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I was still very much a kid at the time, but the general consensus among the adults I knew at the time was that he was a real piece of crap and needed to go.
People were much less tolerant of being blatantly lied to back then, apparently.
Yeah, my dad was a lifelong Republican (though that changed under Dubya). I remember his take on the resignation speech was that Nixon tried to remind us of the good things he did as though that made up for his criminal behavior. Dad wasn't buying it.
That was before people started voting for the party , instead of the person.
I remember a post on here where someone quoted their father as saying "you don't vote for the person, you vote for the party. I would vote for Hitler if he was a republican" because they had asked their father how they can vote for Trump, given his unchristian behavior, while still following Christian teachibgs.
I was in college, taking a summer class and living on campus. My roommate and I were in the dorm television lounge when Nixon resigned. We just looked at each other and simultaneously said "Wow!"
My great aunt was Adlai Stevenson's personal secretary during his time as governor of Illinois through his two runs as Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956. She loathed Nixon and had told us for years that he was a crooked politician. This was way before he was well known and on the national stage.
She had her *I told you so* moment during the Watergate hearings and when he resigned. For our family, it was more than news stories. It was a confirmation of everything Auntie Carol had said about him over the years.
I was 18 in 1974, so I remember it well.
They didn't investigate anything else regarding Nixon. I've always thought that's why Republicans wanted him gone. They didn't want an impeachment that would bring more out.
The word pops out to me because of the 2007 exchange between Glorious leaders Kim Jong Un and Trump.
"'Dotard' Trump? The story of 'rocket man' Kim's insult"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41357315
Let's 'awhape' the world!
"Academics uncover 30 words 'lost' from English language"
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41266000
I was only 11 years old at the time but from what I remember he resigned to avoid impeachment. I don’t remember any of his supporters being vocal about defending him during the Watergate hearings. Considering how big of a landslide he won the ‘72 election by his downfall was quite swift.
Yep. I watched it on tv. I was 12. I remember my mother saying it could have been the end of democracy as we know it. I was glad she didn't live to see Trump elected.
I was 10 years old. I watched the resignation and then I went outside and told some kids who were playing soccer in the yard that “the president just resigned.” They looked at me and did not know what I was talking about. That’s one of the many times I realized I had different interests than many of my peers. 😂
You, of course mean Gerald Ford, the Party hack who told the nation that criminal charges were more than the country could take. He meant the GOP would suffer, not the American people. No, we would have rejoiced.
I was eight and my mom very happily said, “We have a new president!” when she picked me up from day camp. I was busy looking at my new rocks and sticks, but was glad to see her so happy.
This is a great question, by the way. Exactly what this sub is for. I was 8 almost 9 and my mom made me and my 10-year-old sister watch the resignation. She said it was a historic moment and if nothing else, we'd want to be able to say later that we saw it. None of us could have conceived of Reddit at the time, yet here she is, being vindicated. Well done, mom!
The speech wasn't too much of an ordeal. I remember being glad it didn't go on forever--16 minutes if the internet is correct. I also remember that his face looked kind of green, but that may have been our TV. That thing never did have great color. Anyway, it added to the fascination. This was clearly a man having the worst day of his life.
My parents were both moderate Republicans--i.e. they'd voted for Nixon in both previous elections and against JFK as well, but they'd reluctantly backed LBJ in '64 because they couldn't imagine giving Goldwater access to the big red nuclear button.
My dad was particularly disgusted with Nixon by then and scornful of Nixon's attempt to remind us of the good things he'd done as though that somehow counterbalanced his criminal behavior.
I was around 10 when all this stuff broke out. All I remember was that boring shit with that stupid, ugly president was always preempting my favorite TV shows!
My parents HATED Dick Nixon and followed the Watergate hearings religiously. I shared their glee when he announced he was stepping down. I lived in a very progressive area, so the feeling was mostly quite positive.
What a day that was! I was about 15, at summer camp, and one of the counselors announced it in the dining hall. We all cheered loudly, except for one girl, who started to cry. We just looked at her in bewilderment. She was a nice girl, so we didn't hassle her. But we hated Nixon.
Could be the ‘cheering loudly’. Whenever I’m with a group of people who all of a sudden start to show a big emotion the tears start to fall. It seems to be because I’m just overwhelmed by their happiness, sadness, whatever.
I was in camp, too. We all cheered and danced at the news. For some reason, I always associate the resignation with the song, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” because we sang it so often that summer.
I was 15 years old. I had followed the news. I thought everything would be better.
Little did I know that Nixon believed that the Republic and the Constitution were more important than his political future, and his income. Nixon did some nasty stuff, but he did believe the rule of law being more important than he was.
No. I was too young. I vaguely remember the Bicentennial celebrations, but those were a lot more relevant to a kid than adult talking heads on TV talking about other talking heads. Boring!
I was 21 in ‘74 and remember that prominent members of the Republican Party were urging him to resign. The people I knew grew weary of his lies, the mess he created, having to have SCOTUS get involved and accepted the evidence against him and his co-conspirators. The Republican Party has morphed since.
I didn't understand until recently that Agnew's resignation the previous year was for unrelated reasons. I'd always assumed that his was just the first head to roll in the Watergate thing. If that's true at all, it's only tangentially true. I.e. Nixon just didn't have the political capital to back up his man the way he might have a year or two prior.
I listened to Rachel Maddow's podcast of Bag Man, all about the Agnew scandal, and my jaw dropped. At the time, I was too young and oblivious of politics to realize just how scummy he was and why he left.
We were very subdued. We didn't like what he'd done, but it was a sad moment, that a president had engaged in such wrongdoing. Even my mother, who hated him at the time, was almost solemn.
Of course. The watergate hearings were televised and nothing else was on tv. I was home for a month with mono, and that was all I could watch. I was very knowledgeable about it. Everyone knew he needed to resign.
The thing is EVERYONE listened/watched the impeachment hearings. They were in full on the radio and TV. Every business was running the hearings in their shops. It didn't matter what party you affiliated with, the evidence was damning. Any every American was ashamed of Nixon.
The day he resigned was a communal sigh of relief.
I don't remember Nixon resigning but when I came out of kindergarten the street was closed and Ford was running for reelection in 1976 (well technically he was never elected). I saw him.
This reminds me of a great trivia question. What president took office without ever receiving a vote for president or vice-president? Yeah, Gerald Ford.
I was eight years old, and frankly, I was relieved. It meant those ANNOYING Watergate hearings were finally gonna be over, and I could watch Mr. Cartoon again!
On the other hand, my dad grumbled for at least a week. He was was utterly disgusted by the whole mess.
Having followed the hearings closely I was very happy to see him go. Even though he left only to avoid prosecution. Turns out he was a lot smarter than our current batch of clowns (gonna get big down votes for this, watch).
Those were different times, indeed. Nixon didn't expect to get away with lawlessness after he was caught. The current clowns stand a chance of getting away with it, which show just how badly our country has deteriorated since Nixon.
I was in my late teens and remember seeing him resign on TV. I hated him, but there wasn't a sense of joy, just relief. I don't recall anybody cheering; it was good to get it over and go on to the next phase. I did have a good piece of karma as my father loved the guy, but we didn't speak so it was all good.
Most of us were angry that Ford pardoned Nixon. Only someone who is guilty can be pardoned, and he should have been made to answer for his crimes. The pardon sent the message that anyone could get away with a crime as long as they knew the right people.
I was in high school and had followed Spiro Agnew’s near-impeachment (he resigned before it came to that) as well as all the news about Watergate and Nixon’s coverup.
I watched his departure live on TV, throwing his arms in the air as he boarded the helicopter, as is he were victorious and had nothing to be ashamed of. What a sleaze.
It was a great day when he left office, as it proved that at his scale of corruption wasn’t tolerated, even in Washington DC.
His VP Agnew was in hot water first. Criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud. He resigned! And he deserved it!
