Brown
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2001
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Today, 9 August 2004, is the 30th anniversary of the resignation of Richard M. Nixon from the office of President of the United States.
It is unfortunate that the historical reasons for the resignation have been clouded in the national consciousness. Few people know why Nixon got caught up in the Watergate scandal. Even fewer understand why Watergate was a scandal. Still fewer know why he resigned. Nixon himself asserted that the reason for his resignation was not any wrongdoing on his part; rather, he blamed Congress for his resignation, as the members of Congress no longer provided him with political support to achieve any of his goals:
After the burglars got caught, they basically put the squeeze on the White House for money. Nixon realized (as he had been explicitly told by his chief of staff) that the money used to fund many of these covert operations, including the Watergate burglary, could be traced to his own reelection committee.
As recordings of his conversations showed, Nixon was fully aware of code names for the covert operations, and the fact that covert operations existed was no surprise to him. There is little evidence that Nixon participated in planning the Watergate burglary, or authorizing it in advance. There is considerably more evidence that top-ranking members of Nixon's staff authorized the operation.
One of the recordings of Nixon's White House conversations included something very serious: Nixon directed his people to tell the FBI and the Justice Department not to investigate any further into the Watergate matter. The reason? Good old "National Security." It was a completely bogus reason, and it did not withstand examination.
There was much more to the story, but in the end, Nixon had been caught in several very public lies. Many in Congress had supported the president in his public announcements, only to find that recordings of his White House conversations showed that the president's public pronouncements had been false. Some of these supporters, who understandably felt betrayed, withdrew their support. In his resignation speech, Nixon said they, not him, were responsible for his decision to resign.
Nixon was never impeached. Had he not resigned, he surely would have been.
The Nixon presidency has been likened to a Shakespearean tragedy. The analogy is apt. Nixon had the potential to be one of the greatest presidents in the history of the country, but his mistrust of people and the political process doomed his chances for success. His many accomplishments have been overshadowed by a sequence of events that were politically unnecessary: a sequence of events that Nixon could have easily avoided.
It is unfortunate that the historical reasons for the resignation have been clouded in the national consciousness. Few people know why Nixon got caught up in the Watergate scandal. Even fewer understand why Watergate was a scandal. Still fewer know why he resigned. Nixon himself asserted that the reason for his resignation was not any wrongdoing on his part; rather, he blamed Congress for his resignation, as the members of Congress no longer provided him with political support to achieve any of his goals:
What had Nixon done? He had put into operation a secret system of spying and sabotaging his enemies. His enemies were not foreign enemies, but domestic enemies, Americans who shared political views that differed from his own. The Watergate burglary was one of many covert operations carried out by Nixon's supporters.
After the burglars got caught, they basically put the squeeze on the White House for money. Nixon realized (as he had been explicitly told by his chief of staff) that the money used to fund many of these covert operations, including the Watergate burglary, could be traced to his own reelection committee.
As recordings of his conversations showed, Nixon was fully aware of code names for the covert operations, and the fact that covert operations existed was no surprise to him. There is little evidence that Nixon participated in planning the Watergate burglary, or authorizing it in advance. There is considerably more evidence that top-ranking members of Nixon's staff authorized the operation.
One of the recordings of Nixon's White House conversations included something very serious: Nixon directed his people to tell the FBI and the Justice Department not to investigate any further into the Watergate matter. The reason? Good old "National Security." It was a completely bogus reason, and it did not withstand examination.
There was much more to the story, but in the end, Nixon had been caught in several very public lies. Many in Congress had supported the president in his public announcements, only to find that recordings of his White House conversations showed that the president's public pronouncements had been false. Some of these supporters, who understandably felt betrayed, withdrew their support. In his resignation speech, Nixon said they, not him, were responsible for his decision to resign.
Nixon was never impeached. Had he not resigned, he surely would have been.
The Nixon presidency has been likened to a Shakespearean tragedy. The analogy is apt. Nixon had the potential to be one of the greatest presidents in the history of the country, but his mistrust of people and the political process doomed his chances for success. His many accomplishments have been overshadowed by a sequence of events that were politically unnecessary: a sequence of events that Nixon could have easily avoided.
