In the final analysis, an undercurrent of deceit had been festering in the president’s office since at least the times of JFK and LBJ. By examining Rudalevige’s notion of the ‘Imperial Presidency’, we see that Nixon and his administration had allowed themselves to turn a blind eye to morals, if it meant the President was protected. I maintain that this is critical to understanding why the Watergate Scandal and Nixon’s absolution had such a jarring effect on the American psyche. I believe that previous acts of deviancy set the precedent in Nixon’s view that it was necessary for him to act subversively and nefariously in order to succeed, something to which he himself admits. Not only this, but I have also shown how the release of sensitive material such as the Pentagon Papers fundamentally altered the American peoples’ perceptions of their leader’s character, and how such revelations expressed for the first time the surreptitious intentions of the President. For Americans, Nixon was the antithesis to what a President should be - a paragon of virtue with the people’s interest at heart. Indeed, the actions and words of Richard Nixon and his administration towards both the Vietnam War and Watergate opened America’s eyes to the artifice that had pervaded the political landscape for decades; his own paranoia towards his peers and enemies grew out of control, and would eventually consume him. This feeling of public mistrust was not rescinded by Watergate’s ignominious conclusion, where despite Nixon’s resignation and the ensuing catharsis that occurred, as argued by Patterson and Hoff, I have posited McQuaid’s argument that the institutions in place to provide checks and balances had been deliberately subverted. The American people were thus left to ruminate on the double standard of justice that was all too pellucid in the wake of the scandal. Bibliography Appy, Christian, Vietnam: The Definitive Oral History Told from All Sides (Ebury Press, 2008) Brown, Seyom, The Crisis of Power (Columbia University Press, 1979) Cannon, James, Gerald R. Ford: An Honorable Life (University of Michigan State Press, 2013) Emery, Fred, Watergate: The Corruption and Fall of Richard Nixon (Pimlico, 1995) Gould, Lewis L., The Scouring of the Modern Presidency: John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson (University Press of Kansas, 2009) Hitchens, Christopher, The Trial of Henry Kissinger (Verso, 2001)
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