NIXON RE-ELECTION COMMITTEE OPERATIVES BREAK-IN DNC HQ
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On June 17, 1972, the Democratic National Headquarters located in the Watergate Complex here in the Nation's Capital was burglarized.
Five persons were arrested including James McCord, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez and Eugenio Martinez. Three of the five were Cuban exiles while one was a Cuban-American. James W. McCord, Jr.* was the security chief for CREEP or the Committee to Re-elect the President."
At the time, the Nixon administration referred to the break-in as "a third-rate burglary."
It was later learned that the "burglars" were in the process of collecting information to sabotage the Democratic presidential campaign of 1972. The arrests led to the formation of the Senate Select Committee on Watergate and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on August 9, 1974.
*James Walter McCord, Jr. (1924-2017) was born in Waurika, Oklahoma & served in the US Army Air Force in WWII. JWM earned his BA at the University of Texas Austin & MS at George Washington University. JWM worked for the FBI & later the CIA. In 1961, he headed a counter-intelligence program against the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
