Conspiracy: Nixon, Watergate, and Democracy's Defenders - Softcover

Pearson, P. O’Connell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1534480048 ISBN 13: 9781534480049

Verlag: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

The “indisputably timely” (Kirkus Reviews) story of President Richard Nixon and those who fought against him comes to life in this insightful and accessible nonfiction middle grade book from the author of Fly Girls and Fighting for the Forest.

The Watergate scandal created one of the greatest constitutional crises in American history. When the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon and the Supreme Court ruled that he had to turn over to Congress the tapes that proved the claims against him, he realized his support in the Senate had collapsed. He resigned rather than face almost certain conviction on abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

We know the villain’s story well, but what about the heroes? When the country’s own leader turned his back on the Constitution, who was there to defend it?

Conspiracy is about the reporters, prosecutors, judges, justices, members of Congress, and members of the public who supported and defended the Constitution when it needed it most.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

P. O’Connell Pearson has always taught history—first in the high school classroom and then as a curriculum writer and editor across grade levels. Ready to share her enthusiasm for stories of the past in a new way, she earned an MFA in writing for young people from Lesley University and now writes narrative nonfiction for ages ten and up. Her books have received recognition from Bank Street, NCSS, the New-York Historical Society, Arizona Library Association, and more. When Pearson is not writing about history, she can often be found talking about history as a volunteer with the National Park Service in Washington, DC.

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Chapter 1: Landslide CHAPTER 1 Landslide NOVEMBER 7, 1972


Approval. Richard Nixon had spent his entire life working for approval. Now, as the earliest vote counts came in on election night, 1972, it became clear that he’d finally gotten what he wanted. Not simply a second term as president. No. Nixon had won his first term as president in 1968 with a tiny majority and decided right then that when he ran for a second term, he’d win big, no matter what. He wanted real recognition. He wanted to be an unquestioned, undeniable, undoubted winner. And he’d done it. Richard Milhous Nixon had won a majority of votes in forty-nine of the fifty states. Nixon, a Republican, had defeated his Democratic opponent by nearly eighteen million votes in one of the most lopsided wins in presidential history.

Naturally, Nixon was pleased with the results. Voters had finally recognized his worth. As he saw it, he now had a mandate, a kind of authority to act boldly, and he planned to use it. But while Republicans around the country cheered the victory, Nixon made just one quick visit to a nearby celebration and a short television appearance to thank his supporters. Then he huddled with two close aides in a room on the second floor of the White House. They talked long into the night, the president serious and unsmiling.


Electoral College totals by state, 1972 presidential election

Nixon wrote later that he didn’t really know why he was in such a gloomy mood that night. But he thought perhaps he was worried about Vietnam, or perhaps about the upcoming trial in the scandal everyone was calling Watergate.1

Worry about the war in Vietnam made sense. Nixon had campaigned for his first term in 1968 on a “secret plan” to end the long, long war. He’d reduced the number of Americans fighting there, but the war still wasn’t over and it grew more unpopular by the minute. Nixon believed that the presidents who led the country into the war had made a real mess of things, a mess he was stuck trying to clean up. And it got in the way of everything else he wanted to do as president. In 1972, he campaigned again on ending the war. The situation was complicated, but Nixon was determined to finally achieve peace.

Watergate was another matter. In June, five months before the election, police had interrupted a middle-of-the-night break-in at the Watergate office and apartment complex a mile west of the White House. They arrested the burglars on the spot and soon discovered that the men were somehow connected to Nixon’s reelection committee. The story hit the newspapers the next morning, and it could have been very awkward for the president if people believed his campaign staff had done something illegal to try to win votes. But Nixon’s press secretary—the White House aide who talks to reporters—went on television and described the crime as a “third-rate burglary” that had nothing to do with the president or any of his aides. Most news outlets soon moved on to other stories, and the burglary faded into the background.

The burglars faced charges related to the break-in and would probably be in the headlines again when they went to trial. But the judge on the case scheduled the trial for after the election, and that was good for Nixon. It meant that the story wasn’t in the news on Election Day. And by the time it was, most people wouldn’t even remember something that had happened in June. Even so, the night before the election, with all the polls predicting a landslide, Nixon wrote in his diary, “The only sour note of the whole thing is Watergate.…”2 Why would that be?

Richard Nixon had worked toward winning the 1972 election by a big margin since the day of the 1968 election. But halfway through his first term as president, he had feared he might not win a second term at all. In 1970, prices for food and housing and gasoline were high and getting higher, and that hurt the president’s popularity. People wanted him to fix the economy, and he wanted that too. But he hadn’t had much success. At the same time, tens of thousands of college students were shutting down campuses and highways across the country to protest the war in Vietnam and Nixon’s war policies. That made many voters angry and afraid and made the president look weak. When the Democrats started their campaign for the 1972 election, they would go after the president on all of it.

At that point, even though the election was two years away, Nixon told his aides to do whatever it took to win big in 1972. They followed his order, even using tactics the public could not know about. Tactics that a lot of people would call unfair or underhanded, even criminal. In fact, Nixon’s men knew that if Americans found out about everything the president’s campaign did, they might say President Nixon stole the 1972 election. But Richard Nixon and his aides went ahead with the underhanded tactics because they believed victory was important enough to use any means necessary to achieve it.


President Nixon greets students in Utica, Michigan, 1972

For two years, the president’s men, as people called his aides (yes, they were all men), got away with dirty tricks, bribes, lies, and more in their effort to guarantee Nixon’s win. The botched break-in at the Watergate complex was their only slip, and it really wasn’t that terrible a crime. Nixon’s press secretary was right—it was a “third-rate burglary.” But he was wrong that it had nothing to do with the president or his aides. The problem with Watergate was that if anyone dug too deeply into it, they could uncover enough dirt to destroy everything.

As Republican celebrations ended late on election night, Nixon still sat with his aides. At two o’clock in the morning, the president ordered scrambled eggs and bacon from the White House kitchen, and the men continued talking about Nixon’s victory and his second term. He and his men believed that he, Richard Nixon, and only Richard Nixon, could achieve peace around the world. Nixon had campaigned this time on his vision for world peace and the progress he’d made with China and the Soviet Union, as well as the real chance for an end to the war in Vietnam. He’d also promised better pay for the military, and he’d reminded voters of his first-term achievements—new environmental laws and agencies, reforms in law enforcement, new civil rights programs, and more. He’d even talked about plans for simplifying and smoothing out the workings of the gigantic federal government, something almost everyone agreed the government needed. Those kinds of promises—his platform—as well as a very weak Democratic candidate gave Nixon his huge win.


Richard Nixon (right), and vice-presidential nominee Spiro Agnew at the 1972 Republican National Convention

But Richard Nixon had other second-term plans on his mind that night too. Plans that weren’t in his public platform. Unofficial plans that, like the secret campaign tactics, no one could know about. Plans that would shock the people who had just voted...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1534480048
• ISBN 13: 9781534480049
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: webstar; casetta@mondadori.it; ; Via Mondadori 1,; Segrate Milano; 20090; Italien