title Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew, Episode 3

description "The week that changed the world.” Was it a chance encounter at the World Tennis Championship in 1971, “Panda diplomacy” between the U.S. and Communist China, or a break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters by a team of 5 burglars, that drastically altered the trajectory of world history? It was around this time that the Women’s Equity Action League also filed one of the farthest-reaching Class Action lawsuits, leading to President Nixon signing the Education Act into law. Join us as we talk about the origins of the Watergate scandal, the landslide victory that kept Nixon in office, and the establishment of Title IX.

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pubDate Mon, 20 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT

author Sharon McMahon

duration 2107000

transcript

Speaker 1:
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Hello friends and welcome back to our docu-series about the 1970s. If you've been listening to our previous episodes, you know we've already been on a wild ride through government deceit, an unbelievable party in Iran, student protests, and travels through space. Well, buckle up, because there is so much more to come. Today, we're going to talk about 1972, when President Nixon visited Communist China, Title IX was established, Nixon was re-elected, and an eagle-eyed security guard spotted a little piece of masking tape in a building you may have heard of called Watergate. I'm Sharon McMahon, and this is The Preamble Podcast. According to Eugenio Martinez, one of the Watergate burglars, the mission felt doomed from the beginning. Martinez had signed divorce paperwork that same day, going directly from the courthouse to the airport to get to Washington DC. Not only that, but the car that picked up the five-man team heading to the Watergate office building reminded him of a hearse. Martinez felt a deep sense of foreboding, but continued with the mission. Inside the DNC offices, they turned off their walkie-talkies, cutting off communication with anyone outside the building. They rifled through files and documents, photographing as many as possible, but soon heard the sounds of people moving up and down hallways and stairs. They told themselves it was just guards and employees doing regular nightly checks, but in fact, it was the police that security guard Frank Wills had called after he found the tape on the door lock. Officers entering the sixth floor DNC offices knew, even in the darkness, that they had closed in on their suspects because of the missing ceiling tiles and the paperwork and files strewn everywhere. John Barrett, one of the police officers on the scene, remembered walking through the pitch black DNC offices with guns drawn when he crouched down to check the area thoroughly and saw movement out of the corner of his eye, only about two inches from his face. Barrett said in a 2022 interview, I screamed something to the effect of, get out of there, get your hands up. Sergeant Paul Leeper jumped on top of the desk and found more men there. The five burglars were hiding behind cubicles and file cabinets, but now they were trapped. Martinez said in a 1974 interview, then there was running and men shouting, come out with your hands up or we'll shoot. All five men were arrested. Some of them were carrying equipment, like bugs for phones and other listening devices for rooms. They were also wearing surgical gloves and carrying long-range walkie-talkies, a shortwave radio capable of listening to police calls, 40 rolls of unexposed film, two 35-millimeter cameras with multiple lenses, three pen-sized tear gas guns, and $2,300 in uncirculated and sequential $100 bills. Just a teeny bit suspicious. The five men sat in jail after giving fake names and refusing to talk to anyone or call lawyers. No one had posted bail. The first newspaper article about the break-in, written by longtime reporter Alfred E. Lewis, appeared pretty unobtrusively at the bottom of page one in The Washington Post on June 18th, 1972. But it would soon become the biggest news in presidential history as the five men headed to trial. 29-year-old Bob Woodward, a reporter for The Washington Post, was not enthusiastic about going to the courthouse to cover another burglary until his editor told him where the break-in happened as well as details about the five men arrested, the cash, and the fake names. The judge presiding over the case asked the five men about their occupations. One finally spoke up and claimed that they were employed as anti-communists, and all the others nodded. But that wasn't good enough. The judge called one of them who we now know was James McCord to step forward and asked if he was employed. McCord replied that he was a security consultant, recently retired from a government department. The reporter, Bob Woodward, moved to the front row of the courtroom so he could hear every word. Where in the government? The judge asked, clearly losing patience with the men's vague answers. CIA, McCord whispered, causing the judge to recoil back into his chair. Woodward's story ran on the front page of The Washington Post the next day and began with this paragraph. Five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. yesterday in what authorities describe as an elaborate plot to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee here. The Watergate scandal began. You ever find yourself lying awake at night, tossing and turning, and then wake up more exhausted than when you went to bed? I know that has definitely happened to me. And for me, it wasn't just stress. My body was navigating hormonal changes that might come with age. And when your sleep is off, everything else suffers. That is why I started taking magnesium breakthrough by bioptimizers. I feel more settled at bedtime. My mind is calmer and I wake up without that groggy feeling. What I love is that it's not just one type of magnesium. It's a blend of seven different forms that are designed to support relaxation and overall sleep quality. People cannot stop talking about the benefits. Deeper sleep, feeling calmer, better workout recovery, even improved digestion. My challenge to you? Try it. Track your sleep. Notice how you feel. Bioptimizers even backs it with a 365 day, no questions asked, money back guarantee. I've worked magnesium breakthrough into my nightly routine and it's made a difference in my overall energy and mood. If you're ready to feel more rested, head to bioptimizers.com/sharon and use my exclusive code Sharon to get 15 percent off any order. When you subscribe, you'll get great discounts, free gifts, and the peace of mind of never running out again. Again, that's 15 percent off any order at bioptimizers.com/sharon. Make 2026 the year you finally start sleeping great again.

