Curious. How many folks posting here are old enough to have watched the Watergate

[McCamy Taylor]

hearings? What do you recall? Learning about the enemies list seemed like the single biggest political moment, even though worse crimes were committed.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. I was pretty young at the time

I kept hearing the word and thinking it had something to do with water, and a gate.

[TexasTowelie]

2. I remember being bored with it and depressed,

but I was only 9 years old.

[Hortensis]

34. Oh, dear. Me too, but I was a young mother. :)

Not so much bored, it WAS high drama and shocking, but it was also depressing and demoralizing and went on for months and months. The divisions between parties weren't as huge and nasty, and I saw this as happening to America, not just Republicans.

McCamy, we scanned the LA Times and watched the evening news, but that's about all.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. I think as a student of history, the tapes and the "Saturday Night Massacre" were the biggest deals

The firing of Cox was really the beginning of the end for Nixon.

[potone]

8. I agree.

That was shocking. What is depressing to me now is that such a bipartisan agreement about impeachable actions would not happen now. Ethics are out the window for the Republicans--look at what they just tried to do.

[elfin]

29. I agree

Watched nearly every minute as I was confined to bed with an illness.

Sam Irvin, Sam Dash, and Howard Baker are especially memorable.

[enough]

44. This is the main reason I think the idea of impeachment for Trump

is a pipe dream. There were some ethical republicans in government at that time, none now.

[McCamy Taylor]

84. Agreed.

[cbreezen]

4. Old enough to watch

Too young, to care. We were kids. Running around with our friends, climbing apricot trees, trying to figure out how we could hang a tether ball from the street sign on the corner, using gypsum board to make a hopscotch on the sidewalk, and trying to catch crawdads in the creek.

That was what life was like for the kids my age in San Jose, California. I was about age 9.

[Freddie]

25. I was in HS

Too busy with teenager stuff to pay much attention. I just remember it was on the news *endlessly* for years and just tuned it out. Pretty sure a lot of adults did too.

[LeftInTX]

47. Me too

We did a lot of discussing of it in school. However, I found the hearings tedious. My younger sister watched the hearings.

[Island Blue]

39. Sounds exactly like my childhood in Charlotte.

I was 10 years old at the time of the Watergate hearings. My biggest worry at the time was getting bullied by my older brother, not what was happening in DC.

[HoneyBadger]

5. I think that I first heard of it when I watched Point Break

And saw the bank robber wearing the Nixon mask

[shraby]

6. Remember wondering how long it would be before he forked over the tapes.

I watched and always did think he was sleazy.

[DesertFlower]

7. i watched the hearings. i was in

my early 30s.

[Hekate]

9. I watched it, all right. I can't pick out just one thing that was more loathsome than the rest....

I really hated Richard Nixon, and thought we would never see his like again. I mean how could we ever?

I was in my mid-20s.

I do remember the Committee, though. My Senator was on it, Daniel Inouye, and he acquitted himself well. And Barbara Jordan, my God she was grand. I predicted a truly great political future for that woman, and was deeply saddened when she fell ill and withdrew from public life.

Certain Nixonian words and deeds have entered our public sphere as bywords for his evil -- and yes, we see it so nakedly in Trump. What Nixon hid in the dankest recesses of his mind (enemies list; if the President does it, it's not against the law) is being boasted of openly by Trump.

[bluestateboomer]

10. I heard it while working at my college radio station.

Our college station was one of the early NPR affiliates. We broadcast NPR's coverage live. We were a west coast college, so we went on with hearings early. Some mornings I was the engineer in charge for the broadcasts. It was an amazing time for both the congress and public radio. Both institutions have diminished through the years.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I am.

I was working at DCA, National Airport at the time. Behind our ticket counter, in the break room the TV which was normlly tuned to the soap operas, was carrying the Watergate hearings. I didn't have a TV at the time (and I don't have one today, although inbetween I generally had a TV) and so my main connection with such things was at work. Initially my fellow employees were quite pissed that their soap operas weren't being broadcast. But over time most of us were sucked in to the drama. Although I recall quite distinctly certain employees who thought it was all nonsense, and that Nixon was being brought down by a cabal of liberals. Sigh. They were wrong. Nixon was brought down by his own hubris, but you see there the foundation of modern conspiracy theory and the distrust, even contempt of the media.

