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Edit request from 24.213.255.200, 30 November 2010

Bold text{{edit semi-protected}} This page sucks and is lacking much of the information needed to gain a good knowledge of the watergate scandal. This page is lacking a strong backround and inside look on several of the culprits in this scandal.

24.213.255.200 (talk) 15:15, 30 November 2010 (UTC)I could make this page much better with some of my knowledge on this subject. Please let me fix this page.

Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. What you ask is impossible. There is no way for us to allow one IP editor to edit the page, while still keeping the general semi-protection. If you have specific changes you would like to make, you may request them with a specific edit request in the form of "Please change X to Y" or "Please add A to Section B".

Alternatively, you can register for an account. You don't have to give any information other than a pseudonym and a password (you can optionally given an email address to help you in case you forget your password). Then, once your account has been registered for at least 4 days and you have made at least 10 edits (to articles that aren't semi-protected like this one), you'll be free to edit this and all other semi-protected articles.

Please note that one requirement of editing, whether it be through requests like this one or as an autoconfirmed editor, is that you provide sources for everything and keep all of the information neutral. Qwyrxian (talk) 04:35, 1 December 2010 (UTC)



This page is a nightmare to read because the first paragraph doesn't explain anything, ie why is the break-in a political scandal? I had no idea what it was all about and had to google it. PS for non-Americans too. I suggest editing it to :

The Watergate scandal was a 1970s United States political scandal resulting from the Watergate burglaries, the politically motivated break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters by opposing party Republicans later connected to the president and his office, that took place at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Effects of the scandal involving the cover-up, ultimately led to the resignation of the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, on August 9, 1974, the first and only resignation of any U.S. President. It also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of several Nixon administration officials.


Also I think you should edit the second sentence in the second paragraph without "the" payments —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.153.4.138 (talk) 16:49, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Financial significance

In one of the tapes, one of Nixon's men noted that Britain had floated the Pound and that this was threatening the Lira. Nixon said, "I don't give a d*** about the lira (unintelligible)." This is how the Bretton Woods agreement worked. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.97.194.200 (talk) 17:53, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

See Bretton Woods System. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.97.194.200 (talk) 12:13, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
I think it was Haldeman or Ehrlichman who was talking to Nixon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.97.194.200 (talk) 12:22, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
This was probably in the August of 1971.
See www.londonandoxford.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.97.194.200 (talk) 13:04, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
See www.londonandoxford.com/The_Euro/The_Euro_media_3.9.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.148.25.238 (talk) 15:55, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
Haldeman was the one who was talking to Nixon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.148.25.238 (talk) 15:58, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Comparison to the News International Phone Hacking Scandal

It appears that many commentators are comparing the Watergate scandal with the unfolding scandal covered by the "News International phone hacking scandal" article. I drafted a summary of commentators comparison points with supporting information, which is currently available at my user sub-page at http://en.wikipedia.org/User:Bryantbob/Comparisons_of_%22Murdochgate%22_to_%22Watergate%22. Contributors to the "News International phone hacking scandal" discussion page (http://en.wikipedia.org/Talk:News_International_phone_hacking_scandal) do not feel the comparison is notable. I would appreciate comments from "Watergate Scandal" contributors on its notability, specifically whether it warrants status as a stand alone article that should be included as a "see also" link to the "Watergate Scandal" article. Thanks. Bryantbob (talk) 04:43, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

It is almost never appropriate to link from a historical article to a current affairs article, and I doubt that this is an exception. See WP:UNDUE and WP:RECENTISM. Hans Adler 12:50, 21 August 2011 (UTC)
Points well taken. Thanks.Bryantbob (talk) 04:26, 22 August 2011 (UTC)
Your user page is originals research, Very interesting and well sourced original research but original research. Since we already have a line about "gate" scandals a sentence or two noting that the scandals are being compared updates the "gates" line to 2011. If a second sentence is needed I would use for the Dean comment since he was a major part of Watergate. Edkollin (talk) 21:19, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