Speaker 2:
[09:35] Hi, my name is Lloyd Lockridge and I'm the host of a new podcast from Audacy called Family Lore. In this podcast, I'm going to have people on to tell unusual and sometimes far-fetched stories about their families.

Speaker 1:
[09:46] I've heard my whole life that she invented the margarita.

Speaker 2:
[09:49] Then we're going to investigate those stories and find out how much of it is true.

Speaker 1:
[09:53] He gets a patent one month before the Wright brothers. Oh my God.

Speaker 2:
[09:56] Please follow and listen to Family Lore, an Audacy podcast available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows.

Speaker 1:
[10:05] If your routine only works when you have extra time, it's probably not going to work. That's why Merit Beauty has become such a staple for me. I've been using it daily because it actually fits into real life. Merit is a minimalist beauty brand that makes elevated makeup and skincare designed to help you look put together in minutes. The minimalist seriously streamlines everything. It replaces both foundation and concealer, so I'm not layering product after product. It gives quick natural coverage and blends in seconds. Then I tap on the Flesh Balm for a healthy glow, no brushes, no fuss. And on days when I skip makeup entirely, the Great Skin Serum hydrates and plumps, so my skin still looks polished. Everything is clean, vegan, cruelty-free, and made with skincare-forward ingredients that leave your skin looking better even after you wash it off. Right now, Merit Beauty is offering our listeners their signature makeup bag with your first order at meritbeauty.com. That's M-E-R-I-T, beauty.com, to get your free signature makeup bag with your first order, meritbeauty.com. President Richard Nixon's July 15th, 1971 announcement that he'd accepted an invitation to go to China and meet with the leader of the People's Republic of China shocked most Americans. Nixon had, after all, been very publicly anti-communist for years. As a member of Congress in the 1940s and 50s, he had served on the House on American Activities Committee and been part of investigations and eventual prosecutions of suspected communist spies like Alger Hiss. During Nixon's time in Congress, Communist leader Mao Zedong announced the creation of the People's Republic of China after the Chinese Revolution of 1949. This ended the Chinese Civil War that had been fought on and off since the 1920s, but it also led to the United States breaking diplomatic ties after declaring that China had fallen to communism. In other words, by 1972, there had been no diplomatic relationship between the United States and China in about 23 years, and Nixon seemed like a very unlikely person to build that bridge. Nevertheless, Nixon would become the first US president to visit China, the world's largest communist country, while in office. Now, you might be wondering what led President Nixon to suddenly announce a trip to China. It turns out that the straw that broke the camel's back was not a strong-arming politician or new economic sanctions. It was table tennis. In January 1971, Nixon received a message from Mao Zedong. Because the countries did not have diplomatic relations, Chairman Mao sent the message via Romania, saying that Nixon was welcome to visit Peking, the capital of China, which is now known as Beijing. Apparently wanting to come off as super casual, Nixon put a note on Mao's message saying, We should not appear too eager to respond. All of this is the governmental equivalent of passing notes in high school, or snapping each other, or whatever it is the teenagers are doing today. You have a friend ask for you so that you save face if the other person isn't interested. Then the person being asked has to wait a while to respond so that they can seem all nonchalant about it, basically leaving them unread even if they're really excited. But look, it worked, right? Nixon's closest National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, began speaking to Peking in January 1971, but they weren't yet discussing a presidential visit. In