. The new first lady, Pat, holds the family Bible. Nixon
was inaugurated as
president on January 20, 1969, sworn in by his onetime political rival,
Chief Justice Earl Warren. Pat Nixon held the family Bibles open at
Isaiah 2:4, which reads, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." In his inaugural address, which received almost uniformly positive reviews, Nixon remarked that "the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker"—a phrase that found a place on his gravestone. He spoke about turning partisan politics into a new age of unity:
Foreign policy China Nixon laid the groundwork for his overture to China before he became president, writing in
Foreign Affairs a year before his election: "There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation." Among the reasons that Nixon sought to improve relations with China was in the hope of weakening the Soviet Union and decreasing China's support to the North in the Vietnam War. Nixon ultimately used the idea of gaining leverage against the Soviet Union through relations with China to obtain the support of key conservative figures including Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Assisting him in pursuing relations with China was
Henry Kissinger, Nixon's
national security advisor and future
secretary of state. They collaborated closely, bypassing Cabinet officials. With relations between the Soviet Union and China at a nadir—
border clashes between the two took place during Nixon's first year in office—Nixon sent private word to the Chinese that he desired closer relations. A breakthrough came in early 1971, when
Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
chairman Mao Zedong invited a team of American table tennis players
to visit China and play against top Chinese players. Nixon followed up by sending Kissinger to China for clandestine meetings with Chinese officials. On July 15, 1971, with announcements from Washington and Beijing, it was learned that the President would visit China the following February. The secrecy had allowed both sets of leaders time to prepare the political climate in their countries for the visit. In February 1972, Nixon and his wife traveled to China after Kissinger briefed Nixon for over 40 hours in preparation. Upon touching down, the President and First Lady emerged from
Air Force One and were greeted by Chinese Premier
Zhou Enlai. Nixon made a point of shaking Zhou's hand, something which then-secretary of state
John Foster Dulles had refused to do in 1954 when the two met in Geneva. More than a hundred television journalists accompanied the president. On Nixon's orders, television was strongly favored over printed publications, as Nixon felt that the medium would capture the visit much better than print. It also allowed him to snub the print journalists he despised. Nixon and Kissinger immediately met for an hour with CCP Chairman
Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou at Mao's official private residence, where they discussed a range of issues. Mao later told his doctor that he had been impressed by Nixon's forthrightness, unlike the leftists and the Soviets. He said he was suspicious of Kissinger, though the National Security Advisor referred to their meeting as his "encounter with history". A formal banquet welcoming the presidential party was given that evening in the
Great Hall of the People. The following day, Nixon met with Zhou; the
joint communique following this meeting recognized Taiwan as a part of China and looked forward to a peaceful solution to the problem of reunification. When not in meetings, Nixon toured architectural wonders, including the
Forbidden City, the
Ming tombs, and the
Great Wall. Americans took their first glance into everyday Chinese life through the cameras that accompanied Pat Nixon, who toured the city of Beijing and visited communes, schools, factories, and hospitals. The visit ushered in a new era of
US–China relations. Fearing the possibility of a US–China alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to pressure for
détente with the United States. This was one component of
triangular diplomacy.