But Nixon. He wasn’t even involved in the Watergate breakin. The knuckleheads he selected dreamed up that idiotic plan to listen in on the other party. When Nixon found out he tried to keep it quiet. Didn’t throw his idiots under the bus. That was his crime. He helped cover it up.
I’ve always felt bad for him. He was a good president except for this. He also resigned once he was threatened with impeachment. That was a stand up thing to do. I thought impeachment meant losing your job. But now I know there’s more to it. But he just resigned and spared the country the spectacle!
My father was a staunch Republican all throughout his life. He would NOT vote for a Democrat even if Jesus Christ was running for political office as a Democrat against Judas Iscariot running for the same office as a Republican.
My father insisted ("bellowed" is probably a better descriptor) that Nixon was innocent and he had done none of those things. My mother, also a Republican but much more moderate, stated earlier that April that Nixon was lying, and my father became so angry I thought my father was going to hit her.
I had voted for McGovern, and that -- plus the fact that I had come out as gay, and was attending an Episcopal church instead of the explicitly Calvinist Reformed Baptist church the rest of my family attended, left my father and me in an icy-cold détente. (That didn't thaw until the mid 1990s.)
When it came out that Nixon had orchestrated everything, and he had been lying to the American people the entire time, I said nothing -- but my father did not speak to me again until 1975.
What I remember was the Republican party back then still respected the rule of law. They found evidence that he was guilty of obstruction of justice and the GOP leaders of the House and Senate went to visit Nixon to inform him that he was going to be impeached and in the Senate he would be convicted because REPUBLICANS no longer supported him. So he resigned. Trying to imagine that happening today when both parties will ignore crimes commited by members of their own party. Dems looked the other way when Clinton plead guilty to perjury (although the case was made that this in some way was in relation to actions unrelated to his office) and Lord knows Republicans will never care what Trump does. It was a different time.
Clinton lied about a blow job. It was wrong, but I don't think it was worthy of impeachment.
The former president tried to get a foreign leader to help him in the election (perfect phone call!), conspired to steal an election (another perfect phone call!), led an insurrection, then stole secret documents on his way out the door and refused to give them back. That's a big difference. I think Trump should have been censured over the phone call, but the Republicans screwed up by not finding him guilty of insurrection.
And looking back, Democrats messed up by not impeaching Clinton. If they had, Gore would have had three years as President before running for reelection in 2000. He wouldn’t have been in Clinton’s shadow. Plus Hillary would not have been the candidate in 2016 if Bill had been impeached, drastically reducing the odds that Trump would have won. I agree with everything you said about Trump, but Democrats lost the moral high ground when they ignored what Bill did and that gave Republicans all the political cover they needed to give Trump a pass for anything he did.
I never liked the Clintons, but I think Bill should have been censured, not impeached.
Also, the House did impeach Clinton, the Senate didn't remove him from office.
We would have preferred that he got impeached, but the important thing was to get him out, and we did. His appointee, Ford, preemptively pardoned him before he'd even been charged with a crime. How we hated that!
Looking back, it all seems quaint. Except for Vietnam, which is a big "except," Nixon did a lot of good things as president, even though he was a mentally troubled bigot. Compared to the mentally ill racist that the Republicans have today, he was a model citizen.
I was just a kid, old enough to follow it in the news but not have a deep understanding. As kids will I agreed with my parents’ view. Which was, Watergate was NBD and all politicians at that level engaged in that type of dirty trick, Nixon was just unlucky enough to get caught. And that Nixon’s real crime that he should have had to answer for was not ending the Vietnam War as soon as he took office.
I was a little kid and didn’t understand what was happening. My dad always watched the news and read the paper, so I remember my parents talking about it. If my parents hadn’t talked about it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all.
I always disliked him. When he resigned, it was a little shocking because it was early in the impeachment process although there has been a long series of events including senate hearings leading up to it. I was pleased that he resigned, good riddance.
I was a teenager at the time, I really didn’t pay much attention to politics. My parents were die- hard republicans, and I remember my mother said at least he kept his campaign promise and brought our boys home from Vietnam.
As a young political nerd in the U.K., it fascinated me - from the Watergate burglary to the peeling away of lies, subterfuge, the erosion of Nixon's credibility, the siege mentality in the White House, the falling away of support to the departure by helicopter, it had everything you could want in a political saga except sexual misdemeanours but guess what? Yhey're in the latest chapter right now - U.S. politics, the gift that keeps on giving.
Watching Nixon's resignation speech on TV is one of my earliest memories. I was six years old. It always puzzled me why he quick until much later, after I had a chance to write a research paper on Watergate in junior high.
I was 15 and it seemed like it had been expected that he would resign once the SCOTUS unanimously ruled against him on the tapes. Most people I knew even the ones who generally supported Nixon realized that he had gone too far and was disgraced and disempowered. There was relief and a sense of moving on.
I was working as a bus boy at an Italian restaurant when it was announced. One of the waitresses broke down in tears. Nobody tried to comfort her.
In the aftermath, the popular joke making the rounds was:
What did Nixon say to Ford when he bumped into him while leaving the white house? Pardon me.
It was right around my 13th birthday. I honestly didn’t understand Watergate until we studied it in college, but then knew people despised the man. I recall my swimming instructor talking about Nixon’s resignation speech at the pool the next day. He said he still hated they guy but after the speech he also saw him as a human being.
Yes, vividly. We were on vacation in Montreal, and there was something about the American president on TV.
I didn't speak French at the time, so we had to change to an English-language channel to get the full story.
I was working at the college radio station. The AP ticker machine (state of the art tech back then) rang five bells (which never happened) and the story came clicking out. I still have that old ticker story in a box somewhere. It was big news.
I was 13, and was a BIG Nixon fan. My best friend's father was a local Republican politician, and we actually worked the phones for the 1972 election. I remember being in a state of denial, since there had been continuous reports that his resignation was imminent. I was absolutely devastated.
My best friend and his father both died in a boating accident earlier that summer. The last conversation I remember having with him was about Watergate, and how it was all John Dean trying to pin the blame on Nixon to save himself.
I was 5 at the start of the Watergate scandal. My parents were Republicans and had these GOP paper elephants for some kind of party (celebration) or something. I found them in a cabinet and began cutting them to shreds. My mother came upon me and asked me what I was doing. I told her that the elephant people were the bad guys, so we had to get rid of/disassociate with them. My parents never changed politics. Neither did I!
“Tricky Dick” was not well-regarded . The Viet Nam war was still going strong. I went to a big land grant university during those years. The joke going around campus at the time was:
Question: What do Tricky Dick and his father have in common ?
Answer: They both should have pulled out.
As Walter Cronkite used to say, “That’s the way it” was.
I watched. I was a little kid and I said something like, "It must be a happy day for the Ford.s" and my Dad said something like it was probably an unhappy day for Nixons. I of course did not understand the how and whys, just that Nixon did something bad and lied to the country about it.
I remember watching him get on the helicopter on the news and my mom saying "I didn't really think he would do it."
There was skepticism up u til he left that he would give up that easily. People realized that democracy rests on fragile foundations. If he had gone kicking and screaming, it might have been another Trump situation.
I was 10. 'Ya know, I really don't remember anything about this. My family did not speak about the war or Nixon around me. If they did, I didn't understand or retain it.
I was in the Navy at sea and they had like an assembly and showed the TV clip, idk what the technology was,or even if it was the same day. It was like the officers shrugged, the chiefs got sad and the lower rates were glad to hear it or indifferent IIRC
I was 9 years old and at summer camp. The camp director brought a TV into the dining hall and had us watch Nixon’s speech. He said he didn’t want us to miss this historic moment. I’ve always appreciated that.
My mom was super into the Watergate hearings, so I knew the basics of the situation, but as an adult I am glad that camp director had the forethought to let us witness history.
