Nixon

The Cover-up

1. Regardless of the outcome, should the President of the United States have a right to privacy in regards to the Oval Office tapes? Explain.
I believe that, yes, he should have the right to privacy with regards to the White House tapes. As president of one of the most powerful nations on earth I believe that he has certain rights that other ordinary citizens do not. It sounds wrong when said so bluntly but I think it makes sense. The president has to deal with so many things, things that ordinary citizens can't even begin to understand. It is the president's responsibility to deal with these things and act in the best interest of the country. There may be information on those tapes that wasn't meant to be heard by the public. Things that if heard by the public could have serious repercussions This I believe was partially true in the case of NIxon's downfall. Although most of the damage was done before the tapes were even released to the public.

2. Was President Nixon justified when he fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox? Explain.
I believe that when Nixon said "When the president does it that means that it is not elligal" he was being extreme but I agree with him to some extant that the president can take iligal action as long as it is in the best interest of the nation. However in this case, the issue of whether or not NIxon was justifide in firering Cox, the question is what was in the best interest of the country? Some might say that Nixon was justified because in his attempt to hide the truth about Watergate he was protecting the nation from all the mistrust it's citizens still feel today towards its government. By attempting to prove himself inoscent of the crime he was trying to save the county a huge scandal that would be far worse than the actual crime that had been comitted in the first place.
On the other hand maybe it was better that the truth about Watergate came out. And the fact that Nixon had attempted to cover his actions become known to the public.

3. Was Nixon creating a Constitutional crisis by refusing to hand-over the tapes? Explain.
Yes of course he was. Nixon was the first president who truly tested the strength of the constitution. He was the first president who ever came close to an impeachment.
The american constitution created three branches of government, executive, legislative and judisiary. Each was designed to have powers that the others didn't have and each of them are interdependent. Ever since the case of Marbury vs. Madison it has been the judicial branches responsibility to decide whether the president's actions (or any one else's) are constitutional. In the case of Nixon, he was obstructing this balance between the branches of government by refusing to hand over the tapes.
He had also gained an extreme amount of power as leader of the executive branch.

Closure

4. Why do you think the American public was so outraged by Watergate?
The Watergate scandal created a huge amount of doubt amongst americans regarding the ligality of their governments actions. What if the government had gotten away with the crime and they hadn't been caught. What else has the government done that wasn't legal.

5. Do you think President Nixon should have resigned? Explain.
Yes I definatly think that Nixon should have resigned. If Nixon had not resigned he would have been impeached; it was only a matter of time. And he saved the country from having to say that we had such a bad president that we had to forcably remove him from office. Not much better that resigning but still.

6. Do you think President Nixon should have been prosecuted? Explain.
NO! What would have been the point. He was out of office and had lost his reputation. It also would have been a huge embaressment if Nixon had ended up in jail.