Richard Nixon's Resignation, 35 Years Later.

[methodwriter85]

Today is the 35th anniversay of Richard Nixon's resignation speech over the Watergate scandal.

 

"Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

 

Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office."

 

That must have been a crazy event to witness.

 

 

[Hoskins]

I remember watching it on TV and thinking (at 11 years old) that I was seeing history being made. It was the first time I ever really felt that way.

[Jay]

Oh it was believe me but they were crazy times. He was about to be impeached and would probably have been convicted. I remember spending hours watching the house impeachment hearings on TV.

 

Richard Nixon was the first person I ever voted for for president (you had to be 21 then) and because of him I could never bring myself to vote for another member of his party for president.

[Benji]

Oh it was believe me but they were crazy times. He was about to be impeached and would probably have been convicted. I remember spending hours watching the house impeachment hearings on TV.

 

Richard Nixon was the first person I ever voted for for president (you had to be 21 then) and because of him I could never bring myself to vote for another member of his party for president.

 

..............Same here, voted for him, to quote a passage..'They were the best of times, they were the worst of times'.

[Rubilacxe]

I was 34 at the time this happened and for me, I was split by several emotions. One was relief that the Watergate turmoil would now ease down in time. For awhile, I did not think it could ever stop. I was also very, incredibly saddened that it all came to this. What a "First" for our Nation and a President. I was also extremely happy that Pres. Nixon would be gone.

 

Having lived through the JFK, RFK, MLK assassinations, LBJs acceptance of his fate and his time in the White House, I remember watching the inauguration for RMN with trepidation as I do not think I ever trusted him. I did this without good investigation but I kept remembering those Debates between JFK and him lo those many years before and kept saying to myself, "Doesn't he look shifty". Of course, then I was in high school and 'what did I know'.

 

I just know that when this event happened and he and Pat left from the grounds of the WH in their helicopter, Marine One, that our country had really, fundamentally changed somehow. That our innocence after our exhuberance at winning WWII had led to such dirty politics on both sides and that this had continued throughout the Vietnam Debacle to a point where even a President's leaving under such circumstances would not stop the use of deceit and the art of telling some of the truth or even none of the truth but made it so it sound like the truth.

 

I remember thinking as Marine One took off about the hot summer day in July 1969, glued to the TV set as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. I felt so much pride for our country, the men and women who toiled to make this happen and then how some 5 years later this event where the penduluum would swing harshly the other way.

 

In the end, I am just glad that we all were able to move on. I do not know how successfully we have moved on but at least we moved somewhere else.

Edited August 9, 2009 by Rubilacxe

[Mark Arbour]

I remember watching it on TV and thinking (at 11 years old) that I was seeing history being made. It was the first time I ever really felt that way.

 

That's exactly how I felt, and at the same age too.

[hh5]

What ever happen to that Frost guy??

[Rubilacxe]

What ever happen to that Frost guy??

David Frost contues writing infrequent Op-Ed pieces for the New York Times. His most recent piece was about his interview with Richard Burton while he was starring in the musical Camelot.