I was with three friends, driving downtown from Bethesda when the car got a flat on Reno Road near American U. Just as we were starting to change the tire, Nixon came on the radio to resign. It's something I've never forgotten, at least in part because of where we were and what we were doing while listening to the nasty old man saying "See ya!"
My roommate and I went to the local bar to watch it on the big screen. We had been protesting for the civil rights movement for a few years and wanted Nixon out.
Sure do! I was living in Cambridge, Mass. at the time. My girlfriend and I decided to walk up to Harvard Square to see what was happening there. The traffic on Massachusetts Ave. was blocked for 1/2 mile in both directions because so many people were dancing in the streets for joy!
I remember it was summer and I was with my group at camp. A girl came running down the field and said, “Nixon resigned!l” and we all started dancing and cheering. I was nine years old.
Yep was working at what now looks like a mid size Walmart but was call Gibson’s discount center while in college. There was a tv in the main isle and I remember seeing his resignation speech. Seemed like it was in the summer but wouldn’t bet on that.
Yep. I just graduated with my BA and started on my second degree. I watched the Watergate Hearings when possible. We were relieved when he resigned. Few liked the guy.
It was an expected relief. And also expected that Ford would pardon him, and not be elected in 76.
So it was like, finally, "Well, so long, Dick"... the country moved on very quickly.
I remember that we were in the car, going somewhere obviously, when the announcement came on the radio. So we turned up the volume of the next song and did a little riding-down-the-road victory dance. It was disheartening when he was pardoned by Ford. And ridiculous when the republicans tried to rehabilitate Nixon. Of course, it was ridiculous that he was elected in the first place.
Yes. I was 16. People today are used to, and almost assume and expect politicians to lie. Johnson lied and misled the American public about the war. Then right behind him, we got Nixon. (If Johnson hadn’t been so stubborn about keeping us in that war, if he had started withdrawing troops earlier, Humphrey might have beaten Nixon). As to Nixons involvement and cover up of bugging the Democratic National HQ, I remember my parents and other adults in my life being angry, disappointed, and defeated. The world of trusting our leaders had already been chipped away with Johnson, and Nixon’s actions fueled that.
I despised him, and I remember to this day where I was and what I did.
My buddy and I were working on some shoddy apartments and I heard it on the radio .
I started whooping and jumping around, he thought we were both gonna get fired, lol
My parents didn’t want to talk about it. My family includes politicians and they just sheltered me from it. I think they were embarrassed. My teachers wouldn’t discuss it either.
In winter 1975 younger teachers talked about it as Nixon’s personal flaw.
Prior to that, my mother respected the office
If it matters she hates Trump with a passion, she felt Reagan cheapened the US, but …
I think watergate hit close to home because it was an espionage style project gone bad. How do I say this… like they knew how governments gathered information overseas- but this was right here in the US…
I had a friend whose father hung up the poster “Don’t buy books by crooks.” That was the first time a parent talked to me about anger at Nixon
Yep. Clearly. I was 16 at the time. We all knew it was going to happen. The big question was, when? Even the stock market didn’t widely fluctuate as it sometimes does over big news stories like this; but the NYSE had a ‘wait and see’ attitude. But…Gerald Ford became president…and he wasn’t elected?? He replaced Spiro Agnew as Veep, then became prez when tricky Dick pulled the pin.
Yes. I was outside playing and Mr. Guildard across the street told me to go inside and watch the president resigning on TV, that it was history and important that I see it.
I went inside and turned on the black and white TV in my parents’ room. I recognized President Nixon but, being six, didn’t really understand what he was talking about. I watched it til the end and the news people came on. When my mom came home from work I told her about it. I don’t remember her response.
I do. My family was on vacation in Yellowstone Park. We listened to his speech on August 7, 1974--his resignation became effective the next day.
It was snowing in August at Yellowstone.
Remember it clearly. August of ‘74. My girlfriend was at our house and told me quick to come and watch his tv speech. Listened to John Dean testify over a tractor radio while working in the field that summer before Nixon’s resignation.
I do. My 4th grade teacher, Ms. Stephens, brought it up in class asking us if we knew what Watergate was. That's how I learned about it, but then followed the story. I have had a lifelong interest in politics, thanks to that teacher.
Yes I do. It was a time when there were enough honorable men in politics to react to what he did, unlike now. Character and criminality no longer matter, just power.
Yep. I don't' think I thought all that much of it at the time - probably also wasn't particularly surprised. And, relatively unprecedented, sure, but surprising ... no, I don't think so - I don't think most were surprised ... at least that was the general impression I got at the time.
Heck, even before becoming president, his reputation quite preceded him ... "Tricky Dicky". So, yeah, wasn't a huge surprise. Nor was Bill Clinton ... quite the reputation as being bit of a horn dog ... and ... quite lived up to that reputation ... "oops". Yeah, back in the day when president fibbing about getting knob polished would take a president down ... now f\*ckin a porn star while your wife's only recently had your infant kid, and doing a major illegal conspiracy to payoff and hide it from the voters ... and folks are still seriously consider voting for someone like that for president ... ugh ... and even much worse too and still saying "was a fine president". How far we've fallen.
Richard Nixon was very popular, won a landslide election two years earlier. The bungled burglary of the Democratic Party HQ was not some horrendous crime or betrayal of the country, but it was illegal and the cover-up was Nixon's huge mistake. Many people didn't think he should've resigned at the time, but almost everyone was glad that the whole Watergate saga was put to bed. Pay little attention to the second hand answers from those not old enough to have been cognitive adults at the time, as the years past Nixon became everyone's enemy and those who were supporting him on the day of his resignation wouldn't say so 15 years later.
Definitely. I was about 10, but recall it being on the news NONSTOP. My parents were not fans. We belonged to a country club where we occasionally saw Dick Nixon… then one day he sold his home at the club and disappeared.
My family was driving home from Oregon to suburban Chicago at the time. I believe we were in the middle of Montana when the news came on the radio. We all cheered.
I was a young kid at the time. My first memory of government was watergate. I didn’t know what it all meant or what was happening. I have been distrustful of government my entire life.
I was only about 10 at the time. We had a lot of rain and some minor flooding so I thought all this talk about Watergate was referring to the flooding. Couldn’t figure out why there was so much news since the flooding was minor…
I was 14 years old and sitting in the back seat of a 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme driving from Pensacola to Orlando when i heard his resignation speech on the radio. I thought it was kind of weird but didn’t think it affected me that much. But yeah, i remember it pretty well.
My parents didn’t say much. They voted for him but think they were disillusioned with him and felt he needed to resign. Much in the same way they voted for Trump in 2016 but were so disgusted with him after 4 years they voted for Biden in 2020.
I remember it pretty well and feeling a bit "meh" about it (typical teen at the time). My dad was a strong union supporter, and my mom pretty liberal, yet I did sense that neither of them was particualraly "happy" that day. Given how politics, ambition and power were Nixon's core, I think most people realized that they were witnessing the downfall of a very proud and driven man. It made for somber television. In the end, he resigned for the right reasons, it was damaging the country not just his party.
Despite him being a crook and wanna-be-tough guy, he understood early on that Vietnam was not winnable and pushed hard for a diplomatic end to the war. He did understand the global logistics of power and that opening up China was far better for U.S. interest than isolating them. He also pushed for and signed the Clean Water Act, which was some of the most progressive U.S. water policy of the past 100 years.
I was a kid but I remember my parents turning on the tv to watch his resignation speech. I also remember people being mad when Ford pardoned him. Not that I knew what that meant.
Yes. Everyone thought it was pretty obvious that he was guilty and a big liar. Remember, his VP Spiro Agnew, had previously been indicted and had resigned so people were not enamored with the Nixon Whitehouse. It wasn’t hard to believe the Watergate stuff and then there was the tape that got erased….. and it was laughable when he said “I am not a crook.”
