James McCord - Watergate Scandal

  
                   Watergate building    

  
                      James McCord

     Probably one of the most famous events of the 1970s, Watergate will forever go down in history books. It was 1972 when Richard Nixon started the Committee for the Re-election of the President (CRP.) He enlisted the help of aides, Attorney Generals, and former CIA agents to get him back in the White House for a second term. Little did the public know, he was doing it by wire-tapping and breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Shortly after midnight on June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the latches on doors in the complex (allowing the doors to close but remain unlocked). He removed the tape, and thought nothing of it. He returned an hour later, and having discovered that someone had retaped the locks, Wills called the police. Five men were discovered and arrested inside the DNC's office. The five men were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James McCord, Eugenio Martinez, and Frank Sturgis, who were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. On September 15, a grand jury indicted them for conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws. The five burglars who broke into the office were tried by Judge John Sirica and convicted on January 30, 1973.

     James McCord was born in Waurika, Oklahoma in 1924 and after graduating college, went into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA.) During his long career in the CIA, McCord was head of security for the Committee for the Re-election of the President; who was Richard Nixon at the time. In a later letter, written to the U.S. District Judge John Sirica, who convicted him, McCord stated that his plea and testimony, some of which he claimed was perjured, were compelled by pressure from White House counsel John Dean and former Attorney General John Mitchell. The letter implicated senior individuals in the Richard Nixon administration of covering up the conspiracy that led to the burglary.

     Since the evidence against Nixon was rock-solid, both the House of Representatives were on the road to impeach him and there was a possibility of conviction from the Senate. This lead Richard Nixon to resign his presidency on August 9, 1974 to try and put an end to the Watergate scandal. Nixon is the only president to this day to resign and though he thought resigning would put the scandal behind him, he was very wrong as it is still discussed and studied today. 

Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/watergate/james.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmccordJ.htm