Watergate Scandal

Neill Luther

History

Watergate Scandal

Watergate complex 

The Watergate scandal  was such a huge deal to the United states because it changed the way that the government was trusted,  Nixon’s reputation,  the governments/ future presidents reputation, plus the way that American citizens viewed their government all together.   This changed how the government’s politics today are used and viewed by the people. 

The five burglars of the Watergate building 

The Watergate gate Scandal happened in 1972 just before the 1972 electio

n.   What happened in the Watergate scandal was where five people broke in to the Watergate complex where the democratic committees headquarters were  to gain information for the republican party by tapping in to phone lines and listening to their conversations, so that the republicans could use this information against them in the upcoming elections.  It all started off when the burglars were caught red-handed in the building, creating the huge problem that the press got information about.  The main problem with that was that the Nixon administration tried to cover up the fact that they had anything to do with the situation, even though that they were the people behind the ordeal. 

After the Watergate scandal had reached the press it had to of been very shocking for the American citizens.  As the American citizens did not already have very much trust within their own government this scandal did not help at all.  After Watergate some people thought more negatively about the government shown by example from this newspaper article “ The respondents were asked whether Watergate had changed their perceptions of Federal officials. Two out of five (38 percent) said they were more negative now because of Watergate.”   This one article was perfect for my information on how the scandal changed people s views against the government.   In the article before it shows that other people did not trust the

government and were not surprised at the fact that Watergate had happened within the U.S.   The majority of people agreed that Watergate was a negative effect on the U.S. but a small percentage thought that it had not made any effect at all. 

The scandal really affected citizen’s trust in the government and also did not give them a better since of privacy from the government.    When rumor spread about the scandal some people were kind of skeptical about the amount of privacy that they had from the government.  Once people heard about how the burglary had happened people  feared  that the government would be able to listen in on anything that they were saying on the phone.  This put somewhat of a fear into a small amount of Americans. 

Even though Nixon resigned in 1974 because of his fear of being impeached from the problem with the Watergate scandal, he had not been the mastermind behind the scandal.  Although Nixon did not administer the burglary he  had tried to cover up the fact that it had happened, which had really created a problem for Nixon making his reputation completely turn around.   From Nixon being the president towards the end of the Vietnam War to becoming the president that created the Watergate scandal.  Although most people when they think of Nixon think of him as the president who messed up his chance of winning the reelection  but Nixon did have other stuff about him that were not so bad.  A lot of people were not in favor of Nixon and trying to find a way for him to get in trouble,  and this was the way for him to get in trouble even though that kind of stuff was going on throughout the U.S.  But the Watergate scandal ruined his reputations because it was such a bad thing to the American citizens.  

Richard Nixon 

          The Watergate scandal could have been the cause of some new politics changing the way that people viewed politics in the government and out of the government.   If this scandal had not happened then the president after Nixon had resigned (Gerald R. Ford) would not  have wanted to sign the information act of 1986, which would have strengthened the Privacy act of 1974 .   Nixon and the Watergate scandal also created a problem with many of his government officials creating them to also be questioned about their current positions, changing the way the current government people had been placed.  So Watergate changed way the way that current politics and the officials under Nixon had challenged. 

The Watergate scandal had a huge effect on the United States by Nixon’s mistake because it changed peoples view and trust  with the government, and the presidents reputation forever. 

                                   Bibliography

This site gave me the information that I needed to learn more about the investigation process used in the scandal, as well as the basic information needed to help me on my essay.

This site gave me information about how the Watergate scandal is still know today.

This site gave me certain basic information that I needed but it was a little more specific that I needed to get information for my essay.

This site gave me the best information on how much of an effect that Watergate had on the United states. 

This site gave me basic information about the scandal and videos about Nixons speeches after Watergate.

This site gave me a lot of information that I needed to find out about how it gave the government a bad name and changed the way that people viewed  the government.