[NNadir]

12. I worked in a hospital pharmacy as a tech. The pharmacists set up a TV in a back room, and...

...we watched them almost continuously when things were slow.

I was a kid, had almost been drafted to fight Nixon's awful war - escaping only because of Nixon's "Peace with Honor" gimmick and lie.

The hearings were fascinating, especially when John Dean was testifying. I remember Sam Ervin, North Carolina no less, and his dignity, something which is totally lacking in the modern Senate.

As we now have someone coming into the Presidency who makes that awful human being Nixon look honest, the memory give me hope.

Nixon won by a landslide in 1972. Two years later he and his horrible Vice Presdient were gone in disgrace.

That's hope.

[Freddie]

26. That's my biggest hope too

That Trump will be impeached or forced to resign in disgrace and take his whole party with him, like in the 70's. Yes we'll get Pence but hopefully not for long. Ford was a good man and not a bad President but by 1976 we had enough of their party and showed him the door. May history repeat itself.

[McCamy Taylor]

85. Well said!

"As we now have someone coming into the Presidency who makes that awful human being Nixon look honest, the memory give me hope."

[Old Vet]

13. Yeah, That shit was going down when I got state side from Nam...........

Hard to explain how divided this country was then, Lets just say Iam so grateful we treat our new veterans totally different.

[MrScorpio]

14. I watched the hearings every day. We discussed it in school

FDT.

[Cyberologist]

15. I remember it.

I'm old school. But this presidential election NeoNazi horror story and the Republican Party is far worse. You're talking about our elected officials being in cahoots with a country that is not our ally, blatant lying and serious in your face corruption. We in trouble folks. I've never seen our country like this.

[Silver Gaia]

16. I am "old enough." :)

We watched it, but I didn’t get to see a lot of it because of work, and I don't really remember any details about what I did see. We hated Nixon with a passion, though, and we knew this was history being made as we watched his presidency go up in flames.

[LeftishBrit]

17. I remember a bit of it - it was also big news in England

I was very aware of it, partly because my Dad absolutely HATED Richard Nixon, whom he associated with the era of Joe McCarthy.

I was aware that a lot of it was about illegally recording people's conversations; and I am always reminded of it when media types, nowadays the real rulers of the world, invade people's privacy by the higher-tech methods that we have now.

I also remember that it ended in Gerald Ford being sworn in as president, and (of all things to make an impression!), the judge who swore him in was Chief Justice Warren Earl Burger. My friend said that the name sounded more like a hamburger than a judge!

[malaise]

18. I watched quite a bit of it

I found it all fascinating

[Hoyt]

19. Saw it too. Luckily, there was a VP -- Ford -- who could take office if Nixon resigned.

[spin]

20. I remember being impressed with Dean's amazing memory and also Mo Dean. ...

That summer of 1973, she was the perfect Washington wife, standing by her man no matter what. Impeccably dressed, flawlessly made up, her hair pulled back into a polished bun, she mesmerized the nation with the silent vigil she kept behind her husband's witness table day after day at the Watergate hearings while his testimony brought down a President.
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-10-28/news/vw-11399_1_john-dean

[alicenuffer]

21. Watergate

Was in my early 2o's and did watch but was not into politics at that time...did become interested in my early 30's and have been a political junkie ever since watching That slime senate eviscerate Anita Hill and letting that snake Thomas skate...

[TexasProgresive]

22. I am old enough to remember the break in but was distracted by my own problems.

I was certainly aware of Watergate hearings, but I can honestly say that I can't remember my thoughts. It was a case of one thing pushing out another.

[TreasonousBastard]

23. Archebald Cox was the kicker-- firing him brought it all into focus, and just how low...

Nixon could go.

The Watergate breakin was stupid on top of being illegal, but the coverup is what got most people riled.

