[dramatic music]
- In these folders are more
than 1,200 pages of transcripts...
- Maybe, just maybe, if I give them
a little bit of it, that that'll be enough.
- Verifying the authenticity of the tape itself is crucial,
and that can only be done by having the President comply
with the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena in full.
- President Nixon could be confronted
with an adverse decision from the Supreme Court
just as the House of Representatives
prepares to vote on impeachment.
♪
- Former Nixon aide Frederick LaRue
pleaded guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice.
Donald Segretti, the dirty trick specialist,
pleaded guilty. - John Dean, a key figure
in the Watergate case, pleaded guilty today.
- Jeb Stuart Magruder, went to court today
to plead guilty to conspiracy charges.
- For the first time in American history,
a former Attorney General of the United States,
Richard Kleindienst, pleaded guilty today to a crime.
male narrator: Despite a parade
of confessions and looming impeachment proceedings,
President Richard Nixon continued to fight.
but now, Watergate Special Prosecutor
Leon Jaworski was asking the Supreme Court
to force Nixon to surrender 64 tapes
for use in prosecuting Nixon's former inner circle.
- Jaworski, who could have gone in the side--
which is the way you really go in--
goes up those stairs with a couple
of young guys around him, and there are crowds chanting.
[cheering and applause]
And I imagine that Jaworski must have been in tears inside.
- Well, it says "Equal justice under law,"
so we ought to win, Phil.
narrator: Although filming of Supreme Court arguments
is prohibited, an audio recording was made.
Nixon's lawyer, James St. Clair,
argued that presidential executive privilege
was total and absolute, even for evidence of a crime.
Ostensibly, the prosecutors just wanted the tapes
to prosecute Nixon's former aides,
but everyone realized that this was also about
the potential impeachment of Richard Nixon.
And finally, everyone also realized
that this wasn't just about Richard Nixon, either.
It was about something much, much larger.
In part because three Supreme Court Justices
were Nixon appointees,
the White House was optimistic.
- There is a thing called executive privilege,
and it is recognized,
and it does have standing in law,
and I did think that there was a real chance
that people would say the inner-most conversations
of the President in the Oval Office
certainly are--are, are immune
from, uh, the courts.
- Nixon has seen, in his own career,
Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower
make that argument successfully and feels confident.
It's part of the reason he doesn't destroy the tapes
in the first place.
narrator: Two weeks went by.
Then, on July 22,
with Supreme Court's decision still unknown,
the House Judiciary Committee announced that its debate
over impeachment would start in two days,
at 8:00 PM on July 24.
And for the first time in history,
a Congressional debate would be televised live.
- The House of Representatives doesn't easily change
its rules and traditions, but today it gave
the impeachment inquiry the right to open its debate
to television. narrator: The very next day,
July 23, the Supreme Court suddenly announced
it would hold a special session
the following morning. - Good morning.
The Supreme Court has just ruled
on the tapes controversy, and here's Carl Stern
who has that ruling.
- It is a unanimous decision, Doug, 8-0--
Justice Rehnquist took no part in the decision--
uh, ordering the President of the United States
to turn over the tapes.
[crowd cheering]
- It's an 8-0 unanimous opinion
that President Nixon must obey the subpoenas issued
by special Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski, and turn over
64 disputed White House tapes to Mr. Jaworski.
What we do not know yet is whether or not
the President will obey that order.
- No man is above the law.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled
in favor of our right
to compel the President to produce this evidence.
The rest is history.
narrator: With Congressional debate on impeachment starting
later the same day, the obvious question
was whether Congress would get the tapes, too,
but Jaworski wouldn't say.
- Do you expect the House Judiciary Committee
to make an application with Judge Sirica for those tapes?
- I really have not the slightest idea.
- Would you oppose an application by
the House Judiciary Committee for those tapes?
narrator: Even after the Special Prosecutor's
victory at the Supreme Court, Nixon continued to defy
Congressional subpoenas, but pressure was mounting.
