COMMENTARY: Watergate as watershed in nation’s self-image

c. 1997 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee). UNDATED _ Ever since the founding of the United States more than 200 years ago, foreign observers have frequently described Americans as hopelessly naive, sweetly innocent, and smugly self-righteous. And, of course, we believed it. We confidently […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee).

UNDATED _ Ever since the founding of the United States more than 200 years ago, foreign observers have frequently described Americans as hopelessly naive, sweetly innocent, and smugly self-righteous.


And, of course, we believed it. We confidently told ourselves and our children that the United States is a nation of exceptional public morality and virtue _ despite our dismal record on slavery, sexism, anti-Semitism, and a host of other evils. Generations of Americans have clung comfortably to the dogma that our political behavior was unique and morally superior to other nations.

But that collective mythology was shattered 25 years ago this month, when the now infamous band of bungling burglars broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Watergate scandal, culminating in President Richard Nixon’s humiliating resignation from office in 1974, irrevocably changed the way we perceive our government, our institutions, our leaders and ourselves.

Until Watergate, American political leaders, especially presidents, were able to draw upon a vast reservoir of public goodwill and trust, especially during times of national crisis. And while relishing pugnacious political campaigns, as a people we desperately wanted to believe that such battles were always fairly fought between honorable adversaries.

Members of my generation can still recall when the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Central Intelligence Agency, and most of all, the White House, were deeply respected for their integrity and honesty. But Watergate ended all that.

One of Watergate’s lasting effects is a pervasive skepticism and contempt for everything and everyone associated with the public trust. The last 25 years have witnessed a continuing corrosion of the public spirit. We elect political leaders whom we instinctively distrust, and when our suspicions are proven true, we longer even pretend surprise.

However, some people argue that Americans, after two centuries of carefully crafted self-deception, desperately needed a challenge to their blind trust in political leaders and institutions.

They point out that without the chastening impact of Watergate, it would have been difficult, perhaps impossible, for the federal government to admit its destructive anti-American-Indian policies, the cruel internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the horrific medical experiments that were performed on black men at Tuskegee, and the recent suppression of information about the devastating effects of chemical warfare during the Persian Gulf war.

But sadly, Watergate was much more and much worse than a healthy corrective. The historic political covenant between the governed and the government was broken, and replaced by an increasingly angry, fragmented America.


Some historians argue there is a direct link between the government abuses of Watergate and the political extremism of Texas secessionists, armed militias, and, most chilling of all, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

The religious community was not spared the painful consequences of Watergate. Even a quarter century later, Billy Graham, America’s premier Christian evangelist, still feels betrayed by Nixon’s illegal actions as well as by his vile, repulsive language recorded on White House tapes. And who can forget the bizarre picture of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church praying with the embattled Nixon during the height of Watergate? Truly a scene from the theater of the absurd.

And, as in all calamities, some people truly found God in their moments of anguish and pain. Jeb Stuart Magruder and Charles Colson, two Nixon aides who served jail sentences for Watergate-related crimes, have become prominent Christian leaders. Magruder is an ordained Presbyterian minster and Colson heads an international ministry to prisoners and their families.

Until the very end of his life, Nixon worked desperately to secure an honored place in American history. His admirers never tired of telling us again and again that”aside from Watergate, Nixon was a great president, especially in international relations.”But the truth of that claim is for future historians to decide.

Clearly, Richard Nixon was the architect of a grand China policy, but was he also the architect of a grand policy of seeking forgiveness? Maybe I missed it, but Nixon never sought public repentance for his sins of omission and commission.

Such an action would have greatly aided a national healing process that has yet to take place. Instead, because of Watergate, America is more bitterly divided than it was the day President Nixon proudly assured his fellow citizens he was”not a crook.” MJP END RUDIN


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