In June 1971 information about the Vietnam war was leaked from the pentagon, by Daniel Ellsberg. Although this was not directly damaging to Nixon is made his administration look bad and made him even more suspicious of others.

He set up a group called the 'Whitehouse Plumbers' in order to stop any more sensitive information from being leaked.

One of the first jobs they were given was to take down Daniel Ellsberg. They broke into his psychiatrist's office in order to find dirt on him. Although they found nothing of use it showed they would do anything for the President.

In 1972, Nixon decided to stand for re-election and set up CREEP (committee to re-elect the President) to raise money for the campaign.

John Mitchell, the former Attorney General, was made director of the committee and secretly given a separate fund for the campaign.

This was used to pay the Whitehouse Plumbers to spy on opponents and get dirt on them.

This proved successful as many people wishing to be the Democratic representative were publicly disgraced.

Then on 17th June 1972, 5 men were arrested for breaking into the offices of the National Democratic Committee in the Watergate complex in Washington.

They were caught trying to repair bugging devices that had been planted on the 28th May.

Originally the burglary received little coverage from the press. However two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Einstein, were highly suspicous.

They investigated and found links to CREEP, but John Mitchell denied any involvement.

With help from the FBI they found more information and linked the burglary to the White House.

The White House denied any involvement but Woodward and Einstein continued regardless. They were mainly responsible for alerting the public and raising suspicions of the Democratic members of Congress.

To begin with, Democrats accepted the White House's statement until the journalism convinced them further investigation was required.

The FBI was also carrying out its own investigations at the same time.

Over the next two weeks the FBI gradually found out the extent of the scheme to find information and sabotage the Democrats.

They had received donations from outside sources who thought it was going to the re-election campaign via legal means and not to stage break-ins.

To begin with most people assumed the break-in was a bizarre break in with people acting alone despite the two people proved to be working for CREEP.

Nixon stated that the White House lawyer had investigated and found no one involved in the burglary and everyone believed him.

No one thought the government would be involved with illegal activities. Despite the Vietnam war going badly, Nixon was regarded as a good and efficient president who was easily re-elected in 1972.

On 8th January 1973 the trial of the burglars and Hunt and Liddy began. All seven were charged with conspiracy, burglary and wire-tapping and found guilty with 5 of them pleading guilty.

They were due to be sentenced on the 23rd March. On the 19th the judge received a letter saying the President told them to lie during the trial. This was what really started the scandal.

Nixon denied any knowledge of the Watergate complex being burgled.

On 17th April he launched a new investigation led by the prosecutor for the White House Archibald Cox.

On the 30th April Nixon sacked the White House Chief of staff and the Head of the Plumbers resigned due to their involvement in the burglary and cover-up.

Meanwhile the Democrats convinced the Senate to launch their own investigation. On 7th February the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign was set up. This was led by a Democratic Senator and former constitutional lawyer.

The investigation and meeting were televised and the public was shocked at seeing the revelation of the degree of corruption at the highest level.

In John Dean's five day testimony it was revealed Nixon was involved but he refused to be questioned.

Scandal increased when one witness admitted that all conversation in Nixon's office had been taped since 1971.

Both Archibald Cox and the Select Committee tried to gain access to these recordings.

Nixon refused on the grounds of National Security as the tapes were about more than just Watergate. He feared it would stop people speaking openly to the President again.

In October 1973 he released edited versions of the tapes. Then in April he released more scripts this time without edits except where expletives were used.

The public were shocked by both the language used and the content of what was spoken.

The fact Nixon refused access to the tapes themselves and the discovery that some scripts had been cut out led the Senate to want to impeach him.

On 24th July the Senate ordered Nixon to release all the recordings.

When they were played there was sufficient evidence showing Nixon blocked the initial investigation, abused his power, and failed to obey the law forcing him to give up the evidence.

On the 5th August a recording from 23rd June 1972 revealed Nixon trying to stop the FBI investigating the break-in at the Watergate complex.

This was proof he tried to cover it up from the beginning. He resigned on the 9th August before he could be impeached.