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+---
+created: 2026-06-13
+updated: 2026-06-13
+title: Watergate
+aliases:
+  - Watergate Scandal
+tags:
+  - Event
+  - IntelligenceScandal
+  - Nixon
+  - CIA
+  - 1970s
+category: "Intelligence Scandal"
+summary: "Watergate was the 1972 to 1974 political scandal, beginning with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee by operatives tied to the Nixon reelection campaign and the CIA, that culminated in President Nixon's resignation."
+start: 1972-06-17
+end: 1974-08-09
+location: "Washington, D.C."
+---
+Watergate was the political scandal that began with the June 17, 1972 arrest of five men who broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in [[Washington, D.C.]], and that ended with the resignation of President [[Richard Nixon]] on August 9, 1974. The investigation exposed a wider pattern of covert operations, illegal surveillance, and obstruction of justice directed from the [[White House]].[^1]
+
+### The Burglars and the Intelligence Connection
+
+The burglars and their supervisors were drawn from the intersection of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], anti-Castro Cuban exile networks, and the Nixon campaign. [[E. Howard Hunt]], a veteran CIA officer, and [[James McCord]], a former CIA security official, organized the operation, and several of the burglars were Cuban exiles from the [[Bay of Pigs|Bay of Pigs invasion]] milieu. Hunt and [[G. Gordon Liddy]] had earlier run the White House "Plumbers" unit, whose 1971 burglary of [[Daniel Ellsberg]]'s psychiatrist used disguises and equipment supplied by the CIA's [[Office of Technical Service|Technical Services Division]].[^1][^2]
+
+### Investigation and Resignation
+
+Reporting in the *Washington Post*, an FBI investigation, and the Senate Watergate Committee revealed a secret taping system in the Oval Office and a fund used to buy the burglars' silence. After the Supreme Court ordered release of the tapes, which confirmed Nixon's role in the cover-up, the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment and Nixon resigned. The scandal directly preceded the [[Church Committee]] and Pike Committee investigations that exposed the broader history of intelligence abuses.[^1]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. *Final Report*. Government Printing Office, 1974.
+[^2]: Hougan, Jim. *Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat, and the CIA*. Random House, 1984.