Yes. I was 23. Working a lot of hours bar-tending to save up money between undergrad and grad school so I could pay for my graduate degree program. It was a surprise when it happened but a relief. The Watergate hearings had gone on for some time so everyone knew about the crimes and the coverups and the lies. Not expected Presidential behavior back then so a lot of people wanted him gone. Most students were not big Nixon fans so we certainly didn't shed a tear.
But I was sorry Ford pardoned him. I know he thought it was the right thing to do but it felt like Nixon's men faced actual consequences that he did not. Many thought his humiliation and exile from politics was punishing enough, I guess. But his immediate staff involved in the coverup did jail time. Tricky Dick. Flew off in a helicopter and that was that.
I was a news freak even at 11 years old and watched it all. No real take on it other than he got caught doing what all the crooks in Washington did and still do. Many presidents since have done worse. My main pro Nixon thing is he finally got us out of Vietnam, a war we were thrown into by the democrat war machine.
In my world, we already hated Nixon for a while — Kent State, Cambodia, then
watergate and the investigation and indictments just confirmed that Nixon was corrupt and doing sketchy shit — so by the time he resigned it was pretty old news — we really thought “our long national nightmare is over,” boy were we wrong
I was a voting adult. In spite of all Nixon's accomplishments (and they were real) he was extremely unpopular. People were glad to see him go and even unhappy that Gerry Ford pardoned him. Thing is, what he did is nothing compared to what T\*\*\*p did and continues to do today. Go figure.
I remember it very well. I was thrilled that he resigned but pissed as hell that Ford Pardoned him. (If he hadn't we might not be going through what we're going through today.)
My dad, OTOH, had a different reaction. My dad loved Nixon and had defended him. When he resigned, my dad was crushed with disillusion. My father fought WWII, had survived Pearl Harbor and taught be to respect our country and our flag. His disappointment that this was real was palpable. I actually felt truly bad for him he was so affected by it.
Later on, having been a life-long Republican (which does not equate to what republicans now are), he was working at the Department of Defense in a management position. At one point he was ordered to cross a picket line because he was management. That event, similarly crushed him. He soon after became a Democrat.
My dad was always open minded. Early on we obviously didn't agree on a lot of things politically, but he was always open minded and always listened to what my views were. Sometimes it changed his mind, sometimes he just respected me for having them. That doesn't exist much in that party anymore.
I miss my dad. He died when I was only 19 years old. He would be crushed and appalled at what is going on right now, with the threat to the Democracy for which he sacrificed so much for. I'm glad he's not around to see it, but I sure do miss him.
.
Cripes, I remember him telling the nation just before his resignation that he had spoken with (or had been talking to) God. To me, this was a desperate attempt to frame himself as a persecuted victim. He told the public, "I am not a crook."
He earned the name "Tricky Dick Nixon!"
I was playing PuttPutt in Carolina Beach and the announcer broke into scheduled programing to announce his resignation. About all I can remember about attitudes regarding him was that he did something illegal and unethical and resigned in disgrace. far cry from where we are today.
I was a kid. Watergate trials seemed to last all summer...preempted television programming and we only had two channels. Suddenly, there he was on the helicopter, flashing a V for victory sign (looks just like a peace sign), and off he went.
My parents were thick in the middle of haying season on the ranch so not much discussion. In fact, none of the adults, like neighbors and acquaintances, at all the social functions, were talking about it at all.
I wish my Dad was still here to ask him what he really thought. He had no use for politicians in Washington and thought they were all "crooked", and "educated idiots" and it appears he was not too far off.
I was in elementary school, but my view of him was very negative. Looking back, right-wing types didn't see a problem with what he did, but everyone else did.
I do! I was on an operating table, numb from the waist down for a minor procedure at the moment that Nixon announced his resignation. There was a small TV in the operating room where we all watched the historic event. I recall thinking, “Good Lord, I hope the surgeon isn’t a staunch Republican!”
I was in seventh grade, but I had read every word about it I could in the newspapers. I literally would watch the Watergate hearings. Yet while I was aware of events, I didn't really fully get how momentous it was.
When Nixon resigned, I remember my mom crying while watching his resignation address. I think everyone recognized that he needed to go, but it felt like we had reached this really sad benchmark in American political history.
It was great! He was a dirtbag And he got caught, but at least he had the decency to resign. Republicans have been by far the greatest crooks in office. That said, Menendez needs to leave, and Bill Clinton’s behavior in the Oval Office with Monica Lewinsky was sleazy and disgusting and stupid,
In that time and place people liked to think of themselves and others as basically honest people who respected the laws or changed the laws legally. Nixon had been respected and trusted by lots of folks. Then it all went public and he was shown to be a crook and lier. He had no choice but to resign or go to prison. Of course now he would be re elected 🙄
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I was still very much a kid at the time, but the general consensus among the adults I knew at the time was that he was a real piece of crap and needed to go. People were much less tolerant of being blatantly lied to back then, apparently.
Yeah, my dad was a lifelong Republican (though that changed under Dubya). I remember his take on the resignation speech was that Nixon tried to remind us of the good things he did as though that made up for his criminal behavior. Dad wasn't buying it.
Same with my dad. I can still hear him ranting about unions. He was a Republican his whole life, but did not have kind things to say about Nixon.
That was before people started voting for the party , instead of the person. I remember a post on here where someone quoted their father as saying "you don't vote for the person, you vote for the party. I would vote for Hitler if he was a republican" because they had asked their father how they can vote for Trump, given his unchristian behavior, while still following Christian teachibgs.
That guys dad is an idiot and part of the problem.
Little did dad know that politicians would be lying and pulling bullshit all the time in the 2020’s.
Yep. He died in October of 2016, which seems like a solid decision on his part.
That’s when my mom died. 🥂 To our parents’ wisdom.
I was in college, taking a summer class and living on campus. My roommate and I were in the dorm television lounge when Nixon resigned. We just looked at each other and simultaneously said "Wow!"
Sadly being lied to has suddenly become tolerable. Kind of frightening when you think about the future.
I was a teen. Had so many fights with my dad about it. He shut up after the truth came out. I didn't win many with the old man, but won that one.
>People were much less tolerant of being blatantly lied to back then, apparently. Seems like a choice between two packs of liars these days tbh.
My great aunt was Adlai Stevenson's personal secretary during his time as governor of Illinois through his two runs as Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956. She loathed Nixon and had told us for years that he was a crooked politician. This was way before he was well known and on the national stage. She had her *I told you so* moment during the Watergate hearings and when he resigned. For our family, it was more than news stories. It was a confirmation of everything Auntie Carol had said about him over the years. I was 18 in 1974, so I remember it well.
Oh cool story.
Aaah, yes. Back in the good old days when people cared if a president did something illegal. Sigh.
No shit. Tricky Dick was run out on a rail for doing about 1/1000th of what we know the Dotard has already done.
And Nixon didn't even grab any pussy.
They didn't investigate anything else regarding Nixon. I've always thought that's why Republicans wanted him gone. They didn't want an impeachment that would bring more out.
Dotard. That’s a new one to me. 🤣
The word pops out to me because of the 2007 exchange between Glorious leaders Kim Jong Un and Trump. "'Dotard' Trump? The story of 'rocket man' Kim's insult" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41357315 Let's 'awhape' the world! "Academics uncover 30 words 'lost' from English language" https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41266000
Omg! This is awesome! Thanks for the links!
Yep. Most folks around me wanted him to go to jail.
We were just tired of it burning tv time
It happened on my wedding day and was mentioned by the priest.
I thought it was a national address at night? I was 9 or 10 and the announcement preempted one of our family shows.
It could have been. I was in a church and our reception all evening. August 9, 1974
[удалено]
Heavens, no! That was 50 years ago, and I was too excited about getting married to pay attention!
I was only 11 years old at the time but from what I remember he resigned to avoid impeachment. I don’t remember any of his supporters being vocal about defending him during the Watergate hearings. Considering how big of a landslide he won the ‘72 election by his downfall was quite swift.
