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Perhaps the most notorious scandal to occur early in the 20th century occurred during the curtailed presidency of Warren Harding. The Teapot Dome scandal was a scandal involving bribes taken by members of Harding's administration in exchange for oil held in reserve by the US government (Figure 2). It involved oil reserves that the US government held in Wyoming that it began illegally leasing out to private companies. The scandal affected Harding directly because he was accused of having let the scandal occur and possibly being involved in bribery. Nevertheless, Harding would die while in office, but his administration would continue to be accused of corruption even after he had died.<ref>For more on the Teapot Dome scandal, see: McCartney, L. (2009). <i>The Teapot Dome Scandal: how big oil bought the Harding White House and tried to steal the country</i> (Random House trade pbk. ed). New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks. </ref>

Herbert Hoover was President from 1929-1933. Unfortunately for him, this was perhaps some of the worst economic years in US history. The Great Depression was likely not caused by him, but the public needed someone to blame and the President often is the first to get blamed. However, what made it worse for him is that World War I veterans, who were made jobless by the Great Depression, conducted a protest , what became known as the Bonus Riot, because they were promised pay bonuses that they never received. Hoover sent a general, by the name of Douglas MacArthur, to break up the demonstration. Unfortunately, the general seemed to be informed that a group of socialists was protesting rather than former soldiers who were made jobless. This led him to be far harsher than he might have otherwise been in breaking up the protest. Once the public heard about this, the public became even more negative of Hoover and this easily paved the way for Franklin Roosevelt to become President.<ref>For more on Hoover and his handling of veteran protesters, see: Lisio, D. J. (1994). <i>The President and protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus Riot</i> (2nd ed). New York: Fordham University Press. </ref>

During the years after World War II, Harry Truman faced allegations of corruption when an investigation discovered widespread impropriety at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Overall, this led to the firing of 166 employees at the IRS. While nothing directly implicated Truman, this continued to haunt his administration. The next administration, that of Dwight D. Eisenhower, faced numerous allegations of corruption, mainly in the form of gifts given to administration officials that may have derived from tax payments of the federal budget. One person called to account for this was Richard Nixon, who was Eisenhower's Vice-President at the time. He had been accused of taking $18,000 gifts, but he disputed this and said he only received a dog as a gift from anyone during his time in office. After Eisenhower was John F. Kennedy. His scandals involve mainly accusations of affairs he had from the well-known case of Marilyn Monroe to his own personal secretaries. He was mostly able to evade these accusations until his assassination.<ref>For more on the early Cold War presidents and their alleged scandals, see: Klein, W. (2010). <i>The inside stories of modern political scandals: how investigative reporters have changed the course of American history</i>. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.</ref>