Pure and Simple Politics
I saw Watergate as politics, pure and simple. …
By law and order, I mean law and order for everyone …
I have expressed to the appropriate authorities, my view that no individual holding … a position of major importance in the administration, should be given immunity from prosecution.
I condemn any attempts to cover-up in this case, no matter who is involved. …
[When] the President does it, that means that it is not illegal. …
Always remember, others may hate you, but those that hate you don't win,
unless you hate them.
And then, you destroy yourself.
— Richard Nixon (1913 – 94)
Nixon wanted the presidency so bad that there were no depths he wouldn't sink to.
— John Kennedy (1917 – 63), November 1960.
Robert Mann (1958):
[In 1968, Richard Nixon saw peace in Vietnam] as a direct threat to his [Presidential election] campaign.
So he actively began working to sabotage the peace talks by turning the South Vietnamese government against any preelection peace agreement.
[He] quietly sent word to the South Vietnamese that they should hold out for a better deal under a Nixon administration.
(The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Cold War, Alpha, 2002, p 213)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
My God!, I would never do anything to encourage Saigon not to come to the [negotiating] table …
(Taped Conversation with President Johnson, 1968)
Daniel Ellsberg (1931):
It's not that we were on the wrong side.
We were the wrong side.
(Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith, The Most Dangerous Man in America, 2009)
Charles Ferguson (1955):
Infuriated by leaks to the media, Nixon orders John Ehrlichman to create a secret White House organisation to identify leakers and attack them, starting with Daniel Ellsberg.
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Don't get the impression that you [in the media] arouse my anger.
One can only be angry with those he respects.
Gerald Ford (1913 – 2006) [40th Vice President of the United States]:
[It's] my judgement that the evidence is overwhelming that he had nothing to do with the so-called cover-up.
So the President, in my judgement is innocent, and will be exonerated.
(27 July 1974)
I, Gerald R Ford, President of the United States, do grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon.
(8 September 1974)
Charles Ferguson (1955):
[The] pardon was part of a larger deal that eventually gave Nixon control over the tapes. …
For the rest of his life, Richard Nixon fought to keep the tapes secret.
After Nixon's death in 1994, Professor Stanley Kutler forced the release of many new tapes.
Gerald Ford (1913 – 2006) [38th President of the United States]:
There was no deal, period, under no circumstances.
(House Judiciary Committee Hearing)
Charles Ferguson (1955):
In 1978, Carter signed into law the Ethics in Government Act, which guaranteed the independence of special prosecutors.
It was allowed to expire in 1999 [under Bill Clinton.]
Bob Woodward (1943):
What was Watergate?
The five wars of Watergate:(Watergate, 2018)
- [the war] against the anti-war movement,
- [the war] against the news media,
- the war against the Democrats,
- the war against justice, and …
- the war against history.
The White House Tapes
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
For once we've got to use the maximum power of this country against this shit-ass little country, to win the war. …
[Henry, the] only place where you and I disagree … is with regard to the bombing.
You're so goddamned concerned about the civilians.
And I don't give a damn. …
I still think we ought to take the dikes out now.
Will that drown people?
Henry Kissinger (1923) [National Security Advisor]:
That will drown about 200,000 people.
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Well, no …
I'd rather use a nuclear bomb.
Have you got that ready?
Henry Kissinger (1923):
That, I think, would just be too much.
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
I just want you to think big, Henry.
For Christ's sakes.
(25 April 1972)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Now, you remember Huston's plan?
I want it implemented on a thievery basis!
Goddamit, get in, get those files [at the Brookings Institution on Johnson's bombing halt.]
Blow the safe and get it.
(16 June 1971)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Those sonsofbitches [at The New York Times] are killing me.
We're up against … an enemy.
A conspiracy.
They're using any means.
We are going to use any means.
Did you get the Brooking Institute raided last night? …
No?
Get it done.
I want the Brookings safe cleaned out.
