Watergate & the Teapot Dome Scandal: The History and Legacy of America’s Most Notorious Government Scandals

106 Pages·2016·2.22 MB·English

by  Charles River Editors

Watergate & the Teapot Dome Scandal: The History and Legacy
of America’s Most Notorious Government Scandals
By Charles River Editors
A postcard of Teapot Rock
About Charles River Editors

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Introduction
A modern picture of Teapot Rock The Teapot Dome Scandal “I have no
trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my
friends, my goddamned friends, they're the ones who keep me walking the floor
at nights!” – Warren Harding American culture of the 21st century cites the
relatively recent Watergate Scandal, and to a lesser degree the Enron Oil
Scandal, as prime examples of modern governmental corruption. It is a widely
held perception that these incidents, particularly the one bringing about the first
resignation of an American president, caused the public to lose trust in federal
institutions and political figures.
However, the prototype for the breakdown of governmental fidelity lies in the
early 20th century, a time in which the recent territories of the United States
struggled to evolve from a lawless, Wild West culture. The federal government
viewed its western resources as both unlimited and outside the grasp of the
government. The leading oil barons, born and raised in the 19th century, were
accustomed to federally-blessed land-grabs and easily obtained mining and
lumber interests, often doled out to the social and financial elite under the guise
of exploration. Federal interference was minimal in contrast to later decades, and
the government itself was eager to conquer the West through large-tract farming,
river management, mineral and timber development, not to mention the
procurement of oil for a growing society as coal gave way to new types of fuel.
The early 20th century was a time of sudden growth for the young American
automobile industry, and of a military beginning to extend its reach around the
world. In what would become largely a jurisdictional dispute over Western
natural resources, the unbridled oil industry of the new century collided with the
United States military and the Department of the Interior, set against the
dominance of a corruption-riddled presidential administration. For the first time
in American history, in a test between entrepreneurism and government
management, a high-ranking cabinet official was convicted of corruption and
sent to prison in the aftermath, along with his co-conspirators.
In the ensuing Congressional investigation that sought to root out the
widespread graft, bribery, and usurpation of government property over the
following decade, the two-year affair became commonly known as the Teapot
Dome Scandal. Although three major oil fields were actually involved, including
Elk Hills and Buena Vista in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the symbol of
the incident became a rock formation north of Casper, Wyoming, shaped in what
most observers would describe as a teapot. Beneath this formation lay an
enormous reservoir of crude oil, and all of it the property of the United States
Navy.
On June 4, 1920, Congress at last declared that the Secretary of the Navy was
to hold the power to “conserve, develop, use and operate,”[1] at its discretion, a
tract of approximately 70,000 acres in California. The Wyoming fields fell under
the same dictate, and although Teapot was the smaller reserve in terms of
acreage, it contained a great deal more oil than its Californian counterparts.
Although never directly implicated in the row over Teapot Dome and its
sister fields, the administration of Republican Warren G. Harding, elected in
November of 1921, set the scandal in motion by transferring control of the
Navy’s oil fields to the Department of Interior, at the Secretary of the Interior’s
incessant urging. Albert Fall, the Secretary of the Interior at the time and a
Harding appointee, was one of several poker-playing cronies in the president’s
cabinet. Once his department gained control over the Navy’s oil fields, Fall
subsequently took it upon himself to offer secret leases and contracts to
independent oil companies run by personal cronies, and pocketing the royalties.
In so doing, Fall set the stage for a scandal that may have unraveled Harding’s
administration had the president’s premature death in office not come to pass.
Watergate
President Nixon leaving the White House on August 9, 1974.
"I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is
abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest
of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress,
particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad. To continue
to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost
totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a
period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and
prosperity without inflation at home. Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency
effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at
that hour in this office." – President Richard Nixon, August 8, 1974.
