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| 2026-06-13 | 2026-06-13 | Watergate |
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Intelligence Scandal | 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. | 1972-06-17 | 1974-08-09 | 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, 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 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.12
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 Committee on the Judiciary 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