Vietnam War When Nixon took office, about 300 American soldiers were dying each week in Vietnam, and the war was widely unpopular in the United States, the subject of ongoing violent protests. The Johnson administration had offered to suspend bombing unconditionally in exchange for negotiations, but to no avail. According to Walter Isaacson, Nixon concluded soon after taking office that the Vietnam War could not be won, and he was determined to end it quickly. He sought an arrangement that would permit American forces to withdraw while leaving South Vietnam secure against attack. Nixon approved a secret
B-52 carpet bombing campaign of North Vietnamese and
Khmer Rouge positions in Cambodia beginning in March 1969 and code-named
Operation Menu, without the consent of Cambodian leader
Norodom Sihanouk. In mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with the North Vietnamese, sending a personal letter to their leaders, and peace talks began in Paris. Initial talks did not result in an agreement, and in May 1969, he publicly proposed to withdraw all American troops from South Vietnam, provided North Vietnam did so, and suggested South Vietnam hold internationally supervised elections with
Viet Cong participation. In July 1969, Nixon visited
South Vietnam, where he met with his U.S. military commanders and President
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Amid protests at home demanding an immediate pullout, he implemented a strategy of replacing American troops with
Vietnamese troops, known as "
Vietnamization". He soon instituted phased U.S. troop withdrawals, but also authorized incursions into Laos, in part to interrupt the
Ho Chi Minh trail passing through Laos and Cambodia and used to supply North Vietnamese forces. In March 1970, at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by
Pol Pot's then-second-in-command,
Nuon Chea, North Vietnamese troops launched an offensive and overran much of Cambodia. Nixon announced the
ground invasion of Cambodia on April 30, 1970, against North Vietnamese bases in the east of the country, and further protests erupted against perceived expansion of the conflict, which resulted in Ohio National Guardsmen killing four unarmed students at
Kent State University. Nixon's responses to protesters included
an impromptu, early morning meeting with them at the
Lincoln Memorial on May 9, 1970. Nixon's campaign promise to curb the war, contrasted with the escalated bombing, led to claims that Nixon had a "
credibility gap" on the issue. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 150,000 people were killed during the
bombing of Cambodia between 1970 and 1973. In 1971, excerpts from the "
Pentagon Papers", which had been leaked by
Daniel Ellsberg, were published by
The New York Times and
The Washington Post. When news of the leak first appeared, Nixon was inclined to do nothing; the Papers, a history of the United States' involvement in Vietnam, mostly concerned the lies of prior administrations and contained few real revelations. He was persuaded by Kissinger that the Papers were more harmful than they appeared, and the President tried to prevent publication, but the Supreme Court
ruled in favor of the newspapers. As U.S. troop withdrawals continued,
conscription was phased out by 1973, and the armed forces became all-volunteer. After years of fighting, the
Paris Peace Accords were signed at the beginning of 1973. The agreement implemented a ceasefire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops without requiring the withdrawal of the 160,000
North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South. Once American combat support ended, there was a brief truce, before fighting resumed, and
North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975.
Latin American policy (to his right); motorcade in San Diego, California, September 1970 Nixon had been a firm supporter of Kennedy during the 1961
Bay of Pigs Invasion and 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis. On taking office in 1969, he stepped up covert operations against Cuba and its president,
Fidel Castro. He maintained close relations with the Cuban-American exile community through his friend,
Bebe Rebozo, who often suggested ways of irritating Castro. The Soviets and Cubans became concerned, fearing Nixon might attack Cuba and break the understanding between Kennedy and Khrushchev that ended the missile crisis. In August 1970, the Soviets asked Nixon to reaffirm the understanding, which he did, despite his hard line against Castro. The process was not completed before the Soviets began expanding their base at the Cuban port of
Cienfuegos in October 1970. A minor confrontation ensued, the Soviets stipulated they would not use Cienfuegos for submarines bearing ballistic missiles, and the final round of diplomatic notes was exchanged in November. The election of Marxist candidate
Salvador Allende as
President of Chile in September 1970 spurred a vigorous campaign of covert opposition to him by Nixon and Kissinger. This began by trying to convince the Chilean congress to confirm
Jorge Alessandri as the winner of the election, and then messages to military officers in support of a coup. and a pipeline connecting four ammonia plants in the greater
Volga region to the port at Odessa. which was challenged by Congress in the
Jackson-Vanik Amendment. During the previous two years, Nixon had made considerable progress in U.S.–Soviet relations, and he embarked on a second trip to the Soviet Union in 1974. He arrived in Moscow on June 27 to a welcome ceremony, cheering crowds, and a state dinner at the
Grand Kremlin Palace that evening. Nixon and Brezhnev met in
Yalta, where they discussed a proposed mutual defense pact, détente, and
MIRVs. Nixon considered proposing a comprehensive test-ban treaty, but he felt he would not have time to complete it during his presidency. There were no significant breakthroughs in these negotiations.
