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Richard
Nixon delivering the "V" sign upon his final
departure from the White House, photograph by
Robert L. Knudsen, August 9,
1974
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During
the night of June 17, 1972, five burglars broke
into the offices of the Democratic National
Committee at the Watergate office complex in
Washington, DC. Investigation into the break-in
exposed a trail of abuses that led to the highest
levels of the Nixon administration and ultimately
to the President himself. President Nixon resigned
from office under threat of impeachment on August
9, 1974.
The break-in and the resignation form the
boundaries of the events we know as the Watergate
affair. For 2 years public revelations of
wrongdoing inside the White House convulsed the
nation in a series of confrontations that pitted
the President against the media, executive
agencies, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. The
Watergate affair was a national trauma--a
constitutional crisis that tested and affirmed the
rule of law.
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