(1 July 1971)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Just say, [that the Watergate break-in] was a comedy of errors, and [the CIA] should call the FBI in, and say that, for the country, don't go any further into this one.
Tell them, lay off.
I don't want them to get any ideas that we're doing it because our concern is political.
(23 June 1972)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
I want the most comprehensive notes on all those who have tried to do us in.
We haven't used the power in the first four years.
We haven't used the Bureau.
We haven't used the Justice Department.
But things are gonna change now.
John Dean (1928) [White House Counsel]:
That's an exciting prospect.
(25 September 1972)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
A 35-year sentence [for the Watergate burglars]?
There were no weapons, right?
No injuries?
That's just ridiculous.
One of these blacks holds up a store with a goddamn gun, they give him two years.
Probation after six months. …
[The burglars] expect clemency within a reasonable times? …
You couldn't do it, say, in six months? …
John Dean (1928):
No. …
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Jesus Christ.
The main thing is the isolation of the President from this.
Because that, fortunately, is totally true.
(28 February 1973)
John Dean (1928):
We have a cancer, within, close to the Presidency …
[Arrangements] had to be made …
[The burglars] had to be taken care of. …
And that is an obstruction of justice.
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
The fact that you're taking care of witnesses. …
John Dean (1928):
Now, the continuing blackmail [by the burglars] will go on …
People here are not pros at this.
This is the sort of thing mafia can people do.
Washing money?
We just don't know about these things.
We're not criminals.
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
That's right.
How much money do you need?
John Dean (1928):
I would say, a million dollars over the next two years.
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
We could get that. …
I know where it could be gotten. …
John Dean (1928):
We cannot let you be tarnished. …
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
The obstruction of justice. …
We're all in it.
I think, up to this point, we had certain choices.
But that's gone.
(21 March 1973)
Henry Kissinger (1923):
I don't know a damn thing about Watergate, and I don't want to.
But where are the civil libertarians?
A judge gives somebody a 55-year sentence in order to make him talk.
Where's the protection of the Fifth Amendment? …
It was a simple case of burglary.
First offenders.
People who would never do it again.
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Trying to make them talk, it's unbelievable.
(27 March 1973)
Lowell Weicker (1931) [Senator from Connecticut (R), Watergate Committee]:
I thing the political repercussions … are gonna be a lot worse if we don't get all than facts than if we do get all the facts. …
I think the nation, the Republican Party, the entire political system, is hurt far more by facts being concealed, by witnesses being shielded than by fellows like McCord and others coming forth and laying it all on the line.
(Television interview)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
I want you to get the goods Weicker.
I think we've got to play a damn tough game on him.
Have they done the checking on his financial statements?
Is his income tax being checked yet?
(30 March 1973)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Today … I accepted the resignations of two of my closest associates in the White House.
Bob Haldeman.
John Ehrlichman. …
I want the American people to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that, during my term as president, justice will be pursued fairly, fully, and impartially.
No matter who's involved.
(30 April 1973)
Charles Ferguson (1955):
Shortly afterwards, Nixon secretly rehired Haldeman and Ehrlichman as consultants …
By this point, Kissinger had secretly taped 15,000 phone calls.
He later destroyed the tapes.
Others were secretly taping each other, planting rumors, hiring criminal lawyers, and looking for new jobs.
(Things Fall Apart, Watergate, Episode 3, 2018)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
I frankly thought [the Watergate burglary] was a CIA thing. …
This was a Dean plot, period.
I didn't do it. …
Suppose I had called him in, and said,
Look, concoct a story to the CIA …Well, Goddammit, he can't say that.
It's … it's totally privileged. …
And beyond that, it's totally not true.
(11 May 1973)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
I haven't got a tape [of my conversations with John Dean.]
I don't have any tape.
(6 June 1973)
Pat Buchanan (1938) [Strategist and Speechwriter]:
I sent Nixon a memo, I said,
You're gonna have to keep the Dean tapes … and all the other foreign policy tapes.
