what happened to richard nixon after he resigned from the presidency?
Nixon Resigns
Richard Nixon announces
his resignation in 1974.
AP File Photo
Washington Mail Staff Author
Friday, August 9, 1974; Page A01
Richard Milhous Nixon announced terminal dark that he volition resign as the 37th President of the United States at apex today.
Vice President Gerald R. Ford of Michigan will take the oath equally the new President at noon to complete the remaining ii 1/2 years of Mr. Nixon's term.
Later on two years of biting public debate over the Watergate scandals, President Nixon bowed to pressures from the public and leaders of his political party to become the outset President in American history to resign.
"Past taking this activeness," he said in a subdued yet dramatic tv set address from the Oval Office, "I promise that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is and then desperately needed in America."
Vice President Ford, who spoke a short time afterward in front of his Alexandria abode, announced that Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger will remain in his Cabinet.
The President-to-be praised Mr. Nixon's cede for the country and called it "1 of the vary saddest incidents that I've ever witnessed."
Mr. Nixon said he decided he must resign when he concluded that he no longer had "a potent enough political base in the Congress" to make it possible for him to complete his term of part.
Declaring that he has never been a quitter, Mr. Nixon said that to go out part earlier the cease of his term " is abhorrent to every instinct in my body."
Merely "as President, I must put the interests of America first," he said.
While the President best-selling that some of his judgments "were incorrect," he made no confession of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" with which the House Judiciary Commission charged him in its pecker of impeachment.
Specifically, he did non refer to Judiciary Committee charges that in the camouflage of Watergate crimes he misused government agencies such every bit the FBI, the Primal Intelligence Bureau and the Internal Revenue Service.
After the President's address, Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski issued a statement declaring that "there has been no agreement or understanding of whatever sort between the President or his representatives and the special prosecutor relating in whatsoever way to the President'south resignation."
Jaworski said that his office "was not asked for whatever such agreement or understanding and offered none."
His part was informed yesterday afternoon of the President'southward determination, Jaworski said, but "my office did not participate in any style in the President's conclusion to resign."
Mr. Nixon'due south brief spoken language was delivered in firm tones and he appeared to be consummate command of his emotions. The absence of rancor contrasted sharply with the "farewell" he delivered in 1962 after being defeated for the governorship of California.
An hour earlier the speech, however, the President bankrupt down during a meeting with former congressional friends and had to leave the room.
He had invited twenty senators and 26 representatives for a cheerio coming together in the Cabinet room. Later, Sen. Barry M. Goldwater (R-Ariz.), ane of those present, said Mr. Nixon said to them very much what he said in his speech.
"He just told us that the country couldn't operate with a half-fourth dimension President," Goldwater reported. "Then he broke downward and cried and he had to go out the room. Then the rest of us broke downwards and cried."
In his televised resignation, after thanking his friends for their back up, the President concluded by maxim he was leaving office "with this prayer: may God's grace be with you in all the days ahead."
As for his sharpest critics, the President said, "I get out with no bitterness toward those who have opposed me." He chosen on all Americans to "join together . . . in helping our new President succeed."
The President said he had thought it was his duty to persevere in part in face of the Watergate charges and to consummate his term.
"In the past days, still, it has become axiomatic to me that I no longer have a stiff enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort," Mr. Nixon said.
His family "unanimously urged" him to stay in office and fight the charges against him, he said. Merely he came to realize that he would not have the support needed to carry out the duties of his part in hard times.
"America needs a full-time President and a total-time Congress," Mr. Nixon said. The resignation came with "a smashing sadness that I will not be here in this function" to complete work on the programs started, he said.
But praising Vice President Ford, Mr. Nixon said that "the leadership of America volition be in good hands."
In his admission of fault, the outgoing President said: "I securely regret any injuries that may have been done in the grade of the events that led to this conclusion."
He emphasized that earth peace had been the overriding concern of his years in the White Business firm.
When he start took the adjuration, he said, he made a "sacred commitment" to "consecrate my role and wisdom to the cause of peace among nations."
"I have washed my very best in all the days since to be true to that pledge," he said, adding that he is now confident that the globe is a safer identify for all peoples.
