1974
Nixon Resigns
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.”
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.