What Was The Watergate Scandal?

In June of 1972 in Washington, D.C. an event occurred, which ended up holding worldwide importance. It was on this date that five people broke into the Democratic National Headquarters to bug their telephones. These men were members of the former FBI agents and former CIA agents among others. The group was strongly Republican. Many people remember the name Watergate as a blanket term used to describe the fall of President Richard Nixon Vietnam War.
As this unfolded, Nixon went on to win the presidential election in one of the biggest landslides in history. It would be Nixon's last big win. Following his re-election the repercussions from the Watergate break-in grew larger. Several of the burglars went to jail. Several White House staffers were forced to resign and White House Chief Counsel John Dean resigned.
The Senate investigation went forward and immediately became damaging to the President in June as John Dean became the first White House staff member to admit that he had discussions with Nixon to cover it up. In July things got worse as it was revealed in the Senate hearings that Nixon had a sophisticated taping system set up in the Oval Office with which he had taped all of his conversations.
The pressure continued to be placed on Nixon though to hand over the tapes. The story of Watergate is a complex and deep one full of intrigue and back room deals, public politics and personal motivations.

The Watergate Scandal was basically a break in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in 1972 at the Watergate Hotel at Washington D.C by members of Richard Nixon's (Then President of the United States) administration. They were basically disguised as a plumbing team with a motive to plant listening bugs in the headquarters. Some of these people were former members of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the exposure of the operation led to a big cover up which ultimately led to the resignation of the President (Richard Nixon) on the 9th of August in the year 1974. He is the only American President who resigned from his office before the completion of his tenure.

The main cause for Nixon to resign from office was when the court ordered a release of the Smoking Gun tape in August of the year 1974 which showed what burglaries this operation brought with it and thus implicating Nixon in an impeachment of the constitution.

On June 17, 1972 a security guard at the hotel contacted the police after getting suspicious and the police arrested 5 men who were in the National Committee headquarters posing as plumbers but were actually part of a secret team who had broken in with an intention to fix wires and listening taps that were not working. This was all a part of the white house dirty politics which were exposed in the scandal.