Good evening. President nixon reportedly will announce his resignation tonight. Vice president ford will become the nations 38th president tomorrow. That word comes unofficially from aides and associates the president has been part of politics for 28 years now. Part of the National Political scene for about 24 of those years. And this appears to be the final day of his administration. Tonight at 9 00 Eastern Daylight Time the president of the United States will address the nation concerning developments today and over the last few days. This has of course been a difficult time. This is indeed an historic day. The only time a president has ever resigned from office in our nearly 200 years of history. You see the white house there. In just a few moments now president nixon will be appearing before the people perhaps for the last time as president of the United States. Have you got an extra camera in case the lights go out . 15 seconds to air. I know. This was much worse than we thought. Nixon was worse than we thought. What happened was worse than we thought. He violated the law. He compromised the office. And he left a deep and wide black mark in american president ial history. No, there will be no picture. Just take it right now. This is right after the broadcast. You got it . Come on. Okay. Thats enough. My friend ollie always wants to take a lot of pictures. Im afraid hell catch me picking my nose. I cant believe that guy was president of the United States because he is just branded in our National Memory as a crook. And i think its really important to understand the wrong approach to executive power that led nixon to those crimes. You want a level, dont you . Yes, yes. Good evening. This is the 37th time i have spoken to you from this office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of our nation. Need any more . There was good in him. He had been a good vice president. But he was a fatally flawed man and a fatally flawed president. Richard nixon, a guy who had been a hero to millions of americans, heres a guy who received more votes than anybody else in the history of this country. But the Richard Nixon that they supported through the years was not the Richard Nixon that they thought they knew. Every generation has to lose their virginity, and it was just the day that my generation did. But to think that were the only generation that had that experience is probably the mistake that a lot of generations make. He is already before the cameras now. President Richard Milhous nixon, 37th president of the United States. Throughout the long and difficult period of watergate i have felt it was my duty to persevere. Watergate doesnt go away because it was so extraordinary, it was so hidden. We act like it cant happen again. And it did a lot of stuff after. There was a lot of hoohaing and passing laws, giving speeches. But if you ask me do i think we learned anything from it, no. I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as president i must put the interests of america first. The president had been driven from office because the American People p learned the truth about Richard Nixon. But how we learned the truth, that fascinated me. Nixons downfall had bun two years earlier when five men were caught spying and wiretapping at the Democratic National headquarters at an Office Complex called watergate. Over at the Washington Post two rookie reporters, bob woodward and carl bernstein, picked up the story. Their investigation would unfold like a political thriller. And so i thought that the part that they played in exposing the scandal would make a movie, maybe even a good movie. Action. In hollywood terms woodward and bernstein were the good guys. And their weapon was the written word. Did he confirm it . Absolutely. Weve got to tell bradlee. I played bob woodward in the film. Carl bernstein was played by dustin hoffman. One of the things i had observed with carl is that he smoked so incessantly, and carl was always always had ashes on his tie and his shirt. And i said, thats got to be in the movie. Is there any place you dont smoke . 40 years later the two investigative reporters are back in the Washington Post newsroom. I joined them for a reunion with ben bradlee. Im glad to see you. Their former editor. Like a working reporter. Its the first time in decades weve all been together. Hello, robert. How are you . Its tempting to think that watergate could never happen again. But these two reporters and their editor know better. Come on. I look pretty damn good considering. Yes. Its only 40 years ago. Is it . I wanted to dig deeper into their story and to see what if any impact it had on our culture today. Let me get these guys out of the newsroom. Vanity fair photographer Annie Leibovitz is here to document the three men who took on our president. For bob woodward watergate started much the same way most stories do, with a phone call from his editor. The moment, the time i got the call about 9 00 a. M. On saturday morning june 17th. Thats good. No one flashed a message to me this is going to be one of the most important days of your life. I was in the office that day. And i saw all this commotion around the city desk on this saturday morning. Went to find out what it was. And there was this moment in history that became known as watergate. Woodward and bernstein, for those of us who were in the profession, i think we were quickly in awe of what they were doing. I became truly inspired by both their incredible investigative reporting and their storytelling. I remember thinking when i first read the woodward and bernstein articles wheres this going. Especially coming in the midst of all the turmoil that was playing out in the streets around the country. President nixons first term in office had been marred by loud, frequent, and