Take the rest of them out and burn them …
[Get] rid of the Archie Cox and the special prosecutor's office of the independent counsel.
Shut the thing down because this is gonna grow into a monster, and it will kill us.
Charles Ferguson (1955):
What did you think when you learned that [Vice President Spiro Agnew] had, in fact, been taking bribes in?
Pat Buchanan (1938):
… I wrote him a note, and I said …
I think [that, by resigning,] you've set a standard for courage in politics by a Vice President that will stand for a long time.I just told him how much I admired him and regret what was happening to him.
Would you like to know more?
Contents
Pure and Simple Politics
The Silent Majority
God is a Capitalist
They're trying to destroy us
Quest
Triumph
Fall
Richard Milhous Nixon (1913 – 94)
37th President of the United States of America (1969-74).
36th Vice President of the United States (1953-61).
- Nixon, PBS American Experience, October 1990.
David Espar, Elizabeth Deane & Marilyn Mellowes.
The Quest
Hannah Milhous Nixon … made sure [her second son] said his prayers daily and went four times to Quaker meeting on Sundays. …
The Pink Lady
Congressman John F Kennedy quietly gave Nixon $1,000 to help defeat [Democratic] Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas …John F Kennedy:
[She] gave him the nickname he would never entirely shake, "tricky Dick." …
It won't break my heart if you can turn the Senate's loss into Hollywood's gain. …Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
People react to fear … not love.
They don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.
Roger Morris [Nixon Biographer]:
Richard Nixon does not simply defeat Jerry Voorhis for the Congress or defeat Helen Gahagan Douglas for the Senate in 1950, he destroys these people politically and very nearly personally.
And he does that in such a way as to leave a great legacy of bitterness among their supporters and even among onlookers, people who were … neutral observers on the side. …
Triumph
[In 1969, at age 56, and] after 22 years of political battle, Richard Nixon had become the most powerful man in the world.
He envisioned nothing less than a new world order …
American troops had been fighting for four years … against the Soviet-backed Communist forces of the North [at a cost of 30,000 American] and over a million Vietnamese [lives.]
Peacemaker
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94) [First Inaugural Address]:
[Nixon focused] on his main interest, foreign policy, bypassing the State Department to work closely with his National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger. …
The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of "peacemaker." …Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Even before his inauguration [they] began secret contacts with the North Vietnamese in an attempt to move the stalled Paris peace talks forward …
We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the South Vietnamese for the complete withdrawal of all US combat ground forces and their replacement by South Vietnamese forces on an orderly, scheduled timetable. …
Recognizing that the Soviet Union had nearly caught up to the US in nuclear strength [they] dispatched a team of negotiators to work out [the first ever nuclear arms] treaty with the Soviets. …
[They also] began secret contacts with [China. …]Roger Morris [Nixon Biographer]:
We are not a nation {for the most part} that practices its foreign policy by design …
… Nixon and Kissinger [were] an exception to that rule. …
Mr Nixon's War
Richard Nixon was determined not to be the first American President to lose a war.
[And] like many of his contemporaries in both parties, [he] believed that abandoning South Vietnam to the Communists [invite] further aggression …
[It would be] a sign that America could no longer be counted on by her allies.Daniel Patrick Monihan [Assistant the President for Urban Affairs]:
In October 1969, the largest anti-war demonstrations in the nation's history, collectively known as "the moratorium," were held in cities all over the country. …
The war in Vietnam is lost and the sooner you get out, the better we will be. …John Ehrlichman [Nixon Campaign Staff]:
It was the most effective speech of Nixon's presidency. …
The moratorium … was seen by Richard Nixon as 200,000 people out there on the Mall, protesting his foreign policy while at the same time, the polls were showing that 58-59 percent of the American people supported him in his foreign policy. …
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
To you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support, for the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Paris.
Let us be united for peace.
