A Half-Century to Ponder Watergate.

A Library of Congress exhibit commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal, exploring the role of the press, Congress, the courts, and Pres. Richard Nixon's Administration, drawing from 24 Library of Congress Manuscript Division collections, several of which recently were acquired or opened, in law, journalism, and government.

On view through Sept. 3 in the Great Hall of the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building, the six-case display tracks the events that unfolded from the initial Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 17,1972, through the reverberations of the biggest American political scandal of the 20th century.

"I wanted to topple [Cuban leader Fidel] Castro, and unfortunately I toppled the president who was helping us, Richard Nixon," lamented Eugenio Martinez, a Cuban exile who was one of the five burglars apprehended for breaking into and wiretapping the DNC Headquarters at the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

Visitors can find a carbon copy of Martinez's arrest record, handwritten notes documenting the break-in from acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray III, and more.

The display highlights key participants, such as the outspoken Martha Mitchell--wife of then-U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell--whose first harried telephone calls to journalist Helen Thomas served as an early warning of the criminality afflicting the Nixon Administration.

Though the print media was slower to acknowledge Watergate, behind initial forays by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post, the press eventually turned its attention to the scandal. While Woodward and Bernstein...