And it wasnt that big a deal, but it was a big deal and it led to even further big deals because in the aftermath of watergate we had the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee investigations that showed how deeply riddled the u. S. Government was with this kind of abuse of power. But watergate itself was much more than one burglary. That was actually the third burglary they had pulled off, and as repercussions you had the president resigning. At the same time you had the Vice President resigning. You had two attorney generals resigning. All told, 12 corporations and i think 48 individuals pled guilty and maybe 2 dozen men went to jail. How significant was the resignation of spear spiro agnew that led to the appointment of gerald ford. I think its significant in itself. But i think theres a good chance that nixon would not have been impeached if he had agnew as insurance. There was really no great payoff for the democrats to get rid of nixon in order just to get agnew. A weake
As i leave the presidency. To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every american. And leaving it, i do so with this prayer. May gods grace be with you in all the days ahead. More now on the 40th anniversary of president nixons resignation. With a recent discussion hosted by the Washington Post. It includes journalist bob woodward, carl bernstein, Elizabeth Drew and ruth marcus talking about the scandal that led to president nixon stepping down and the white house tapes that provide further insight into his presidency. This is two hours. Welcome, everybody. My name is marty baron, executive editor of the Washington Post. It is a real pleasure to welcome you here tonight. You can consider yourself all very special because when the invitation went out for this event it was sold out within a day. And ever since, folks here at the post have been telling people that theres no more room. And you can see that from the attendance here and th
Possibly to elect gerald ford as speaker of the house. And he said if nixon had put more of his attention toward republicans in that congress, then in building up this huge eh electoral land slide but the key thing about watergate was the tapes. Without them, nixon he would have probably survived. Host and one final personal moment you have been sharing about richard and pat nixon. With the helicopter departed the white house, what happened . Guest nixon is looking out as theyre leaving and the only thing that breaks the silence is pat nixon saying its so sad. Host nonfarrell, the book is Richard Nixon an american tragedy. Thank you for being here today. Guest it was a pleasure. Thank you. And a defining moment in its own way for people like me. Not that i want to make anyone feel old, but i was in college when mixing resigned nixon resigned. Was that journalism that helped inspire me to get into the field, as it did with many others. Be able toate to introduce your wonderful moderator