Bureaucracy

1. Why Is Controlling The Bureaucracy A Challenge?

    A. It's Big & Diverse
   

    B. Administrators have a lot of independence because they have discretion & expertise
 
 

    C. Civil Service makes it difficult to control individuals
 

    D. "Iron triangles" can and often do resist change in bureaucracy
 
 

2. Presidents Tried To Control the Bureaucracy by Creating Their Own Personal Bureaucracy

     The Executive Office Of The President (EOP)
 

3. Conclusion:  Presidents battle to control the bureaucracy, particularly when they are under stress

Watergate
The Clash of Institutions and the Abuse of Presidential Power

For a Watergate Chronology, click here
 

"Watergate" Was A Different Kind Of Political Corruption

• It Was Not a Typical Exchange of Specific Benefits For Personal Gain,
   
• It was the National Leaders' Use Of the Covert Presidency to Maintain Office

The Setting: Deep Divisions In The Nation, 1968-1969

    The Vietnam War
 

Richard Nixon
 
  

Nixon increasingly depended on White House loyalists, especially

Haldeman and Ehrlichman ("The Palace Guard)
 
 

The Motive: National Security Leaks
 
 

- June 1971: The New York Times and other papers begin publishing
The Pentagon Papers about US involvement in the Vietnam War (read excerpts) leaked by Daniel Ellsberg
 
 

The Weapons: Surveillance And Plugging The Leaks

The Plumbers Unit is set up in the White House.

    G. Gordon Liddy heads the Plumbers' Unit
 

 

The Crime and The Coverup
 
 

June 17, 1972: Five men, one of whom says he used to work for the CIA, are arrested at 2:30 a.m. trying to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex.

Washington Post reporters begin to investigate
 
 

April 30, 1973: Haldeman, Ehrlichman resign; White House counsel John Dean is fired
 

Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox begins an investigation
 
 

Senate Watergate Committee begins hearings

July, 1973: Hearings show that Oval Office conversations were taped;

The Senate Watergate Committee and Cox each subpoena the tapes;

October 20, 1973: Saturday Night Massacre: Nixon orders Cox fired

April, 1974: Nixon releases written transcripts of the tapes, with words deleted;

the House Judiciary Committee, considering impeachment, demands the original tapes
 
 

July 27, 1974: The House Judiciary Committee votes for the first article of impeachment.

August 8, 1974: Nixon resigns

Lesson: The Continuing Temptation of the Covert Presidency