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Richard Nixon's resignation speech — Transcript

by CBS News · 2,371 words · 415 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00in all the decisions I have made in my
0:02public life I have always tried to do
0:05what was best for the
0:08nation throughout the long and difficult
0:10period of
0:12Watergate I have felt it was my duty to
0:15persevere to make every possible effort
0:17to complete the term of office to which
0:20you elected
0:21me in the past few days however it has
0:25become evident to me that I no longer
0:29have a strong enough political base in
0:31the Congress to justify continuing that
0:36effort as long as there was such a base
0:39I felt strongly that it was necessary to
0:42see the Constitutional process through
0:44to its
0:45conclusion that to do otherwise would be
0:48unfaithful to the spirit of that
0:50deliberately difficult process and a
0:54dangerously destabilizing precedent for
0:56the
0:58future but with the The Disappearance of
1:01that base I now believe that the
1:04Constitutional purpose has been served
1:08and there is no longer a need for the
1:10process to be
1:14prolonged I would have
1:16preferred to carry through to the
1:19Finish whatever the personal Agony it
1:21would have
1:23involved and my family unanimously urged
1:27me to do
1:28so
1:31but the interest of the nation must
1:32always come before any personal
1:36considerations from the discussions I
1:38have had with Congressional and other
1:39leaders I have
1:41concluded that because of the Watergate
1:44matter I might not have the support of
1:46the Congress that I would consider
1:49necessary to back the very difficult
1:52decisions and carry out the duties of
1:54this office in the way the interests of
1:57the nation were required
2:01I have never been a
2:04quitter to leave office before my term
2:07is completed is abhorrent to every
2:09Instinct in my
2:11body but as president I must put the
2:15interest of America
2:19First America needs a full-time
2:22president and a full-time
2:25Congress particularly at this time with
2:28problems we face at home
2:31abroad to continue to fight through the
2:34months ahead for my personal
2:37Vindication would almost totally absorb
2:40the time and attention of both the
2:43president and the Congress in a period
2:46when our entire focus should be on the
2:50great issues of Peace abroad and
2:52prosperity without inflation at
2:55home
2:57therefore I shall resign the the
2:59presidency effective at noon
3:02tomorrow Vice President Ford will be
3:05sworn in as president at that hour in
3:09this
3:12office as I recall the high hopes for
3:15America with which we began this second
3:18term I feel a great
3:21sadness that I will not be here in this
3:23office working on your behalf to achieve
3:26those hopes in the next two and a half
3:28years
3:30but in turning over direction of the
3:32government to Vice President Ford I know
3:35as I told the nation when I nominated
3:37him for that office 10 months ago that
3:40the leadership of America will be in
3:44good
3:46hands in passing this office to the vice
3:49president I also do so with a profound
3:53sense of the weight of responsibility
3:55that will fall on his shoulders
3:58tomorrow and and therefore of the
4:01understanding the patience the
4:04cooperation he will need from all
4:08Americans as he assumes that
4:12responsibility he will deserve the help
4:15and the
4:16support of all of
4:20us as we look to the Future the First
4:23Essential is to begin healing the wounds
4:25of this
4:27nation to put the bitterness and
4:29Division of the recent past behind
4:32us and to
4:34ReDiscover those shared
4:36ideals that lie at the heart of our
4:39strength and unity as a
4:41great and as a Free
4:44People by taking this
4:47action I hope that I will have hastened
4:51the
4:52start of that process of
4:54healing which is so desperately needed
4:57in
4:58America
5:00I regret deeply any injuries that may
5:02have been done in the course of the
5:03events that led to this
5:05decision I would say only that if some
5:09of my judgments were wrong and some were
5:14wrong they were made in what I believed
5:16at the time to be the best interest of
5:18the
5:22nation to those who have stood with me
5:24during these past difficult
5:26months to my family
5:30my
5:31friends the many others who joined in
5:34supporting my cause because they
5:35believed it was
5:38right I will be eternally grateful for
5:42your
5:44support and to
5:46those who have not felt
5:50able to give me your
5:52support let me
5:54say I leave with no bitterness toward
5:59the those who have oppose
6:01me because all of us in the final
6:04analysis have been concerned with the
6:05good of the country however our
6:07judgments might
6:10differ so let us all now join
6:13together and affirming that common