"This more than anything is what I hoped to accomplish when I sought the presidency," Mr. Nixon said. "This more annihilation is what I hope will exist my legacy to you, to our land, as I exit the presidency."
Noting that he had lived through a turbulent period, he recalled a statement of Theodore Roosevelt nearly the man "in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood" and who, if he fails "at least fails while daring profoundly."
Mr. Nixon placed great emphasis on his successes in foreign affairs. He said his administration had "unlocked the doors that for a quarter of a century stood between the United states and the People'due south Republic of Prc."
In the mideast, he said, the United States must brainstorm to build on the peace in that expanse. And with the Soviet Union, he said, the administration had begun the process of ending the nuclear artillery race. The goal at present, he said, is to reduce and finally destroy those arms "so that the threat of nuclear war will no longer hang over the earth." The 2 countries, he added, "must live together in cooperation rather than in confrontation."
Mr. Nixon has served 2,026 days equally the 37th President of the U.s.a.. He leaves function with two i/2 years of his second term remaining to be carried out by the man he nominated to be Vice President last year.
Yesterday morning, the President conferred with his successor. He spent much of the solar day in his Executive Office Building hideaway working on his speech and attending to concluding-minute business.
At 7:30 p.m., Mr. Nixon once again left the White House for the short walk to the Executive Office Building. The crowd outside the gates waved U.S. flags and sang "America" every bit he walked slowly upwards the steps, his caput bowed, alone.
At the EOB, Mr. Nixon met for a piffling over twenty minutes with the leaders of Congress -- James O. Eastland (D-Miss.), president pro tem to the Senate; Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.), Senate majority leader; Hugh Scott (R-Pa.), Senate minority leader; Carl Albert (D-Okla.), speaker of the House; and John Rhodes (R-Ariz.), Business firm minority leader.
It was exactly six years ago yesterday that the 55-yr-old Californian accepted the Republican nomination for President for the 2nd time and went on to a narrow victory in November over Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey.
"I was gear up. I was willing. And events were such that this seemed to be the time the party was willing for me to carry the standard," Nixon said after winning kickoff-ballot nomination in the convention at Miami Beach.
In his acceptance speech on Aug. viii, 1968, the nominee appealed for victory to "make the American dream come true for millions of Americans."
"To the leaders of the Communist globe we say, later an era of confrontation, the time has come for an era of negotiation," Nixon said.
The theme was repeated in his showtime inaugural accost on January. xx, 1969, and became the basis for the strange policy of his first administration.
Largely because of his breakthroughs in negotiations with China and the Soviet Spousal relationship, and partly considering of divisions in the Democratic Political party, Mr. Nixon won a mammoth election victory in 1972, only to exist brought down by scandals that grew out of an excessive zeal to brand certain he would win re-election.
Mr. Nixon and his family are expected to fly to their home in San Clemente, Calif. early today. Press secretarial assistant Ronald Fifty. Ziegler and Rose Mary Woods, Mr. Nixon'due south devoted personal secretary for more than two decades, will back-trail the Nixons.
Alexander Thou. Haig Jr., the former Army vice chief of staff who was brought into the White Business firm as staff chief post-obit the resignation of H.R. (Bob) Haldeman on April 30, 1973, has been asked past Mr. Ford to remain in his nowadays position.
It is expected that Haig will keep in the position every bit staff chief to clinch an orderly transfer of responsibilities simply non stay indefinitely.
The first firm indication yesterday that the President had reached a decision came when deputy press secretarial assistant Gerald L. Warren announced at 10:55 a.m. that the President was about to begin a meeting in the Oval Office with the Vice President.
"The President asked the Vice President to come over this forenoon for a private coming together -- and that is all the data I have at this moment," Warren said.
He promised to mail "some routine data, beak actions and appointments" and to return with additional information" in an hour or so."
Warren's manner and the news he had to impart made it clear at concluding that resignation was a certainty. Reports already were circulating on Capitol Hill that the President would concord a reception for friends and staff members late in the 24-hour interval and a meeting with congressional leaders.
Shortly after noon, Warren announced over the loudspeaker in the press room that the meeting between the President and the Vice President had lasted for an hour and 10 minutes.