- Unless the President wishes to plead the 5th Amendment--
privilege against self-incrimination--
I think, now, as a result of this decision,
he should voluntarily turn these tapes over
to the House Committee.
- I think the decision goes a long way to vindicate, uh,
the subpoena issued by the House Judiciary Committee
and to establish the proposition
that, uh, non-compliance with the House subpoena
was itself a cause for impeachment.
- Attorney James St. Clair has let it be known his office
has at least researched the possibility
of non-compliance.
There is, of course, also the option
the President will comply with the court's decision.
St. Clair has said it could take up to two months
to prepare the tape material for Sirica's court.
- He's standing on the beach in San Clemente,
and they tell him that he's lost
the Supreme Court decision.
And a message goes back to, uh, Washington--
"What would happen if we defy the court?"
And Al Haig replies,
"Instant, um-- uh, instant impeachment."
narrator: Just one hour before the impeachment debate
was scheduled to begin, James St. Clair announced
Nixon's decision.
- I have reviewed the decision of the Supreme Court
with the President.
He's given me this statement, which he's asked me
to read to you, and this is the President's statement
as he gave it to me.
"While I am, of course, disappointed in the result,
"I respect and accept the Court's decision.
"and I have instructed Mr. St. Clair to take
"whatever measures are necessary
to comply with that decision in all respects."
- One hour later, on live national television,
Peter Rodino opened public debate
on the impeachment of Richard Nixon.
- The Committee will come to order.
[crowd chattering]
Throughout all of the painstaking proceedings,
I, as the chairman,
have been guided by a simple principle:
the principle that the law
must deal fairly with every man.
Now, the American people and the whole history
of our republic demand
that we make up our minds.
- News Secretary Ronald Ziegler indicated to us
that the President had no intention of, uh,
watching the hearings.
Uh, note, I suppose we should say that, uh,
during the Watergate hearings, we were told much
the very same thing at that time--
that the President seldom if ever watched them.
We learned later in the transcripts
that he indeed watched a good deal of them.
narrator: The debate immediately revealed
Elizabeth Holtzman as a new political rock star.
Holtzman was the daughter of Eastern European immigrants,
a graduate of Harvard Law School,
newly elected to Congress, 32 years old.
- And how many of us have not quarreled
with Presidents in the past?
Democrats or Republicans over agricultural policy
or environmental policy or foreign policy or whatever.
Does that give any President-- President the license
to burglarize our home?
To wire tap our phones?
To open our mail?
I submit that if it does, we have gone down
the long road to tyranny,
and that the blessings of liberty that we formed
this Constitution 200 years ago to preserve
will vanish very quickly.
And I would like to remind my colleagues
that under the Constitution of the United States,
we in the House of Representatives,
through the power of impeachment,
have been given the duty
to preserve this Constitution.
- This Committee has heard evidence
of governmental corruption unequalled in the history
of the United States.
The cover-up of crimes,
obstructing the prosecution of criminals,
tax violations and personal enrichment
at public expense.
Bribery and blackmail, flagrant misuse
of the FBI, the CIA, and the IRS.
narrator: Most Republicans, however,
continued to defend Nixon.
- John Dean did something wrong,
in my opinion.
And Ehrlichman did something wrong.
One of them requested
that the CIA provide bail money
for these defendants.
And they were promptly rebuffed,
of course, by the CIA, but that was a wrongful act.
There's not a word--
not a word, ladies and gentlemen,
of presidential knowledge or awareness or involvement
in that wrongful act.
narrator: After two hours, the debate was interrupted
by a bomb threat.
- It's necessary that we do recess
for a period of time.
- There has been a bomb threat,
and, uh, the Committee has recessed,
and the room is being cleared.
I don't know many details except to say that
it was a telephone bomb threat.
It reached the Committee just moments ago.
narrator: When debate resumed the following day,
America discovered another rising star:
Barbara Jordan of Texas.
