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Teaching With Documents, Volume 1
Contents:
President Nixon’s Letter of Resignation
Where were you on December 7, 1941, or on November 22, 1963, and how did the events for which we remember these dates affect your personal and public life? Keeping in mind that today’s high school seniors have no memory of the events of the sum-met of 1974, you may wish to use Richard Nixon’s letter to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in which he resigned from the office of President of the United States, as a springboard to discussions of such questions with your students.
To refresh your memory of the events surrounding this letter, we present a selective chronology, beginning with the "bugging" of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in May 1972 and ending with President Gerald Ford’s pardon of the former President in September 1974.
How do we place these events, which became known collectively as "Watergate," in historical context; and what is their significance to our history? Elizabeth Drew, in her fascinating Washington Journal, the Events of 1973-1974, comments on this question in her August 8, 1974, entry: There is already some talk about what "the historians will say"—the historians, those unknown people who in the future will have the franchise to interpret what is going on now. We tend to assume that out of their years of accumulation of fact they will sift the truth—a truer truth than any we can hope to grasp. They will have many more facts, and they will have what is called "perspective" (which means they will not be trapped in the biases of our day and can freely write in the biases of their day—can find what they are looking for). But I wonder if they will really understand what it was like. Will they know how it felt to go through what we have gone through? Will they know how it felt to be stunned—again and again—as we learned what had been done by people in power? Will they know how it felt to be shocked, ashamed, amused by the revelations—will they understand the difficulty of sorting out the madcap from the macabre? (What was one really to think about someone in the pay of the White House putting on a wig and travelling across the country to visit a sick, disgraced lobbyist?) Can they conceivably understand how it felt as we watched, on our television screen, our President say, "I am not a crook"? Will they be able to understand why, almost two years ago, some very sensible people wondered whether it was the last election? Will they understand how it felt—as it did last fall at the time the President fired Special Prosecutor Cox, and on several later occasions—when it seemed that there were no checks on power? Will they understand how degrading it was to watch a President being run to ground? Will they know how it was to feel in the thrall of this strange man, who seemed to answer only to himself? Knowing the conclusion, as they will, will they understand how difficult, frightening, and fumbling the struggle really was?* President Nixon addressed his letter of resignation to Secretary of State Kissingeron the basis of a 1792 act of Congress that established procedures for the resignation of federal officers. While the 25th Amendment to the Constitution established the line of succession, the 1792 act set up the process. The letter is from Letters of Resignation and Declination of Federal Office, General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59.
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THE CHRONOLOGY
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May 28, 1972 Electronic surveillance ("bugging") equipment is installed at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building.
June 17, 1972 Five men are arrested while attempting to repair the surveillance equipment at Democratic National Committee headquarters.
August 30, 1972 President Nixon announces that John Dean has completed Investigation into the Watergate buggings and that no one from the White House is involved.
September 15, 1972 Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, E. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, Eugenio Martinez, James W. McCord, Jr., and Frank Sturgis are indicted for their roles in the June break-in.
January 8, 1973 Watergate break-in trial opens. Hunt pleads guilty (January 11); Barker, Sturgis, Martinez, and Gonzalez plead guilty (January 15); Liddy and McCord are convicted on all counts of break-in indictment (January 30).
February 7, 1973 U.S. Senate creates Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities.
April 17, 1973 President Nixon announces that members of the White House staff will appear before the Senate Committee and promises major new developments in investigation and real progress toward finding truth.
April 23, 1973 White House issues statement denying President had prior knowledge of Watergate affair.
April 30, 1973 White House staff members H.R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, and John Dean resign.
May 17, 1973 Senate Committee begins public hearings.
May 25, 1973 Archibald Cox sworn in as Special Prosecutor.
July 7, 1973 President Nixon informs Senate Committee that he will not appear to testify nor grant access to Presidential files.
July 16, 1973 Alexander Butterfield informs Senate Committee of the presence of a White House taping system.
July 23, 1973 Senate Committee and Special Prosecutor Cox subpoena White House tapes and documents to investigate cover-up.
July 25, 1973 President Nixon refuses to comply with Cox subpoena.