The absurdity of the burglary

If this article gets the cleaning up it needs, it would be worth pointing out that the wiretaps and other mischief that Nixon's people had in mind were aimed at the candidacy of his opponent in the election, George McGovern. By the time of the break-in, it was clear to most people that McGovern's chances against Nixon were scant at best. Thus, authorizing the break-in and simply attempting it—which had a Keystone Kops quality to it from beginning to end—was unnecessary or, as I suggest, absurd, perhaps driven by Nixon's paranoia which emerged during the investigation in the aftermath of Watergate. Josephlestrange (talk) 13:12, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

Right now this is just your and my opinion. Find a reliable source that agrees with this and then you can put this in even before a any cleanup. Edkollin (talk) 23:27, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

No background

This article is distinctly lacking in any background information about the Plumbers and their activities prior to the attempt to bug the DNC. Surely this information is relevant to this article. john k (talk) 15:52, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

I agree. A couple of years ago I argued that this article should not be limited just to the break in and coverup but should have an opening paragraph with context since the events occurred before most people were born. Not just the Plumbers but how the combination of divisions in society, Nixon's personality Imperial Presidency etc led to the mindset in the view of many reliable sources led the administration to act that way. I was overruled, the consensus was that we had separate articles for those things and that was that. Watergate was considered an umbrella term for abuse of executive power during the Nixon administration. There are plenty of Reliable sources that define it that way. Edkollin (talk) 00:03, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
Yep, there's nothing at all in the article approaching a discussion about why the burglary and wiretapping of top level Dem locations was undertaken, with the inherent high risks. There would have been more specific reasons than just "guys, it's convenient to listen in on what they re talking about over there". One very likely reason would have been that Nixon wished to be able to sell to the voters in the '72 elections that McGovern and the Democrats in general were closely involved with some kind of youthful radicals who could be shown up as going too far, the anti-war liberals, draft dodgers, people like the Kent State students or whomever: "vote for McGovern and you vote for the hippies and junkie radicals!". There has to be some research or political historians discussing this, though I admit that the books I've seen about Watergate are not big on discussing Nixon's motivations either. 83.254.154.164 (talk) 12:08, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Wiretapping of the Democratic Party's headquarters

...which involved burgling the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) headquarters...

It seems to me that "burgling" would require that something actually be stolen, which I do not believe was the case. Perhaps the phrase "breaking into" would more accurately portray the actual 1972 event. Dick Kimball (talk) 16:20, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Shouldn't it be burglaring the HQ though? 83.254.154.164 (talk) 12:14, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Who was the asshole...

Two alternative quotes are offered in the article for Nixon's reaction of the break in, “Who was the asshole who ordered it?” and "Who was the asshole that did it?" (the two have different quotation marks, by the way).

So which one was it? --Diblidabliduu (talk) 17:35, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

External links

Hello.

On May 13 I added a link to dozens of House Judiciary Committee hearing transcripts on its investigation of Watergate. These pdf files, on archive.org, digitized by public libraries, are valuable primary sources for people researching the history of Watergate. They were removed by ENLO #9 eight hours later. Not moved to some other part of the external links section, but entirely deleted. I don't understand why this important resource would be removed from the external links section, while there are some links to dead web pages (http://www.woodwardandbernstein.net) that remain unmolested. I don't want to start a flame war, but any help that folks could provide to explain what does and does not go into "external links" would be appreciated.