- The fact is that on yesterday,
the American people waited with great anxiety
for eight hours
not knowing whether their President
would obey an order of the Supreme Court
of the United States.
Earlier today, we heard
the beginning of the preamble to the Constitution
of the United States.
"We, the people..."
It's a very eloquent beginning.
But when that document was completed
on the 17th of September in 1787,
I was not included in that "We, the people."
I felt somehow for many years that George Washington
and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake.
But through the process of amendment, interpretation,
and court decision,
I have finally been included
in "We, the people."
Today, I am an inquisitor
and hyperbole would not be fictional
and would not overstate the solemness that I feel
right now.
My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete,
it is total,
and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator
to the diminution,
the subversion,
the destruction
of the Constitution.
- It isn't the Presidency that is in jeopardy from us.
We would strive to strengthen
and protect the Presidency,
but if there be no accountability,
another President will feel free
to do as he chooses.
But the--but the next time,
there may be no watchmen in the night.
narrator: Republicans David Dennis and Trent Lott
gave the strongest speeches opposing impeachment.
- The March 21 payment to Hunt was the last
in a long series of such payments
engineered by Mitchell, Haldeman, Dean,
and Kalmbach, and later on LaRue,
and all, so far as appears,
without the President's knowledge or complicity.
- We are faced with impeaching the President.
The line must be drawn directly to the President,
clearly to the President.
This has not been done.
narrator: But they hadn't reckoned
with Elizabeth Holtzman.
- The President discussed the matter
of paying Hunt ten separate times
in a conversation on March 21st
with Dean and Haldeman.
And the last time the President discussed it,
he said, and I quote, "That's why,
"for your immediate thing, you've got no choice
"with Hunt but the 120 or whatever it is, right?
"Would you agree that that's a buy-time thing?
"You'd better damn well get that done, but fast.
Well, for Christ's sake, get it."
Perhaps some people find ambiguities
in that conversation.
I don't.
I became district attorney many years later
of Brooklyn, New Yor.. [chuckles]
And I had the opportunity to listen to wire taps
of mafiosi and other criminals conspiring,
and I remember thinking, "This is what I heard
in the White House of the United States."
And I was very saddened by that.
Nowhere in the thousands of pages of evidence
presented to this committee
does the President ask,
"What does the Constitution say?
"What are the limits of my power?
"What does my oath of office require of me?
What is the right thing to do?"
narrator: Meanwhile, even after
the Supreme Court decision,
the special prosecutors were still fighting for the tapes.
- Before Judge John Sirica,
Jaworski's soft drawl did not quite mask his anger.
"I must say, in all candor, that our experience so far
has been very poor, very disappointing."
Reference to missing tapes, gaps, and buzzes
was unmistakable.
The President's lawyer tried to argue,
James St. Clair saying legal work might delay
delivery of the tapes, but Judge Sirica,
brandishing his Supreme Court ruling, interrupted.
"You're making this thing
more complicated than it should be."
Sirica sent St. Clair and Jaworski into a side room
treated them to a pot of coffee,
and told them to come out with an agreement
or he'd impose one.
It was a no-lose proposition for Jaworski,
who came out with a White House guarantee
that he'll have the first tapes by next Tuesday.
narrator: After three days of debate
and just before the first vote on impeachment,
Vice President Ford gave a speech.
- And it's my judgment that the evidence
is overwhelming that he had nothing to do with
the so-called cover-up.
So the President, in my judgment,
is innocent, and will be exonerated.
narrator: But even among Republicans,
the tide had begun to turn.
One of the first was a conservative from Chicago.
- The only materials
which we have received have been--have come from
the grand jury and from the special prosecutor.
It seems to me the President's failure to comply
threatens the integrity of our impress--
the impeachment process itself.
His action is a direct challenge
to the Congress, and the exercise
of its solemn Constitutional duty.
- What sealed Nixon's doom
was when four young Republican congressmen
came out and voted for the first article
of impeachment.
