On June 17th, 1972, a group of operatives working on the re-election campaign for President Richard M. Nixon got caught on the sixth floor of a large complex while setting up surveillance equipment. They had chosen to ‘bug’ the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the nation’s capital at the Watergate Hotel.
A bug in the surveillance world simply means one party wants to listen to another party without the second party knowing, while the first party does, and has everything recorded.
No one really knows where the term "to bug something" came from. There are many theories, and one is that when alarm systems became standard fare for businesses, burglars would refer to the place as being 'bugged,' as though the police were already there.
It doesn’t really matter where the term originated, since Room 214 at the Watergate had been bugged, and the operatives on June 17th were just going back to ensure their bugs would not be detected by the bigwigs running the Washington D.C. branch of the DNC.
Unfortunately for President Nixon, this issue at the Watergate Hotel would cost him the presidency, even though he won in a landslide victory in November of 1972, securing his second term in office. Due to the fallout from this break-in, which turned out to be an international tale of intrigue and conspiracy, he would have to resign from office in August of 1974.
This is where, throughout the years, fortunes have been made from coffee cups, t-shirts, flags, bumper stickers, which show President Nixon standing proudly with both hands raised and fingers flashing V’s, with the tag - I am Not a Crook.
I have to be honest, I don’t really recall any of this except for history lessons in school. Of course, I was around at the time, but being in high school, I was more interested in sports, girls, friends, and the like instead of following the goings-on in Washington, D.C. Heck, I wasn’t even close to voting age, so why should I care?
But as the decades slipped by and I became more of a history buff, I found the circumstances around the demise of a president’s reign mid-term - fascinating.
It was even more fascinating when Laureen, my lovely wife, and I were doing our typical ten-mile sauntering around Washington, D.C., a couple of years ago, and found ourselves standing in front of the infamous Watergate Hotel on Virginia Avenue.
“That’s the Watergate Hotel,” I said.
“I see that,” Laureen responded. “We weren’t even looking for it, and here it is.”
“I would call that a serendipitous bit of luck,” I said.
It was awesome to be standing in front of such a gorgeous hotel as the Watergate and realize the intrigue that had occurred here a short five decades ago.
Now, fast forward to the summer of 2025, and Laureen and I found ourselves staying at the very same Watergate Hotel.
The hotel sits just a couple of streets away from the beautiful, tree-lined Potomac River with majestic views from pretty much every room. It is referred to as a luxurious place to stay while visiting Washington D.C., and we found that to be true in every fashion.
The entire Watergate Complex, which housed business offices, shops, and the hotel itself, was built during the 1960s and designed by the famous Italian architect, Luigi Walter Moretti.
He had wanted this complex to mirror the gentle flowing of the Potomac River as it swept by below the bluffs where the Watergate was built. Moretti did a fantastic job as the building does seem to bend in a way like the river sweeping by the Wharf DC, which has tasty restaurants, night spots, and other venues to keep locals and tourists engaged.
The Top of the Gate is an open bar and restaurant allowing incredible views of Washington D.C. itself as well as the surrounding areas of Georgetown, Dupont Circle, and Foggy Bottom (I still chuckle typing that).
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| View from our room at the Watergate Hotel |
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| Time to enjoy a cold beverage overlooking Washington D.C. |
But, I was there not only to enjoy the ambiance but to find out what I could about this Watergate Scandal, as though there had not been enough written about it.
It was something to do with the tape that led investigators to locate and ultimately convict those involved in the break-in at the DNC, those being most famously E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy.
According to Aziz, the unofficial historian of the Watergate Hotel, it was a simple piece of sticky tape that did the burglars in. And, here I always thought it had to do with more subterfuge involving tape in a recorder.
“No,” Aziz said. “It was a security guard at the time, Frank Wills, who first spotted a piece of tape across a door latch leading to the area where the burglary was taking place.”
That was news to me.
“In that manner, the doors leading to the DNC headquarters would not lock, thus giving anyone, the burglars, time to go in and out of the room. After removing the tape, Wills did another check an hour later and saw the tape had been replaced and then called the police.”
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| Aziz pointing to where the DNC Headquarters once were at the Watergate Complex |
It turns out that most likely the bugging of the office would not have been discovered if the group doing the burglary had simply removed the tape from the latch when they finally left the office. They did not, and down came a presidency.
Now known as the Scandal Room, the room is set up as it would have looked on that fateful day in 1972. The furniture is retro 70’s, there are numerous photos and news clippings from the time, recording devices and typewriters that spell another time, and finally the balcony that overlooks the once DNC headquarters across from Room 214 in the complex.
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| Some of the equipment used during the scandal |
Aziz showing off the Scandal Room from 1972
The history lesson of the Watergate Scandal was enlightening and frightening to think of what political parties, on both sides, are capable of doing - especially right in the nation's capital, practically under George Washington's nose.
But Watergate is not only known for that one infamous incident, but is also known for all the celebrities, past and present, who have made the Five Star Hotel home. Including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Andy Warhol, Sammy Davis Jr., and a host of Hollywood types. And of course, those of us who just want to experience a 5 Star hotel while visiting the nation’s capital
For more information:
https://www.thewatergatehotel.com/
https://washington.org/
John can be contacted at - beyersbyways@gmail.com
