United States v. Nixon

Titles: United States v. Nixon Labels: Nixon, Watergate, US_v_Nixon





The Cover-up

1. Regardless of the outcome, should the President of the United States have a right to privacy in regards to the Oval Office tapes? Explain.
When the court demanded that Nixon hand over the tapes, he refused, claiming a right to privacy. However the tapes would have been evidence in the investigation, regardless of how relevant the tapes, particularly the smoking gun tape, would become anyway. The president should not have the power to keep the oval office tapes during an investigation in which they are prevalent.


2. Was President Nixon justified when he fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox? Explain.

When Nixon fired prosecutor Cox in October of 1973, it was because the case was not going as Nixon wanted it to go. Cox had acquired a subpoena for the eight oval office tapes and Nixon wanted claimed that turning the tapes over would threaten national security. Cox however was relentless in wanted the tapes. The president cannot be justified in firing a special prosecutor simply because he is working against the president rather than in his favor.

3. Was Nixon creating a Constitutional crisis by refusing to hand-over the tapes? Explain.

By refusing to hand over the tapes Nixon brought up two issues, one being whether or not the tapes were private property of the president or not and also, by deliberately going against the Supreme Court and judge John Sirica, how much power the executive branch had. If Nixon had not had to and over the tapes and succumb to a court of law, it would have shown that the president is above the law. By refusing to hand over the tapes Nixon was stating that as the president, he was indeed above the law, showing that the executive branch was far more powerful than another branch and thus creating a constitutional crisis.

Closure

4. Why do you think the American public was so outraged by Watergate?
I think that the American public was outraged by Watergate for a few reasons. The first reason pertaining to the actual break in itself; When the investigation began, money from the burglary was able to be traced back to CRP, Nixon's campaign. The fact was that Nixon was using campaign money to pay criminals like G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord and the other burglars. The other outrage and probably the more significant outrage comes from the fact that Watergate created a constitutional crisis. Watergate revealed to the American public how close they had almost come to living under a king or dictator.



5. Do you think President Nixon should have resigned? Explain.

I think that had President Nixon not resigned than he would have certainly been impeached, and so it was in his own best interest. However, aside from that, many of Nixon's aids such as John Mitchell (AG) were serving jail time and had been convicted of crimes relating to watergate. Nixon himself was convicted of abuse of power, obstruction of justice and various other things. If Nixon had not resigned and stayed in his position as president it would have set a precedent that other presidents could break the law, abuse their power and still come out fine.

6. Do you think President Nixon should have been prosecuted? Explain.
Many people working with Nixon were prosecuted, John Mitchell, Gordon Liddy, James McCord, Dean, Colson, and others. Prosecuting Nixon might have shown that even as president he had to answer for his crimes like any other citizen would, which may have been important considering that Watergate seemed to raise the question of whether or not the presidency was heading in more of a totalitarian direction. However, Nixon lost a lot of his power and by becoming the first president to resign his reputation suffered a serious blow. As a political figure he was now very weak.