6:18commitment and in helping our new
6:20president
6:22succeed for the benefit of all
6:27Americans I shall leave this office was
6:29with regret at not completing my term
6:31but with gratitude for the privilege of
6:34serving as your president for the past 5
6:37and a half
6:39years these years have been a momentous
6:41time in the history of our nation and
6:43the world they have been a time of
6:45achievement in which we can all be proud
6:48achievements that represent the shared
6:50efforts of the administration the
6:52Congress and the
6:54people but the challenges ahead are
6:57equally great and they too will require
7:00the support and the efforts of the
7:01Congress and the people working in
7:04cooperation with the new
7:07Administration we have ended America's
7:09longest
7:10war but in the work of securing a
7:15lasting peace in the world the goals
7:17ahead are even more far-reaching and
7:20more
7:22difficult we must complete a structure
7:25of
7:26Peace so that it will be said of this
7:28generation ation our generation of
7:32Americans by the people of all Nations
7:35not only that we ended one
7:38war but that we prevented future
7:42Wars we have unlocked the doors that for
7:45a quarter of a century stood between the
7:47United States and the People's Republic
7:48of
7:49China we must now ensure that the one
7:53quarter of the world's people who live
7:56in the People's Republic of China will
7:59be and
8:01remain not our
8:04enemies but our
8:06friends in the Middle
8:09East 100 million people in the Arab
8:11countries many of whom have considered
8:14us their enemy for nearly 20 years now
8:17look on us as their
8:20friends we must continue to build on
8:22that
8:23friendship so that peace can settle at
8:27last over the middle
8:29East and so that the
8:32cradle of
8:34civilization will not become its
8:38grave together with the Soviet Union we
8:41have made the crucial
8:43breakthroughs that have begun the
8:45process of limiting nuclear
8:47arms but we must set as our goal not
8:51just
8:52limiting but
8:54reducing and finally
8:57destroying these ter terrible weapons so
9:00that they cannot destroy
9:03civilization and so that the threat of
9:05nuclear war will no longer hang over the
9:07world and the
9:10people we have opened a new relation
9:12with the S Soviet Union we must continue
9:15to develop and expanded that new
9:18relationship so that the two strongest
9:21nations of the world will live together
9:24in
9:25cooperation rather than confrontation
9:31around the world in Asia in Africa in
9:34Latin America in the Middle East there
9:35are millions of people who
9:37live in terrible
9:41poverty even
9:44starvation we must keep as our goal
9:47turning away from production for war and
9:51expanding production for
9:53peace so the people everywhere on this
9:56Earth can at last look forward in their
10:00children's time if not in our own time
10:06to having the Necessities for a decent
10:10life here in
10:12America we are fortunate that most of
10:15our people have not only the blessings
10:17of liberty but also the means to live
10:20full and good and by the world standards
10:22even abundant
10:24lives we must press on however toward a
10:27goal not only of more and better jobs
10:30but a full
10:32opportunity for every
10:34American and of what we are striving so
10:37hard right now to
10:39achieve
10:40Prosperity without
10:46inflation for more than a quarter of a
10:48century in public life I have shared in
10:51the turbulent history of this
10:55era I have fought for what I believed in
10:59I have tried to the best of my ability
11:02to discharge those duties and meet those
11:05responsibilities that we entrusted to
11:09me sometimes I have
11:12succeeded and sometimes I have
11:15failed but always I have taken heart
11:19from what Theodore Roosevelt once said
11:23about the man in the
11:27arena
11:29whose face is marred by dust and sweat
11:32and
11:33blood who strives
11:36valiantly who HS and comes short again
11:38and again because there is not effort
11:41without error and
11:43shortcoming but who does actually strive
11:46to do the
11:48deed who knows the great
11:51enthusiasms the great
11:54devotions who spends himself in a worthy
11:57cause
11:59who at the
12:00best knows in the end the
12:04triumphs of high
12:07achievements and who at the worst if he
12:10fails at least
12:14fails while daring
12:21greatly I pledge to you tonight that as
12:23long as I have a breath of life in my
12:26body I shall continue in that spirit
12:29I shall continue to work for the great
12:31causes to which I have been dedicated
12:33throughout my years as a congressman a
12:35senator vice president and president the
12:38cause of Peace not just for America but
12:40among all
12:41nations Prosperity Justice and
12:43opportunity for all of our
12:46people there is one cause above all to
12:50which I have been devoted and to which I