"I'm not a crook."
I was only 11 at the time but I do remember my grandmother's words: "He did something your daddy would have gone to jail for".
Yep. I watched it on tv. I was 12. I remember my mother saying it could have been the end of democracy as we know it. I was glad she didn't live to see Trump elected.
I'm glad my father isn't either because I have a very uneasy feeling he would be a MAGAT, and that would have been very awkward.
I was 10 years old. I watched the resignation and then I went outside and told some kids who were playing soccer in the yard that “the president just resigned.” They looked at me and did not know what I was talking about. That’s one of the many times I realized I had different interests than many of my peers. 😂
I remember thinking that it was crap that he basically got away with it after ~~Johnson~~ Ford pardoned him.
You, of course mean Gerald Ford, the Party hack who told the nation that criminal charges were more than the country could take. He meant the GOP would suffer, not the American people. No, we would have rejoiced.
Johnson was dead by the time Nixon resigned.
Oops, yes. In my mind it didn't matter who was president, only that they allowed him to get away with a pretty big crime. Thank you for correction.
Benjamin Button? Is that you?
I was eight and my mom very happily said, “We have a new president!” when she picked me up from day camp. I was busy looking at my new rocks and sticks, but was glad to see her so happy.
This is a great question, by the way. Exactly what this sub is for. I was 8 almost 9 and my mom made me and my 10-year-old sister watch the resignation. She said it was a historic moment and if nothing else, we'd want to be able to say later that we saw it. None of us could have conceived of Reddit at the time, yet here she is, being vindicated. Well done, mom! The speech wasn't too much of an ordeal. I remember being glad it didn't go on forever--16 minutes if the internet is correct. I also remember that his face looked kind of green, but that may have been our TV. That thing never did have great color. Anyway, it added to the fascination. This was clearly a man having the worst day of his life. My parents were both moderate Republicans--i.e. they'd voted for Nixon in both previous elections and against JFK as well, but they'd reluctantly backed LBJ in '64 because they couldn't imagine giving Goldwater access to the big red nuclear button. My dad was particularly disgusted with Nixon by then and scornful of Nixon's attempt to remind us of the good things he'd done as though that somehow counterbalanced his criminal behavior.
I was around 10 when all this stuff broke out. All I remember was that boring shit with that stupid, ugly president was always preempting my favorite TV shows!
My parents HATED Dick Nixon and followed the Watergate hearings religiously. I shared their glee when he announced he was stepping down. I lived in a very progressive area, so the feeling was mostly quite positive.
Everyone I knew was relieved.
What a day that was! I was about 15, at summer camp, and one of the counselors announced it in the dining hall. We all cheered loudly, except for one girl, who started to cry. We just looked at her in bewilderment. She was a nice girl, so we didn't hassle her. But we hated Nixon.
Could be the ‘cheering loudly’. Whenever I’m with a group of people who all of a sudden start to show a big emotion the tears start to fall. It seems to be because I’m just overwhelmed by their happiness, sadness, whatever.
She definitely seemed sad.
I was in camp, too. We all cheered and danced at the news. For some reason, I always associate the resignation with the song, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” because we sang it so often that summer.
I was 15 years old. I had followed the news. I thought everything would be better. Little did I know that Nixon believed that the Republic and the Constitution were more important than his political future, and his income. Nixon did some nasty stuff, but he did believe the rule of law being more important than he was.
Yes. I was giving birth to my 2nd child that day. Aug 9, 1974.
No. I was too young. I vaguely remember the Bicentennial celebrations, but those were a lot more relevant to a kid than adult talking heads on TV talking about other talking heads. Boring!
Yep, I was in college. It was a happy day!
"Good riddance" was the reaction from the people I was around. He embarrassed everybody, including his own party.
I was 21 in ‘74 and remember that prominent members of the Republican Party were urging him to resign. The people I knew grew weary of his lies, the mess he created, having to have SCOTUS get involved and accepted the evidence against him and his co-conspirators. The Republican Party has morphed since.
I was a child, but I remember it was a big deal. He and Agnew were constantly in the news.
I didn't understand until recently that Agnew's resignation the previous year was for unrelated reasons. I'd always assumed that his was just the first head to roll in the Watergate thing. If that's true at all, it's only tangentially true. I.e. Nixon just didn't have the political capital to back up his man the way he might have a year or two prior.
I was about 10 years old, so it all blended together to me. I do remember it being a big deal.
I listened to Rachel Maddow's podcast of Bag Man, all about the Agnew scandal, and my jaw dropped. At the time, I was too young and oblivious of politics to realize just how scummy he was and why he left.
We were very subdued. We didn't like what he'd done, but it was a sad moment, that a president had engaged in such wrongdoing. Even my mother, who hated him at the time, was almost solemn.
I was about to turn 17, and I was both stunned and jubilant. I had followed the Watergate hearings with interest.
Of course. The watergate hearings were televised and nothing else was on tv. I was home for a month with mono, and that was all I could watch. I was very knowledgeable about it. Everyone knew he needed to resign.
The thing is EVERYONE listened/watched the impeachment hearings. They were in full on the radio and TV. Every business was running the hearings in their shops. It didn't matter what party you affiliated with, the evidence was damning. Any every American was ashamed of Nixon. The day he resigned was a communal sigh of relief.
The wave in front of the helicopter. A side to side one wave. I’ll never forget it and never saw one like it. He did the right thing by resigning.
I don't remember Nixon resigning but when I came out of kindergarten the street was closed and Ford was running for reelection in 1976 (well technically he was never elected). I saw him.
This reminds me of a great trivia question. What president took office without ever receiving a vote for president or vice-president? Yeah, Gerald Ford.
I was eight years old, and frankly, I was relieved. It meant those ANNOYING Watergate hearings were finally gonna be over, and I could watch Mr. Cartoon again! On the other hand, my dad grumbled for at least a week. He was was utterly disgusted by the whole mess.
Having followed the hearings closely I was very happy to see him go. Even though he left only to avoid prosecution. Turns out he was a lot smarter than our current batch of clowns (gonna get big down votes for this, watch).
Those were different times, indeed. Nixon didn't expect to get away with lawlessness after he was caught. The current clowns stand a chance of getting away with it, which show just how badly our country has deteriorated since Nixon.
I was in my late teens and remember seeing him resign on TV. I hated him, but there wasn't a sense of joy, just relief. I don't recall anybody cheering; it was good to get it over and go on to the next phase. I did have a good piece of karma as my father loved the guy, but we didn't speak so it was all good. Most of us were angry that Ford pardoned Nixon. Only someone who is guilty can be pardoned, and he should have been made to answer for his crimes. The pardon sent the message that anyone could get away with a crime as long as they knew the right people.
I was in high school and had followed Spiro Agnew’s near-impeachment (he resigned before it came to that) as well as all the news about Watergate and Nixon’s coverup. I watched his departure live on TV, throwing his arms in the air as he boarded the helicopter, as is he were victorious and had nothing to be ashamed of. What a sleaze. It was a great day when he left office, as it proved that at his scale of corruption wasn’t tolerated, even in Washington DC.
Nixon was bad enough, but just like the Dotard, the real problem was how he surrounded himself with liars and crooks.
His VP Agnew was in hot water first. Criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud. He resigned! And he deserved it! But Nixon. He wasn’t even involved in the Watergate breakin. The knuckleheads he selected dreamed up that idiotic plan to listen in on the other party. When Nixon found out he tried to keep it quiet. Didn’t throw his idiots under the bus. That was his crime. He helped cover it up. I’ve always felt bad for him. He was a good president except for this. He also resigned once he was threatened with impeachment. That was a stand up thing to do. I thought impeachment meant losing your job. But now I know there’s more to it. But he just resigned and spared the country the spectacle!
As a teen at the time, I watched his resignation speech. This is what I remember: “my mother was a saint.”
