Nixon Tapes of White Water

Through out the history of the United States it has been a common practice of rival parties in politics to go after one another. This has often been referred to as mudslinging. In order to be affective one party has to find something that really looks bad on the other person and bring this fact to the public's attention. The fact does not really have to be true rather just believable. Over the years it has become harder and harder for the politicians to stand out from their opponents. With the introduction of mass media and the increase of knowledgeable voters it has become a true rat race for public offices. That is why on March 21, 1973 President Nixon was in the Oval Office of the White House trying to decide what should be done about mistakes made by his administration. This is an analysis of the transcript of that conversation called "The Watergate Tapes: Nixon, Dean, and Haldeman Discuss the Cancer within the Presidency."

The conversation took place on March 21, 1973 in the Oval Office of the White House. The people involved in the conversation were the current president of the United States, President Nixon who is speaking to his legal counsel John Dean and Haldeman. At the time of the meeting all of the conversations within the office were recorded. This was not common knowledge to all parties involved. It is believed that Nixon did know about the recordings but assumed that they would never get out. That meant that the men in the room were the only people that this conversation was intended for. This conversation was not released to the public until April 1974 when Nixon turned over the tapes.

This meeting took place because burglars that were hired by the Republican Party broke in to the DNC (Democratic National Committee) headquarters in the Watergate building on June 17, 1972. These burglars were caught by police and were demanding money or they would tell what was going on. Nixon, Dean and Haldeman were all trying to decide what should be done about the event and how it could be controlled. They were trying to protect their party and keep the men's request from getting out of hand. It is easy to see that the president has assumed that he must take control of the problem. He also assumes that they can even get away with it and that there is a real way out for them. They feel that they must do what ever is necessary and at what ever cost to make this problem go away. Nixon assumes that this problem is one that if gotten out could really hurt his chances for getting reelected as president. He does not realize that if he would only tell the truth about his involvement, which from the sounds of the tapes was very little if any,