Richard Nixon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Richard Nixon - Essay Example CRP began a massive fund-raising campaign aimed at collecting as much money as possible before the reporting contributions became mandatory under a new law, and the money could be used for any purpose. Besides this official objective, under Nixon's orders, members of the CRP began conducting electronic surveillance of government officials and members of the press, in an attempt to control the flow of information regarding Nixon's activities. In the period between 1969 and 1971, wiretaps were installed on telephones around Washington DC in the name of "national security," and the Oval Office was equipped with voice-activated tape recorders, a decision that would later come back to haunt Nixon. In 1971, the CRP began to ramp up its political intelligence-gathering activities in preparation for the upcoming presidential election. The group planned to infiltrate the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters, located on the sixth floor of the Watergate apartment and office complex in Washington DC. Leading the conspiracy were US Attorney General John Mitchell, deputy director of the CRP Jeb Magruder, and CRP counsel G. Gordon Liddy. Their goal was to photograph campaign materials and place bugging devices in the office of Democratic National Chairman Lawrence F. ... The Watergate break-in eventually exposed a whole array of campaign practices designed to disrupt or embarrass the political opposition, all of which commentators later summarized as 'dirty tricks.' Investigation and Prosecution When making an attempt to break into the Watergate building in order to fix up previously installed wiretapping equipment, all the burglars were caught red-handed by the police on information of the building guard. The number of these burglars was five including Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzlez, Eugenio Martnez, James W. McCord, Jr., and Frank Sturgis. After investigation the police found telephone number of E. Howard Hunt in McCord's notebook who was Chief of Security at the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP). This was a strong proof that strengthens the idea that there was surely a connection between the burglars and someone close to the President. Investigation started to find a link between McCord and the CIA and finally it was discovered that the CRP bribed McCord. The White House denied any knowledge of the break in. Six days later, John Haldeman, the White House Chief of Staff, met with Nixon to tell him that the FBI had traced the money found in the burglars' possession to CREEP. In a tape-recorded conversation, Nixon asked Haldeman to get in touch with the CIA to have the FBI's investigation stopped. In spring 1973, three of the five indicted men in the Watergate break-in pled guilty, while the remaining two were found guilty after a trial. The Cuban men were each sentenced to forty years in prison, and Hunt was sentenced to thirty-five. McCord sent word to Judge Sirica that he was willing to cooperate in exchange for a reduced sentence. White House counsel John Dean also approached the Judge and offered his

A history of the play and the playwright plus a list of works Essay

A history of the play and the playwright plus a list of works referenced - Essay Example He was, in the eyes of the world, an ordinary young man. But he was soon to prove them wrong. Shakespeare came into the picture in 1592, as an actor and dramatist. The exact date of his entrance in the theatrical world is as yet, not known, but it is believed to be the late 1500s. And still, the first published work of the infamous William Shakespeare was seven years after his demise, in the year 1616, a result of the efforts of his companions and colleagues. It was called, The Great Folio of 1623 (Honigmann 1-12). His works were considered classic during his lifetime, but the fame was nothing which came after his demise. Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets mostly followed the genre of tragedy, yet in the later part of his career, he wrote romantics, or tragic comedies. But it was the tragedies that really took place into the hearts and souls of men. He gave authenticity to his tragedies by relating them to real historical instances; however, the plays were not in the exact timeli ne of these instances (Bevington 50-68). His tragedies are renowned for a reason. â€Å"Shakespeare’s language, his insight into the characters, and his dramaturgical inventiveness set his tragedies apart from any else† (McAlindon 1-22). Any exceptional play or book is exalted in the words, â€Å"like a Shakespearean tragedy†. However, no tragedy can ever touch the bar set by Shakespeare. It is that reason that his tragic works became so distinguished. â€Å"A tragedy is an intense exploration of suffering and evil focused on the experience of an exceptional individual, distinguished by rank or character or both† and Shakespeare’s had it and more (McAlindon 1-22). One such Shakespearean Tragedy was the story of Caesar. Shakespeare’s main source for the play is Plutarch's famous biography  The Life of Julius Caesar, written in Greek in the 1st century and translated into English in 1579 by Sir Thomas North. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar was published in the First Folio in 1623; however, it was performed on stage before that. The earliest performance of the play that has been recorded was in Shakespeare’s time. It was held in the Globe Theatre (possibly), on the twenty first of September, 1599 (Ripley 13-14). It was Thomas Platter, a Swiss traveller, who saw and recorded this play which has been the earliest record of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. According to his memoirs, the play was performed by excellent actors in a â€Å"strewn roof-house† at around 2 o’clock after dinner (Ripley). Shakespeare’s writing on Caesar was not the first, nor was it the last. Many writers wrote before him about the great Caesar, and even more wrote after Shakespeare. Yet none was able to capture the beauty of the story; no one portrayed better the betrayals, the morbid qualities, the desperation and the love in the story. It therefore, became most known as Shakespeare’s tragedy, rather than being known a s one of his numerous works. In fact, among all of Shakespeare’s plays, Caesar stands ninth in theatrical popularity; Macbeth, Othello Hamlet and such preceding it (Raffel xvii-xix). Caesar himself appears very few times throughout the play, however. It is the chaos that reigns after his death that captivates the audience. A particularly famous one that I love is the twentieth century production by Orson Welles. George Orson Welles remains one of the most famous of all Hollywood’s directors. He was also a writer and his take on this play