Five burglars were arrested inside the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. What seemed like an ordinary break-in became the beginning of a long chain of events that led to the first ever resignation of an American president. Watergate scandal has forever changed public perception of politicians and public officials. Subsequently, American people lost trust in government and in the political system itself. .
To understand Watergate fully we need to look at it in context of history. When Richard Nixon became a president in 1968, the work has been cut out for him. He faced the major challenge - Vietnam War. By the time Nixon took over the office, united States were deep into the war with no solution in sight. At home, the war was so unpopular that it caused civil unrest and antiwar demonstrations. Actually, one of the reasons Nixon was elected, because previous president Lyndon Johnson and democrats failed to effectively resolve the conflict. In his election campaign, Richard Nixon stressed that he has a plan to end the war. However, his efforts to negotiate a compromise with North Vietnam were futile. The key challenge was to force North Vietnam to consider giving the South its independence. But North Vietnamese would not even consider divided nation. Therefore, in late 1969 Nixon decided that the only way to appease Americans at home, while preserving nation's honor was to slowly withdraw American forces, reassuring South Vietnam that air power would be enough to cover the extraction; increase bombing the North to force them into negotiating. Nixon was determined not to be defined by the war. That fear forced Nixon take extraordinary measures. In March 1969, president Nixon authorizes a secret mission to bomb North Vietnamese forces based in neighboring Cambodia. This was campaign approved by the executive branch – the president, without congressional authorization.