Politics


Nixon Quits Presidency on Prime-Time TV


“I must put the interest of America first.” I BY JERRY OPPENHEIMER


t would become the block- buster political story of the 20th century — and probably all of contemporary American presi-


dential history. But it began quite routinely: a


simple break-in at an offi ce suite in Washington, D.C. It was June 1972. Security guard


Frank Wills, employed at the ritzy Watergate apartment-offi ce complex, was making his rounds when he dis- covered the door lock from the build- ing’s garage to the interior offi ces had been taped open. Suspicious, Wills called the police. Plainclothes cops made their way


to the sixth fl oor, where the secure offi ces of the Democratic National Committee headquarters were locat- ed, and inside arrested fi ve operatives with political ties to the Nixon White House. They had photographed con-


46 NEWSMAX | AUGUST 2024 fidential campaign


documents and wire- tapped telephones.


And two years later,


what became known as the “Water- gate break-in” would lead to the fi nal dark chapter in the long, turbulent political career of our 37th president, 61-year-old Richard M. Nixon. Fifty years ago this month, on Aug.


9, 1974, Nixon — who once publicly and defensively declared “I am not a crook” — became the fi rst president in U.S. history to resign in disgrace as commander in chief. He calmly made the announcement in a 15-minute, primetime TV address that evoked tears in some, cheers in others. “I have never been a quitter,” he


told Americans from the Oval Offi ce. “To leave offi ce before my term is com- pleted is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as president, I must put the interest of America fi rst.”


And at noon the next day, his successor, Vice President Gerald Rudolph Ford, 61, would be sworn in as the 38th president and serve out the remaining 895 days of Nixon’s second term, won in a landslide only 10 months earlier. The following month, Ford par-


doned Nixon of all crimes, while a number of Nixon’s co-conspirators — some his top aides — served prison time. In retirement, Nixon would pub-


lish his memoirs and give speeches. On April 22, 1994, after suff ering


a stroke and slipping into a coma, he died at age 81.


AGO THIS MONTH


50 ILLUSTRATION/EENG SUHERMAN©ISTOCK / WOMEN/GETTY IMAGES / NIXON/CBS ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES


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