In the meantime, here is the link that I proposed adding, which I assumed would be totally uncontroversial: Hearing Transcripts and "Statements of Information" from the House Judiciary Committee on its investigation of Watergate

Tsg946 (talk) 16:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

If you are looking for information regarding what may or may not go into the "External links" section, please see Misplaced Pages:External links. Regarding links that should generally be avoided, WP:ELNO #9 states: "Any search results pages, such as links to individual website searches, search engines, search aggregators, or RSS feeds." (You could also seek a second opinion at Misplaced Pages:External links/Noticeboard.) Location (talk) 20:01, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Page Lock

I think that this page should be looked into to fix some slack in some areas, and I also think that this page should be locked,as protected as the presidents' Wiki pages, due to the fact that it was such a big deal internationally when it happened.Deweypants (talk) 01:36, 19 June 2013 (UTC) Deweypants

Political and cultural reverberations - Unsourced

This lacks source/reference: 2nd paragraph refers to Congress enacting National Emergencies Act and infers that this is a direct result of Watergate. Upon some searching, I found the full text of the National Emergencies Act, and indeed, in the short Introduction section (I'm so glad!), they state,

"The Vietnam War and the abuses known collectively as "Watergate*' have led Congress to assume a more prominent role, most notably in foreign policy and the budgetary process...The National Emergencies Act is consistent with these efforts to make the Executive accountable for his actions and to restore Congress as an equal partner in the government."

Include the link and/or edit the 2 sentences? Thanks --Springwoman (talk) 14:09, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Republican Headline in main section

In the main first section of the article, the text reads, "...and the resignation of Republican Richard Nixon, the President of the United States..." I felt that the Republican in front of Richard Nixon is irrelevant to the subject of the article. However, I felt that my opinion could be bias and wanted an outside opinion before I made the edit. Greatpopcorn (talk) 21:19, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Semiprotection due to vandalism

I have noticed many unconstructive edits coming from the Killeen Independent School District (IP 198.97.37.6) User talk:198.97.37.6 to this article. Maybe should it have semi-protection to prevent any further vandalism? Warrenkychu (talk) 13:40, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Add "international reactions" section?

NAC:There is support for and no opposition to adding the section. Section is currently named 'Reactions' but is really specifically international reactions. Closer will rename section. Robert McClenon (talk) 07:06, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Can we add reactions by the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, Soviet Union, etc. toward the scandal? --George Ho (talk) 04:47, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

The examples I come up are Mao Zedong (China) and Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union). From List of Prime Ministers of Queen Elizabeth II: Gough Whitlam (Australia), Pierre Trudeau (Canada), Michael Manley (Jamaica), Norman Kirk (New Zealand), and Edward Heath (United Kingdom). I'm trying to find their reactions, but they would come up short. --George Ho (talk) 00:39, 2 November 2014 (UTC)
The reactions of Brezhnev and Mao are probably the best to include due to the policy of Detente that Nixon started with China and the USSR. In addition, it would be interesting to include their reactions due to their positions as dictators of their respective countries. PointsofNoReturn (talk) 02:19, 2 November 2014 (UTC)
Found interview with Brezhnev and Mao's comments. I don't know how to implement it in prose format (except adding references), but you do? --George Ho (talk) 02:26, 2 November 2014 (UTC)
You can quote the best quote word for word and then cite the interview if you want to. You can do it manually or as a template (in this case, manual is probably better). PointsofNoReturn (talk) 03:25, 2 November 2014 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Adding media portrayal and public reactions

Consensus appears to be in favour of adding this, as long as it is reliably sourced and notable. Number 57 23:47, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Shall worldwide analyses about media coverage of the Watergate be added? Also, I wonder if worldwide public reactions are worth adding. --George Ho (talk) 05:31, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Support/Yes Of course, if they are deemed notable. --Mr. Guye (talk) 00:07, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Comment This RfC would be valauble if it were more specific. What specific coverage is being referred to? Capitalismojo (talk) 00:43, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

I agree. It seems obvious that reliably sourced material could be included, so I'm wondering what was the impetus for a Rfc. - Location (talk) 01:35, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Comment @George Ho:: Please clarify your request. Are you talking about international media coverage of the watergate scandal? Or are you talking about international analyses of the media coverage of the Watergate scandal? DNA Ligase IV (talk) 02:29, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes Mostly if they are notable enough. Noteswork (talk) 06:57, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

