Watergate (Charles Colson)

  On June 17, 1972 seven burglars were arrested inside the Watergate building in Washington D.C. Found inside the Democratic National Committee, the burglars were soon connected to President Richard Nixon's reelection campaign. They were trying to wiretap phones and steal secret documents. The scandal ultimately ended in Nixon resigning as President. This was the first time people began to question the morals of their leadership and their president.

  Charles Colson served as the special counsel to president Richard Nixon in 1968. He was responsible for inviting special private interest groups into the policy-making system and then win their support for other specific issues. Colson was in charge of any lobbying group whose motives were compatible with those of the Nixon administration. 

  Colson was described by David Plotz as "Richard Nixon's hard man, the 'evil genius' of an evil administration". Colson viewed himself as valuable to the president because he was "ruthless in getting things done". He was the author of Nixon's major political opponents in 1971, which would later be known as Nixon's Enemies List. News stories stated that Colson would be willing to run over his own grandmother in order to re-elect Nixon for a second term.

  With such strong belief in Nixon, he decided to Join the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP). The group agreed to spend $250,000 on "intelligence gathering" in hopes to boost Nixon's chances of a second term. In 1974 Colson pleaded guilty to the obstruction of justice on attempting to defame Ellsberg's character to influence the jury against him regarding the water-gate scandal and served 7 months in prison.

  After Colson was released from prison, he founded Prison Fellowship in 1976. He wanted to create an environment in prisons where criminals were able to turn to Christ with guidance. Because of this, in 1990 Colson was awarded the highest civic award by the Salvation Army. In 1993, the Templeton award for process in religion was awarded to Colson.




http://www.history.com/topics/watergate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Colson