How and why did the Nixon administration attempt to cover-up the details of the Watergate burglary

On June 17, 1972, five employees of President Nixon's campaign, supplied with sophisticated photographic and surveillance equipment, broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Building in Washington. A night watchman noticed that someone had taped open some of the building's door locks, and he removed the tape. When he later discovered that the locks had once again been taped, he contacted the police, who arrested the burglars. Two other men, who had overseen the break-in, were also arrested. The burglars apparently hoped to obtain information about Democratic campaign strategy and other information that could be used to aid Nixon's bid for re-election.

It first, the break-in received little attention in the nation's newspapers. Nixon's press secretary, Ronald Ziegler, dismissed the episode as "a third-rate burglary." However, two journalists for the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, began investigating the burglary. They concluded that the burglars had ties to E. Howard Hunt, a White House official, and to G. Gordon Liddy, of the Nixon campaign. They also discovered that the burglars had been paid by the campaign. On July 1, John Mitchell resigned as the director of the campaign.

In an effort to prevent details about Watergate from becoming known, Nixon officials destroyed documents pertaining to the scandal. Government officials also tried to discourage the FBI from pursuing its investigation into the scandal, and some even lied to a grand jury about the break-in. These actions became known as the cover-up. In the fall of 1972, reporters Woodward and Bernstein reported that John Mitchell had secretly ordered spying against the Democratic Party and had also ordered Nixon campaign workers to engage in "dirty tricks," including spreading false rumors and phony documents designed to damage the Democratic Party. Woodward and Bernstein obtained much of their information about the scandal from an administration member identified only as "Deep Throat," whose identity was a much discussed mystery at the time, and remains a mystery today.