THE LEGACY OF WATERGATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580013-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: June 14, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580013-8
STAT
NEWSj. EEK
14 JUNE 1982
I would say that, as far as the coun-
try is concerned, after the under-
standable reaction immediately after
Watergate with regard-to politics gen-
erally, the castration of the CIA, the
opposition to some of the attitudes to-
ward the FBI, etcetera... the Water-
gate syndrome has probably run its course, and that is to the goocL
-Richard M. Nixon on the CBS "Morning News"
here he was again, familiarly it] at ease, on early-morning TV:,-
oncemore playing down the scandal that forced him to resign
the highest office in the land. But Watergate was much more than a
personal tragedy for a dishon-
ored President: it was a rite of
passage for the nation. And the
"Watergate syndrome," which
began v: ith the disclosure of
abuses in Richard Nixon's 1972
campaign organization, affect-
ed American institutions from
the pres, to the Presidency it-
self. Ten years after the June 17
break-in at Democratic Na-
tional Committer headquar-
ters in Washington's Water-
gate complex, the legacy is still
strong. It has curbed the FBI
and the CIA, awakened a dor-
mant Congress,- visited the
"post-\Vatergate morality" up-
on big business, and drastically
altered tie: ethical standards
imposed on public officials at
every level of government.
But now the pendulum is
swinging back a bit, many poli-
ticians and historians agree,
partly because some reactions
to Watergate have proven un-
wieldy, others counterproduc-
tive. "Whenever you have a
nationwl trauma of that mag-
nitude, the reforms that rear
in beiid it inevitably go
too fir," says San Francisco
businessman William Ruckels-
haus, who resigned as deputy
Attorney General rather than
fire Water gate special prosecu-
again-from bug
Attorney Genera
the not-quite-can
Finally, there are
able-questio;;
Watergate and th
was The Washing
only as Deep Thr _ _,.
Speaking for themselves through the srymipling of a new Nrvvws-
WEEK Poll, a vast majority of Arnaricans (75 1 ercent) believe that
Nixon 's actions regarding; Water --,;?e, v,,--re s, , r: crou;h to v-%-tr-
.,
his resignation-more than thought so at time Ira stepped
down. But the numbers opposing a par', In granted lhim by Gerald
Ford-and oppeala'" a retuia
to public life by Ni