Let us also be united against defeat because let us understand:
North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States.
Only Americans can do that.
(3 November 1969)
[He saw the] contest as a … challenge being issued not only by the parties on the ground – by the Cambodian rebels and the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong – but ultimately by more formidable and distant forces – the Soviet Union [and] China …
[They, along with his domestic enemies, were] testing him, measuring his mettle as a man and as a leader. …Roger Morris:
[Nixon, along with Kissinger and the military,] was convinced that destroying the North Vietnamese hiding places in Cambodia would relieve Communist pressure on the South.
We thought the invasion [of Cambodia] was a bad idea …
[That] it was one more round of escalation on … an old pattern in Vietnam which would cost [blood and] treasure and … prolong the suffering [while doing] nothing to affect the … outcome of the war.
[He] wanted to take some dramatic action to demonstrate that neither Hanoi nor the anti-war movement could intimidate the United States or its President.Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
As Nixon spoke, American troops moved into Cambodia. …
If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.
It is not our power, but our will and character that is being tested tonight.
(30 April 1970)
The President who had promised to end the war seemed to be widening it, moving into a country perceived as neutral.
Three members of Kissinger's staff … resigned in protest.Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
A majority of Americans still backed his Vietnam policy, but the furor over Cambodia had deepened the divisions Nixon had promised to mend. …
I would rather be a one-term President and do what I believed was right than to be a two-term President at the cost of seeing American become a second-rate power and to see this nation accept the first defeat in its proud 190-year history. …
All US troops left Cambodia by the end of June, as Nixon had promised.
He insisted that the military action … had eased the pressure on the troops in Vietnam.
Withdrawals continued on schedule [however, there] was no breakthrough in the peace talks. …
[An] increasingly frustrated and suspicious Nixon urged intensified surveillance of the anti-war movement.
He grew distrustful even of his closest advisers and installed hidden microphones in his own office, in part so that his aides could not later claim to have disagreed with his decisions.
But the taping system would eventually trap the President himself.
Enemies
A sense of being under siege pervaded the White House, fueled by the leaks, the constant anti-war demonstrations and intensifying criticism in the press.
In this atmosphere of "us versus them," [Charles] Colson's office began an ever-expanding … "enemies list."
Its object was to "screw our political enemies."
Reporters and politicians, educators and entertainers were barred from the White House.
Some were targeted for tax audits, others were trailed by private detectives.Charles Colson [Special Counsel to the President]:
The plumbers were eventually disbanded, but some of the agents were reassigned to work behind the scenes for the newly-formed Committee to Re-Elect the President. …
[It] was very shortly thereafter that Nixon authorized the "plumbers" and the creation of a special group to stop leaks and they began to take extra-legal steps and put into motion the mechanism which ultimately resulted in the downfall of the Administration. …
To the Summit
Newscaster:
[It] was part of his global strategy.
… Richard M Nixon, is in China, the first American chief executive ever to visit the world's most populous country.
(18 February 1972)
By visiting China, he was beginning to exploit the divisions in the Communist world.Winston Lord [Kissinger Aide]:
In the spring of 1972, the North Vietnamese suddenly launched a massive offensive.
One of Nixon's primary objectives in opening up with China was to give him more leverage with the Soviet Union.
[Relations with the Soviets] were essentially stalled, but soon after the opening with China, [they] became much more flexible on several fronts. …
South Vietnam's forces were overwhelmed. …
If the offensive were not stopped, the war would be lost and with it, Nixon feared, the presidency. …Winston Lord [Kissinger Aide]:
Nixon ordered the most drastic escalation of the war since 1968, massive sustained bombing of Hanoi and the mining of Haiphong Harbor …
His [felt] it would be embarrassing … to go to Moscow without responding to the North Vietnamese aggression …
[That] he would look weak …
[The Soviets were] providing arms to the North Vietnamese …
[He] didn't think the summit was worth it unless he could also show that he was strong within Vietnam itself.Charles Colson:
On May 22, 1972, Richard Nixon became the first American president ever to set foot inside the Kremlin.
