Happy Watergate 50th anniversary!

On June 17th, 1972 at about 12:30 a.m., security guard Frank Wills notices masking tape holding a door latch open between the parking garage and a stairwell at D.C.’s Watergate hotel and office complex. He removes it but returns to find the lock taped again and calls the police. They arrest five intruders on the sixth floor, inside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.

Washington Post

On June 18, 1972, The Washington Post ran a front-page story on a break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate building in D.C. The story, the first to run in The Post about what would become the Watergate scandal, was written by longtime police beat reporter Alfred E. Lewis. The next day, a follow-up piece would run under the bylines of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who would go on to break open the scandal that would ultimately lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Washington Post

The journalism that uncovered the greatest political scandal on the 20th century led to a book which led to a film that changed my life.

All the President’s Men is based on the book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. I watched this film in 9th grade in my journalism class and it lit a fire in my love for journalism, for story, for narrative, for great film, and for writing. I already read my local newspaper. I was probably the only one of my friends who did. But this was something big. It showed what journalism could do.

Ultimately, the work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein caused Nixon’s resignation. And that was the moment the public began to distrust the government. Of course, not everyone trusted the government, but this shook the country. Nothing was the same after the news unraveled Nixon’s presidency.

I was born one month before his resignation, so I only have books, movies, and documentaries that I’ve consumed about the break-in, no memories of the scandal in real time.

If you haven’t seen the film, give it a watch. It’s extremely heavy on dialogue, so don’t expect lightsabers or motorcycle chases. Let me know what you think.