Hamilton Fish of New York...
- I am a Republican.
In these proceedings, I have attempted
to discipline myself in partisan neutrality.
- Caldwell Butler of Virginia...
- A power appears to have corrupted.
It is a sad chapter in American history,
but I cannot condone what I have heard.
I cannot excuse it, and I cannot, and will not,
stand still for it.
- Tom Railsback of Illinois...
- We are considering impeaching a man,
Richard Nixon, who has been in my district twice
campaigning for me,
that I regard as a friend.
- Bill Cohen of Maine.
- It's been said that an impeachment proceeding
will tear this country apart.
And to say that it will tear the country apart
to abide by the Constitution is a proposition
that I cannot accept.
I think what would tear the country apart
would be to turn our backs on the facts
and our responsibilities to ascertain them.
- That's what put Nixon down,
'cause it had to be bipartisan
if the Judiciary Committee was going to impeach.
- Those votes were symbolically
outsized and huge.
Had they all been Democratic votes alone,
who knows what the outcome might have been.
- Mr. Butler. - Aye.
- Mr. Cohen. - Aye.
- Mr. Lott. - No.
- Mr. Froehlich. - Aye.
- Mr. Moorhead. - No.
- Mr. Maraziti. - No.
- Mr. Latta. - No.
- Mr. Rodino.
- Aye.
[camera shutters snapping]
- 27 members have voted "aye."
11 members have voted "no."
- And pursuant to the resolution,
Article I, that resolution is adopted
and will be reported to the House.
- And Nixon refused to resign,
thought that he would fight this thing in, uh--
in the Senate of the United States.
He knew he would be impeached by the full House,
but that he could prevail in a--in a trial in the Senate,
uh, where you need, uh, two-thirds of the votes
of the senators to convict.
narrator: Congress began preparing
for an impeachment vote
by the full House of Representatives
and a subsequent Senate trial.
But then, only a few days later,
there was yet another surprise.
- President Nixon stunned the country today
by admitting that he held back evidence
from the House Judiciary Committee.
- The President made public three new transcripts
of meetings with his former chief aide,
H. R. "Bob" Haldeman,
all June 23, 1972.
- Well, now, on the Democratic break-in, um,
we're back in the problem area,
because the FBI is not under control
because Gray doesn't exactly know how to control them.
John Dean concurs now with Mitchell's recommendation
that the only way to solve this
is to have Walters call Gray and, um--
and just say, "Stay the hell out of this."
We don't want you to go any further on it."
And that's not unusual.
- Fine. Fine.
- They say the only way to do that
is from White House instructions.
The proposal would be that Ehrlichman and I call him.
- Good. Play it tough.
That's the way they play it,
that's the way we're gonna play it.
- Okay, then we'll do that.
- They should call the FBI in
and say that for the country,
don't go any further in to this one, period.
Tell them, "Lay off."
- Yeah, that's-- that's the basis we do it on.
- I don't want them to get any ideas
that we're doing it because our concern is...
political.
- They had asked for some tapes.
Nixon had called to review them in April.
One of them was the tape of June 23rd.
He had heard the tape and felt he couldn't survive it,
and that's why he didn't turn the tapes over.
And we were all called up to Camp David
early in August, Sunday,
and I had felt Nixon couldn't survive.
And I said, "We don't recommend Nixon resign,"
but we take this problematic tape
and we simply drop it on the public.
The revelation of the tape will be the thing
that convinces Nixon's people, his strong supporters,
that they can't even support him anymore.
Then he has to resign.
- The tapes were not turned over to Judge Sirica
but rather immediately released to the public.
Why did that happen?
When a lawyer feels that his client
has caused him to make a misrepresentation
to a tribunal,
under the lawyer's rules of ethics,
that's a serious problem.
- James St. Clair, the President's lawyer,
threatened to resign unless Mr. Nixon
released the transcripts, and stated that Mr. St. Clair
had no knowledge of the untruths
in the President's earlier defense.