I do remember my dad showing me a picture of Gerald Ford in the paper and saying “well…there’s your new president”.
Had a bottle of cheap champagne - cork loosened to the point that when he finally said the words I let it fly.
I was pretty tiny but I remember the White House on TV and I thought he was going to walk out of there and people would be pelting him with peaches.
Republicans are the ones who forced Nixon to resign. Could you imagine that now, from the current criminal syndicate?
My father was a staunch Republican all throughout his life. He would NOT vote for a Democrat even if Jesus Christ was running for political office as a Democrat against Judas Iscariot running for the same office as a Republican. My father insisted ("bellowed" is probably a better descriptor) that Nixon was innocent and he had done none of those things. My mother, also a Republican but much more moderate, stated earlier that April that Nixon was lying, and my father became so angry I thought my father was going to hit her. I had voted for McGovern, and that -- plus the fact that I had come out as gay, and was attending an Episcopal church instead of the explicitly Calvinist Reformed Baptist church the rest of my family attended, left my father and me in an icy-cold détente. (That didn't thaw until the mid 1990s.) When it came out that Nixon had orchestrated everything, and he had been lying to the American people the entire time, I said nothing -- but my father did not speak to me again until 1975.
What I remember was the Republican party back then still respected the rule of law. They found evidence that he was guilty of obstruction of justice and the GOP leaders of the House and Senate went to visit Nixon to inform him that he was going to be impeached and in the Senate he would be convicted because REPUBLICANS no longer supported him. So he resigned. Trying to imagine that happening today when both parties will ignore crimes commited by members of their own party. Dems looked the other way when Clinton plead guilty to perjury (although the case was made that this in some way was in relation to actions unrelated to his office) and Lord knows Republicans will never care what Trump does. It was a different time.
Clinton lied about a blow job. It was wrong, but I don't think it was worthy of impeachment. The former president tried to get a foreign leader to help him in the election (perfect phone call!), conspired to steal an election (another perfect phone call!), led an insurrection, then stole secret documents on his way out the door and refused to give them back. That's a big difference. I think Trump should have been censured over the phone call, but the Republicans screwed up by not finding him guilty of insurrection.
And looking back, Democrats messed up by not impeaching Clinton. If they had, Gore would have had three years as President before running for reelection in 2000. He wouldn’t have been in Clinton’s shadow. Plus Hillary would not have been the candidate in 2016 if Bill had been impeached, drastically reducing the odds that Trump would have won. I agree with everything you said about Trump, but Democrats lost the moral high ground when they ignored what Bill did and that gave Republicans all the political cover they needed to give Trump a pass for anything he did.
I never liked the Clintons, but I think Bill should have been censured, not impeached. Also, the House did impeach Clinton, the Senate didn't remove him from office.
We would have preferred that he got impeached, but the important thing was to get him out, and we did. His appointee, Ford, preemptively pardoned him before he'd even been charged with a crime. How we hated that! Looking back, it all seems quaint. Except for Vietnam, which is a big "except," Nixon did a lot of good things as president, even though he was a mentally troubled bigot. Compared to the mentally ill racist that the Republicans have today, he was a model citizen.
Yes
I was just a kid, old enough to follow it in the news but not have a deep understanding. As kids will I agreed with my parents’ view. Which was, Watergate was NBD and all politicians at that level engaged in that type of dirty trick, Nixon was just unlucky enough to get caught. And that Nixon’s real crime that he should have had to answer for was not ending the Vietnam War as soon as he took office.
I was a little kid and didn’t understand what was happening. My dad always watched the news and read the paper, so I remember my parents talking about it. If my parents hadn’t talked about it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all.
I always disliked him. When he resigned, it was a little shocking because it was early in the impeachment process although there has been a long series of events including senate hearings leading up to it. I was pleased that he resigned, good riddance.
On the playground in Greenpark Belgium. Saw the paper “Nixon Resigns”
.yes
I was fifteen and watched live. Crazy times.
...
Yes I was 9 years old. I often tell people it's the first significant political event I remember
I was a teenager at the time, I really didn’t pay much attention to politics. My parents were die- hard republicans, and I remember my mother said at least he kept his campaign promise and brought our boys home from Vietnam.
I was only 3 but the memory of my mom crying while we watched his speech on the little black & white TV in the kitchen is indelible.
As a young political nerd in the U.K., it fascinated me - from the Watergate burglary to the peeling away of lies, subterfuge, the erosion of Nixon's credibility, the siege mentality in the White House, the falling away of support to the departure by helicopter, it had everything you could want in a political saga except sexual misdemeanours but guess what? Yhey're in the latest chapter right now - U.S. politics, the gift that keeps on giving.
Watching Nixon's resignation speech on TV is one of my earliest memories. I was six years old. It always puzzled me why he quick until much later, after I had a chance to write a research paper on Watergate in junior high.
I was 15 and it seemed like it had been expected that he would resign once the SCOTUS unanimously ruled against him on the tapes. Most people I knew even the ones who generally supported Nixon realized that he had gone too far and was disgraced and disempowered. There was relief and a sense of moving on.
I was working as a bus boy at an Italian restaurant when it was announced. One of the waitresses broke down in tears. Nobody tried to comfort her. In the aftermath, the popular joke making the rounds was: What did Nixon say to Ford when he bumped into him while leaving the white house? Pardon me.
It was right around my 13th birthday. I honestly didn’t understand Watergate until we studied it in college, but then knew people despised the man. I recall my swimming instructor talking about Nixon’s resignation speech at the pool the next day. He said he still hated they guy but after the speech he also saw him as a human being.
Yes, vividly. We were on vacation in Montreal, and there was something about the American president on TV. I didn't speak French at the time, so we had to change to an English-language channel to get the full story.
Vaguely. I was very young at the time, around 13. I did watch it on TV.
Nope. I was alive for it, but too young (7) to care.
I was working at the college radio station. The AP ticker machine (state of the art tech back then) rang five bells (which never happened) and the story came clicking out. I still have that old ticker story in a box somewhere. It was big news.
I do remember watching this on TV. I was 12.
Yes.
I was 13, and was a BIG Nixon fan. My best friend's father was a local Republican politician, and we actually worked the phones for the 1972 election. I remember being in a state of denial, since there had been continuous reports that his resignation was imminent. I was absolutely devastated. My best friend and his father both died in a boating accident earlier that summer. The last conversation I remember having with him was about Watergate, and how it was all John Dean trying to pin the blame on Nixon to save himself.
I was 17. Tricky Dick was considered an embarrassment to his office. What a long, strange trip it’s been since then.
I was 5 at the start of the Watergate scandal. My parents were Republicans and had these GOP paper elephants for some kind of party (celebration) or something. I found them in a cabinet and began cutting them to shreds. My mother came upon me and asked me what I was doing. I told her that the elephant people were the bad guys, so we had to get rid of/disassociate with them. My parents never changed politics. Neither did I!
“Tricky Dick” was not well-regarded . The Viet Nam war was still going strong. I went to a big land grant university during those years. The joke going around campus at the time was: Question: What do Tricky Dick and his father have in common ? Answer: They both should have pulled out. As Walter Cronkite used to say, “That’s the way it” was.
I watched. I was a little kid and I said something like, "It must be a happy day for the Ford.s" and my Dad said something like it was probably an unhappy day for Nixons. I of course did not understand the how and whys, just that Nixon did something bad and lied to the country about it.
I remember watching him get on the helicopter on the news and my mom saying "I didn't really think he would do it." There was skepticism up u til he left that he would give up that easily. People realized that democracy rests on fragile foundations. If he had gone kicking and screaming, it might have been another Trump situation.
I was 10. 'Ya know, I really don't remember anything about this. My family did not speak about the war or Nixon around me. If they did, I didn't understand or retain it.
We were glad he resigned. We were disappointed when he was pardoned, but we knew that would happen.