[bobalew]

24. I was in the DC Area, that summer,

Selling a micro encyclopedia door to door, where I met the head journalism Prof at Georgetown. I kinda got an inside look at the break-in. This prof immediately made up a bunch of pin buttons that said " Free the Watergate 5", or something like that. He was being quite comedic with it, but knew it might be a very serious breach of political protocol. He rightly predicted the Downfall of Nixon the crook.

[underpants]

27. Probably my earliest political memory. At a friend's house, his father sitting in a dark room

watching TV in his suit. I asked what was going on and my friend said it was something called "Watergate". His dad was just sitting there in the middle of a weekday afternoon which was very odd to see.

[Useless in FL]

28. Old enough....

I was 28 and I watched some of the proceedings but I was working long hours early in my career.... I remember that I was disgusted and horrified about the shenanigans they were exposing.

[Sedona]

30. Yup

Born in 1962. All the soaps were cancelled that summer to cover the hearings.

I watched quite a bit of it with a neighbor kid's mom.

My parents had a HUGE argument about it all on the night Nixon fired Cox (The Saturday Night Massacre).

Mom was a Democrat then, Dad supported Nixon.

Funny how things change, my dad passed away early 2016 as a party line Dem (he saw the error of his ways after Monicagate) and now my mom is fundy Faux bubble resident of Bulls Shit mountain.

[barbtries]

31. i was 17

i think it was John Dean's testimony and the missing 18 minutes. i also read all the president's men about the same time and have watched the movie several times, so my memory could be garbled. martha mitchell. the slush fund. i actually may have missed the testimony regarding the enemies list.
trump's enemies list includes over half of all voters in the recent election and everyone who ever made fun of him or exposed his crimes and perversities. it will always be all about donald. i hated nixon. trump is worse than nixon.

[vlyons]

32. I remember

I was in college at the time. I wasn't surprised that Nixon had an enemies list. He was afterall a McCarthey-ite, and he had lied out his ass about Helen Gahagen Douglas in his bid for Senate. What was shocking was that he was stupid enough to actually tape himself - in the oval office - conspiring to raise money to help the Watergate burglars. That whole crew that did the burglary were a bunch of 3rd-rate criminals.

[AngryAmish]

33. They were on instead of my cartoons.

I was pissed!

[Pacifist Patriot]

60. We're clearly close in age. LOL!

[JNelson6563]

35. I was a kid but

I remember that, no matter whose house you were at, the dad was watching it and was angry. It seemed the same at everybody's house, mine included.

The next thing I knew, the President resigned.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

36. I was in high school at the time

I remember the time gap in the tapes. Nixon's personal secretary Rosemary Woods took responsibility for the gap. Some said she had to be a contortionist to do what she did. Mind you this was pretty old equipment.

I believe the press conference where Nixon explained this was the same one where he said the famous line, "I am not a crook."

[Mike Nelson]

37. The most...

...memorable parts were the testimony of John Dean, the revelation of tapes (Butterfield?) and Rose Mary Woods attempting to show how she "accidently" erased the most damaging minutes. She was quite a contortionist! One thing replayed a lot was Howard Baker saying, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" Sam Irwin's befuddled looks were also memorable. Those are the things I most remember.

[annabanana]

38. I worked at what was then New York - Cornell Hospital. .

The big old hospital on 68th St, East of York Ave.

I was in my early 20's and let me tell you.. EVERY set in EVERY room at that place was set to the hearings. It dominated the conversation everywhere.

If I wasn't actively commuting, I was watching.

The single most jaw-dropping, gasp out loud moment that I remember was "I was hoping you weren't going to ask me that".. followed by the revelation that there were TAPES being made of every conversation in the WH.

[longship]

54. That was Alexander Butterfield.

He had to be almost literally dragged to the hearing room from the Capital barber shop. They were considering sending the sergeant-at-arms to fetch him willy-nilly (willing or not willing).

[McCamy Taylor]

86. Oh yes! The tapes!

[ProfessorGAC]

40. Raising Hand

Late high school, early college. Not sure i can ID what the "worst" thing we learned from it. The whole affair was quite awful.