[Nixon] was always thinking strategically and that's one of the qualities that someone has to have in foreign policy.
I mean, you cannot make decisions in foreign policy based on today's circumstance.
You've got to think about its ramifications for 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the road. …
Nixon had done what none of his predecessors had been able to do.
He had negotiated a treaty in which the two superpowers agreed to slow an arms race that had been accelerating for more than a quarter of a century.
It was his greatest achievement. …
Two days later, five burglars working for the Committee to Re-Elect Richard Nixon … broke into the office of the Democratic National Committee, placed bugs on the telephones and made their escape.
But the microphones failed to work.
They would have to go back. …Garrick Utley:
There is no evidence that Nixon had ordered the break-in, but his aides had.
Five men wearing white gloves and carrying cameras were caught early today in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington. …
(17 June 1972)
The President approved the plan to divert the FBI. …John Ehrlichman:
Richard Nixon pulled it into the White House.
[Within] a week [or two] after the break-in … he had personally involved himself in the intrigue of the whole thing.
… Nixon sealed his fate six days after the break-in.
The Fall
David S Broder [Reporter, The Washington Post]:
The Paris peace talks [with the North Vietnamese] were again stalled. …
[Nixon's election victory in November 1972] turned out to be a lonely landslide.
He monopolized all of the resources, all of the money, all of the political talent in the Republican Party and anything else that he could annex for his own personal victory and didn't share the wealth and the opportunity with his party.
It was an extraordinarily selfish victory …
[Nixon] now resolved to use overwhelming force to break the deadlock once and for all.
In December, Nixon ordered the most intensive bombing of the entire war.
It became known as the "Christmas bombing."
The raids went on for 12 days.
[He] gave no public explanation for his action. …
The massive, unexplained destruction alarmed even his loyal supporters. …
The bombing stopped … and shortly thereafter, all sides returned to Paris.
Nixon believed the Christmas bombing had driven Hanoi back to the bargaining table.
Two weeks later … they signed an agreement.
Nixon's critics charged he could have had the same terms months before.
[So, in January 1973,] after 20 years [and] the loss of over 50,000 American lives, the conflict that had torn [the nation apart finally] came to a close. …
In Vietnam, the fighting later resumed …
[But] in America, the weary troops and the prisoners of war were finally coming home.
[Nixon's] popularity soared to [almost 70%. …]
[But it] was not to last. …
Secrets Unraveled
From the moment they were caught … G Gordon Liddy, who'd planned the burglary, and James McCord, former CIA agent, who'd helped to carry it out, insisted they had acted on their own. …
Nixon's campaign manager and former attorney general, John Mitchell, who had approved the break-in, denied responsibility.
The President's Chief of Staff, H R Haldeman, authorized hush money payments totaling more than $350,000.
The President's domestic adviser, John Ehrlichman, lied to the FBI and grand jury investigating the break-in.
The President's counsel, John Dean, withheld evidence, coached witnesses and monitored the FBI investigation. …
The cover-up was disintegrating …
In private, the President continued to search for a scapegoat and struggled to salvage the cover-up.
In public, he acted as if he were upholding the law.Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
[By April 1973] accusations against Haldeman and Ehrlichman [were dominating] the headlines.
I can report today that … progress has been made in finding [out] the truth [about Watergate.]
I condemn any attempts to cover up in this case, no matter who is involved.
The two men had protected the President, guarded his privacy, shared his ambitions.
But now, Nixon would sacrifice his closest aides. …
I Am Not a Crook
Sam Dash [Chief Council, Senate Watergate Committee]:
It was now the word of the President against his 34-year-old former counsel.
[Here was John Dean,] an eyewitness … who was testifying to the President's very deep involvement in the obstruction of justice and the cover-up.
The White House tried to undermine Dean's testimony by spreading rumors about his credibility and character.