Middle Eastern policy , June 1974 of Egypt, June 1974 As part of the
Nixon Doctrine, the U.S. avoided giving direct combat assistance to its allies and instead assisted them to defend themselves. During the Nixon administration, the U.S. greatly increased arms sales to the Middle East, particularly Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The Nixon administration strongly supported Israel, an American ally in the Middle East, but the support was not unconditional. Nixon believed Israel should make peace with its Arab neighbors and that the U.S. should encourage it. The president believed that—except during the
Suez Crisis—the U.S. had failed to intervene with Israel, and should use the leverage of the large U.S. military aid to Israel to urge the parties to the negotiating table. The Arab-Israeli conflict was not a major focus of Nixon's attention during his first term—for one thing, he felt that no matter what he did, American Jews would oppose his reelection. On October 6, 1973, an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, supported with arms and materiel by the Soviet Union, attacked Israel in the
Yom Kippur War. Israel suffered heavy losses, and Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses, cutting through inter-departmental squabbles and bureaucracy and taking personal responsibility for any response by Arab nations. More than a week later, by the time the U.S. and Soviet Union began
negotiating a truce, Israel had penetrated deep into enemy territory. The truce negotiations rapidly escalated into a superpower crisis; when Israel gained the upper hand, Egyptian president Sadat requested a joint U.S.–USSR peacekeeping mission, which the U.S. refused. When Soviet Premier Brezhnev threatened to unilaterally enforce any peacekeeping mission militarily, Nixon ordered the U.S. military to
DEFCON3, placing all U.S. military personnel and bases on alert for nuclear war. This was the closest the world had come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Brezhnev backed down as a result of Nixon's actions. Because Israel's victory was largely due to U.S. support, the Arab OPEC nations retaliated by refusing to sell crude oil to the U.S., resulting in the
1973 oil crisis. The embargo caused gasoline shortages and rationing in the United States in late 1973, but was eventually ended by the oil-producing nations as peace in the Middle East took hold. After the war, and under Nixon's presidency, the U.S. reestablished relations with Egypt for the first time since 1967. Nixon used the Middle East crisis to restart
the stalled Middle East Peace Negotiations; he wrote in a confidential memo to Kissinger on October 20: I believe that, beyond a doubt, we are now facing the best opportunity we have had in 15 years to build a lasting peace in the Middle East. I am convinced history will hold us responsible if we let this opportunity slip by ... I now consider a permanent Middle East settlement to be the most important final goal to which we must devote ourselves. Nixon made one of his final international visits as president to the Middle East in June 1974, and became the first president to visit Israel.
South Asia policy at the White House, October 1970 Since the 1960s, the United States has perceived Pakistan as an integral bulwark against global communism in the Cold War. Nixon was fond of Pakistani president
Yahya Khan and, according to American journalist
Gary Bass, "Nixon liked very few people, but he did like General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan." During the
Bangladesh Liberation War, the United States stood by Pakistan against Bengali nationalists in terms of diplomacy and military threats. Nixon urged President Khan multiple times to exercise restraint, fearing an Indian invasion of Pakistan that would lead to Indian domination of
the subcontinent and strengthen the position of the Soviet Union. In the wake of the
Third India–Pakistan War, Nixon issued a statement blaming Pakistan for starting the conflict and blaming India for escalating it while personally favoring a ceasefire. The United States used the threat of an aid cut-off to force Pakistan to back down, while its continued military aid to Islamabad prevented India from launching incursions deeper into the country. Nixon denied getting involved in the situation, saying that it was an internal matter of Pakistan, but when Pakistan's defeat seemed certain, he sent the aircraft carrier
USS Enterprise to the
Bay of Bengal.
