In an evening televised address, President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention to become the first president in American history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against him for his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House. “By taking this action,” he said in a solemn address from the Oval Office, “I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.”
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Just before noon the next day, Nixon officially ended his term as the 37th president of the United States. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in a victory or peace salute. The helicopter door was then closed, and the Nixon family began their journey home to San Clemente, California. Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of the White House. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” He later pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.
On June 17, 1972, five men, including a salaried security coordinator for President Nixon’s reelection committee, were arrested for breaking into and illegally wiretapping the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Washington, D.C., Watergate complex. Soon after, two other former White House aides were implicated in the break-in, but the Nixon administration denied any involvement. Later that year, reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post discovered a higher-echelon conspiracy surrounding the incident, and a political scandal of unprecedented magnitude erupted.
In May 1973, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, headed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, began televised proceedings on the rapidly escalating Watergate affair. One week later, Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was sworn in as special Watergate prosecutor. During the Senate hearings, former White House legal counsel John Dean testified that the Watergate break-in had been approved by former Attorney General John Mitchell with the knowledge of White House advisers John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman, and that President Nixon had been aware of the cover-up. Meanwhile, Watergate prosecutor Cox and his staff began to uncover widespread evidence of political espionage by the Nixon reelection committee, illegal wiretapping of thousands of citizens by the administration, and contributions to the Republican Party in return for political favors.
In July, the existence of what were to be called the Watergate tapes–official recordings of White House conversations between Nixon and his staff–was revealed during the Senate hearings. Cox subpoenaed these tapes, and after three months of delay President Nixon agreed to send summaries of the recordings. Cox rejected the summaries, and Nixon fired him. His successor as special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, leveled indictments against several high-ranking administration officials, including Mitchell and Dean, who were duly convicted.
Public confidence in the president rapidly waned, and by the end of July 1974 the House Judiciary Committee had adopted three articles of impeachment against President Nixon: obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential powers, and hindrance of the impeachment process. On July 30, under coercion from the Supreme Court, Nixon finally released the Watergate tapes. On August 5, transcripts of the recordings were released, including a segment in which the president was heard instructing Haldeman to order the FBI to halt the Watergate investigation. Three days later, Nixon announced his resignation.
I have always had a soft spot for Nixon. JFK (Daley) stole the election from him. The experience would have embittered anyone. If you cannot beat them, join them, seems to have been his response. I understand it. I do not condone it, but I understand it.
I was five years old when Kennedy was murdered, my dad was up north deer hunting, I vaguely remember the my mom and aunts crying and freaking out.
I was 15 and remember Nixon resigning. We were camping up by Traverse City Mi and we watched it on a small black and white t.v. set up on a picnic table. There was another camper there watching, she was about my age and was showing some side boobage, I rubbed one out later.
Nixon was forced out for lying to the American people.
I’ve always held that if not for his “I am not a crook” speech, if it had been a simple admission of trying to protect his friends for a rather childish crime, and if he had asked the American people for forgiveness instead he would have remained in office for the rest of his term.
Times have changed since then, we not only expect lies from the President now we seem offended when we get the truth instead of them and end up calling the truth a lie because of our offense.
IMO, other opinions about this are as valid as mine.
The whole Nixon ordeal was a huge learning experience for the DNC. The Clintons never would have turned over the tapes. John Dean would have had an unfortunate and untimely accident right before testifying, etc. Nixon was a piker in the power game.
The resignation came much too late. We were off the quasi-gold standard and the dollar ponzi monster unleashed.
On this day in history I got married. 53 years ago. Time sure flies by. It seems like it was only 85 years ago.