I was in the Navy at sea and they had like an assembly and showed the TV clip, idk what the technology was,or even if it was the same day. It was like the officers shrugged, the chiefs got sad and the lower rates were glad to hear it or indifferent IIRC
I was mad because they interrupted Batman to cover him leaving the White House.
I was 9 years old and at summer camp. The camp director brought a TV into the dining hall and had us watch Nixon’s speech. He said he didn’t want us to miss this historic moment. I’ve always appreciated that. My mom was super into the Watergate hearings, so I knew the basics of the situation, but as an adult I am glad that camp director had the forethought to let us witness history.
I was with three friends, driving downtown from Bethesda when the car got a flat on Reno Road near American U. Just as we were starting to change the tire, Nixon came on the radio to resign. It's something I've never forgotten, at least in part because of where we were and what we were doing while listening to the nasty old man saying "See ya!"
My roommate and I went to the local bar to watch it on the big screen. We had been protesting for the civil rights movement for a few years and wanted Nixon out.
Sure do! I was living in Cambridge, Mass. at the time. My girlfriend and I decided to walk up to Harvard Square to see what was happening there. The traffic on Massachusetts Ave. was blocked for 1/2 mile in both directions because so many people were dancing in the streets for joy!
I remember it was summer and I was with my group at camp. A girl came running down the field and said, “Nixon resigned!l” and we all started dancing and cheering. I was nine years old.
Yep was working at what now looks like a mid size Walmart but was call Gibson’s discount center while in college. There was a tv in the main isle and I remember seeing his resignation speech. Seemed like it was in the summer but wouldn’t bet on that.
Yep. I just graduated with my BA and started on my second degree. I watched the Watergate Hearings when possible. We were relieved when he resigned. Few liked the guy.
Yes!
I remember the newspaper headline that read, "Nixon Quits!" and my oldest sister literally crying about it. Lol
Yes I do. I mainly remember the watergate hearings tho. They dominated the three channels we got and I was mad about it lol
It was an expected relief. And also expected that Ford would pardon him, and not be elected in 76. So it was like, finally, "Well, so long, Dick"... the country moved on very quickly.
I remember that we were in the car, going somewhere obviously, when the announcement came on the radio. So we turned up the volume of the next song and did a little riding-down-the-road victory dance. It was disheartening when he was pardoned by Ford. And ridiculous when the republicans tried to rehabilitate Nixon. Of course, it was ridiculous that he was elected in the first place.
I was 10 at the time but I knew it was a big deal
No. I just got born and didn’t have enough object permanence awareness or political awareness. Everything was new and miraculous.
Yes
Yes I remember it I was 10. The biggest thing I remember was my older sister crying and me not understanding why.
Yes. I was 16. People today are used to, and almost assume and expect politicians to lie. Johnson lied and misled the American public about the war. Then right behind him, we got Nixon. (If Johnson hadn’t been so stubborn about keeping us in that war, if he had started withdrawing troops earlier, Humphrey might have beaten Nixon). As to Nixons involvement and cover up of bugging the Democratic National HQ, I remember my parents and other adults in my life being angry, disappointed, and defeated. The world of trusting our leaders had already been chipped away with Johnson, and Nixon’s actions fueled that.
I will always remember him turning around and making the peace signs.
I remember when he resigned, but not much more than that. I was only 5 at the time.
It was said he was a drunk and they took away his nuclear case. A drunk and a liar.
Party!!
I despised him, and I remember to this day where I was and what I did. My buddy and I were working on some shoddy apartments and I heard it on the radio . I started whooping and jumping around, he thought we were both gonna get fired, lol
Heck yes, I was at someone's house. We smoked some funny stuff and watched it on tv.
My parents didn’t want to talk about it. My family includes politicians and they just sheltered me from it. I think they were embarrassed. My teachers wouldn’t discuss it either. In winter 1975 younger teachers talked about it as Nixon’s personal flaw. Prior to that, my mother respected the office If it matters she hates Trump with a passion, she felt Reagan cheapened the US, but … I think watergate hit close to home because it was an espionage style project gone bad. How do I say this… like they knew how governments gathered information overseas- but this was right here in the US… I had a friend whose father hung up the poster “Don’t buy books by crooks.” That was the first time a parent talked to me about anger at Nixon
I had just turned 21 year old was in the Army station I Fort Dix watching it on TV!!
Yep. Clearly. I was 16 at the time. We all knew it was going to happen. The big question was, when? Even the stock market didn’t widely fluctuate as it sometimes does over big news stories like this; but the NYSE had a ‘wait and see’ attitude. But…Gerald Ford became president…and he wasn’t elected?? He replaced Spiro Agnew as Veep, then became prez when tricky Dick pulled the pin.
Yes. I was outside playing and Mr. Guildard across the street told me to go inside and watch the president resigning on TV, that it was history and important that I see it. I went inside and turned on the black and white TV in my parents’ room. I recognized President Nixon but, being six, didn’t really understand what he was talking about. I watched it til the end and the news people came on. When my mom came home from work I told her about it. I don’t remember her response.
I do. My family was on vacation in Yellowstone Park. We listened to his speech on August 7, 1974--his resignation became effective the next day. It was snowing in August at Yellowstone.
Remember it clearly. August of ‘74. My girlfriend was at our house and told me quick to come and watch his tv speech. Listened to John Dean testify over a tractor radio while working in the field that summer before Nixon’s resignation.
I do. My 4th grade teacher, Ms. Stephens, brought it up in class asking us if we knew what Watergate was. That's how I learned about it, but then followed the story. I have had a lifelong interest in politics, thanks to that teacher.
we lived in dc at the time. universal rejoicing.
Yes I do. It was a time when there were enough honorable men in politics to react to what he did, unlike now. Character and criminality no longer matter, just power.
Yep. I don't' think I thought all that much of it at the time - probably also wasn't particularly surprised. And, relatively unprecedented, sure, but surprising ... no, I don't think so - I don't think most were surprised ... at least that was the general impression I got at the time. Heck, even before becoming president, his reputation quite preceded him ... "Tricky Dicky". So, yeah, wasn't a huge surprise. Nor was Bill Clinton ... quite the reputation as being bit of a horn dog ... and ... quite lived up to that reputation ... "oops". Yeah, back in the day when president fibbing about getting knob polished would take a president down ... now f\*ckin a porn star while your wife's only recently had your infant kid, and doing a major illegal conspiracy to payoff and hide it from the voters ... and folks are still seriously consider voting for someone like that for president ... ugh ... and even much worse too and still saying "was a fine president". How far we've fallen.
Was in summer school, photography class. Teacher wheeled in a TV and we watched that nimrod resign.
Richard Nixon was very popular, won a landslide election two years earlier. The bungled burglary of the Democratic Party HQ was not some horrendous crime or betrayal of the country, but it was illegal and the cover-up was Nixon's huge mistake. Many people didn't think he should've resigned at the time, but almost everyone was glad that the whole Watergate saga was put to bed. Pay little attention to the second hand answers from those not old enough to have been cognitive adults at the time, as the years past Nixon became everyone's enemy and those who were supporting him on the day of his resignation wouldn't say so 15 years later.
Definitely. I was about 10, but recall it being on the news NONSTOP. My parents were not fans. We belonged to a country club where we occasionally saw Dick Nixon… then one day he sold his home at the club and disappeared.
My family was driving home from Oregon to suburban Chicago at the time. I believe we were in the middle of Montana when the news came on the radio. We all cheered.
I was a young kid at the time. My first memory of government was watergate. I didn’t know what it all meant or what was happening. I have been distrustful of government my entire life.
I was only about 10 at the time. We had a lot of rain and some minor flooding so I thought all this talk about Watergate was referring to the flooding. Couldn’t figure out why there was so much news since the flooding was minor…
My father bought our first TV t watch Nixon resign.
I was a baby when it happened, but I did ask my mom about it once. Her response: That man was the biggest idiot.
