In the middle of the night on June 17, 1972, five men were arrested and charged with breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex. These men had ties to the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) and, following their arrest, officials within the Nixon administration orchestrated a cover-up. The Watergate break-in sparked a series of events that, over the next 26 months, would propel an unassuming Midwesterner into the Oval Office. Our nation’s history and Gerald Ford’s life would never be the same.
