ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How can the powers of the US President be limited?
CONTEXT:
Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994) was the 37th president of the US, serving from 1969 until 1974. Prior to his presidency he served in several political offices, including as vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Elected President in 1968, he resigned in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate Scandal, a break-in at the Democratic Party Headquarters in Washington, DC, and the Nixon administration’s cover-up of that criminal act. Nixon was the only US president to resign from office. This text is from his last public speech as president and was broadcast live on radio and TV on August 8, 1974. Nixon died in New York in 1994.
TEXT:
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe affected the national interest.
In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future. But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.
I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interest of the Nation must always come before any personal considerations. From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the Nation would require.
I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.
Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office….
By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.
I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my Judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the Nation.…
So, let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in helping our new President succeed for the benefit of all Americans….
INQUIRY:
- Nixon’s successor as president, Gerald Ford, had not been elected; he was appointed to the office of vice president after Nixon’s elected vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned in 1973 (from charges of tax evasion). Gerald Ford, as president after Nixon’s resignation, then nominated Nelson Rockefeller as vice president. Thus from 1974 until 1977 neither the president nor the vice president were elected by the people. What part of the US Constitution provides for succession to the presidency? Why would it have been necessary to nominate a vice president if there was not one currently in office? Who had to approve Rockefeller’s appointment as vice president?
- What did Nixon give as the reasons that he chose to resign?
- Investigate the Watergate Scandal and how and why it destroyed confidence in the Nixon presidency.
- What is impeachment? Where and in what ways does the US Constitution discuss impeachment?
- Congress had already begun the impeachment process against Nixon, but he resigned before the articles of impeachment could be passed. Would it have been better for the country if he had gone through with the impeachment process? Why or why not?
- How important is it for a president to have a “political base” in Congress? Why?
- In what ways did Nixon deflect blame from himself for the necessity to resign? In what ways did he accept blame?
- How did Nixon change the tone of this speech in the next to last sentence? In the last sentence?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/spc/character/links/nixon_speech.html
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