Comment I agree with Location. It all depends on what kind of international reactions you're talking about. Russian conspiracy theories, French tabloids or Japanese comedians (for example) are irrelevant and don't warrant any inclusion. Similarly, any international sources that simply repeat or re-phrase what American sources have said are irrelevant. However, if there was fallout from the scandal in Canada or the UK, then yes, that deserves mention. MjolnirPants Tell me all about it. 13:49, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Watergate burglaries

For those following this page, please see Misplaced Pages:No original research/Noticeboard#Watergate burglaries. - Location (talk) 06:07, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

Proposed merge with List of Watergate conspirators

I don't know why this separate article just exists by itself. ηoian ‡orever ηew ‡rontiers 08:18, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

Actually I do think this should get bigger, because my understanding is that there are something like 20 more people who were indicted whose names I couldn't immediately find, but certainly there is an upper limit. Merging it with the main article is fine with me, the author of this one. I'm new here and I just wanted this list to exist, one way or another. Jcretan (talk) 05:21, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

I have struck this duplicate ivote from the ISP immediately noted below. - Location (talk) 02:54, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I have redirected the article here per this edit. - Location (talk) 02:58, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

George McGovern

Since George McGovern was most affected by the , his template should stay, as well as the link to it in said template.--24.186.96.236 (talk) 23:18, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

McGovern's role in the scandal was not really ongoing. I disagree that this WP:NAVBOX should be added to the article. Also, you didn't actually add a link to the navbox, you merely added words, and they were poorly formatted. Please do not re-add the navbox until you establish consensus on this talk page.- MrX 00:56, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

Deep Throat

Some may see it as a minor point, but this article states that "Woodward and Bernstein had nicknamed..." Deep Throat, whereas the subsequent article cites Howard Simons as the originator of that nickname. Also, it's worth mentioning that Woodward's and Bernstein's book and its movie adaptation ("All the President's Men"), both clearly point to Simons as the coiner of that nickname. sugarfish (talk) 16:24, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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I would recommend locking this article

... as it is a common conspiracy topic for basket cases.

137.124.161.53 (talk) 19:21, 20 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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Cheers.—Talk to my owner:Online 10:57, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Misleading, unsourced claim should be changed.

In the section titled "Final investigations and resignation", it states in the second-to-last paragraph: "The tape, which was referred to as a "smoking gun" by Barber Conable, proved that Nixon had been involved in the cover-up from the beginning." But above, the only thing described "Recorded only a few days after the break-in, it documented the initial stages of the cover-up: it revealed Nixon, Swingle, and Haldeman meeting in the Oval Office and formulating a plan to block investigations by having the CIA falsely claim to the FBI that national security was involved." I looked into this article because of last week's CBS Sunday Morning show, which had a montage of video about "lies", showing Nixon saying that he hadn't known of the Watergate breakin before it happened. (Thus, implying that Nixon was lying.) Nixon may have been literally telling the truth, that he didn't know of the breakin before it occurred. Yet the article now claims he was involved "from the beginning". Aside from not providing an actual source, it doesn't explain what "the beginning" actually means. The beginning of what? The planning for the burglary? The approval for the burglary? The burglary itself? The cover-up? Evidently, this article is subject to some POV problems. Let's not use an open-ended and undefined claim, "from the beginning" unless there's a source and definition. 174.25.12.120 (talk) 07:01, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

The article is clearly referring to the cover-up; no-one seriously believes Nixon ordered the break-in.TheTimesAreAChanging (talk) 07:05, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

Spoken Article in progress

Good afternoon! A note to the users/editors: I will be working on fulfilling the request for a Spoken Article version of this topic. I hope to have the Spoken Article completed and submitted within two weeks, projecting a submission date of September 12, 2016. Sincerely, MirrorSpock — Preceding unsigned comment added by MirrorSpock (talk • contribs) 18:12, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

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