Changes

Lydon Johnson mostly had to contend with an unpopular war in Vietnam. However, after he had left office, the revelation of the Pentagon Papers by the Washington Post indicated he had extensively lied to the American public about its involvement in Vietnam. But even this was overshadowed by the next President, Richard Nixon, who had ordered the break-in on the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington DC. While the story of this is well known, the coverup with this scandal, as with many others, is what often gets a President in trouble. Nixon repeatedly evaded and refused to hand over evidence about the break-in and this ultimately led Congress to begin formal impeachment proceedings on him. This threat was enough for him to resign and leave office as the only President who has resigned. This also led to the next scandal, which was Gerald Ford's unconditional pardoning of Nixon. This prevented Nixon from being tried or being brought before Congress for any testimony on his actions. <ref>For more on the Pentagon Papers, see: Ellsberg, D. (2003). <i>Secrets: a memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon papers</i>. New York: Penguin Books. </ref>

The Regan administration is best known for the Iran-Contra Affair, which saw arm sales to Iran being used to fund anti-Communist fighters in Nicaragua. These fighters were accused of numerous war crimes and the fact that the actions violated US sanctions on Iran and the act itself was done in secret by Regan administration officials led to accusations against the President. Regan was never directly linked, but the fact his administration also tried to prevent papers and other documents from being sent to Congress for an investigation led to accusations against the President.<ref>For more on Regan and the Iran-Contra Affair, see: Wroe, A. (1991). <i>Lives, lies and the Iran-Contra affair</i>. London; New York: I.B. Tauris & Co.</ref>

After Nixon, perhaps the second most well -remembered scandal in recent history was the Monica Lewinsky affair during Clinton's time as President. Similar to Nixon, the coverup of the affair led to Congress investigation further and ultimately drawing articles of impeachment against him for perjury. Ultimately, Clinton triumphed against the impeachment but made this among the most memorable scandals of his time. During the presidency of Geogre W. Bush, perhaps the Iraq war and events related to how the war was sold to the public might be the biggest scandals. It did lead to the arrest and jail time for one administration official, Scooter Libby, for having leaked a name of a CIA opperative who was the wife of a prominent Iraq war critic. Accusations also revolved around how much did the Bush administration know before they launched the war and if they lied to start the war.<ref>For more on Clinton and George W. Bush scandals, including media responses, see: Entman, R. M. (2012).<i> Scandal and silence: media responses to presidential misconduct</i>. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA: Polity Press. </ref>