April 1971, the World Table Tennis Championships took place in Japan. And you might know table tennis as ping pong. At one point, American player Glenn Cowan boarded the Chinese team's bus. Whether by accident or not was never clear, and one of the Chinese players took the opportunity to talk to him, and they were photographed shaking hands. Chairman Mao was delighted and called the player a good diplomat, but wasn't quite ready to invite the American team to China. Mao regularly took sleeping pills before dinner, and had a standing order with his staff that they should disregard anything he said after taking his sleeping pills. That night, as his staff was helping him to bed, Mao cracked his eyes open and consistently mumbled instructions to invite the American team to China. At first, his staff didn't do anything because of his standing order, but after Mao's insistence that they make the invitation quickly, they complied. The table tennis visits really broke the ice, and made it easier for Kissinger to plan a presidential visit. Nixon and Kissinger decided that it would be better for the balance of power against the Soviet Union if the United States could somehow reestablish diplomatic relations with China. Nixon also clearly understood how positive and monumental a presidential trip to China would be preceding the 1972 election. Nixon's official announcement of the trip aired on television in both countries in July 1971.

Speaker 2:
[16:02] The meeting between the leaders of China and the United States is to seek the normalization of relations between the two countries and also to exchange views on questions of concern to the two sides.

Speaker 1:
[16:18] And so after months and months of mostly secret negotiations between the two countries, President Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon finally visited China in February 1972 to experience what would soon be called the Week That Changed the World. The official meeting between Nixon and Chairman Mao lasted a little over an hour and has been described by historians as lively, focusing mainly on what they called philosophical questions with the men exchanging a famous handshake afterwards. It was Chinese Premier Xun Lai who spent most of the trip with Nixon and worked with him on the details of an agreement called the Shanghai Communique in which they formally agreed to, quote, normalize relations between their two countries, develop trade, lessen the chances of what they called international military conflict, and avoid seeking hegemony or power and dominance in the Asia Pacific region. Another result of this trip was that the People's Republic of China, the PRC, gained a place in the United Nations General Assembly and is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The rest of the visit was well documented with the President and First Lady traveling to the Great Wall, the tombs of the Ming Dynasty, the formerly forbidden city, and Tiananmen Square. It was this very visit to China that started something now known as Panda Diplomacy between the US and China. Premier Xu heard First Lady Pat Nixon express her fascination with China's national symbol, the giant panda. She was taken with how playful they were and how gentle they seem to be for their size. Premier Xu was not going to miss this opportunity for continued diplomacy, so he offered to send the United States a pair of pandas. And that is how the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC received its first pair of giant pandas named Ling Ling and Xing Xing. First Lady Pat Nixon was there to welcome the pandas.

Speaker 3:
[18:39] On behalf of the people of the United States, I am pleased to be here and accept the precious gift of the panda, pandas and also these other mementos from the government of the People's Republic of China. I am so glad that this delegation could come here to the United States and enjoy some of our hospitality just as we enjoyed that in their country. And I do appreciate them taking such good care of the pandas on the long trip and after they arrived here at their new home.