sometimes violent protests. Largely against the vietnam war. It really did seem like the world was unraveling, growing up in a suburban existence with parents who saw chicago in 1968 erupt into flames, saw people burning their draft cards, saw a sexual revolution, saw a drug revolution, saw woodstock come into their homes. When i joined the nixon white house, there were a lot of demonstrations against the war. It probably was some of the most intense times i think our country had ever faced. I mean, often we were feeling like we were in a state of siege. You felt it physically. And we knew that we were going to have to protect the white house. There was a lot of discussion about using troops, directly facing the demonstrators, which i felt could lead to direct confrontations and conflicts. And so it came to me, why dont we do what john wayne did, lets just circle the white house. With buses. Not wagons but with buses. Which is what we did. So did you want to be on the side of jane fonda or john wayne . My parents chose john wayne. And therefore, they were for nixon and nixon was on the side of law and order. Nixon now more than ever nixon now more than ever more than ever we need nixon now nixon now more than ever nixons law and order platform was very popular. In the coming election he seemed a shooin for a second term. I again proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States. By the summer of 1972 nixons Campaign Machine was in full force. But amidst the hoopla his Reelection Committee would suddenly become entangled with a mysterious illegal breakin. Five men were arrested early saturday while trying to install eavesdropping equipment at the Democratic National committee. Well, it was the sunday after the burglary. We were the only two who showed up in the office. I was in the office that day. I was writing a profile. And i said, this is a better story than the one im working on. And i think id like to work on this. And it turns out that one of the men has an office in the headquarters of the committee for the reelection of the president. James mccord, the lead burglar, had been in the cia in the security business for decades and now was the head of security at the Nixon Campaign. And we thought wait a minute, whats going on here . Woodward and bernstein never imagined that answering that question would lead them smack into the oval office. You wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. And all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. Flonase sensimist. But lets be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance. Which is why esurance hired me, dennis quaid, as their spokesperson because apparently, im highly likable. See, they know its confusing. I literally have no idea what im getting, dennis quaid. Thats why theyre making it simple, man in cafe. And more affordable. Thank you, dennis quaid. Youre welcome. Thats a prop apple. Id tell you more, but i only have 30 seconds. So heres a dramatic shot of their tagline so youll remember it. Esurance. Its surprisingly painless. On august 1st, 1972 i picked up woodward and bernsteins third article on watergate. It said that one of the watergate burglars had gotten money from the Nixon Campaign. What the reporters would soon discover was that nixons Reelection Committee was engaging in a campaign of espionage and sabotage against the democrats. Woodward and bernstein were beginning to pull back the curtains on a strange and shadowy world. And i wanted to know how they were doing it. I got really intrigued with the idea of making a film about woodward and bernstein because one was a jew, the other was a wasp, one was a liberal and the other was a republican. What interested me was beyond that the hard work they did together to get at the story. So i gave woodward a call. He was pretty chilly on the phone. I said hi, this is bob redford calling. He said, yeah. And i said, i wanted to know if i could meet and you your partner because i have this idea i want to share with you. Woodward came to me and said that redford had called. And i put together who redford was. And was interested in talking to us or whatever. I said were busy, weve got to do this story. For woodward and bernstein it wasnt only that the breakin seemed fishy. There was something just as odd about the white house response. President ial press secretary ron ziegler called it a thirdrate burglary attempt. Ron ziegler calling it a thirdrate burglary, that was the tipoff to us. There seemed to be nothing thirdrate about it except they got caught. They raised the stakes so high. With this thirdrate burglary nonsense. It was apparent that something here was really rotten. Nixon assigned his top lieutenants the president s men the task of managing the fallout from the breakin. Among them chief of staff bob haldeman and president ial adviser John Ehrlichman would become the guardians of the clandestine activities. Ehrlichman begins to monopolize more and more of their time. We know that because nixon had a secret tape recording system in the oval office. Whats the dope on the watergate incident . Theres nothing new. Because i think the country doesnt give much of a [ bleep ] about it. And most people around the country think that this is routine, everybodys trying to bug everybody else. Its politics. The great thing about this is it is so totally [ bleep ] up and so badly done that nobody believes that we could have done it. Thats right. Its just beyond comprehension. Well, it sounds like a comic opera. It would make a funny [ bleep ] damn movie. It really is like a comic opera. It would make one hell of a movie. But not very funny. Haldeman and ehrlichman knew what they had to do, cover all the tracks leading to the white house. They started by enlisting another of the president