- Are you going to quit because the President
didn't tell you the whole truth?
- Interfering with an FBI investigation
can be obstruction of justice,
a felony, but almost as damaging
are other disclosures in that June 23rd conversation
revealing a pattern of lies and distortions
by Mr. Nixon and his men about Watergate.
- I knew that the Justice Department
and the FBI were conducting intensive investigations,
as I had insisted that they should.
The White House Counsel, John Dean, was assigned
to monitor these investigations,
and particularly to check
into any possible White House involvement.
- But the transcripts show that six months before,
H. R. Haldeman told the President
that Dean was in on the cover-up.
- It was clear that Nixon had orchestrated
the cover-up just about from the minute
after the break-in, and so at that point
there was nothing for the Republicans to fall back on.
- The fact that there have been so many
of these bombshells--
this is the story, and then this is the story
and then this is the story and, um--
I just think that when you add it all up,
uh, we have reached a point of no return.
- And I shall support... [clears throat]
those portions
of Article I of the bill of impeachment.
- What I thought I knew about Richard Nixon was,
"This person is not going to resign."
He will, in a Texas phrase,
"Fight it till the last dog dies."
Because he will always be able to convince himself,
I can win it.
- And you have the defense secretary,
James Schlesinger,
warning the Joint Chiefs of Staff that any orders,
any last minute, crazy orders that come out
of the White House are going to be vetted by
the civilian leadership and the military
before, you know, it's instituted.
Basically, if the President orders the Marines
to come out of the barracks and surround the White House,
to pr--you know, and announces a coup,
you know, don't obey that presidential order.
This is bordering on--
on treason, but this is the point that they were at
and the fears that they had.
- I always said that we would be in trouble
if General Haig put on his uniform
when he went to work that day.
- If the President, clearly,
makes the decision to resign,
I am not going to feel that it was the wrong decision,
but I do feel I am not going
to suggest to him that he resign.
- Perhaps the toughest assessment came
from Senator Robert Dole, the former chairman
of the Republican Party.
Dole said that for Republicans
who are trying to get reelected
in November, as he is...
- The Republicans wanted him out of office.
Just look at the timetable.
If the impeachment had gone forward,
there would have had to been a House vote
then there would have to be a trial in the Senate.
That would be September/October.
In November, there are going to be elections
for the House and Senate.
If that trial had taken place--
an impeachment trial of Nixon-- how many Republicans
do you think would have been elected
to the House and Senate? [chuckles]
narrator: And so Congressional Republicans mounted
an all-out emergency campaign
to persuade Nixon to resign.
- Senators Scott and Goldwater arrived
at the White House first. They were followed
a few moments later by House Minority Leader
John Rhodes. - Barry Goldwater,
the great conservative, led a delegation
of Congressional Republican leaders
to the White House to meet with Nixon.
And Nixon said, "Barry, how many votes
do I have in the Senate
for acquittal?"
Fully expecting that Goldwater would tell him,
you know, "'X' number and growing."
Goldwater looked at him and he said, "Maybe four,
right now, Mr. President, and you don't have my vote."
- We, uh, had a good, thorough discussion,
and I think I speak for
my two colleagues when I say that
we were extremely impressed.
- That was a defining moment,
because he had relied on those
in this tight inner circle.
And you know, one thing we politicians are very good at
is kidding ourselves, particularly as far
as our popularity is concerned.
- We have told him that the situation is very gloomy
on Capitol Hill...
and, uh...
that it is a...
very distressing situation.
And we gave him further evaluations
which I think ought to remain, uh,
between ourselves.
narrator: But getting Nixon to resign wouldn't be easy,
in part because Nixon feared what might come afterwards.
- It seems inconceivable that he will not resign.
He says, firmly, that he will not.
What he may be doing is a kind of plea-bargaining.
Once he becomes a private citizen,
it is--it is easy to see years
of $100,000-a-month legal fees ahead of him
even if he never went to jail.