Speaker 1:
[19:21] Panda diplomacy essentially means that the National Zoo pays a fee somewhere around $500,000 to a million dollars a year per panda to China. And American zookeepers and scientists get to learn about the raising and keeping of giant pandas. And in exchange, China uses the giant pandas to soften its authoritarian reputation and draw attention away from its human rights abuses. Since Lingling and Xingxing died without any surviving offspring, China gave the National Zoo a second pair of pandas in 2000, this time on something like a lease. The second pair of giant pandas, Meixiang and Tian Tian, have been at the National Zoo for 23 years. And now they, along with their three-year-old Xiao Qiqi, are scheduled to go back to China in December of 2023. In 1972, Mariah Burton Nelson was unconcerned with politically motivated break-ins in Washington DC. She was a 16-year-old high school student asked to try out for her Phoenix High School boys basketball team because there was no girls' basketball team. The 6'2 Mariah soon started at Stanford University and joined the women's basketball team. Though calling it an official team is a stretch when you consider that they were coached by an unpaid graduate student, had to purchase their own t-shirts and high tops that passed for uniforms, and did all of their own physical training and therapy like taping ankles. Yet, there was Mariah breaking the rebound record and going on to play professionally in what was then called the Women's Basketball League, quickly learning, as she says in this quote, that the reality was quite a contrast to the dream. Many of us were not ultimately paid to play. As the league developed financial troubles, many of us, myself included, received checks that bounced. Many of the coaches were sexist, insisting that we wear makeup or attend John Robert Powers' Charm School. One coach insisted on calling us girls when we asked to be called women. Most had never coached women before and compared us unfavorably to the men and boys that they coached. There was a lack of respect for us as athletes that we found demeaning. Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith. The first women's intercollegiate basketball team, in fact, the first intercollegiate women's game in any sport, was played in 1896 between Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley. At that time, Stanford didn't even have a men's team. But roles quickly reversed and men's sports began to dominate. In 1906, the National College Athletics Association, or the NCAA, was founded in order to regulate the rules in men's college football. Before long, they became the regulatory body over all college athletics. NCAA regulations did not require institutions to offer women's athletics, meaning that there were no funds set aside for women's sports scholarships, or facilities, or supplies, etc. Before someone says that this happened because men's sports garner more attention and thus more money for the colleges, or because men are naturally more athletic, consider the history. People at the turn of the 20th century still believed that humans had a limited amount of energy. And historians note that women were not encouraged to exert themselves, probably because they needed their energy to clean their houses and cook meals and run after children. Some experts preach that sports would make women unattractive to men and make their children weaker and harm their reproductive ability. Nevertheless, female PE teachers, coaches, and hopeful athletes pushed forward. In 1970, there were approximately 30,000 women competing in NCAA sports compared to about 170,000 men. And the vast majority of those women had to pay their own way, just like Mariah's 1972 Stanford team. In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson had signed Executive Order 11375, which said that any educational institution that received federal funding or participated in federal contracts could not discriminate on the basis of sex. Around this same time, Brooklyn native Bernice Resnick-Santler had a Ph.D. in psychology and was working as a lecturer at the University of Maryland. As full-time teaching positions became available, she was given a myriad of excuses for why she was not promoted, including, women always stay home when their children are sick, or you're just a housewife who went back to school. And the time-worn chestnut of you come on too strong for a woman. Bernice and her husband realized that she was being discriminated against, so she joined the Women's Equity Action League. And in 1970, they filed one of the farthest-reaching class-action lawsuits in US history at that point against all colleges and universities in the country. The gender discrimination was rampant. Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine only admitted two women per year no matter how many applied. Most faculty departments and universities across the country had no female staff at all and enforced policies against giving scholarships to married women. The 1971 House Report on Higher Education revealed that 21,000 women students were turned down for college entrance in the state of Virginia while not one male student was rejected. Dr. Sandler's lawsuit led to compliance investigations of several colleges and universities, starting with Harvard in 1970. Federal government offices began issuing guidelines against sex discrimination. While all of that was going on, Dr. Sandler met Representative Patsy Mink from Hawaii, the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress. And together, they began working on what would become Title IX. Title IX was part of the larger 1972 Education Act, an omnibus bill containing 10 subsets or titles. The 1972 Education Act did many things, like giving $2 billion to desegregate school districts and $19 billion to colleges and universities. For the first time, offering programs so that students who couldn't afford college could receive federal aid to help pay for it, and taking federal funding away from colleges and universities that discriminated against women in their admissions policies. President Nixon signed the final version of the Education Act and thus Title IX into law on June 23, 1972. Title IX covers gender discrimination in a number of areas. As we can see from its wording, it says, no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. But it's best known for its effect on college athletics. When asked if she considered herself a pioneer in women's sports, Mariah Burton Nelson said, yes, we all are. Pioneers are people who go where others have not gone before. They don't usually get rich or famous, and they often suffer numerous hardships and indignities, but they open doors for future generations. After Representative Patsy Mink died in 2002, Title IX was officially renamed the Patsy Takamoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act. You know that one skill you keep saying you want to get better at? For me, it was negotiating more confidently at work. So I went to master class and found a class taught by Chris Voss, the former FBI negotiator, and the single most useful takeaway. The way he teaches tactical empathy, it has changed the way I approach every conversation. I now do it without thinking and it actually works. What's great is that master class fits into real life. Lessons are short. You can listen on your phone during a commute or even download them for offline access. There are over 200 classes across 13 categories, business, cooking, wellness, creativity, and more, all taught by the best instructors in the world. Three out of four members feel inspired every time they watch, and 83% actually apply what they learn. Whether you want to design your dream home with Joanna Gaines, develop habits with James Clear, or sharpen your storytelling with Michael Lewis, there's something here for you. And every new membership comes with a 30-day money back guarantee, so there's no risk. Master class keeps adding new classes, so there's never been a better time to get in. Right now, as a listener of this show, you can get at least 15% off any annual membership at masterclass.com/sharon. That's 15% off at masterclass.com/sharon. Head to masterclass.com/sharon to see the latest offer. This episode of The Preamble is brought to you by Alloy Health. If you've ever felt caught off guard by the changes that come with menopause, like sudden temperature swings, trouble sleeping, or just not feeling yourself, you're definitely not alone. What's surprising is how many women go years without getting help, often because treatment options aren't clearly explained or accessible. Alloy makes it much easier to take that first step. You can get started from home by completing a short intake, and then a prescribing physician with Alloy will review your information and create a personalized plan. 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People felt sure it would go to someone like Ted Kennedy or Hubert Humphrey. McGovern's platform included ending the war in Vietnam and implementing a basic minimum income to help the nation's poor. Almost everyone who met McGovern declared him to be one of the most decent men they'd ever known. Even the Pope was so impressed with the work that McGovern was doing with the Kennedy administration that he told him, when you meet your maker and he asks you, did you feed the poor? You can say, I did. McGovern's initial choice of running mate was Ted Kennedy. After much back and forth over the phones during the convention, Kennedy told his friend he was sorry but no thank you, noting personal responsibilities to his own family and those of his assassinated brothers John and Bobby. Kennedy suggested Tom Eagleton, a senator from Missouri who gladly joined McGovern's ticket. But Eagleton had secrets of his own. The McGovern campaign learned that Eagleton had received inpatient care for depression several times, and his treatment had included electroshock therapy and antipsychotic medications. Everyone was telling McGovern to change his mind. Instead, McGovern released a statement saying that he was quote, 1000% for Tom Eagleton and he had no intention of dropping him from the ticket. On the campaign trail, McGovern was battling an incumbent