With no way to determine who was telling the truth, Nixon believed he would prevail. …Sam Dash:
Nixon was in the hospital with viral pneumonia when he learned about Butterfield's testimony.
[So] that if [any one of Nixon's aides] had particular meetings in the Oval Office with the President … there would be a tape recording … of that full conversation, would there not?
Alexander Butterfield [Former White House Aide]:
Yes sir.
He wrote on a bedside pad,Should have destroyed the tapes after April 30th.
Nixon knew controlling the tapes was the key to his survival.
He would appeal to historical precedent and argue that the tapes were like presidential papers.
They belonged to the President, not to Congress or the courts.
They President had a right to keep them private. …
The Watergate Committee issued a subpoena for the President's tapes.
Nixon refused to comply …
[The Watergate Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox,] demanded nine of the President's tapes.
Nixon refused.
Cox took his case to court. …Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
[We] are proceeding … to get all those guilty brought to justice in Watergate. …
In a scandal unrelated to Watergate, Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was under investigation for bribery, tax evasion and extortion. …
On October 10th [1973], Agnew pled "no contest" to tax evasion and resigned. …
[The new Vice President,] Gerald Ford was [seen on Capitol Hill] as a viable alternative to the President himself.
That same day, the Court of Appeals ruled that Nixon must yield the tapes to … Archibald Cox.
[Nixon saw] an opportunity for a showdown with Cox.
He made an offer he thought would sound reasonable to the public, but that he was certain Cox would reject.
Nixon would turn over summaries of the tapes, but not he tapes themselves and he ordered Cox to not ask for any more material.
As Nixon expected, Cox refused. …
Within hours, Nixon ordered [Attorney General] Elliott Richardson to fire Archibald Cox.
But Nixon had miscalculated.
Richardson refused. …Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
The events that followed became known as "The Saturday Night Massacre."
Do you realize, Elliott, that Brezhnev may conclude that I'm losing control of my own Administration?
Elliott Richardson:
Mr President, I am committed to the independence of the special prosecutor and for me to have acquiesced in his being fired would be a total betrayal of that commitment.
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
I'm sorry that you choose to prefer your purely personal commitments to the national interest. …John Chancellor [NBC News]:
[By October the 16th] 21 resolutions calling for his impeachment had been introduced on Capitol Hill.
The President has fired the special Watergate prosecutor, Archibald Cox.
Because of the President's action, the attorney general has resigned. …
Richardson's deputy, William Ruckelshaus, has [also] been fired. …
[Agents] of the FBI, acting at the direction of the White House, [have] sealed off the offices of the special prosecutor … the attorney general and … the deputy attorney general.
Stunned by the ferocity of the public reaction, Nixon retreated.
He appointed a new special prosecutor … and agreed to release the nine subpoenaed tapes.
[Two of the] tapes turned out to be missing.
The White House said they never existed.
A third tape contained an 18-1/2 minute gap.
The erased section was a conversation between the President and H R Haldeman three days after the break-in. …
The White House claimed that the President's secretary … had accidentally erased the tape while transcribing it.Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited … from public service.
… I have never obstructed justice.
… I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their President's a crook.
… I'm not a crook.
I've earned everything I've got.
The Last Campaign
[The] House Judiciary Committee was … investigating charges ranging from illegal wiretaps and break-ins to abuse of power and obstruction of justice. …
[They] demanded more tapes and set a deadline of April 30th [1974. …]
Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of the tapes to the committee and the public simultaneously.
The President himself had supervised the editing. …
Soon after the transcripts were delivered to Capitol Hill, the Judiciary Committee voted that the President had failed to comply with their subpoena. …
Nixon had exhausted all his legal appeals but one.
He took his case to the Supreme Court. …Supreme Court:
There was a chance he might survive a trial in the Senate as long as there was no irrefutable evidence that he had personally committed a crime.
The President must turn over the tapes to the special prosecutor.
