[oldcomputerguy]

"Nixon was destroyed by sheer vitriol and lies, with only a small admixture of facts to leaven it."

Watergate didn't take Nixon down, it was Nixon's reaction to it and the attempted cover up. Nixon drew a line in the sand and that was his mistake, that is what people could not forgive. At that point, he lost public support.

[unbalanced but fair]

it was Nixon's reaction to it.

Exactly. If Nixon had done a Mea Culpa and had condemned the break-in as an over-zealous mistake right from the beginning, most people would have forgiven and forgotten. But beyond that, keeping the tapes and having a secretary do the erasing was really stupid. Bad advisors, paranoia, and arrogance brought Nixon down. IMHO