Ehrlichman appointed in July, 1971 a Special Investigation unit to investigate the leak of the Pentagon Papers. This group became know as the "plumbers". In September, 1971, Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy broke into the office of Lewis Fielding, Daniel Ellsberg"s psychiatrist in Los Angeles. The purpose was to get information that would be damaging to Daniel Ellsberg who had leaked information (Archer, 41). The Nixon people were very concerned about a first class intelligence operation. The intelligence operation was well financed. James McCord in January, 1972 joined the committee to Reelect the President as physical security chief (Archer,73).

             The Watergate break in would prove to be Nixon"s Waterloo. It was hard to fathom the motivation behind Watergate. This was a third rate burglary and Nixon had a landslide reelection.

             The people involved in the burglary were four Cubans and James W. McCord. (Archer, 6) The Cubans were Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez, Virgilio R. Gongales, and Frank Sturgis. All these men had connections to the CIA. These men had moved into the Watergate Hotel a few months earlier. They originally broke into the Democratic National Committee in May of 1972 and planted bugs. There was a defective bug that was to be replaced on the second break in (Archer, 5). G. Gordon Liddy said the purpose of the June 17 break in was to find out what the Democrats had of a derogatory nature on the Republicans. Liddy was given credit for planning the break in.

             The newspapers were not very interested at first. The story was given to two young reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of the Washington Post who would later make history with their investigative reporting and the book they wrote, All the President"s Men (Archer, 8).

             When the ninety-third Congress convened in January, 1973. Watergate was at the top of the agenda. The scandal had not affected the President"s reelection but there was a connection being made in newspapers.