Enemy”

• Nixon and his advisors feared that the dissent over Vietnam was growing

• Pentagon Papers – secret government study about US role in Vietnam – were leaked

• As a result, Nixon and his advisors set out to punish real and imagined political enemies

A Cartoon History of the Watergate Scandal

Stage number

Summary of Stage Answers to the Critical Thinking Questions

What happened to Nixon’s signature over the course of his term in office? How might Watergate have affected the country?

• Aug 9, 1974 – “Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.”

• Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon a month later