He hasn't got that kind of money left.
- If President Nixon resigns, what are the possibilities
of his being indicted and facing trial on charges?
- What do you suppose Congressional reaction would be
if the President issued a pardon for himself
or for any of his assistants faced with jail or prosecution?
- I just could--can't imagine that kind of a thing
being done by him.
Uh, I think he'd leave under, uh,
a much greater cloud than he is now.
narrator: During this time,
Haldeman and other former Nixon aides
desperately begged Nixon for pardons.
Nixon refused, but his own resignation
now seemed inevitable.
- All week, uh, people have begun
to just sort of gather outside the White House.
This, uh applause you hear--
what has happened is that a moving van
has just pulled up over at the White House.
It may just be that the van is going
down Pennsylvania Avenue, but at any rate, uh,
it pulled up here, and, uh, some of the people
in this crowd, uh, began to, uh--
to applaud when it did.
[camera shutters snapping]
[tense music]
♪
- I am aware of the intense interest
of the American people
and of you in this room
concerning developments today and over the last few days.
[camera shutters snapping]
This has, of course, has not been a--
has been a difficult time.
The President of the United States
will meet various members of the bipartisan leadership
of Congress here at the White House
early this evening.
Tonight at 9:00, Eastern Daylight Time,
the President of the United States
will address the nation
on radio and television from his Oval Office.
[camera shutters snapping]
[reporters chattering]
- And we were in the office
that night, and-- and I remember
Katharine came downstairs
and--and she said, "No gloating."
This was before Nixon went on air to--
And--and let me tell you, there was no chance
that we were gonna gloat.
And Woodward and I went off to a little room
and watched it by ourselves.
- What was Watergate?
The five wars of Watergate:
First against the anti-war movement,
then against the news media,
the war against the Democrats,
the war against justice,
and then the war against history.
[somber music]
- Olly--
No, only the CBS crew now
is to be in this room during this.
Only the crew. - [indistinct]
- No, there-- no, there will be no picture.
Good evening.
This is the 37th time
I have spoken to you from this office.
Throughout the long and difficult period
of Watergate,
I have felt it was my duty to persevere.
To make every possible effort to complete the term of office
to which you elected me.
In the past few days, however, it has become
evident to me
that I no longer have
a strong enough political base in the Congress
to justify continuing that effort.
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.
Therefore...
I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
[cheering and applause]
Vice President Ford...
will be sworn in as President
at that hour, in this office.
♪
- My feeling, and I think Bob's, too,
was of absolute awe.
Awe that, one, the system had worked--
yes, that we had had a part in it--
but that this thing was gonna end
the way it ought to end.
And that, uh...
You know, awe that it had come to this.
narrator: The next morning,
using his last hour as President
to address his cabinet and staff,
Richard Nixon gave the best speech of his life.
- This office, great as it is,
can only be as great as the men and women
who work for and with the President.
This house, for example.
I was thinking of it as we walked down this hall.
This isn't the finest house.
Many in Europe, particularly,
and in China,
Asia,
have paintings of...
great, great value.
Things that we just don't have here
and probably will never have
until we are a thousand years old,
or older.
But this is the best house.
It's the best house
because it has something
far more important than numbers of rooms
or how big it is.
Far more important than numbers of
magnificent pieces of art.
This house has a great heart,
and that heart comes from those who serve.
narrator: And then Nixon concluded
with a recommendation that,
as he must have realized, applied to him above all.
- Always remember
others may hate you,
but those who hate you
don't win unless you hate them,
and then you destroy yourself.
[applause]
[somber music]
- Nixon, as he leaves the White House here
to board the helicopter
for the flight to California.
♪
And there's the President waving goodbye.
You hear the applause.
[applause]
♪
- Preserve, protect, and defend...
- The Constitution of the United States...
- So help me, God. - So help me, God.
- Congratulations, Mr. President.
[applause]
♪
narrator: But Watergate was far from over.