[RobinA]

41. 15 Years Old In 1973

I remember the Saturday night massacre and the hearings being on TV. In general, my mindset was this: President shot dead when I was 5 leaving behind kids my age, his assassin shot on TV days later, race riots burning big cities when I was a bit older, Six Day War et al., said President's brother shot when I was 10, major black leader shot around the same time, the whole time a war going on in some godforsaken jungle no one could seem to stop, National Guards shooting college students when I was 12. Campaign headquarters being broken into when I was 15...meh. One more thing happening when scary events had been happening all my life, and it wasn't particularly scary. Let's just say it was hard to move me by then.

[get the red out]

42. I was in 4th grade

But my Mom and Grandparents told me I need to watch it because it was history. God they hated Nixon. I recall some Republicans really going after Nixon and his group, and how my family was astonished by that. Oh and missing minutes on the tape, that was like "the dog ate my homework".

[Javaman]

43. It shaped my political future. nt

[McCamy Taylor]

87. For all of us.

[lostnfound]

45. Watched with rapt attention every day at age 10

Sam Ervin seemed so solid and an elder.
John Dean was illuminating
How important it seemed that dishonesty in the presidency be rooted out.
The day that Nixon resigned I was on a family "car trip", small hotel room in Georgia on way to see the mountains of North Carolina.

[LAS14]

46. Yup.

[octoberlib]

48. I was 12 years old at the time and my mom had

the hearings on all day. The only thing I really remember are the tapes and Rosemary Woods. My parents also made my younger brother and I sit down in front of the tv and watch Nixon's resignation because it was historic.

[hwmnbn]

49. It was the first ever MUST SEE tv...

I was riveted and watched the proceedings religiously. It was real life courtroom drama. The hearings came after a very tumultuous period of anti-war demonstrations, political upheaval and polarization. I'd say it was the culmination of that time. When the existence of the tapes came to light, the subsequent court fight to have them made public was the biggest conflict.

All the political crimes that we suspected were now provable and the fight over their release to the public set up a serious constitutional crisis. We knew we had tricky dick on the ropes but we needed the rule of law to prevail. Fortunately there were some politicians that became statesmen. I'm not sure that would happen today.

[longship]

50. They were great.

Sam Ervin became a star, as did John and Maureen Dean.

Alexander Butterfield let the White House taping system cat out of the bag. That was a big one.

Still remember some of it.

[Gothmog]

51. I remember the Watergate hearings

[UTUSN]

52. Enemies list was certainly gripping, but just one more in the whole mass of everything

such that it didn't come across to the as the main thing, more like with DRUMPF a personal sick paranoia thing of NIXON's.

[McCamy Taylor]

88. You are right. Enemies List was not the worst thing. But it seemed like the most politically damning

thing to come at at the time. When I heard it I knew in my heart that Nixon was going down.

[LWolf]

53. I was in 8th grade.

While we didn't stream the live hearings into our classroom, my history teacher dropped the regular curriculum and we spent all year reading, discussing, and debating everything Watergate.

As adolescents, we were shocked that our government's leaders could be so criminally corrupt. As an adult, Watergate and Nixon now appear to me to be simply business as usual in a perpetually corrupt system.

[Turbineguy]

55. Senater Howard Baker.

Republicans were different then.

[McCamy Taylor]

89. Amen to that.

[femmocrat]

56. I watched it.

I was a young stay-at-home-mom. I remember a lot of it, Sam Ervin, John Dean, the revelation about the tapes, etc.

[BigDemVoter]

57. Our incoming administration makes Tricky Dick look like Mr. Rogers.

[dumbcat]

58. I listened to them on Armed Forces Radio Network

late at night at a Nike-Herc missile site in Korea.

I was interested, but didn't really care that much. I had other pressing issues at the time.

[Pacifist Patriot]

59. I vaguely recall my mother watching the hearings, and...

being disappointed they pre-empted a broadcast of The Wizard of Oz. That's about it.