s men, Legal Adviser john dean, to monitor daytoday changes. After the watergate breakin i really very quickly become the desk officer at the white house on watergate. Im the person who others below me report and i in turn report up to haldeman and ehrlichman. Any further developments on watergate . John dean is watching on an almost fulltime basis and reporting to ehrlichman and me on a continuing basis. And no one else. Theres no one else in the white house that has any knowledge at all. So theyre deeply involved. It is a classic criminal conspiracy. As woodward and bernstein had suspected, the first clue to that conspiracy would be found at the Republican Committee to reelect the president. The treasurer was hugh sloan. Wed raised 60 million, which was the most successful fundraising to that point in history of any president ial campaign. But some of the committees practices were starting to make sloan uneasy. Hugh sloan, he was right out of republican central casting. Clean cut, seemed to always have a shirt and tie on. But he was troubled. Because he was the one who was giving out the money. I was fine with everything up to the point i was directed to give cash to specific individuals. Sloan would soon learn that some of the Campaign Money raised by the Reelection Committee had found its way into the hands of the watergate burglars. The keep was the money and finding these people who controlled these funds and figuring out what they did with the money. By now woodward and bernstein werent the only ones following the money. The fbi was on the trail. And more importantly, a grand jury had begun its own investigation. And everyone wanted to talk to hugh sloan. The cash that financed the watergate breakin, five men had controlled of the fund. Bernstein and woodward recommended the right thing to do was tell the whole story so they can print it. Were not asking you to be our source 37 were asking you to confirm it. Im not your source on haldeman. A little bit of the good guy bad guy routine. Lets say we wrote a story that haldeman was the fifth guy to control the fund. Would we be in trouble . Would we be wrong . They established through conversations and other means that i would have acknowledged basically five people as having the authority to tell me to dispense funds. And one of them was bob haldeman. Let me put it this way. I would have no problems if you wrote a story like that. You wouldnt . No. Okay. Yeah. If you are looking for a phrase that defined what the execution of watergate was, it was a haldeman operation. It was driven by nixon. But operationally it was haldeman doing that. On october 25th, two weeks before the election, the posts frontpage headline pointed the finger at the number one man in the president s inner circle, bob haldeman. Woodward and bernstein reported that under questioning by the grand jury sloan had testified that haldeman controlled the campaigns secret fund. It was a journalistic coup. But they were wrong. Id never been asked a question about bob haldeman. Sloan in fact had not named haldeman in his testimony. The white house pounced. I dont respect the type of journalism, the shabby journalism that is being practiced by the Washington Post. I use the term shoddy journalism, shabby journalism. Ive used the term character assassination. This was their opportunity to discredit the post, woodward and bernstein and bury the story. They came after us. Ziegler, the press secretary. So we knew that at that point the stakes were very high and we were the targets. All i know is that the story that ran this morning is incorrect we made a mistake. We [ bleep ] up. We had an intellectual understanding of the facts of the story and haldemans role in watergate, but what was in the Washington Post was untrue. We should not have allowed that to happen. I was angry at myself and carl and how we got it wrong. And we thought maybe we are going to have to resign, maybe we should resign. I mean, we were kind of at the end of our rope. For woodward and bernstein the path to the truth had just gotten longer and harder. burke fenderbiter. Seen it, covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum new family connections, every day. Llion thats more ways to discover new relatives. People who share your dna. And maybe a whole lot more. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com heartburn and gas . Now fight both fast new tums chewy bites with gas relief all in one relief of heartburn and gas tum tum tum tums new tums chewy bites with gas relief burke seen it, covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum [ cheers and applause ] but now with 496 electoral votes to his credit on the verge of a landslide win we can see the dimensions of mr. Nixons landslide tonight. According to our cbs news estimate, president nixon has been reelected. And lets go now to the republican headquarters at the Shoreham Hotel in washington. Ive never known a National Election when i would be able to go to bed earlier than tonight. [ cheers and applause ] and please repeat after me. I, Richard Nixon, do solemnly swear. I, Richard Nixon, do solemnly swear. That i will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States. Looking back at the early watergate reports, its hard to believe that nixon was completely unscathed. To the best of my ability. And will to the best of my ability. Imagine a president getting away with that unfolding scandal in todays political environment. Preserve and protect the constitution of the United States. So help me god. So help me god. Woodward and bernstein went back to their desks, put their heads down, and continued to grind away at the story. I knew that i was going to be judged, the paper was going to be judged on this story. And therefore, you know, i think you could get aw