Notes on Watergate: One Year Later

Abstract

When and how the Watergate affair will end is still anyone's guess. Congressional investigations and court trials have generated a momentum of their own, producing a seemingly unending flow of scandal and sensation. On top of this, new rumors of additional revelations crop up almost daily, and various scenarios about impeachment or resignation of the President are afloat. Despite all this confusion and uncertainty, however, the longer Watergate occupies the center of the stage the clearer it becomes that the seemingly ruthless investigations and exposures by Congress, prosecuting attorneys, and the press are further and further removed from what really matters —the foreign and domestic programs and practices of the Nixon administration. Instead, the focus is on the evildoings of Nixon and his gang: the abuse of the office of the President for personal and political advantage, and the elaborate, if incompetent, attempts to cover up the skulduggery.

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