12:53shall always be devoted for as long as I
12:57live when I first took the oath of
13:00office as president five and a half
13:02years
13:03ago I
13:05made this sacred
13:09commitment to
13:12consecrate my
13:14office my
13:16energies and all the wisdom I can
13:19summon to the cause of Peace among
13:25nations I've done my very best and all
13:29the days since to be true to that
13:33pledge as a result of these efforts I am
13:36confident that the world is a safer
13:39place today not only for the people of
13:41America but for the people of all
13:45Nations and that all of our children
13:48have a better chance than
13:51before of living in
13:53peace rather than dying in
13:57war this more than anything is what I
14:01hoped to achieve when I sought the
14:04presidency this more than anything is
14:08what I hope will be my
14:11legacy to
14:13you to our
14:16country as I
14:18leave the
14:24presidency to have served in this office
14:27is to have felt a very personal sense of
14:32kinship with
14:34each and every
14:38American and leaving
14:40it I do so with this
14:45prayer may God's grace be with
14:49you in all the days
14:57ahead
15:01and so Richard Milhouse Nixon has
15:04resigned as the 37th President of the
15:06United States effective at when Gerald
15:10Ford the vice president will be sworn in
15:13as the 38th president of the United
15:16States it was a 16 minute speech in
15:19which the president seemed calm but
15:22controlling obviously very Deep Emotions
15:26he did not I think my colleagues will
15:29agree uh uh confess any crimes in regard
15:34to the Watergate or any other matters he
15:38said that he was guilty perhaps of some
15:39bad judgment but that was was all
15:44Eric yes there had been no further
15:47admissions perhaps it was foolish for
15:49people on the hill and some of us to
15:51think that there might have been he has
15:54said in effect he is is not resigning
15:57because of a sense of guilt of any
15:59criminality but because his political
16:02base has eroded in the
16:04Congress and he could
16:06not be effective even if he went on
16:09through the long periods of impeachment
16:12and trial in the Senate and therefore it
16:15best to cut this thing short in the
16:17interest of the whole country uh on the
16:20whole it seemed to me um as effective
16:24magnanimous a speech as Mr Nixon has
16:26ever made and I suppose there'll be many
16:29even among his critics who will say that
16:32U perhaps that few things in his
16:35presidency became him as much as his
16:38manner of leaving the
16:40presidency certainly no attacks on his
16:42enemies none on the press as we did have
16:45from vice president agnu a year ago when
16:48he
16:49resigned I think people will find it
16:51very hard to fault
16:53this a man is certainly entitled to call
16:56attention with his last words as
16:58president to what he considers his
17:00positive acts which are those trying to
17:03make peace in this world obviously that
17:05is how he wishes to be remembered and
17:08perhaps that will be the positive side
17:11of his record even for many years to
17:13come I think it certainly was a
17:15consiliary speech uh he even paid
17:19tribute to those who have been in
17:21opposition to him which hasn't always
17:23been the case with President Nixon's
17:24speeches and said he was sure that their
17:26interests in the country were the same
17:28as his but they approached the problem
17:30from different viewpoints Dan Rather our
17:33White House correspondent Roger mud our
17:36Capital Hill correspondent are with us
17:39also along with Eric in the studio here
17:41in Washington gentleman your reactions
17:45for tonight's
17:46speech Walter I think it may uh very
17:49well go down when history takes a look
17:51at it U as one of Richard Nixon's if not
17:55his finest
17:56hour he to be made clear and can't be
17:59reemphasized too often I think as I
18:01think the president made clear in his
18:04speech there is no joy in this for
18:07anyone tonight no decent thinking
18:09American could take any joy out of
18:12this that sadness is tempered by for
18:16many with awe awe for the Constitutional
18:20process but we sometimes call the
18:24system which work
18:27magnificently
18:28it was that constitutional process was a
18:32process of law which brought us to this
18:35moment president made in his speech made
18:38clear that he respects that he
18:41understands that he has that
18:42appreciation and that awe for it he did
18:46give uh and I would agree with Walter
18:49what you said he he gave to this moment
18:52U A A Touch of Class more than that a
18:56touch of
18:56majesty touching that nerve in most
18:59people that says to their brain we
19:02Revere the presidency we respect the
19:05president the Republic the country comes
19:08first

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