The number of illegal activities were so large that one was bound to come out and lead to the uncovering of the others. Nixon was too willing to use the power of government to settle scores and get even with enemies.

Woodward’s remark links the Watergate scandal to a broader pattern of misconduct rather than a single unlucky break-in. The first sentence argues from probability: when a political operation commits many illegal acts, exposure becomes almost inevitable because any one incident can trigger scrutiny that reveals the rest. The second sentence supplies a motive and governing style—an executive readiness to deploy state power for personal retaliation—suggesting that the abuses were not merely tactical campaign excesses but an ethical corrosion at the top. Taken together, the quote frames Watergate as systemic: secrecy, illegality, and vendetta politics created conditions where discovery and cascading revelations were built in.