Domestic policy Economy ' 1969 Opening Day with team owner
Bob Short (arms folded) and Baseball Commissioner
Bowie Kuhn (hand on mouth). Nixon's
aide, Major
Jack Brennan, sits behind them in uniform At the time Nixon took office in 1969, inflation was at 4.7 percent—its highest rate since the Korean War. The
Great Society had been enacted under Johnson, which, together with the Vietnam War costs, was causing large budget deficits. Unemployment was low, but interest rates were at their highest in a century. Nixon's major economic goal was to reduce inflation; the most obvious means of doing so was to end the war. This was not done in Nixon's first term, and the U.S. economy continued to struggle through 1970, contributing to a lackluster Republican performance in the midterm congressional elections (Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress throughout Nixon's presidency). According to political economist Nigel Bowles in his 2011 study of Nixon's economic record, the new president did little to alter Johnson's policies through the first year of his presidency. Nixon was far more interested in foreign affairs than domestic policies, but he believed that voters tend to focus on their own financial condition and that economic conditions were a threat to his reelection. As part of his "
New Federalism" philosophy, he proposed greater local autonomy in the allocation of domestic spending through grants to the states. These proposals were, for the most part, lost in the congressional budget process. However, Nixon gained political credit for advocating them. In 1970, Congress had granted the president the power to impose wage and price freezes, though the Democratic majorities, knowing Nixon had opposed such controls throughout his career, did not expect Nixon to actually use the authority. With inflation unresolved by August 1971, and an election year looming, Nixon convened a summit of his economic advisers at
Camp David. Nixon's options were to limit fiscal and monetary expansionist policies that reduced unemployment or end the dollar's fixed exchange rate; Nixon's dilemma has been cited as an example of the
Impossible trinity in international economics. He then announced temporary wage and price controls, allowed the dollar to float against other currencies, and ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Bowles points out, by identifying himself with a policy whose purpose was inflation's defeat, Nixon made it difficult for Democratic opponents ... to criticize him. His opponents could offer no alternative policy that was either plausible or believable, since the one they favored was one they had designed but which the president had appropriated for himself. Nixon's policies dampened inflation through 1972, although their aftereffects contributed to inflation during his second term and into the Ford administration. Nixon's decision to end the gold standard in the United States led to the collapse of the
Bretton Woods system. According to Thomas Oatley, "the Bretton Woods system collapsed so that Nixon might win the 1972 presidential election." Nixon vetoed the
Clean Water Act of 1972—objecting not to the policy goals of the legislation but to the amount of money to be spent on them, which he deemed excessive. After Congress overrode his veto, Nixon
impounded the funds he deemed unjustifiable. In 1971, Nixon proposed health insurance reform—a private health insurance employer mandate, federalization of
Medicaid for poor families with dependent minor children, and support for
health maintenance organizations (HMOs). A limited HMO bill was enacted in 1973. In 1974, Nixon proposed more comprehensive health insurance reform—a private health insurance employer mandate and replacement of Medicaid by state-run health insurance plans available to all, with income-based premiums and
cost sharing. Nixon was concerned about the prevalence of domestic drug use in addition to drug use among American soldiers in Vietnam. He called for a
war on drugs and pledged to cut off sources of supply abroad. He also increased funds for education and for rehabilitation facilities. As one policy initiative, Nixon called for more money for
sickle-cell research, treatment, and education in February 1971 and signed the National Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act on May 16, 1972. While Nixon called for increased spending on such high-profile items as sickle-cell disease and for a
war on cancer, at the same time he sought to reduce overall spending at the
National Institutes of Health.
Civil rights The Nixon presidency witnessed the first large-scale
integration of public schools in the South. Nixon sought a middle way between the segregationist Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern whites. Hopeful of doing well in the South in 1972, he sought to dispose of desegregation as a political issue before then. Soon after his inauguration, he appointed Vice President Agnew to lead a task force, which worked with local leaders—both white and black—to determine how to
integrate local schools. Agnew had little interest in the work, and most of it was done by Labor Secretary
George Shultz. Federal aid was available, and a meeting with President Nixon was a possible reward for compliant committees. By September 1970, less than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools. By 1971, however, tensions over desegregation surfaced in Northern cities, with angry protests over the
busing of children to schools outside their neighborhood to achieve racial balance. Nixon opposed busing personally but enforced court orders requiring its use. Some scholars, such as James Morton Turner and John Isenberg, believe that Nixon, who had advocated for civil rights in his 1960 campaign, slowed down
desegregation as president, appealing to the racial conservatism of Southern whites, who were angered by the
civil rights movement. This, he hoped, would boost his election chances in 1972. In addition to desegregating public schools, Nixon implemented the
Philadelphia Plan in 1970—the first significant federal
affirmative action program. He also endorsed the
Equal Rights Amendment after it passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and went to the states for ratification. He also pushed for African American civil rights and economic equity through a concept known as black capitalism. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968, though feminists criticized him for doing little to help the ERA or their cause after his election. Nevertheless, he appointed more women to administration positions than Lyndon Johnson had.