At 2:20 p.m., press secretary Ziegler walked into the press room and, struggling to control his emotions, read the following statement:
"I am enlightened of the intense involvement of the American people and of you in this room concerning developments today and over the terminal few days. This has, of course, been a difficult time.
"The President of the Us volition meet diverse members of the bipartisan leadership of Congress here at the White Business firm early this evening.
"Tonight, at nine o'clock, Eastern Daylight Time, the President of the The states will accost the nation on radio and television receiver from his Oval Office."
The room was packed with reporters, and Ziegler read the statement with difficulty. Although his voice shook, information technology did not break. Equally soon as he had finished, he turned on his heel and left the room, without and so much as a glance at the men and women in the room who wanted to question him.
There were tears in the eyes of some of the secretaries in the press office. Others, who have been through many crises in recent years and have become used to overwork, plowed ahead with their duties, with telephones ringing endlessly.
In other offices, loyal Nixon workers reacted with sadness simply also with resignation and defeat. They were not surprised, and some showed a sense of relief that at last the battle was over.
Some commented bitterly most sometime aides H.R. (Bob) Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman. The President'south loyal personal aide and valet Manola Sanchez, a Castilian-built-in immigrant from Cuba whose independence and wit are widely admired, did not hide his feelings.
Speaking bluntly to some of his old friends, he castigated aides he said had betrayed the President. One long-time official, who heard about the Sanchez remarks, commented: "They [Haldeman and Ehrlichman] tried three times to fire him considering they couldn't control him. Imagine, trying to burn down someone like Manola."
But why did the President always rely on Ehrlichman and Haldeman? The official was asked. "Will we ever know?" he replied. "When Mr. Nixon was Vice President," he recalled, "he demanded that we never corruption the franking privilege. If in that location was any doubt, nosotros were to use stamps. Everything had to be to a higher place board.
"Surely his friendship with Ehrlichman and Haldeman was one of the most expensive in history."
Only the President himself, said another long-time aide, must have been two persons, the one who was motivated by high ideals and some other who connived and schemed with his favorite gut-fighters.
One human who worked through most of the first Nixon term said he saw the President angry but once. Oftentimes he would say, "That volition be tough politically, only we must do the right thing."
When that official left his post afterwards nigh four years of intimate association with the President, he told his wife: "I've never gotten to know what sort of man he is."
One official, who has known Mr. Nixon well for many years and remains a White House aide, commented: "He is obviously a bad gauge of grapheme. Simply a lot was accomplished. And so much more than could have been accomplished but for these fun and games. It was such a stupid thing to happen."
The march of events that brought about the President'southward downfall turned its concluding corner Monday when Mr. Nixon released the partial transcripts of three taped conversations he held on June 23, 1972 with Haldeman.
Information technology seemed inevitable then that this would be his concluding week in office, yet he continued to fight back and to insist that he would non resign. On Tuesday, the President held a Cabinet meeting and told his official family unit that he would non resign.
On Wednesday, however, the end appeared near, for his support on Capitol Hill was disappearing at boundless speed. There were demands from some of his staunchest supporters that he should resign at once.
Late Midweek, the President met with Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-Pa.), House Minority Leader John J. Rhodes (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Barry 1000. Goldwater (R-Ariz.).
They said afterward that the President had fabricated no decision, but it was obvious later on that for all intents and purposes the decision had been made despite what the leaders said. They plain could not make the announcement for him, just it must have been apparent to them that the end was at hand.
Later Wed, Secretarial assistant of Country Henry A. Kissinger twice conferred with Mr. Nixon, commencement in the early on evening for half an hour and so from 9:30 p.1000. until midnight.
It was non known whether the two men were alone or accompanied by Haig and others.
Yesterday, Kissinger met with principal deputies in the State Department to tell them what to expect and to assign tasks to unlike people. Letters will exist sent to heads of state to notify them formally of the change.
A White Firm spokesman said more than than 10,000 telephone calls were received in the past two days expressing "disbelief and the promise that the President would not resign."
Thursday was a moisture, humid Baronial day, but despite intermittent pelting the crowds packed the sidewalks in front end of the White Firm. It was an orderly crowd, resigned and curious, watching newsmen come and go and existence a function of a dramatic moment in the life of the nation.
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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/080974-3.htm
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