June 17, 2012 06:59 PM UTC

The Watergate Break In 40 years ago today

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• by: allyncooper

Forty years ago today at 1:00 am a security guard at the Watergate complex in Washington DC noticed tape covering the latches on several doors at the offices of the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Frank Wills removed the tape, but returned an hour later and discovered someone had retaped the latches, and Wills called the police. Five men were discovered inside the offices attempting to install wiretaps on the phones and other bugging equipment. At a hearing the next morning, the five men were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications.

At that hearing, two young reporters who worked out of the city desk at the Washington Post showed up because that’s the kind of story they covered – murders, assaults, burglaries, etc. They had never done any political reporting, but they were good reporters because they asked questions. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did their job.

Frank Wills made $80 a week as a security guard at the Watergate complex. Wills never made much money the rest of his life, and died penniless of a brain tumor in 2000. But in the early morning of June 17, 1972 he did his job.

Richard Nixon resigned the presidency of the United States on August 9, 1974 after having Articles of Impeachment sent over to the Senate for trial.  Two days earlier top Republican leaders met with Nixon and told him he might have ten votes in the Senate, with Senator Barry Goldwater bluntly telling him he would vote to convict him and remove him from office.

Richard Nixon had taken an oath of office “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States”. But instead he presided over the most corrupt administration in the history of our country wantonly breaking the law, trashing the Constitution, and attempting to cover it all up. Forty-three Nixon administration officials either plead guilty or were convicted of criminal wrongdoing, including Nixon’s two top aids and his Attorney General who were sent to prison.

Richard Nixon didn’t do his job. But thankfully others did theirs.