president enjoying a booming economy and the predicted positive attention from the visit to China. Nixon's campaign rested confidently on the fact that he was already president, taking the attitude that the current president was far too busy and important to be bothered with partisan bickering between candidates. And it worked. By 1972, only seven incumbent presidents in history had lost re-election and so with those odds plus a campaign budget of $45 million, which was like $330 million today, the Nixon-Agnew ticket looked unstoppable. The Republican campaign slogan, President Nixon, now more than ever, was plastered on buttons and bumper stickers everywhere and seemed to be what people wanted despite the news trickling out about the summer break-in at DNC headquarters. McGovern was stymied by the lack of concern that most voters seemed to have about the recent break-in at the Watergate building. Years later, one of McGovern's campaign managers said, McGovern was holding up the Washington Post at rallies and saying, here is the newest story. The country just didn't want to believe it. A poll just before the 1972 election showed that only 3% of likely voters thought that Watergate was important. Another poll showed that 48% of Americans had never even heard of Watergate. Then fewer than 14 days before the general election, Henry Kissinger announced that through ongoing negotiations, peace was at hand in Vietnam. This was not strictly true. Six weeks after the 1972 election, Nixon ordered the beginning of the Christmas bombing raids on Hanoi. But about 80% of the public believed Dr. Kissinger. It turned out that announcements like these, designed to let voters believe that Nixon was close to brokering peace in Vietnam, were aimed at young voters in particular. One of the reasons McGovern may have still believed that he could win was the 26th Amendment passed in 1971 that lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. McGovern's campaign hoped that the more than 11 million new voters now eligible to cast a ballot in 1972 would vote overwhelmingly for him, the Democrat. But Nixon was paying more attention to the environment and pledging to end the draft all with an eye on those young voters. Nixon's campaign hired a PR consultant to develop and direct a brand new Young Voters for the President organization. And a September 1972 poll showed that 57% of young voters found Nixon more sincere than McGovern. Around November 1st, McGovern's staff became concerned. Their fear was that McGovern might believe he could actually win when it was clearly going to be a landslide victory for Nixon. The Sunday night before the election, one staffer drew the short straw and had to tell McGovern that, according to all the polls, there was no way they were going to win. McGovern looked at him and said, Bob, I know this. But for the next 48 hours, I just have to pretend. On election day, it was all over by 7 o'clock Eastern. Forty-nine states had voted for Nixon, and only Massachusetts and Washington DC for McGovern. It was the largest margin for presidential victory in US history to date. Nixon won 60.7 percent of the popular vote, and 97 percent of the electoral votes. On election night in Washington DC, President Nixon publicly thanked his staff and his wife and children. He cracked some jokes for insiders about those guys at the papers missing a good party. But what else could possibly have been happening in 1972, you ask? Let's see. In October 1972, the International Computer Communication Conference saw the first public demonstration of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, one of the precursors of the Internet. Also in 1972, a new form of communication called Electronic Mail was first introduced. Imagine how fast the news about Watergate would have traveled if email had been available then. Also in March 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment, which was first proposed in 1923 and would provide a constitutional guarantee of equal rights under the law for all people, regardless of sex, passed in Congress and was immediately ratified by 35 of the 38 states required to make it part of the Constitution. The 38th state finally ratified the amendment just a couple years later in 2020. Many scholars say that this means the ERA is now part of the Constitution, but the amendment has not been officially archived that way. Maybe if Nixon had had email, he would have known that an accident would soon change someone's loyalty and that his campaign manager had the home phone numbers of two of the Washington Post's news reporters. And we'll cover all of that and more in our next episode. I'll see you soon. The show is written and researched by Sharon McMahon, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reed, and Kari Anton. Our audio producer is Jenny Snyder, and it is executive produced and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would love for you to hit the subscribe button, leave us a review, or share this episode on your favorite social media platform. All of those things help podcasters out so much. We'll see you again soon. Bye.