Space policy astronauts in quarantine aboard the aircraft carrier
USS Hornet After a
nearly decade-long national effort, the United States won the race to land astronauts on the Moon on July 20, 1969, with the flight of
Apollo 11. Nixon spoke with
Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin during their moonwalk. He called the conversation "the most historic phone call ever made from the White House". Nixon was unwilling to keep funding for the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the high level seen during the 1960s as NASA prepared to send men to the Moon. NASA Administrator
Thomas O. Paine drew up ambitious plans for the establishment of a permanent base on the Moon by the end of the 1970s and the launch of a crewed expedition to Mars as early as 1981. Nixon rejected both proposals due to the expense. Nixon also canceled the Air Force
Manned Orbital Laboratory program in 1969, because uncrewed
spy satellites were a more cost-effective way to achieve the same reconnaissance objective. NASA cancelled the last three planned Apollo lunar missions to place
Skylab in orbit more efficiently and free money up for the design and construction of the
Space Shuttle. On May 24, 1972, Nixon approved a five-year cooperative program between NASA and the
Soviet space program, culminating in the 1975
joint mission of an American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft linking in space.
Reelection, Watergate scandal, and resignation 1972 presidential campaign . Nixon won 520
electoral college votes (60.7% of the popular vote) to
George McGovern's 17. Nixon believed his rise to power had peaked at a moment of
political realignment. The Democratic "
Solid South" had long been a source of frustration to Republican ambitions. Goldwater had won several Southern states by opposing the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 but had alienated more moderate Southerners. Nixon's efforts to gain Southern support in 1968 were diluted by Wallace's candidacy. Through his first term, he pursued a
Southern Strategy with policies, such as his desegregation plans, that would be broadly acceptable among Southern whites, encouraging them to realign with the Republicans in the aftermath of the
civil rights movement. He nominated two Southern conservatives,
Clement Haynsworth and
G. Harrold Carswell, to the Supreme Court, but neither was confirmed by the Senate. Nixon entered his name on the New Hampshire primary ballot on January 5, 1972, effectively announcing his candidacy for reelection. Virtually assured the Republican nomination, the President had initially expected his Democratic opponent to be
Massachusetts senator
Ted Kennedy (brother of
the late president), who was largely removed from contention after the July 1969
Chappaquiddick incident. Instead,
Maine senator
Edmund Muskie became the front runner, with
South Dakota senator
George McGovern in a close second place. On June 10, McGovern won the California primary and secured the Democratic nomination. The following month, Nixon was renominated at the
1972 Republican National Convention. He dismissed the Democratic platform as cowardly and divisive. McGovern intended to sharply reduce defense spending and supported amnesty for draft evaders as well as
abortion rights. With some of his supporters believed to be in favor of drug legalization, McGovern was perceived as standing for "amnesty, abortion and acid". McGovern was also damaged by his vacillating support for his original running mate,
Missouri senator
Thomas Eagleton, dumped from the ticket following revelations that he had received
electroshock treatment for
depression. Nixon was ahead in most polls for the entire election cycle, and was reelected on November 7, 1972, in
one of the largest landslide election victories in American history. He defeated McGovern with over 60 percent of the popular vote, losing only in Massachusetts and D.C.
Watergate The term
Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included "dirty tricks", such as bugging the offices of political opponents, and the harassment of activist groups and political figures. The activities were brought to light after five men were caught breaking into the Democratic Party headquarters at the
Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 1972.
The Washington Post picked up on the story; reporters
Carl Bernstein and
Bob Woodward relied on an informant known as "
Deep Throat"—later revealed to be
Mark Felt, associate director at the
FBI—to link the men to the Nixon administration. Nixon downplayed the scandal as mere politics, calling news articles biased and misleading. A series of revelations made it clear that the
Committee to Re-elect President Nixon, and later the White House, were involved in attempts to sabotage the Democrats. Senior aides such as
White House Counsel John Dean faced prosecution; in total 48 officials were convicted of wrongdoing. , October 1973 and famously said "I'm not a crook" In July 1973, White House aide
Alexander Butterfield testified
under oath to Congress that Nixon had a secret taping system and recorded his conversations and phone calls in the Oval Office.
