Watergate Scandal

Watergate happened for several reasons. The primary reason was probably the personality of Nixon and of the men he chose to surround himself with. They were all fiercely loyal, and likeminded in the respect that they all had a desire for secrecy and for consolidation of power. They also developed the sense that they were above the law, which started their cover-up actions, beginning the entire Watergate scandal. A group of people, headed by members connected to Nixon, attempted a burglary at the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) headquarters located in the Watergate complex. When some investigation leads to high-up members of Nixon's staff and possibly himself, he begins firing people. After finding out that Nixon taped all his Oval Office conversations, the group prosecuting Nixon attempted to get them. Nixon kept firing people that tried to get them, only to replace them with equally determined people. He finally released edited versions of the tape, but the House determined enough evidence was already held against him to impeach him on charges of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. Nixon resigned before they could impeach him.
We used a lot of items to represent the happenings of the Watergate Scandal. On one side of the box, the break-in side, we had items such as hammers, flashlights, wires, wrench-type things, locks, and other break-in related objects. On the next side, we had items relating to the attempted cover-up by Nixon and his administration. Bundles of money represented how Nixon tried to keep the burglars silent in the court. Also, photographs and articles by Woodward and Bernstein, two newspaper journalists who were intent on digging to the bottom of this story. The next side had tapes, which obviously represent the tapes that Nixon used to record his white house conversations. Finally, we had a printed copy of Nixon's resignation letter as the final event in the scandal.
We obtained many of the pictures and newspaper articles from the internet. The rest of the physical found art was scavenged in our houses from old toys and toolboxes.
If we could repeat this again, I would try to assemble the box BEFORE the day before it is going to be presented to the class. I felt that we were partially prepared to put the items together on the box, and I know that for me at least once I saw the almost completed project I kept thinking of new things that I wanted to add.
Therefore, my advice to the incoming class is to build their project before the last day, so that more can be added before the due date resulting in a better looking, better-prepared project overall.