          

Cinderella Man vs. the Great Depression

            The movie Cinderella Man it is a story based upon a family in the time period of the Great Depression.  In the movie the father is a boxer that has just been cut from his job and is now struggling to make ends meet for his family to stay healthy and to stay together.  As all of this is happening the father is determined to get his family back together and now has a chance to get his old job back as a boxer.  Once he gets his job back he gets his family back and to a better life as he wins more and more in his boxing career. 

            I believe that the movie was very accurate to what life was for some people during the depression.  In the movie it shows how the American life was for some people during the depression, it showed the hardship, the problems families faced with making ends meet, the loss of jobs, and how hard it was for people to keeps jobs.  The movie shows the Braddock families difficulties during the depression but it shows many of the problems that other people faced during the depression.  As shown in the movie many families had to split up just for their children to stay alive by sending them to relatives. 

            What I have learned from reading about the depression and what I have watched from the movie I have noticed about how hard jobs really were to get for men seeking money.  In the movie it shows men piling against the gates hoping to picked for a sift at the docs.  This seemed to be a problem because men who had injuries or any problems would have almost no chance of making any money at that job place.  Also I noticed that the majority of the men were not even getting to work that day because they were not picked.   This created a problem for many people because of they were not picked one day then their family wouldn’t probably be able to eat that day creating  more poverty and  hunger throughout cities. 

            With in the film it shows the kind of people that Braddock worked with during his jobs.  One of the people that he worked with used to be a stockbroker until the depression causing him to leave his job and start working on the docs with a much lower pay than him and his family were accustom to.  Also the people that were in charge of the boxing organization were somewhat struggling but not nearly as bad as most people; they were to worried about taking care of themselves more than any other that needed a job or help. 

            In the movie it also told about the breadlines that were being put out for people and how they would have to strategize on how to get as much bread in as many lines as possible, even though most of the time places would run out of bread.  Also how most people would have to use state aid by going to the relief centers for money.  But some people did not qualify for state aid which really put them in trouble for their family,  but the people who got it was barely able to fulfill their needs to stay healthy.   

369th Infantry

• Also known as the Harlem Hellfighters, got the name hellfighters from the Germans 
• led by inexperienced black and white officers 
• first served under the Americans then moved to the French 
• they named themselves the "Men of Bronze" 

• earned the Cross of War from the French 
• two men took on 24 Germans 
• first African American regiment to enter the AEF
• treated badly by other units and white officers 

• they brought jazz to Europe by playing with the French during times that they were not fighting                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
• they were used for laborers to earn their way to become real american soldiers
• they earned their way to become soldiers by hard work and not giving up  

WWI Questions

11.       When and why did WWI begin, and who were the combatants?                                                                         WWI started in 1914 and Austria-Hungry, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Bulgaria, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Montenegro, Ottomen Empire, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Serbia, and the U.S. were all combatants of WWI.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       2. .       When and why did the US get involved in WWI?                                                                                             The U.S. got involved in WWI in 1917 because the U.S. had been trading with many of these countries already in the war but after Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare eventually caused the U.S. to enter the war.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                3.  What were the casualty rates for the various countries involved?                                                                                                   

