Thirty-five years ago today, Richard Milhous Nixon yielded the presidency to Gerald Ford rather than face near-certain removal by Congress. The scandal known simply as Watergate had consumed his White House for two years; by the end of July, 1974 the House Judiciary Committee had passed three articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of Congress.
Still, he hung on as doggedly as two young reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, had persued the story from the early hours after the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate Hotel and office complex. But a week after the articles of impeachment were passed, a previously-unknown tape from the Oval Office came to light, the so-called “smoking gun” tape. It was recorded just days after the break-in and proved Nixon and chief of staff HR Haldeman talked about a plan to obstruct the investigations by having the CIA lie to the FBI and claim national security, not politics, was behind the break-in.
All hell broke loose in Washington. The little support Nixon still had in Congress evaporated and leading Republican senators went to the White House to tell him so. The evening of August 8, 1974 Nixon, who’d famously declared during the investigation, “I am not a crook,” threw in the towel.
Ella’s Fun Factoids: Just three-and-a-half weeks ago, the Watergate Hotel went on the auction block. There were no bids.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This is such an interesting counterpoint to the Apollo moon landing anniversary. Just as I remember every detail of the moon landing, I remember exactly where I was when Nixon made his speech – who was there, what we were doing. I remember the strange mingling of exultation, astonishment and emptiness.
It’s a salutary reminder that, given what we’ve survived in the past as a nation, there may be some hope we’ll survive these current days.
shoreacres´s last blog ..Rock Star, Rock Planet
It certainly was a defining moment for those who were alive and old enough to understand and appreciate what was happening. For anyone living in or around DC, as I was, it was all-consuming that summer, especially for kids who were told they’d probably never see another impeachment.
And since then our country has changed to the point that extremists with a grudge can force an impeachment over illicit pleasure. I’m still waiting for someone — anyone — to show me where a BJ falls under High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Also wondering how any citizen of the US can be passive about the fact that politicians who are so dumb they can’t spell “boob” backwards get elected and then re-elected or nominated for higher offices. Nixon was a criminal but neither stupid nor ignorant, which made his fall all the more perplexing to his supporters and what’s really sad is that one of the few aspects of his campaigns that lives on in the GOP is the reverse snobbery and “them vs us” crap; the chip on Nixon’s non-Ivy shoulder was big enough to rival the Grand Canyon.
Your response to shoreacres was just as good as the original post! “…show me where a BJ falls under High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” and
and “voted” for him in my school mock elections. My sensibilities have changed, but at the time I thought he had intelligence and character. It was quite shocking at the time, but sadly the way the parties have changed since then actually shocks me more!
Nixon was a criminal but neither stupid nor ignorant…
Brilliant prose; you are a chef with words as well as cuisine. Yes, I was way young then (as opposed to sort of young, now)
MusEditions´s last blog ..Anatomy of a Blogroll
Tags closed and I’ll delete your oopsies. Coffee’s always a good idea, isn’t it?
Thank you so much for the very kind words. Truth be told, wordcheffery (I’m so stealing that) paid for all the stuff in my kitchen (my batterie de cuisine, to use the fancy cooking term). Some people are grassy knoll buffs or Area 51; I’m a Watergate buff.
A couple years ago, during whichever Capitol Hill pissing match was going on at the time, Mr. Knife Skills (who is older) and I were contrasting their behavior with the seriousness and complete absence of partisanship of the Senate Watergate Committee and House Judiciary Committee. Those days are gone forever. Even the somber, rancor-free trip to the WH by those senators (led, I believe, by your very own adopted state’s Barry Goldwater) is a demonstration of class we no longer see. The country came first in 1974. Period. Not a “base” allowed to hijack a party, not personal glory on partisan TV shows. We the people came first.