Martha Mitchell Creative Writing Contest
11th Grade Winners for the 1999-2000 School Year

$200.00 First Place Winner:
Curt Owens from Pine Bluff High School

Martha Beall Mitchell-
The Nature and Significance of Her
Impact on Washington Politics.

        Martha Beall Mitchell was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, September 2, 1918.  She grew up and graduated from Pine Bluff High School before attending Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.  She soon moved to Washington, D.C. where she met and married John Mitchell.  In 1967, (John) Mitchell joined the staff of Richard Nixon's law firm in Washington and in 1968 successfully managed Nixon's presidential campaign.  He then became Attorney General under Nixon, thus thrusting his wife into the national spotlight.
        When Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein first broke the news of the Watergate break-in in 1972, they implicated her husband in the affair.  John Mitchell reportedly secured $250,000 to cover expenses related to the scandal.  Martha Mitchell was convinced that this was completely untrue and unfounded, and thus worked night and day to clear his name.   She made several "midnight phone calls" to reporters and the media claiming that her husband was only being used as a scapegoat for Nixon, and she would not have it.
        The reporters could not publish the story based on Martha Mitchell's testimony alone. Often, she had been drinking before making these phone calls, so many thought them to be a result of her drunkenness.  Even so, Martha continued to make the calls and proclaim her husband's innocence.  Little did she know that her efforts were all vain, that her husband had played a role in the Watergate scandal.
        Her husband and others knew that if Martha kept on,  they would all be in trouble, so they all did their best to shut her up.   From sedating her and locking her in a hotel room, to locking her in a closet, they would stop at nothing to keep her quiet.  In the infamous Watergate tapes recovered later, there was talk of ways to permanently shut her up.
        When Martha invited Woodward and Bernstein to go through her husband's personal files, she did not know that they contained information linking her husband to the cover-up.
        Martha's perseverance in spite of adversity helped bring the Watergate affair into the national spotlight.  Richard Nixon himself once said "If it had not been for Martha Mitchell,  there would have been no Watergate scandal".  Needless to say, the scandal led to much controversy and the eventual resignation of the President.  Thus, Martha Beall Mitchell changed the face of Washington politics and secured her place in history.

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