AHTER 1974 0808 Nixon Resigns

Richard M. Nixon's career seemed to thrive on paradox. He was a man famous for his lack of personal grace. Yet he became the only candidate in U.S. history, who was twice elected, both President and Vice President.

In the moments of his greatest triumph, he planted the seeds of future self-destruction, while his most public failures only seemed to gird his determination to mount ever more astonishing comebacks. In November 1972, Nixon was re-elected president in a landslide, carrying forty-nine of fifty states. But in the midst of that election campaign, Nixon's paranoia and distrust led

to his downfall. Determined not to be blindsided by political dirty tricks, he planted one of his own, authorizing a burglary attempt of the Democratic Party headquarters at Washington's Watergate Hotel. The intruders were caught, setting into motion a White House cover-up, which would take two years to unravel. Yet unravel it did, leading to televised Senate

hearings with all the drama of a daily soap opera. By the summer of 1974, many of Nixon's top aides had resigned and were under legal indictment. Finally, a tape recording system Nixon had installed in the White House provided evidence that the president had been involved in the cover-up all along.

Tonight, we were informed at 11 o'clock this morning, Eastern time, that the president had called the vice president into his Oval Office for a private meeting. That private meeting lasted an hour and ten minutes. A short time later, press secretary Ronald Ziegler came into the briefing room and had this announcement.

Tonight at 9 o'clock, Eastern Daylight Time, the President of the United States will address the nation on radio and television from his Oval Office. near certain impeachment. Nixon spoke on television to the American people on August 8, 1974, and announced that he would become the first president in U.S. history to resign from that office.