The Science of Conspiracy Theories

Watergate

Watergate

This was one of the most egregious true political conspiracies of all time. And, the hard part to understand is why it was even necessary.

Actually, the Watergate scandal had a lot of unintentional consequences. The first consequence was that the National Democratic Party's headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington D.C. was broken into for the purpose of discovering information that could be used in the Presidential campaign of Richard Nixon. Not only was the office broken into, the phones were wiretapped.

This burglary happened on June 17, 1972 and several burglars were arrested. Now, this would not have been such a big deal except for the fact that E. Howard Hunt's name was discovered in address books found on two of the burglars. E. Howard Hunt was eventually tied back to a gang known as the 'White House Plumbers' that was involved in several dirty political tricks. Among the names associated with this fine bunch of tricksters, was Gordon Liddy, John Ehrlichman, H. R. Haldeman, John Dean, among others. All of them were convicted of crimes concerning this sorted affair.

The more important conspiracy was that President Nixon knew about the whole affair but continued to deny that he did. What's really strange is that Nixon had authorized taping to be done in meetings, but one of the most incriminating tapes had an eighteen and one-half minute section erased. This would have implicated Nixon directly.

It didn't stop the Senate from calling for impeachment, but Nixon avoided the official shame by resigning, allowing Gerald Ford to become president. What this scandal did was show how terrible politics could become. It also opened up the press to investigating all sorts of political corruption and even affairs, as shown by what happened to President Clinton.

What I don't understand about this scandal is why it was even necessary. Nixon had it made. He didn't need dirty tricks to be reelected. The only thing that I could assume is that he was paranoid.

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