This study will examine the events leading up to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon as a result of the Watergate scandal, although other peripheral issues also played a part in the fall of Nixon from power. The heart of the issue is certainly the Constitutional abuses perpetrated by Nixon and those under him, but just as important was the basic flaw in the man himself. Theodore White in Breach of Faith writes:
What the men in the White House were involved in, without ever admitting it to themselves, was the management of an unstable personality (White, 1975, p, 13).
Of course, White could hardly know for certain what other men were or were not admitting to themselves, but the likelihood remains that at the heart of the Watergate scandal was the "unstable personality" of one man, who happened at that time to be the President of the United States.
In other words, Nixon was responsible for his own downfall, but like every leader in history who suffered from hubris, and perhaps a dab of paranoia, Nixon blamed everybody around him for his problems. In those around him there may have been an unstable personality or two as well, but the role of "the President's men" in the tragedy was to carry out the orders, explicit or implicit, which saw everyone outside that small circle as the enemy.
Nixon was elected in 1968 and re-elected in 1972 by substantial margins. He had risen from a political graveyard, having lost the Presidential race in 1960 and the California governor's race two years later. He should have been the happiest man alive, assured of his place in history for his breakthroughs with China and his detente-building with Russia. His character flaw, however, would not let him enjoy the fruits of victory and success. Whether he knew explicitly about the Watergate break-in beforehand or not, it was his paranoia which created the atmosphere in which such a break-in took place.
Thus, the tragedy of Nixon is bo...