Question for Discussion: How did the legacy of
Watergate and the cynical divisions within
American society caused by the Cold War
affect Americans in the 1980s and 1990s?

Reading: Steve Erickson,"American Nomad" (web)

Video: From Watergate to the Clinton-Lewinsky
Scandals

1. The Political Legacy of Watergate

• Watergate Home Page

• The Washington Post's Watergate Page
  
  

• Watergate--25th Anniversary
  
  

• World Wide Web Watergate Website
  
  

• Time Magazine's Watergate Coverage
  
  

• Tapes: Nixon Sought Brookings Break-In
  
  
• Illusion and Delusion- The Watergate Decade
  
  
• Shadows of Nixon, Watergate still cross our national life
  
  
• In the Shadow of Watergate
  
  
• No scandal more dangerous to nation than
  Watergate
  
  
• Cynicism Didn't Start With Watergate
  
  
• A Watergate Legacy: More Public
  Skepticism and Ambivalence
  
  

• The Vietnam War: The War that won't go
  Away
  

• Public Perceptions Of Watergate

2. The Iran-Contra and other
Reagan scandals

• Summary of Iran-Contra Scandal by
  Chris Lewis, Ph.D.
  
  
• Final Report of the Independent Counsel
  for Iran-Contra
  
  
• Summary of Independent Council's 
  investigation into Iran-Contra
  
  
• The Sorrid Details A Chronology of the
  Iran-Contra Scandal
  
  
• Coverup- Behind the Iran-Contra Affair
  
  
• The Iran-Contra Affair- The Making of
  a Scandal, 1983-1988
  
  
• The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert
  Operations
  
  
• Iran-Contra Pardon Cast
  
  
• CIA, Crack, and Drugs
  
  
• The Contras and Cocaine
  
  
• Savings and Loan Scandal
  
  
• SAVINGS AND LOAN SCAM 

3. President Clinton and the Fundraising Scandals of 1996

• Clinton Gore 1996: Money Troubles--
  Campaign Finance Scandal
  
  
• 1996 Campaign Finance Abuses
  
  
• Clinton told of Cash raised by
  Whitehouse Coffees
  
  
• Overnight Guests in the Lincoln Bedroom
  
  
• John Huang Pleads the Fifth: Huang helped
   raise Clinton Campaign Money from China
  
  
• Wealthy Oilman Explains why he donated
  $300,00 to the Democrats
  
  
• Gore and the Buddhist Temple Scandal
  
  
• Gore and the Chinese Military Connection
  
  
• GOP hits Gore on Temple Fundraiser
  
  
• The Soft Money Laundromat
  
  
• Open Secrets: The Online Source for
  Money in Politcs
  
  
• Election 2000: total amount raised
  
  
• Bush Faithful Chip in 21.3 Million Dollars
  
  
• Bush Pledges Civility at Record Fundraiser

4. The Clinton Impeachment and
the Lewinsky Scandal

5. Economic Inequality and Social Division in the 2000s

• Divided Decade- Economic Disparity 
  at the Century's Turn
  
  
• Facts on Global Corporations 
   from the Corporate Planet
  
  
• The Top 200- The Rise of 
  Global Corporate Power
  
  
• Global Trade Watch
  
  
• Overview- The Growing Wealth Gap
  in the U.S.
  
  
• Inequality.org: Inequality in the U.S.
  
  
• The Hidden Entitlements: Corporate
  Welfare and Tax Breaks for the Rich
  
  
• CEOs Win, Workers Lose- How Wall
  Street Rewards Job Destroyers
  
  
• State and Local Taxes hit Poor Harder

 

 

"In the old days, politicians at least pretended to have principles. Now they're not ashamed to switch values just to get elected. Every time we hear of a new scandal, we're like , 'Yup!"
                                Beth Englander, 26 year old.

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"We grew up in  a period with one instance of government malfeasance and ineptitude after another, from Watergate to Iran-Contra to the explosion of the Challenger to Whitewater. We believe government can't be trusted to do anything right."
                                    Thau, Generation Xer

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In November 1996, in the general elections, only 48.8 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. This rate was lower than 1992, which was 55 percent of eligible voters. The drop is disconcerting. Civic organizations across the country have worked to increase voter registration - and turnout - recently. For example, at the University, students worked in Voice Your Vote to increase registration rates. But even with MTV, the registration efforts did not bring citizens all the way to the polls. Turnout across the country declined.

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"By the time President Nixon resigned in 1974, American politics was changed forever because of Vietnam and Watergate.....As a result of his actions, presidents not only would be subject to doubt and second guessing, they would be suspected of outright criminality.  Nixon's tapes of his office and telephone conversations left an irrefutable historical record that the president abused government power for political purposes, obstructed justice and ordered his aides to do so as well.  Watergate ended with unusual clarity and unusual closure because Nixon resigned. The scandal left a series of obvious questions that would come to plague his successors. Could another president be a criminal? Did presidents talk and plot in private like Nixon? Would another president have to resign." (p. xiv)
       Bob Woodward,  Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy  of  Watergate

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To summarize: there is concrete evidence that U.S. officials-- White House, NSC and CIA--not only knew about and condoned drug smuggling in and around the contra war, but in some cases collaborated with, protected, and even paid known drug smugglers who were deemed important players in the Reagan administration's obsessed covert effort to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
                        Peter Kornbluh, Congressional Testimony