Nixon Resignation 50 Years Later

Fifty years ago, August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the only U.S. President to resign from office, amid the Watergate scandal. The scandal and resignation rattled American confidence in government but also confirmed that American laws were stronger than the vicissitudes of its politicians. Nixon’s decline and exit over a torturous two years weakened the presidency and weakened America in the world, at least temporarily. But there was little doubt, even from the start, that the U.S. Constitution would prevail.

As a nine year old on an unairconditioned green Arlington County Parks bus returning from a day at Summer camp, I recall the electricity in the air as we realized on that hot DC muggy day, August 8, that Nixon was announcing his resignation that night. Perhaps it was unique to the DC area, but even children were aware of Watergate and its implications. Everybody was talking about it. From the Oval Office that evening, Nixon explained that he could no longer command support in Congress for his legislative agenda. He avoided discussing his responsibility for Watergate.

Watergate, of course, was the 1972 burgling of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in DC by White House operatives to plant bugging devices. DC police arrested the burglars, who were suspiciously dressed in coats and ties.  Their White House connection was fairly quickly realized, but the details didn’t more fully emerge until after Nixon’s landslide reelection.

To what extent Nixon had prior direct knowledge of the burglaries remains undetermined. But he deeply enmeshed himself into the coverup, even offering to find pay-off money for the arrested burglars to keep them quiet.  His machinations were recorded on White House taping systems he had installed. Fully cooperating with the investigation seems never to have occurred to the mercurial President, whose penchant for plotting and paranoia tragically ensured his downfall. He was also proud, stubborn and brave, refusing to leave office until near the last of his congressional supporters had abandoned him.

Nixon’s last days were anguishing for the nation and for him personally. He had tirelessly fought to climb the political ladder since 1946 with endless discipline, seeking greatness on the world stage, only to lose it over what a presidential spokesman dismissively called a “third-rate burglary.” Nixon became even more isolated, sometimes drinking, lashing out in anger, even physically shoving one of his staff in front of cameras, brooding alone in front of the White House fireplace with air conditioning blasting on hot days. The night before announcing his resignation, he asked a stunned Henry Kissinger to kneel on the floor with him in prayer.

On the morning of his exit, August 9, Nixon bid an emotional farewell to his White House staff in a meandering speech citing his mother as a saint who never had a book written about her (unlike the more famous presidential mother of his arch nemeses, the Kennedy brothers). He was also self-revelatory, warning that hating enemies is self-destructive. Arguably, Nixon, who was widely hated by enemies across his 28 year political career, self-destructed because he fully reciprocated their hatred. 

Nixon was religious, having been raised a Quaker, and he certainly had a conscience that tormented him when he lied or defied the law. He did not sin easily. His guilt was sweatily evident to all. His friendship with preachers like Billy Graham and Norman Vincent Peale was sincere, and he esteemed Christian counsel, even if he never professed fully to affirm Christ. Nixon was a liberal Protestant who thought Jesus was a great thinker and leader but not divine. (See my recent interview with Nixon spiritual biographer Daniel Silliman.) Yet, as White House aides commented during his demise, even in anguishing depression, Nixon’s religiosity precluded suicide. 

Plus, Nixon was always a fighter. He would spend his 20 year retirement clawing back into respectability, writing many smart books, and offering unique insights on international affairs to his successors and to the public. Nixon strove to be a foreign policy president and a “peacemaker.” He was proudest of his diplomatic breakthrough to China, Détente and arms control with the Soviet Union, and for a Vietnam ceasefire allowing U.S. troops to leave an endless war. 

We all watched, on that morning of August 9, 1974, as Nixon left the White House and strode across the lawn, for the last time flashing his trademark victory salute with both arms upraised before he disappeared into the helicopter, his wife Pat stoically at his side, as she had been for nearly three decades of dramatic political life. 

New President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty bid farewell as the helicopter alighted. The Watergate/Nixon resignation crisis ended calmly thanks partly to Ford, a reassuring Michigan congressman respected even by political foes. “We are a nation of laws, not of men,” he would tell the nation. A misbehaving president was forced to resign. His vice president, confirmed by Congress after the disgraceful resignation (prompted by bribery) of the original vice president, peacefully took the oath of office.  

The machinery of government moved forward. Defense Secretary Schlesinger had, during Nixon’s final days, alerted the military not to accept White House orders without his involvement. But as others have commented, even if Nixon had wanted to attempt some extralegal maneuver that exploited the military, he wouldn’t have known whom to phone. The U.S. Constitution, through all government branches, endured. The Supreme Court unanimously insisted he release his tapes. And leading Republican congressmen asked him to resign, warning they would remove him through impeachment and conviction otherwise.

America then was still reassuringly governed by the World War II generation, who had been shaped by multiple crises into full political maturity. America had seasoned adult leadership. America’s spiritual character was also not really in doubt. The tumult of the 1960s had shaken American morals and culture. But the foundations endured.

Nixon’s collapse hobbled America during a key stage in the Cold War, ensuring the collapse of Indochina into communism and other geopolitical setbacks. Inflation and recessions further undermined America subsequently in the 1970s. But Nixon’s demise also showcased the strength of America’ s democracy. A powerful president was seamlessly forced from office, replaced by a lawful and responsible successor. And within a decade, America’s economy was roaring ahead of the rest of the world. Fifteen years after Watergate, America won the Cold War.

Fifty years later we can recall Nixon’s resignation as both a tragedy and victory for American democracy. What future travails must America now face? Do American leaders, as they did then, have the maturity and patriotism to govern faithfully and effectively? Are the American people sufficiently patient and resilient for the days ahead, as they were then?

President Ford, in his first speech in office, admitted he was not elected but asked for America’s affirmation of him with its prayers. And he said: “Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.”

May we always pray America is ruled by laws, not by men, under God’s mercy.