The Nixon Administration will always be known for the Watergate scandal and
Nixon's forced resignation from office. Foreign observers were always baffled
by the uproar that such a "third-rate" burglary produced, and the young Amer-
icans who were not alive when the controversy grew into a political hurricane
are still unclear about exactly what happened and still have difficulty under-
standing how it could lead to the loss of the presidency. Why did certain paid
members of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) plan and carry
out a burglary in the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Wa-
tergate, and after they were caught, who took what actions to insure that the
Nixon Administration would not be blamed for what occurred?

For the first time in a public forum, Reverend Jeb Stuart Magruder, one of
the insiders, describes what the break-in was supposed to accomplish, in an
exchange with author J. Anthony Lukas, who has written an important study of
the original events. One of the key prosecutors, Earl J. Silbert, tells how the
government approached the case, and Stanley I. Kutler emphasizes the important
moral and political principles involved.

David R. Simon describes the political reactions to Watergate, and Nancy
Kassop writes on Nixon's attempt to remove the first Watergate special prose-
cutor, Archibald Cox, and the firestorm that followed, which laid the basis for
impeachment.

Other panels dealt with additional abuses of the time. Alan F. Westin describes
different efforts by the Nixon Administration to uncover information about po-
litical opponents, and Michael A. Genovese discusses the politicization of the
Justice Department. Responses by Charles W. Colson, who was in the White House

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