Key Questions

1. What was Watergate all about? What really happened?



2. Who ordered the break-in?



3. Who or what was the real target of the break-in?



4. Was the break-in deliberately exposed?



5. Was one of the arresting officers a member of the national intelligence community?



6. Were any members of the break-in team employed at the time by the CIA?



7. Did G. Gordon Liddy mastermind the break-in?



8. The CIA produced the planning charts for Operation Gemstone. Were their contents known at its highest levels?



9. What led President Nixon to commit obstruction of justice as recorded on the 6-23-72 "smoking gun tape?"



10. Did President Nixon and his top aides know that the majority of the hush money payments went to only one Watergate burglar? Did they know it was hush money?



11. Who directed the cover-up? President Nixon? One or both of his two top aides, Haldeman and Ehrlichman? If not them, who?



12. Who recommended that the Senate Watergate Committee call Alexander Butterfield to testify about the Oval Office taping system? What were the motives behind this recommendation?



13. Why did the Washington Post, in possession of knowledge of the taping system 48 hours before Butterfield's public appearance, fail to publish the story?



14. Why did three of President Nixon's top aides, also in possession of knowledge of the taping system 48 hours before Butterfield's public appearance, fail to immediately inform the President?



15. Why did Butterfield reveal the taping system's existence without first consulting the White House about invoking executive privilege?



16. What was the relationship between Bob Woodward and his source, Deep Throat?



17. Why would Deep Throat leak only to Woodward? Why didn't Deep Throat leak to a better-known journalist?



18. Who erased 14 of the missing "18 and ½" minutes from the 6-20-72 tape?



19. How did Deep Throat know of the tape gap and its deliberate erasure prior to its discovery by White House staff?



20. Was the Saturday Night Massacre deliberately maneuvered, and by whom?



21. Could President Nixon have survived a Senate Impeachment Trial?



22. What part did President Nixon's foreign policy initiatives play in the Watergate leaks?



23. Did the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff authorize the theft of information from the National Security Council, and if so, why?



24. Did members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff leak stolen information to selected members of the media, and if so, why?



25. How was the existence of a military spy ring uncovered, and what did President Nixon do about it?



26. Was there a connection between this military spy ring and the Watergate hearings?



27. Did President Nixon's failure to hold Republican support for his policies contribute to his downfall?