WASHINGTON - On June 17, 1972, Washington police caught five men trying to break into the Democratic Party national headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex. The ensuing scandal brought down one of the most outspoken US presidents of the 20th century.
Watergate dominated world headlines for months as President Richard Nixon at first denied knowledge of an official coverup of the burglary before his deceit was exposed and he was forced to resign on August 9, 1974.
Much of the scandal became public knowledge through stories by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who widely relied upon their "Deep Throat" source, who has now been revealed to be FBI official Mark Felt.
Woodward said the reporters would reveal Deep Throat's identity once the official died. Felt's confession in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine has put the spotlight back on the painful affair.
The five men were attempting to place listening devices in the Democratic headquarters. With two accomplices, they were tried and convicted in January 1973. All seven were directly or indirectly employees of Nixon's re-election committee, and many people, including trial judge John Sirica, suspected a conspiracy involving top government officials.
In March 1973, James McCord, one of the convicted burglars, wrote to Sirica charging a massive coverup. His letter transformed the affair into Nixon's political nightmare.
Senate investigations took the affair up to former attorney general John Mitchell and chief White House advisers John Ehrlichman and H.R. (Bob) Haldeman.
Responding to public pressure, in April 1974, Nixon released edited transcripts of his taped conversations relating to Watergate. It failed to stop attacks on his administration, and polls said most Americans believed he was implicated in the Watergate coverup.
On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes relating to the coverup. The House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee completed its investigation and passed three articles of impeachment against Nixon.
On August 5, Nixon made public the transcripts of three recorded conversations and admitted that he had been aware of the coverup shortly after the Watergate break-in and that he had tried to halt the Federal Bureau of Investigation's inquiry.
Four days later, Nixon resigned, to be replaced by Vice President Gerald Ford. Watergate still had more shocks to deliver. Ford pardoned Nixon to avoid a trial, while Nixon's chief associates, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell, were among those convicted on January 1, 1975 for their role.
Nixon died in 1994 at the age of 81. His status as the only US president to resign has dominated his legacy.
Watergate also provoked a widespread distrust in the government that many experts say lasts until today.
"Trust was being reduced by Vietnam and the turmoil of the '60s anyhow," said George Edwards, professor of political science and an expert on the US presidency at Texas A and M University. "This furthered it. It also made the press much less deferential to the president."
The story "was very incremental," Woodward said of the scandal in a television interview last year. "There were big moments in it," but also many difficult moments.
The two reporters faced months of attacks from Nixon's press secrteary, Ron Zeigler, on the accuracy of their reporting. "We did feel alone," Bernstein said.
05/31/2005 18:18 GMT