(United States v Nixon, 418 US 683, 1974)
But Nixon himself possessed that evidence, a tape that plainly showed he'd obstructed justice.
His conversation with H R Haldeman on June 23, 1972, when Nixon ordered his aides to divert the FBI.Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
With nothing left to lose, he decided to release a transcript of the tape. It became known as "the smoking gun. …
[They] should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case, period. …
{[[By now, most] Americans had lost faith in the President.
They saw a man who had repeatedly lied to cover up his crimes, had subverted the political process and undermined the Constitution. …
On Capitol Hill, the Judiciary Committee prepared to vote on three articles of impeachment …- obstruction of justice,
- abuse of power and
- contempt of Congress. …
Clerk of Congress:
On August 8th [1974,] Nixon announced he would address the nation. …
27 members have voted "Aye."
11 members have voted "No."
Peter Rodino [Democrat, Chairman, House Judiciary Committee]:
And pursuant to the resolution, Article I, that resolution is adopted and will be reported to the House. …Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford granted Richard Nixon a full and absolute pardon.
To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body, but as President, I must put the interests of America first.
Therefore, I shall resign the presidency, effective at noon tomorrow. …
Over 70 others were found guilty of criminal acts and punished. …Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
The judgment of history depends on who writes it.
The Silent Majority
According to one national poll, 58% of the American people thought the killings
[at Kent and Jackson State Universities were] justified.
— Ken Burns & Lynn Novick
You know, you see these bums, you know, blowing up the campuses.
Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world …
— Richard Nixon (1913 – 94)
(Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, The History of the World, The Vietnam War, Episode 8: April 1969 - May 1970, PBS, 2017)
After three tense days of demonstrations at Kent State University in Ohio, nervous National Guardsmen opened fire [killing four students. …]
American campuses exploded.
Hundreds of colleges and universities closed down.
Governors in 16 states called out the police and National Guard.
Nixon's supporters took to the streets as well.
At New York's City Hall, construction workers struggled to raise the flag which the mayor had lowered to honor the dead at Kent State.
Nixon's move into Cambodia and his dividing of Americans into bums and heroes had set off a national firestorm.
(David Espar, Elizabeth Deane & Marilyn Mellowes, Nixon, PBS American Experience, October 1990)
Robert Mann (1958):
During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon promised a quick end to the Vietnam War. …
Instead of a quick withdrawal of forces, however, Nixon [as President] would engage in a painfully slow retreat that would cost the lives of another 20,000 American soldiers and would spread the war beyond the borders of Vietnam. …
In March 1969, Nixon had secretly ordered intense US bombing raids over Cambodia, aimed at destroying North Vietnamese and Vietcong base camps just across South Vietnam's border.
Nixon believed the raids … would give South Vietnam's military time to train, fortify, and reinforce. …
[The] United States dropped 100,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia … killed as many as 100,000 Cambodian peasants and drove at least two million others from their homes.
[The effects] on the North Vietnamese were negligible. …
The bombing and subsequent invasion, supported by the country's right-wing government, brought thousands of new recruits into the country's communist opposition force, the Khmer Rouge.
(The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Cold War, Alpha, 2002, pp 212, 216, 220-1)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Throughout the war in Vietnam, the United States has exercised a degree of restraint unprecedented in the annals of war.
(Ken Burns & Lynn Novick, A Disrespectful Loyalty, PBS The Vietnam War, Episode 9: May 1970 – March 1973, 2017)
Kevin Kruse (1972) Historian]:
Billy Graham is an ardent supporter of capitalism.
He sees Capitalism and Christianity as essentially one and the same.
They're both doing good in the world. …
When Graham complains about communism, it's not just Stalin.
It's FDR, it's Truman, it's people who are putting new laws on the books that regulate industry.
Putting new laws in the booksThese he sees as a threat to the American way of life.
- that uphold unions,
- that elevate workers' rights.