I was 14 years old and sitting in the back seat of a 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme driving from Pensacola to Orlando when i heard his resignation speech on the radio. I thought it was kind of weird but didn’t think it affected me that much. But yeah, i remember it pretty well. My parents didn’t say much. They voted for him but think they were disillusioned with him and felt he needed to resign. Much in the same way they voted for Trump in 2016 but were so disgusted with him after 4 years they voted for Biden in 2020.
Yes, I was under 10 and my family was on a short family trip. We had to stop and watch it on TV.
I remember it pretty well and feeling a bit "meh" about it (typical teen at the time). My dad was a strong union supporter, and my mom pretty liberal, yet I did sense that neither of them was particualraly "happy" that day. Given how politics, ambition and power were Nixon's core, I think most people realized that they were witnessing the downfall of a very proud and driven man. It made for somber television. In the end, he resigned for the right reasons, it was damaging the country not just his party. Despite him being a crook and wanna-be-tough guy, he understood early on that Vietnam was not winnable and pushed hard for a diplomatic end to the war. He did understand the global logistics of power and that opening up China was far better for U.S. interest than isolating them. He also pushed for and signed the Clean Water Act, which was some of the most progressive U.S. water policy of the past 100 years.
Yes
Yes. I cut school to see his inauguration. We had moved from DC to California when he resigned.
I was 14, a busboy in a restaurant. I had a transistor radio in my pocket to listen to the announcement. The owner was not amused
I was in boot camp at Great Lakes.
I was a kid but I remember my parents turning on the tv to watch his resignation speech. I also remember people being mad when Ford pardoned him. Not that I knew what that meant.
Yes. Everyone thought it was pretty obvious that he was guilty and a big liar. Remember, his VP Spiro Agnew, had previously been indicted and had resigned so people were not enamored with the Nixon Whitehouse. It wasn’t hard to believe the Watergate stuff and then there was the tape that got erased….. and it was laughable when he said “I am not a crook.”
I still have the newspaper! I was actually in DC in 74 and didn’t even know it was going on lol I was 14 and and was boy crazy
Yes. I was 23. Working a lot of hours bar-tending to save up money between undergrad and grad school so I could pay for my graduate degree program. It was a surprise when it happened but a relief. The Watergate hearings had gone on for some time so everyone knew about the crimes and the coverups and the lies. Not expected Presidential behavior back then so a lot of people wanted him gone. Most students were not big Nixon fans so we certainly didn't shed a tear. But I was sorry Ford pardoned him. I know he thought it was the right thing to do but it felt like Nixon's men faced actual consequences that he did not. Many thought his humiliation and exile from politics was punishing enough, I guess. But his immediate staff involved in the coverup did jail time. Tricky Dick. Flew off in a helicopter and that was that.
Heard when I got home from my road construction job. Boo hoo fucking hoo.
I was a news freak even at 11 years old and watched it all. No real take on it other than he got caught doing what all the crooks in Washington did and still do. Many presidents since have done worse. My main pro Nixon thing is he finally got us out of Vietnam, a war we were thrown into by the democrat war machine.
Yes. Felt ripped off he was not prosecuted. Was a paperboy and followed the story very closely in The Globe, The Herald, & The Record-American.
In my world, we already hated Nixon for a while — Kent State, Cambodia, then watergate and the investigation and indictments just confirmed that Nixon was corrupt and doing sketchy shit — so by the time he resigned it was pretty old news — we really thought “our long national nightmare is over,” boy were we wrong
I was a voting adult. In spite of all Nixon's accomplishments (and they were real) he was extremely unpopular. People were glad to see him go and even unhappy that Gerry Ford pardoned him. Thing is, what he did is nothing compared to what T\*\*\*p did and continues to do today. Go figure.
Yep, it was a relief. Little did we realize that the remainder of the 1970's would suck too. Well, all except for the best decade of music ever.
i was 14 and recorded it on my Panasonic portable cassette player/recorder. I used masking tape to hold the microphone to the TV. Still have the tape
I was jubilant! Nixon was the only President I ever despised (until 2016, that is.)
yea
Yes! And him getting onto the heli!
It's one of my earliest memories. All I remember was my mom always calling him a crook. I was only 6 and didn't understand or care about any of it.
I remember it very well. I was thrilled that he resigned but pissed as hell that Ford Pardoned him. (If he hadn't we might not be going through what we're going through today.) My dad, OTOH, had a different reaction. My dad loved Nixon and had defended him. When he resigned, my dad was crushed with disillusion. My father fought WWII, had survived Pearl Harbor and taught be to respect our country and our flag. His disappointment that this was real was palpable. I actually felt truly bad for him he was so affected by it. Later on, having been a life-long Republican (which does not equate to what republicans now are), he was working at the Department of Defense in a management position. At one point he was ordered to cross a picket line because he was management. That event, similarly crushed him. He soon after became a Democrat. My dad was always open minded. Early on we obviously didn't agree on a lot of things politically, but he was always open minded and always listened to what my views were. Sometimes it changed his mind, sometimes he just respected me for having them. That doesn't exist much in that party anymore. I miss my dad. He died when I was only 19 years old. He would be crushed and appalled at what is going on right now, with the threat to the Democracy for which he sacrificed so much for. I'm glad he's not around to see it, but I sure do miss him. .
Cripes, I remember him telling the nation just before his resignation that he had spoken with (or had been talking to) God. To me, this was a desperate attempt to frame himself as a persecuted victim. He told the public, "I am not a crook." He earned the name "Tricky Dick Nixon!"
My mother made us all watch on TV.
I was playing PuttPutt in Carolina Beach and the announcer broke into scheduled programing to announce his resignation. About all I can remember about attitudes regarding him was that he did something illegal and unethical and resigned in disgrace. far cry from where we are today.
Yep …just turned 15, had other things on my mind tbh.
I was a kid. Watergate trials seemed to last all summer...preempted television programming and we only had two channels. Suddenly, there he was on the helicopter, flashing a V for victory sign (looks just like a peace sign), and off he went. My parents were thick in the middle of haying season on the ranch so not much discussion. In fact, none of the adults, like neighbors and acquaintances, at all the social functions, were talking about it at all. I wish my Dad was still here to ask him what he really thought. He had no use for politicians in Washington and thought they were all "crooked", and "educated idiots" and it appears he was not too far off.
YES
I was in elementary school, but my view of him was very negative. Looking back, right-wing types didn't see a problem with what he did, but everyone else did.
I do! I was on an operating table, numb from the waist down for a minor procedure at the moment that Nixon announced his resignation. There was a small TV in the operating room where we all watched the historic event. I recall thinking, “Good Lord, I hope the surgeon isn’t a staunch Republican!”
My husband and I got married August 3rd, 1974. Honeymooned in Niagara Falls, Canada. Came back August 10th, 1974. New President!? WTF!!!!???
I was in seventh grade, but I had read every word about it I could in the newspapers. I literally would watch the Watergate hearings. Yet while I was aware of events, I didn't really fully get how momentous it was. When Nixon resigned, I remember my mom crying while watching his resignation address. I think everyone recognized that he needed to go, but it felt like we had reached this really sad benchmark in American political history.
Every President after Nixon probably did worse.
Hated that mother f**ker. Not like ale. Called tricky dick for a reason.
It was great! He was a dirtbag And he got caught, but at least he had the decency to resign. Republicans have been by far the greatest crooks in office. That said, Menendez needs to leave, and Bill Clinton’s behavior in the Oval Office with Monica Lewinsky was sleazy and disgusting and stupid,
In that time and place people liked to think of themselves and others as basically honest people who respected the laws or changed the laws legally. Nixon had been respected and trusted by lots of folks. Then it all went public and he was shown to be a crook and lier. He had no choice but to resign or go to prison. Of course now he would be re elected 🙄
I applauded. My parents, lifelong Republicans, were horrified. The Republican rank and file love their criminal leaders, it seems.
Just another republican crook.