[dhol82]

61. Remember this picture being all over the papers

http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/06/18/shades-of-nixon-in-missing-irs-emails/jcr:content/image.img.2000.jpg/1403086121636.cached.jpg

[Historic NY]

62. I watched some but National Lampoon laid it all out there....

with it watergate tapes series.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

63. Out of H.S., in the Army....

It was Watergate and the Vietnam war that kickstarted my activist being.

[nancy1942]

64. I watched it all. I recall being shocked and repelled by it all.

[Greybnk48]

65. I was 25. I remember John Dean the clearest

and his clear, concise, detailed testimony introducing the phrase "not at this point in time." He walked out of there, with his wife, a hero.

[madokie]

66. Since I was working the only evening job I had in my life

and recently home from the war I was able to and took advantage of the opportunity to watch the Watergate hearings. Even though at first I wasn't real sure I understood what was going on I realized that this was a grave injustice to me as a Vet and to us as Americans, what tricky dick and his crew did.

Before heading off to Vietnam I was stationed at the Navy's SERE school at Warner Springs California. S survival, E evasion, R resistance, E escape. I spent a week in a prisoner of war compound that was as real as if I was actually in one. I knew no difference and if I had I would not have been able to finish the school and get my diploma and stay there for a tour of duty helping in training. The reason I'm telling you this is because Erlichmann and Halderman both visited our training camp on more than one occasion. We did torture, waterboarding the whole nine yards and it was this phase they were most interested in. The school was attended by the Navy Seals, Under Water Demolition Teams, soon to be Captains of US Navy ships or US Navy bases and Pilots heading to Vietnam. I'm sure Demotex was a student although I suspect he came through the school before I was stationed there as his tour of Duty in 'Nam overlapped mine, I was behind him. Anyway for nixon's henchmen to be so concerned with what we did at the school piqued my interest in what they were doing there. Although they were there before Watergate they nevertheless were part of the incoming tricky dick's inner circle and we were made aware of that.

So yes I watched most of the hearings although that was a long time ago.

Upon leaving SERE school I was told I was to not talk about anything we did at the school and am not sure I'm legal to type what I've typed here now or on several occasions prior to today. I had to have a step up from a Top Secret Clearance. Not sure what it was referred to as too much time has passed and I've tried to forget all about that period in my life up to the time that the dick and w were torturing/waterboarding.

If a student failed this training they were either discharged from the Navy or at the very least not sent on to their designated duty stations due to that.

[Wounded Bear]

67. Probably the best part of the whole mess were the Doonsebury cartoons....

he kept drawing a view of the White House with a crew out front building a block wall. Over the months the wall kept getting higher and higher. Not sure if he finished it before the resignation, but....

this was after Nixon left:

[Jim Beard]

68. I watched some but I had to work so I relied on the evening news. Local paper was

a crappey republican rag. I had several bumper stickers on my pick up truck. One was "Impeachment with honor".

[hamsterjill]

69. I was in my early teens.

Frankly, the media coverage and the hearings didn't mean much to me until I saw "All The President's Men". At that point, I understood more and it started to mean something to me.

I still have an interest in what Bernstein has to say these days. Woodward, no so much, and Bernstein, not all the time. But sometimes Carl is right on target, and he has an interesting vantage point.

[OregonBlue]

70. I watched. It was riveting.

[eleny]

71. I was 26 and watched a lot

John Dean's testimony always comes to mind as his wife sat nearby looking seriously severe.

[yellowcanine]

72. Single biggest moment was the revelation of the White House tapes by Alexander Butterfield.

Hands down. Without the tapes Nixon probably doesn't get threatened with impeachment so this was a big deal.

[kwassa]

96. I still remember that moment, too. Sam Ervin perked up his ears.

As I recall, it was late on a Friday afternoon after a long week of hearings.

[Bettie]

73. I have vague memories of parents/grandparents discussing it

but I was fairly small then...seven or so.

[skip fox]

74. Many lovely hours

in my car (seeing others in their cars listening, smiling), in my garden (the gladness of earth opening), with my wife and children (thinking, explaining, beaming), etc.

[csziggy]

75. Watched between classes with my college friends

We were appalled at the actions of the Nixon White House and really pissed at the coverup. I don't remember all the details since much of the time we were in altered states of consciousness, especially when he announced his resignation. We threw a HUGE party as did many of the students living on the street.

