5 Watergate Facts You Probably Didn’t Know
It’s nearly impossible to live in the United States without learning quite a bit about the infamous Watergate scandal. You probably know that Watergate is the name of a Washington, D.C., hotel, that a politically motivated burglary there led to the first presidential resignation in American history, and that it’s the scandal that caused the suffix “-gate” to be attached to the end of just about every controversy in politics, sports, or pop culture since. But the Watergate story has so many layers and strangely fascinating details, there is always more to uncover, even for those of us who remember the events unfolding in the early 1970s. Here are a few facts you might not know about one of the most surreal episodes in U.S. political history.
The Slang Term “Big Enchilada” Was Popularized By Watergate
John Ehrlichman, President Richard Nixon’s chief domestic affairs adviser, popularized so many catchphrases, he could have been a pro wrestler. One of these was “the big enchilada,” which he used to refer to U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell. Ehrlichman was caught on tape expressing his hope that Mitchell, as a big name and political heavyweight, could take the blame for Watergate and get the heat off of everyone else. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary now defines “the big enchilada” as a phrase meaning “the most important issue, person, etc.” The Watergate scandal and ensuing trial also popularized the terms “cover-up,” “deep-six,” and “smoking gun,” the latter of which was used to describe the tape Nixon made that reveals he ordered the FBI to stop investigating the break-in.
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One of the Watergate Burglars Also Helped Plan the Bay of Pigs
When it came to political subterfuge, Bernard L. Barker had a pretty legendary slump in the 1960s and ’70s. Barker, a CIA operative turned Miami realtor, helped organize the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba. He was then one of the five burglars arrested in the Watergate burglaries in 1972. Four of the five Watergate burglars had CIA ties, while the fifth, Virgilio R. González, was a Cuban refugee and locksmith from Miami. Eugenio Martínez was the only burglar to receive a pardon, from President Ronald Reagan in 1983. After Martínez served 15 months in prison, the Cuban government reached out to him, thinking he might have turned on the U.S. because of Watergate. Martínez contacted the CIA and began working as a double agent, which led to his special consideration by Reagan.
Nixon Tanked the Stock Value of “The Washington Post” Out of Revenge
In 1973, when President Nixon was coming off reelection and feeling confident that he was out of the woods, he spoke about “sticking it to Washington” in a conversation with White House counsel Chuck Colson. The conversation was — of course — caught on tape. With the election behind him, Nixon put together a list of enemies who had to pay. The Washington Post was high on the list, having broken the Watergate story, and the company had just gone public. Nixon used the Federal Communications Commission to challenge the licenses of the two Florida TV stations owned by the company, and he instructed his people to cut off access to the Post.
In a memo to his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, Nixon wrote: “[Press Secretary Ron] Ziegler under no circumstances is to see anybody from The Washington Post and no one on the White House staff is to see anybody from The Washington Post or return any calls to them. … [J]ust treat the Post absolutely coldly — all of their people are to be treated in this manner.” The freezing out of the paper, and the legal challenges to the company’s TV stations, successfully drove the Post’s stock down from $38 a share to $16 a share, well over a 50% drop in value. Nixon also had a plan around this time to get a conservative ally, Pittsburgh millionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, to buy the newspaper, but the plot ultimately failed.
The Eponymous Watergate Cake Is Full of Nuts
Watergate Salad and Watergate Cake are recipes of arguable origin, but what we do know is that they were popularized around the time of the Watergate scandal, and the eponymous hotel does not claim to have invented either. Watergate Cake is a layer cake made with pistachio, pecan, and coconut, with a creamy frosting on top. In an article published in Hagerstown, Maryland’s The Morning Herald a month after Nixon’s resignation, one home cook speculated, “I don’t know where the recipe originated and I don’t know why it’s called ‘Watergate Cake’ unless it’s because of all the nuts in it!”
Nixon’s Watergate Interview Is the Highest-Rated Political Interview of All Time
Ignoring the advice of many of his advisers, Nixon agreed to a series of interviews about his presidency, including Watergate, with British journalist David Frost. The first interview aired on May 4, 1977, with a record-setting 45 million Americans watching. Some 29 hours of interviews were edited down to five episodes, and the first 90-minute broadcast still holds the record for most-watched interview with a U.S. President.
These conversations were the first and only time Nixon agreed to address direct questions about Watergate, and the first time he admitted anything resembling guilt. “I let down my friends,” the former President said. “I let down the country. I let down our system of government.” At the same time, Nixon also found a way to blame other people, attempting to scapegoat his attorney general John Mitchell and Mitchell’s wife, Martha Mitchell. Nixon also famously stated, “Well, when the President does it… that means that it is not illegal.” Nixon was paid $600,000 for the series of interviews, which were dramatic enough to be adapted into a 2006 play and the 2008 film Frost/Nixon — just one of the many pop culture depictions of this captivating chapter of U.S. history.
