Writing Assignment #10 (extra) Joey Liew HST 202-03 A chapter review of Mark Lytle and James Davidsons

Breaking into Watergate, in After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, V. II (New York: 2005). In the fifteenth chapter of Mark Lytle and James Davidsons After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, V. II, they mainly discuss a significant case in U.S. history about the Watergate scandal. The main topic in this chapter revolves around President Richard Nixon recording conversions inside his office. Effects of the scandal led Nixon to hand over the tapes to the Supreme Court and resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974. Lytle and Davidson focus this chapter on President Nixons involvement in the Watergate scandal. In the beginning, they discuss how the incident happened. A group of burglars who on June 7, 1972, had break-in into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. In later months the five arrested burglars were linked to several of Nixons administration officials. Soon, as evidence piled up against Nixons staff, it was revealed that President Nixon had a type recording system set-up in his office and he had similarly recorded many conversations. After a series of court sessions, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes. Within the tapes, it revealed a president who was often vindictive, vulgar, and small-minded (377). His personality was distinctly different from his public appearance. For example, it was referenced in the transcript that Nixon called the big Jewish contributors as cocksuckers (391). In the end, the scandal threated President Nixon from facing near impeachment, so instead he resigned the presidency. Furthermore, Davidson and Lytle discuss other former presidents using a recording system. They mention that Pres. Kennedy was the first president to make extensive audio recordings. Lyndon Johnson also had recordings in his office; instead of recording conversions in his office, he usually recorded the conversations from his phone. I find this chapter about Nixons connection with the Watergate scandal to be very interesting. This chapter answered many questions that I had when I was in U.S. history during high school. I love how this chapter gives and goes so much in depth into the case. The conversation logs help me understand more of what kind a person President Nixon was. Although many of my questions were answered, some questions that I have are still unclear. Why does President Nixon need that stuff (384)? Why did Nixon want to blackmail Johnson? Why did Johnson not want his tape recordings

to be open until 2023? All of these questions that I still have no clear answer to makes me want to read much more about the Watergate scandal.