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SONDERMANN | How’s your memory 50 years later?

By 06/12/2022 | updated 3 years ago

June 17 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. Yes, a full half-century has passed. 

For those of you alive and conscious back then, let’s test your recollection. For those of more recent vintage, this might serve as an entertaining primer on how a two-bit robbery turned into a political upheaval and led to the only presidential resignation in American history. 

Herewith, a Watergate trivia quiz of 16 questions. Use Google if you wish, though that takes much of the fun out of it. Answers at the end. 

  1. Which offices at the Watergate complex were the target of the break-in? 

A. The campaign of Democratic frontrunner Edmund Muskie 

B. The Democratic National Committee

C. A rogue unit of the CIA

D. The Washington Post 

  1. The break-in was foiled when a 24-year-old security guard called police after discovering that locks at the complex had been disturbed. What was the guard’s name? 

A. Frank Wills

B. Frank Gorshin

C. Frank Howard

D. Frank Capra

C. Hans Frank 

  1. The operation turned out to be the work of a special White House unit known as: 

A. White House Contractors

B. White House Undercover

C. President’s Hackers

D. White House Plumbers 

  1. Nixon’s paranoia had been fed by the nail-biter race in 1960, when he felt robbed of the presidency by vote-counting shenanigans in: 

A. Miami-Dade County, Florida

B. Cook County, Illinois

C. Wayne County, Michigan

D. County Cork, Ireland 

  1. Which is not true of G. Gordon Liddy, the head of the White House unit behind the Watergate operation? 

A. He had been a ghostwriter for J. Edgar Hoover.

B. His middle name was Battle.

C. He overcame his fear of rats by cooking and eating one.

D. Before marrying his wife, he ran an FBI background check on her.

E. He later toured college campuses with psychedelic drug champion, Timothy Leary. 

  1. Which of the following are true as to how Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward and critical source “Deep Throat” would arrange to meet? 

A. When “Deep Throat” wanted to meet, he would draw a clock on page 20 of Woodward’s copy of the New York Times to indicate the meeting time.

B. When “Deep Throat” wanted to meet, he would call Bernstein’s home phone exactly 12 hours before the meeting time and play a recording of “Hail to the Redskins.”

C. When Woodward wanted to meet, he would fly a Redskins pennant from his apartment balcony.

D. When Woodward wanted to meet, he would put a flowerpot with a red flag on his apartment balcony. 

  1. Over 30 years later, it was revealed that “Deep Throat” had been: 

A. Clyde Tolson

B. Richard Kleindienst

C. Mark Felt

D. Linda Lovelace 

  1. Sen. Howard Baker, lead Republican on the Senate Watergate Committee, asked what question repeatedly? 

A. “That is an allegation; do you have any proof?”

B. “Once again, what is the controlling legal authority?”

C. “What did the President know and when did he know it?”

D. “Are we supposed to believe you and not the President of the United States?” 

  1. Fred Thompson, who went on to be a U.S. senator from Tennessee and then play in Law & Order, had what role in Watergate? 

A. Chief White House counsel for President Nixon

B. Chief counsel for the Republicans on the Senate Watergate Committee

C. Chief counsel for the Democrats on the Senate Watergate Committee

D. Chief legal analyst for ABC News 

  1. Which Democratic Congressman chaired the House Judiciary Committee hearings on impeachment? 

A. Barbara Jordan

B. Peter Rodino

C. Wayne Hays

D. John Dingell 

  1. In the 1972 election, Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern carried exactly one state plus the District of Columbia. Which state did he win? 

A. Massachusetts

B. New Jersey

C. Maryland

D. South Dakota 

  1. Which of the following quotes does not belong to Spiro Agnew, Nixon’s Vice President until his own resignation for corruption. 

A. “Some newspapers are fit only to line the bottom of bird cages.”

B. “We have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.”

C. “They have formed their own 4-H Club, the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”

D. “What a pandering pot of pontificating pundits and pissy, peevish philosophers.”

E. We may soon be able to tame the oceans; fools and women will take a little longer.”

F. “The President needs me at the White House. It’s autumn and the leaves need raking.” 

  1. In the infamous Saturday Night Massacre in October 1973, which two senior leaders of the Justice Department resigned rather than follow Nixon’s order to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox? 

A. H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman

B. Alexander Haig and Bebe Rebozo

C. Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus

D. John Mitchell and Robert Bork 

  1. Who took responsibility for the 18.5 minute gap in a sought-after portion of Nixon’s secret White House taping system? 

A. Alexander Butterfield

B. John Dean

C. Elizabeth Ray

D. Rosemary Woods 

  1. Which of the following were not part of the delegation that went to the White House two days before Nixon’s resignation to tell him that the gig was up and impeachment was inevitable? 

A. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

B. Senator Barry Goldwater

C. Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott

D. Reverend Billy Graham

E. California Governor Ronald Reagan

F. House Minority Leader John Rhodes 

  1. In years that followed, which of these scandals labeled with the suffix “gate” was not related to politics? 

A. Troopergate

B. Rathergate

C. Weinergate

D. Deflategate

E. Emailgate 

Answers: 1. b  2. a  3. d  4. b  5. All are true  6. a & d  7. c  8. c  9. b  10. b  11. a  12. d  13. c  14. d 15. a, d, e  16. d

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for ColoradoPolitics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at?EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann.

On the day of his resignation, Aug. 9, 1974, Richard M. Nixon waves goodbye from the steps of his helicopter as he leaves the White House following a farewell address to his staff. The Watergate scandal forced Nixon to become the first U.S. president to resign from office. (AP Photo/Chick Harrity)
CHICK HARRITY
FILE – In this May 7, 1973, file photo, reporters Bob Woodward, right, and Carl Bernstein, whose reporting of the Watergate case won them a Pulitzer Prize, sit in the newsroom of the Washington Post in Washington. On Monday, Aug. 5, 2013, the Washington Post announced the paper has been sold to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. One of key dates in the history of The Washington Post was when the Post began reporting on the break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s offices at Washington’s Watergate hotel. (AP Photo)
STF
Dr. James Dobson, center, attends the memorial service for Watergate figure-turned-evangelist Charles Colson at Washington’s National Cathedra on May 16, 2012. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy is shown in an undated photo.
the ASSOCIATED PRESS file
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