Increasingly and mistakenly viewed as a single scandal within the United
States government, what is commonly referred to as the Watergate scandal
serves as an overarching term for a series of scandals beginning in 1971 and
extending through 1974, although more than any other, it refers to the specific
break-in at the Watergate Hotel and office complex in Washington, D.C. The
crisis, originating in a secretive battle between the two major political parties,
the Nixon White House’s paranoia, and the ensuing conflict concerning the
release of confidential information to the public, induced senior government
officials into committing crimes (most notoriously petty burglary) and coverups
for the purposes of character assassination and inter-political espionage, and it
ultimately resulted in the first and only resignation of a sitting American
president, Richard Milhous Nixon. Watergate has since become so synonymous
with scandal that “gate” is typically added to the end of words associated with
scandals even today, and the Watergate complex still remains well known (
“Even today, it is home to former Senator Bob Dole, and was the place where
Monica Lewinsky laid low.”)[2]
In the wake of the seemingly peculiar burglary, gradual media and judicial
pursuits of the thread of scandals led from one thing to another over the
following years until it began to culminate with Congressional impeachment
proceedings and a momentous showdown between the President and the
Supreme Court over the release of presidential tapes, a moment in which Nixon
seriously considered defying the Court and initiating a constitutional crisis.
When he at last surrendered them, excerpts were blatantly missing, most
famously an 18 minute stretch. Given the flurry of activities, it has only been in
recent years that historians have gained a full measure of the nation’s perilous
status during the intense battle between the various branches of the federal
government, and the American public’s view of government in general took a
decidedly negative turn, resulting in social and political disillusionment and
distrust of the government that still resonates today. If anything good came out
of the Watergate scandal, it was that “in its wake, Watergate spawned a reform-
minded Congress.”[3]
For the last 40 years, President Nixon has been mostly reviled, and
understandably, he’s ranked among the country’s worst presidents, but this view
of the President and the Watergate scandal was not and still is not necessarily
unanimous. A growing number of Republicans, led by conservatives such as
former Nixon speechwriter Pat Buchanan, describe the bringing down of the
president as a quasi-coup generated by the press and liberal social forces from
within the anti-war movement, which gravitated to the release of information on
Vietnam, an increasingly unpopular war, and tapping the widespread campus
unrest throughout the country. Paul Johnson, in his book, Modern Times: A
History of the World from the 1920s to the Year 2000, referred to the whole
affair as nothing more than “this Watergate witch hunt.” [4]
Watergate & the Teapot Dome Scandal: The History and Legacy of America’s
Most Notorious Government Scandals chronicles the two biggest presidential
scandals in American history. Along with pictures of important people, places,
and events, you will learn about Watergate and the Teapot Dome Scandal like
never before.
Watergate & the Teapot Dome Scandal: The History and Legacy of America’s
Most Notorious Government Scandals
About Charles River Editors
Introduction
The Teapot Dome Scandal
The Origins of the Scandal
Plans In Motion
Congressional Investigations
Shocking Twists and Turns
Special Counsel
Recriminations
Watergate
The Pentagon Papers, CREEP, and the First Burglaries
The Watergate Break-Ins
The Administration’s Initial Coverup Attempts
Unraveling the Coverup
Catching Up With Nixon
The Impact of Watergate
Nixon’s Resignation Speech
Online Resources
Bibliography
Free Books by Charles River Editors
Discounted Books by Charles River Editors
The Teapot Dome Scandal
The Origins of the Scandal
The oil fields of California and Wyoming reserved for the U.S. Navy were
discovered almost two decades prior to the 1920 election that put Warren
Harding in office. President William Howard Taft first set them aside as an
emergency supply for the American military, and began the arduous process of
converting naval ships from coal-burning vessels to an all petroleum-based
force. Coal-fired ships were saddled with weight limitations, while petroleum
fuel offered a considerably greater range of travel and freight capability,
eliminating the need for regularly-spaced coal stations for refueling. Other
national powers were undergoing similar conversions, and Taft was unwilling to
be left behind. The battleship USS Wyoming, the second of its kind to bear the
name, was launched in 1910, following its conversion as the first major war ship
in Taft’s fleet to meet the new standard. She was relaunched as the USS
Cheyenne when the new USS Wyoming was built.
Taft Around the same time, Albert Bacon Fall’s political alliance with the Taft
administration and its new thirst for oil brought about his Senate appointment in