One remaining question was whether to put
Richard Nixon in jail.
- After he resigned in August,
we said, "Let's amend the indictment
"and add him as a defendant.
He is now a private citizen."
When people commit crimes, they should pay the price.
Leon said, "The publicity would ruin the trial.
You couldn't go to trial for a very long time."
And we all said, "No problem.
"We all will come back.
"We'll go on to our other lives,
"but we will come back to try the case
whenever it is appropriate."
And Leon said, "No."
And while we were having this internal argument
in the office, the pardon came down.
- I, Gerald R. Ford,
President of the United States,
do grant a full,
free, and absolute pardon
unto Richard Nixon.
- I heard it on the radio and I called Woodward.
[laughing] And, uh, I woke him up
and I said, "You're not gonna believe what happened."
And he said, "What happened?"
And I said, "The son of a bitch
pardoned the son of a bitch."
- Uh, President Ford
did, uh, infinite injury
to a fun--the fundamental principle
of good government embodied in the, uh, phrase:
"Equal justice under law."
- Members of the original Watergate grand jury
are extremely upset by President Ford's decision.
Some of them feel their indictments
of other Nixon aides are totally unfair
if the same justice system is not applied to Nixon.
- When the top guy has gotten away
and is going off to live on the beach in California,
how--how zealous do we feel now about,
you know, trying to put the people
who worked for him in jail?
- I was against it, and so was about 99%
of the United States of America,
but it was the right decision.
The country had spent too much time on Watergate,
and the idea of spending another year or two
on Richard Nixon wasn't worth it.
- I'll never change my opinion about that.
I think it was wrong from the get-go,
and I think it's wrong now, and I think the idea
that we have unaccountable Presidents
has harmed the country.
The pardon set up a dual system of justice.
The pardon set up a system where
President of the United States
was not going to be held accountable
under the criminal laws.
narrator: It also turned out that the pardon was part
of a larger deal that eventually gave Nixon
control over the tapes.
- The final deal, as it turned out,
was negotiated between Nixon's lawyers
and the White House, not just the arrangements
for the pardon, but also the giving of the tapes to Nixon.
- There were very suspicious things about the pardon.
Ford was gonna give Nixon all of the White House documents.
[chuckles]
Uh, which would have perpetuated a cover-up forever.
Uh, Congress had to undo that.
narrator: Richard Nixon wasn't done yet,
as Benton Becker, the White House official
who handled the pardon, soon found out.
- Within 48 hours after Richard Nixon's plane landed
in California, Richard Nixon picked up the telephone
and told General Haig,
"There are almost a thousand boxes
"in the Executive Office Building.
"Put those boxes in a, um...
"a--a truck, and send them to Andrews Air Force Base,
and send them out here to San Clemente."
One afternoon,
I noticed a truck packing boxes.
When I asked the, uh, Colonel
who was supervising the, uh, packing of the boxes
he told me that he had gotten his orders
from the Chief of Staff, uh, Alexander Haig.
I reported all this to the President
and the President brought in Mr. Haig.
And Mr. Haig told the President
that it was a mistake.
He didn't issue that order,
and the boxes were not sent.
narrator: Public anger over the pardon and the tapes deal
forced President Ford to meet
with the House Judiciary Committee.
Most of the Committee was deferential,
but not Elizabeth Holtzman.
- There was no deal, period,
under no circumstances.
- Well, Mr. President, I know that the people want
to understand how you can explain
having pardoned Richard Nixon without specifying any
of the crimes for which he was pardoned.
And how can you explain pardoning Richard Nixon
without obtaining any acknowledgment
of guilt from him?
How can this extraordinary haste
in which the pardon was decided on,
and the secrecy with which
it was carried out, be explained?
And how can you explain the fact that the pardon
of Richard Nixon was accompanied
by an agreement with respect to the tapes
which in essence, in the public mind,
hampered the special prosecutor's
access to these materials?