Billy Graham (1918 – 2018):
Communism is a religion.
At this moment, it appears that Communism has all the earmarks of Antichrist.
It is masterminded by Satan himself. …
The communist philosophy has infiltrated into every country of the world, including America. …
I believe that America is the great spiritual arsenal of the world.
Billy Graham (1918 – 2018):
I think there are definite problems for the American people in a Roman Catholic running for president.
However, I do not believe this should be a time for religious bigotry.
(Sarah Colt, Billy Graham, PBS American Experience, 2021)
Randall Balmer (1954):
[Billy Graham thought Nixon was] an exemplar of Protestant values, Christian values. …
[On 18 August 1960, Graham convened] a meeting of American Protestants in Montreux, Switzerland for the purpose of discussing how they could ensure that John Kennedy would not be elected …
(Soul of a Nation, PBS God in America, Episode 5, 2010)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Newsweek is owned by Jews, and dominated by them.
New York Times, The Washington Post, totally Jewish.
All three networks …
Does this mean all Jews are bad?
No.
It does mean most Jews are left-wing.
And they're for peace at any price, except where Israel is concerned.
Now, however, in the media, we confront a solid block. …
Billy Graham (1918 – 2018):
And they're the ones putting out the pornographic stuff.
This stranglehold has got to be broken, or this country's gonna go down the drain. …
[If] you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something …
A lot of Jews are great friends of mine.
They swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth.
But they don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them.
(1 February 1972)
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Please get me the names of the Jews.
Big Jewish contributors to the Democrats.
Could we please investigate some of the cocksuckers?
The IRS is going after Billy Graham.
I just don't know whether we're being as rough.
(13 September 1971)
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Billy Graham (1918 – 2018):
I’ve got an editorial [on Vietnam] in The New York Times on Friday …
And I’m putting all the blame for this whole thing on Kennedy. …
Richard Nixon (1913 – 94):
Good.
Well, believe me, Billy, it means an awful lot.
And you keep the faith, huh?
Billy Graham (1918 – 2018):
You betcha.
Randall Balmer (1954):
Graham's primary loyalty was to Nixon.
And that trumped Graham's judgment about the morality of the expansion of the war in Southeast Asia.
Grant Wacker (1945) [Biographer]:
When the White House tapes are released in April of ‘74, and the text is reprinted, Graham at first refuses to read them.
He doesn’t want to know the truth, all right?
But by early May, he knows he has no choice.
Nancy Gibbs (1960):
[Travelling abroad] broadens him.
He becomes less adamant in many ways, not about the truth of the gospel, but because he gets exposed to:If you go back to the boy wonder preacher of 1949, where there was just no question about America as being the most righteous nation on earth.
- so many different ways of life, and
- so many different kinds of people. …
He just became more aware of difference and of nuance and of complexity.
He became less American and more global.
Billy Graham (1918 – 2018):
I used to think that all those Chinese babies who never had the gospel preached to them were all going to hell.
I don't believe that anymore.
- My job is to do the preaching, and
- God's job is to do the savings.
Kenneth Woodward [Journalist]:
That's just not what you say if you're an evangelist.
You need this, and you need it today because tomorrow you may die and you're going to be burning in hell.
Billy finally said he would let God be God, let Him be the judge.
It's an extraordinary change.
Randall Balmer (1954):
Graham comes out early in the 1980s against nuclear proliferation and in favor of nuclear disarmament.
Kevin Kruse (1972) Historian]:
[Graham] truly comes to be thought of as 'America’s Pastor.'
He can speak to not just presidents of both parties, but Americans from all walks of life.
And I think his retreat from partisan politics is what enabled him to do that.
Uta Balbier [Historian]:
What is so interesting in Billy Graham's ministry is that someone who wanted to be so inclusive paved the ground for one of the most exclusive religious movements in the United States, the Religious Right.
(Sarah Colt, Billy Graham, PBS American Experience, 2021, emphasis added)
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