Country	Total Mobilized Forces	Killed	Wounded	Prisoners and Missing	Total Casualties	Casualties as % of Forces
ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED POWERS
Russia	12,000,000	1,700,000	4,950,000	2,500,000	9,150,000	76.3
British Empire	8,904,467	908,371	2,090,212	191,652	3,190,235	35.8
France	8,410,000	1,357,800	4,266,000	537,000	6,160,800	73.3
Italy	5,615,000	650,000	947,000	600,000	2,197,000	39.1
United States	4,355,000	116,516	204,002	4,500	323,018	7.1
Japan	800,000	300	907	3	1,210	0.2
Romania	750,000	335,706	120,000	80,000	535,706	71.4
Serbia	707,343	45,000	133,148	152,958	331,106	46.8
Belgium	267,000	13,716	44,686	34,659	93,061	34.9
Greece	230,000	5,000	21,000	1,000	27,000	11.7
Portugal	100,000	7,222	13,751	12,318	33,291	33.3
Montenegro	50,000	3,000	10,000	7,000	20,000	40.0
TOTAL	42,188,810	5,142,631	12,800,706	4,121,090	22,062,427	52.3
ALLIED AND ASSOCIATED POWERS
Germany	11,000,000	1,773,700	4,216,058	1,152,800	7,142,558	64.9
Austria-Hungary	7,800,000	1,200,000	3,620,000	2,200,000	7,020,000	90.0
Turkey	2,850,000	325,000	400,000	250,000	975,000	34.2
Bulgaria	1,200,000	87,500	152,390	27,029	266,919	22.2
TOTAL	22,850,000	3,386,200	8,388,448	3,629,829	15,404,477	67.4
GRAND TOTAL	65,038,810	8,528,831	21,189,154	7,750,919	37,466,904	57.5

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           4.       When and why did WWI end?                                                                                                                     The war ended in 1918 but was  not formally over until the Treaty of Versailles was sign on June 28th, 1919.  It ended because the Germans surrendered on November 11th, 1918. 

Great White Fleet Postcards

http://www.greatwhitefleet.info/First_Leg_Jamestown_Page.html
Dear Grandpa,
    I decided to take your advice by joining the navy.  Since I could not find a college that I wanted to or get into this had seemed like the right thing to do.  So I took your advice to heart and here I am now in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  As I am one day from leaving on December 16th, 1907 there is no returning home now, so I hope you were right about me trusting your great advice and wisdom.

Love your grandson
James

Dear Mom and Dad,
      I still wanted you all to know that that I am doing fine in the navy so far and I am glad that i stuck with Grandpa's advice about doing this because I have come to like being out at sea.  We are stopped in Honolulu, Hawaii you would think that it would be nice here but from a sailors view here it is not fun because all we are doing i stopping for coal to refuel.  The worst thing about the ship is the amount of heat coming from the lower portion of the coaling room of the ship.  The heat is almost unbearable during the hot months.  Other than that everything has been fine so far.

Love your son,

James

http://www.greatwhitefleet.info/A%20GWF%20set%20of%20Photos/South%20Pacific/New%20Zealand/Empire%20Cards/CB-Card-View-of-Harbor-Davenport.jpg
Dear Family,
    This month was the first somewhat dangerous part of this trip so far that I have been through yet.  Last week before went came to Auckland, New Zealand the ship ran straight into the middle of a typhoon.  It was very frightening to be caught in such a big storm, but I kept faith in my captain, ship, and fellow sailors to get us through the storm alive.  We had managed to get through the storm fine with almost no damage and we thought it was a miracle.  I hope that this will be the last of these storms.

Love your son and brother,
James

Dear Family,

      I am writing to you all so soon again because I could not wait to tell about the amazing sight of Sydney, Australia.  We were greeted at night on August 20th, by boats to guide or way to the harbor when we pulled up to the harbor we were greeted by so many people it was overwhelming.  I could not believe my eyes  when i saw all of the people holding signs and waving flags to greet us as we pulled in. They had seemed so enthusiastic to see us there.

Love,
James

http://www.greatwhitefleet.info/A%20GWF%20set%20of%20Photos/Asian%20Deplomacy/Japan/American_Pacific_Squadron-Minnesota.jpg
Dear Mom and Dad,

      I was hoping not to send you another letter like this but we ran right into another huge storm on the way to Japan this time.  This one frightened me more than the last one because we ended up losing one fellow soldier in a another boat. But other than that we are fine and now we arrived in japan on October 19th.  Japan is full of small shops with beautiful silk items that i will be bringing home with me with some of the money that I have made so far.

http://www.greatwhitefleet.info/China_Bell_jpg_view.htm
Dear Family,

      We have now gone through Japan the place I was most worried about going to and now moving on the China. Our boat met up with Chinese boat called the Fei-ying, to greet us to Amoy Hrabor.  The Chinese were very inviting with offering a dinner for our captian to eat with their Prince.  So far we ahve not had any mishaps since the storms near Japan and hope not to encounter anymore.

