In early 1973, Richard Nixon and his Republican Party both were riding high. The past November, Nixon had been reelected in a record landslide. Then, as the first major act of his second term, Nixon concluded a peace treaty to end the Vietnam War. The political image of the day was of American prisoners of war returning to the United States, kissing American soil on landing, and praising the president of the United States for their return. This is about as good as it gets for political leaders. Nixon's 65 percent Approval rating in the February Gallup Poll showed that most Americans approved of Nixon's presidential performance. Meanwhile, while Nixon enjoyed this pinnacle of success, about one in four Americans answered “Republican” to Gallup's query, “In politics as of today, do you consider yourself a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent?” This was the normal “party identification” response for the Nixon years to that point.

Then on March 6, 1973, awaiting sentencing on what was expected to be the end of the peculiar incident of the break-in to Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex, James McCord said in open court that the break-in was orchestrated by high government officials whose role was subject to a continuing cover-up. Thus began the most important presidential scandal in American history. Before it ran its course, ending in Nixon's resignation in August 1974, Watergate would be an almost unimaginable nightmare for Nixon's party. In partisan terms, the political damage was entirely one-sided.