Portrait of former President Richard Nixon, in the year he would have turned 100.
Of the forty-four Presidents of the United States, most are over a hundred years old (since quite a few have passed since 1783). But not all are equally important. And the one who turns one hundred today is very important indeed.
This particular tenant of the White House was born on January 9, 1913, and his name was Richard Milhous Nixon, although to go down in history he would leave his names (especially the second one to lend it to the character of The Simpsons) to be known simply as Richard Nixon.
However, despite being one of the most important US presidents, his reputation cannot exactly be described as positive. In 1972, Nixon's name would become forever linked to Watergate, the building that housed the Democratic Party offices.
The incident itself unfolded as follows: on June 17, during the US presidential election campaign, five men entered the White House with cameras, an electronic microphone, and a $1000 check. Except for the check, everything appeared to be a spy's kit. The purpose of this intrusion was to spy on the Democratic Party's activities on behalf of Richard Nixon. Nothing would have linked this event to Richard Nixon had it not been for the fact that when these men were arrested by the police, they were carrying a notebook with the White House phone number.
This last detail did not reach the media, which allowed Nixon to become the Republican presidential nominee for the second time in August, and to win reelection in November with a landslide victory (losing only one state). However, two days after his inauguration in January 1973, the U.S. Senate authorized the creation of a committee to investigate the Watergate scandal.
From then on, Nixon's popularity declined as his name surfaced more frequently in the investigation. Ultimately, it was proven that Nixon had recordings in his White House offices that showed he had attempted to cover up the incident by bribing the five men who broke into the Watergate Building, thus confirming that he had committed a serious crime of obstruction of justice.
With the committee's investigation completed after the release of the tapes following several legal battles, and with the certainty that an official indictment would come from Congress and the Senate, Nixon decided to resign and leave the Presidency, being the first President to do so and, so far, the only one.
Watergate was a case that had it all: scandal, bribery, espionage… even a “Deep Throat” (the code name for the person close to Nixon who revealed the affair to investigators). And at the heart of the whole mess was Nixon himself, who, in just two years in office, politically destroyed it. For all these reasons, Nixon, though no longer with us, is still remembered and will be remembered for a long time. Because he wasn't a perfect man, and he never will be.
Victor Gas (1st Year of High School, A)