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August 9, 1973 Senate Committee files suit against President Nixon for failure to comply with subpoena.
October 19, 1973 President Nixon offers Stennis a compromise on the tapes; that is, Senator John Stennis (D-Miss.) would review tapes and present the Special Prosecutor with summaries.
October 20, 1973 Archibald Cox refuses to accept the Stennis compromise. President Nixon orders Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox, but Richardson refuses and resigns in protest. Acting Attorney General Robert Bork fires Cox. These events come to be known as the "Saturday Night Massacre."
October 23, 1973 President Nixon agrees to hand over tapes to comply with subpoena.
November 1, 1973 Leon Jaworski named Special Prosecutor.
November 21, 1973 Senate Committee announces discovery of 18 1/2-minute gap on tape of Nixon-Haldeman conversation of June 20, 1972.
February 6, 1974 House of Representatives authorizes House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether grounds exist for impeachment of President Nixon.
April 16, 1974 Special Prosecutor issues subpoena for 64 White House tapes.
April 30, 1974 President Nixon submits tape transcripts to House Judiciary Committee.
July 24, 1974 Supreme Court unanimously upholds Special Prosecutor’s subpoena for tapes for Watergate trial.
July 27, 1974 House Judiciary Committee adopts article I of impeachment resolution, charging President with obstruction of investigation of Watergate break-in.
July 29, 1974 House Judiciary Committee adopts article II of impeachment resolution, charging President with misuse of powers and violation of his oath of office.
July 30, 1974 House Judiciary Committee adopts article III of impeachment resolution, charging the President with failure to comply with House subpoenas.
August 9, 1974 President Richard Nixon
resigns.
September 8, 1974 President Gerald Ford pardons former President Nixon. |
Teaching Activities
Discussion Questions
The depth of your discussions will vary according to the background of your students. To improve the discussions, we list below several secondary readings appropriate for students. Caution students that, as with all evidence, the authors of these books represent a certain point of view. Have students consider these issues:
1. What do you remember of the events of Watergate? How were these events significant to you? How did they affect your family?
2. Do you think President Nixon should have resigned? Explain your answer.
3. If President Nixon had included in his letter his reasons for resigning, what do you think he might have said?
4. President Nixon’s resignation was a landmark event in our political history. What other events in your lifetime would you describe as landmarks?
5. What is impeachment? What are the roles of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the impeachment process?
6. Review and discuss the details of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. Compare and contrast the procedures for changing leadership in a parliamentary system of government with our procedures.
Student Readings
For all students:
Bernstein, Carl, and Bob Woodward. All the President’s Men. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974.
Woodward, Bob, and Carl Bernstein. The Final Days. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976.
For advanced students:
Dean, John W. Blind Ambition: The White House Years. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976.
Drew, Elizabeth. Washington Journal, the Events of 1973-1974. New York: Random House, 1974.
Frost, David, I Gave Them a Sword: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1978.
* 1974, Elizabeth Drew, Washington Journal (Random House). Originally in The New Yorker.
Contents:
Chicago: "President Nixon’s Letter of Resignation," Teaching With Documents, Volume 1 in Teaching With Documents: Using Primary Sources from the National Archives, ed. United States. National Archives and Records Administration and National Council for the Social Studies (Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1989), 238–241. Original Sources, accessed April 19, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=QFY68RUV2BPZYFQ.
MLA: . "President Nixon’s Letter of Resignation." Teaching With Documents, Volume 1, in Teaching With Documents: Using Primary Sources from the National Archives, edited by United States. National Archives and Records Administration and National Council for the Social Studies, Vol. 1, Washington, D.C., National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1989, pp. 238–241. Original Sources. 19 Apr. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=QFY68RUV2BPZYFQ.
Harvard: , 'President Nixon’s Letter of Resignation' in Teaching With Documents, Volume 1. cited in 1989, Teaching With Documents: Using Primary Sources from the National Archives, ed. , National Archives Trust Fund Board, Washington, D.C., pp.238–241. Original Sources, retrieved 19 April 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=QFY68RUV2BPZYFQ.
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