Love,
James

Dear Grandpa,

       I wanted to thank you for your great advice on going to the navy again.  This has been a wonderful experience for me so far. If you had not told me this who knows what I would be doing with my life.  And i know understand to why I should always follow you're advice this was the best decision of my life.  We are now in Colombo, Ceylon.   This place has been the only place with out very much welcoming but just another coaling place.

Love
James

Dear Family,
       We have now entered the Mediterranean  and are in Athens, Greece on January 11th.  We were one of the very few ships that were able to enter the Harbor because it was so difficult to get in and out of.  Most ships had to break up an go to the smaller ports so all the ships could fit.  This will be our second to last trip and then we will be heading home to states.  I can not wait to see the entire family, I have missed everybody so much.

Love
James

Spanish American War Political Cartoons

In this political cartoon is showing a U.S. ship and the bigger looking Americans are treating these Filipino kids very brutally with the whip and having the guns pointed at them.  The words are telling that the Filipino people are being punished for just being Filipino and for no real good reason. 

NRA

The Effect of The NRA in Urban Life

The NRA or National Rifle Association was founded by two northern Civil War soldiers because they thought that the Civil War was so long because most urban northerners could not fire a weapon very well.  The first president was Ambrose Burnside, who was an old northern army general.  In the early stages of the NRA it mainly focused on firearm safety, accuracy, and recreational shooting.

From the start to today the NRA has been trying to educate and familiarize the urban citizens of the United States with guns.  Early leaders of the NRA noticed that U.S. citizens needed to be more familiar with guns.  To help citizens the U.S. government agreed with the NRA about their thoughts of getting urban people more familiar with guns.  So, the NRA and the government were both very influential in the decision making of laws and such about guns.  Both of them knew that to have a stronger military then it would be better to have every soldier know how to shoot a gun before they came into the military.

The U.S. government wanted to play a role not by just their influ
ence through the NRA.  So the government had almost organized fifty different rifle clubs that were not part of the NRA by 1907.  In each of these rifle clubs in 1907 the average amount was about three thousand members per club.  Around 1904 the government had nearly three hundred thousand boys being instructed in rifle shooting throughout the U.S.  The government was taking a huge step in the process of getting more citizens familiar with guns.

The NRA mainly focused on targeting the youth of the United State because they could make a better future.  In 1903 the NRA  targeted youth by going through colleges, rifle clubs, and military camps to start competitive shooting. This way the youth would want to start using guns while teaching them the safety of them as well.  By 1906 there were more than two hundred competitors competing with in the NRA.  This would be a great start to getting the youth of the United States stronger with guns.

The main way that the NRA targeted the younger people was by getting competitive shooting started in the schools around the U.S.  In 1909, the NRA held the first national youth shooting competition.  It was called the Interscholastic Rifle Match, it was for any school that took their top ten shooters to the competition.  Each shooter got ten shots from fifty yards in three different positions.  With this contest it gave the idea for kids to have another way to have a competition to get them to start using guns more.  

For the NRA to  improve the knowledge of guns in  the U.S. it took a long process to get to the way that Americans know about guns.

1st president of the NRA, Ambrose Burnside

NRA logo

Sources

 http://www.alternet.org

This site helped me understand how the NRA became the way that it was from the start to how it was when it is today.

.

http://www.nrahq.org

  This site gave me the information and the back round knowledge to fully get what the NRA stood for at the time.

http://timerime.com

This site provided me with a timeline of important events In the NRA or that the NRA was associated with, giving me the topics that led me to my points throughout my essay.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov  

This newspaper article gave me the information about the governments role in the creation and choices of the NRA, to help make the changes that were needed within the U.S.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

This newspaper article provided me with the start of the NRAs first real outreach towards children and firearms throughout the U.S.