Then we got pissed all over again when Gerald Ford pardoned Tricky Dick - we wanted to see him and all his cronies got to prison.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

76. I watched with great fascination.

What I recall as the bombshell was when the existence of the secret tapes was revealed.

[GP6971]

77. It happened when I was in the service

and no one talked about it. Everyone kept their opinions to themselves

[Iggo]

78. The tape recordings is what I remember most.

In particular, it was watching actual nonfictional grownups on the TV telling painfully obvious lies about how that pesky little 18.5 minute gap might've gotten in there, lies that an 11-year-old like me would've been sent to the principal's office for.

Jaded me for life.

Probably saved me from wanting to rip my own brain out during the Iran/Contra hearings, though...lol.

[milestogo]

79. We watched the hearings in Senior social science

Which I was taking during the summer. That was a very smart use of class time.

[riverwalker]

80. Martha and John Mitchel

Watching an Attorney General fall into disgrace, and his wife's crazy antics.

[SeattleVet]

81. I was in the Air Force at the time, stationed in Plattsburgh, NY.

Our main worry was that the S.O.B. Nixon was going to go off the deep end and start a major international incident, even to the point of taking Vietnam nuclear to take the attention away from his other crimes, and we'd all have to take the brunt of his insanity.

One of his least-remembered 'accomplishments' was his emergency declaration of year-round Daylight Saving Time after OPEC quadrupled oil prices (from $2.90 a barrel to $11.65!). The TSgt I was working with at the time commented, "That stupid bastard even has to fuck with the time of day."

[McCamy Taylor]

90. Thanks! That is something civilians did not have to worry about. Or not so much.

[nil desperandum]

82. I remember

watching and thinking how nothing would ever really be the same when it came to trusting anyone elected to office.

Not that I was naive enough to believe politicians were models of honesty, but Watergate exposed the sheer depths of dishonesty and corruption that some would go to hang onto power.

I think that was surprising to me.

[Ilsa]

83. I remember, but didn't understand

what was really going on or why it was so important.

[karynnj]

91. I was - and in my case, in additional to watching the network news account, there were the detailed

in the NYT. My two office mates and I all brought in our "Times" and would quickly read what was new on the case that day. It was a strange combination of politics and really stupid criminals. Once the tapes came out and the NYT printed them in full - deleting the expletives that even we could have filled in, it astonished us - all three liberals - how unethical, paranoid and amoral the President and his team were. We were shocked, not so much by the language - we had gone to college in the late 1960s, but the fact that these were important people, doing important things, but showing no integrity or character.

In some ways, it was a more innocent, idealist time. For one, as more came out, top Republicans visited Nixon and implored him to resign rather than go through the full impeachment/getting thrown out by the Senate that would have happened. This was not a President like Trump, who might experience a republican led coup, if he goes badly astray -- happy to replace him with tea party friendly Pence. This was a mainstream Republican -- and his VP was kicked out and replaced first because he was a crook.

[Golden Raisin]

92. I was 23-24.

Most memorable was Senator Sam Ervin, an old-school, Southern Democrat (which back then was like a conservative Republican today) running the hearings in an “ol' country lawyer” manner but with IMMENSE knowledge of and deference to the Constitution and the rule of law. Nothing got past him. In the midst of all that filth and skullduggery he came across as a beacon of dignity and virtue.

[NastyRiffraff]

93. I watched it obsessively

I remember thinking "holy shit!" when Butterworth testified about the existence of the tapes. He said it almost casually, but it was a turning point in the hearings.

[dembotoz]

94. 20 did not watch much

[struggle4progress]

95. I'm old enough. But by May 1973, I was in my "It's hopeless and we're doomed" mode

and had moved out into the middle of nowhere with no TV access. So I only followed the hearings from a distance by reading magazine coverage from time to time. That somehow did not persuade me that there was much hope for the future


"Oops! Silly me! I inadvertently erased five minutes of tape by somehow sitting in this position while talking on the phone! Well, accidents happen!"