These tapes were
subpoenaed by Watergate Special Counsel
Archibald Cox; Nixon provided transcripts of the conversations but not the actual tapes, citing
executive privilege. With the White House and Cox at loggerheads, Nixon had Cox fired in October in the "
Saturday Night Massacre"; he was replaced by
Leon Jaworski. In November, Nixon's lawyers revealed that a tape of conversations held in the White House on June 20, 1972, had an minute gap.
Rose Mary Woods, the President's personal secretary, claimed responsibility for the gap, saying that she had accidentally wiped the section while transcribing the tape, but her story was widely mocked. The gap, while not conclusive proof of wrongdoing by the President, cast doubt on Nixon's statement that he had been unaware of the cover-up. Though Nixon lost much popular support, even from his own party, he rejected accusations of wrongdoing and vowed to stay in office. He admitted he had made mistakes but insisted he had no prior knowledge of the burglary, did not break any laws, and did not learn of the cover-up until early 1973. On October 10, 1973, Vice President Agnew resigned for reasons unrelated to Watergate: he was convicted on charges of bribery, tax evasion, and money laundering during his tenure as governor of Maryland. Believing his first choice,
John Connally, would not be confirmed by Congress, Nixon chose
Gerald Ford,
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, to replace Agnew. One researcher suggests Nixon effectively disengaged from his own administration after Ford was sworn in as vice president on December 6, 1973. On November 17, 1973, during a televised question-and-answer session with 400
Associated Press managing editors, Nixon said, "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got." The legal battle over the tapes continued through early 1974, and in April Nixon announced the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations between himself and his aides. The
House Judiciary Committee opened
impeachment hearings against the President on May 9, 1974, which were televised on the major TV networks. These hearings culminated in votes for impeachment. On July 24, the Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that the full tapes, not just selected transcripts, must be released. The scandal grew to involve a slew of additional allegations against the President, ranging from the improper use of government agencies to accepting gifts in office and his personal finances and taxes; Nixon repeatedly stated his willingness to pay any outstanding taxes due, and later paid $465,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) in back taxes in 1974. File:Nixon Oval Office meeting with H.R. Haldeman "Smoking Gun" Conversation June 23, 1972.wav|thumb|Nixon Oval Office meeting with H. R. Haldeman: the "Smoking Gun" Conversation, June 23, 1972 (Full Transcript) Even with support diminished by the continuing series of revelations, Nixon hoped to fight the charges. But one of the new tapes, recorded soon after the break-in, demonstrated that Nixon had been told of the White House connection to the Watergate burglaries soon after they took place, and had approved plans to thwart the investigation. In a statement accompanying the release of what became known as
the "Smoking Gun Tape" on August 5, 1974, Nixon accepted blame for misleading the country about when he had been told of White House involvement, stating that he had had a lapse of memory. Senate Minority Leader
Hugh Scott, Senator
Barry Goldwater, and House Minority Leader
John Jacob Rhodes met with Nixon soon after. Rhodes told Nixon he faced certain impeachment in the House. Scott and Goldwater told the president that he had, at most, only 15 votes in his favor in the Senate, far fewer than the 34 needed to avoid removal from office.
Resignation on
Marine One shortly before his resignation became effective on August 9, 1974 On August 8, 1974, facing a loss of political support and it being increasingly certain that he would be impeached and removed from office, Nixon
addressed the nation on television, announcing that he would resign the presidency the following day, on August 9. His resignation speech was delivered from the
Oval Office and was carried live on radio and television. Nixon said he was resigning for the good of the country and asked the nation to support the new president,
Gerald Ford. Nixon went on to review the accomplishments of his
presidency, especially in foreign policy. In defending his presidency, Nixon quoted "
Citizenship in a Republic", a 1910 speech by
Theodore Roosevelt: Nixon's speech received generally favorable initial responses from network commentators, with only
Roger Mudd of
CBS News criticizing it for failing to admit wrongdoing.
Conrad Black, a Nixon biographer, labeled the resignation speech "a masterpiece", saying, "What was intended to be an unprecedented humiliation for any American president, Nixon converted into a virtual parliamentary acknowledgement of almost blameless insufficiency of legislative support to continue. He left while devoting half his address to a recitation of his accomplishments in office." == Post-presidency (1974–1994) ==