- Those tapes, according to the attorney general,
and I might add, according to past President--precedent,
belong to President Nixon.
Uh, those tapes
are in our control.
They are under an agreement
which protects them totally, fully.
narrator: But the original deal only protected the tapes
for five years, and popular outrage
forced Ford to retreat.
Congress quickly passed a bill
making the tapes government property,
and the vote was so overwhelming
that Ford had to sign it.
A few months later, when Haldeman,
Ehrlichman, and Mitchell went to trial,
they denied everything, but the special prosecutors
played the tapes for the jury, and it worked.
- Good evening. The men who were closest
to Richard Nixon in the White House
and in politics today were sentenced
to prison for their role in the Watergate cover-up.
- Mitchell: 2 1/2 to 8 years.
Haldeman: 2 1/2 to 8 years.
Ehrlichman: 2 1/2 to 8 years.
narrator: Just a few months later, another piece
of Richard Nixon's legacy died too.
In April, 1975, South Vietnam collapsed,
and the Communist North Vietnamese
marched into Saigon to assume power,
catching the United States totally unprepared.
- The people here were herded into groups.
50 at a time, they took off for the carriers waiting
in the South China Sea.
- The South Vietnamese helicopters came in
to the U.S. ships.
There was no room for them, so the Navy men
ordered the pilots to ditch the helicopters
in the ocean.
Time after time, the pilots hovered over the water
and jumped out, praying the helicopters wouldn't
fall on top of them.
As risky as this was, the pilots decided
it was better than flying back to Vietnam.
narrator: Another half-million South Vietnamese fled later,
becoming the refugees known as "the boat people."
all: We want Carter!
We want Carter!
narrator: In 1976 Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford.
On Carter's second day in office, he pardoned
over 200,000 Vietnam draft violators.
In 1978, Carter signed into law
the Ethics in Government Act,
which guaranteed the independence
of special prosecutors.
It was allowed to expire in 1999.
41 people were convicted in relation to Watergate.
A few years later, Pete McCloskey went
to visit John Ehrlichman in prison.
- John and I had been friends, our wives had been friends,
I flew to Tucson and drove over
to the Safford Penitentiary, which is out in the desert
near Fort Huachuca.
There's no fence around it, just desert.
I said, "John...
"how in the hell did this ever happen?
"You were an honorable lawyer,
a good father, good Christian scientist."
He looked out across the desert
at least thirty seconds and he said, "Pete...
"it took us three-and-a-half years
"to be corrupted by the power of the White House,
"but we came to believe that the reelection of Nixon
was essential to the national security."
♪
And I asked him one more question,
I said, "John, tell me about Nixon."
He shook his head and said,
"I never really got to know him."
♪
- ♪ Nobody knows
- ♪ Mm-mm-mm
- ♪ All the troubles I seen
♪
♪ Nobody knows
- ♪ Mm-mm-mm
- ♪ All the sorrow
♪ Glory
- My presence here
is one additional bit of evidence
that the American dream
need not forever be deferred.
[cheering]
- ♪ Glory - ♪ Let me hear you
- ♪ Glory ♪ Hallelujah
- ♪ Nobody knows - ♪ Nobody knows
- We were due to go see "Butch Cassidy" that night
in--in Harvard Square.
I saw the advanced copy
of the Sunday "New York Times."
I think came in around midnight
at the Harvard Square kiosk.
That was how I learned.
I was very happy. Very happy.
- ♪ All the sorrow
- ♪ Glory - ♪ Glory
- ♪ Glory
- This is a, uh--
original art from a-- an issue
of "The Incredible Hulk" detailing the time
when June Volper and Ben Vincent
rooted out the aliens
who were occupying the Oval Office
and returned America to peace and prosperity.
- ♪ Ooh
♪ And I've been stoned
♪
♪ I've been talked about
- That's the one thing Watergate established:
President is not off-limits.
♪
- ♪ This is a mean world
♪
- I was no longer an endangered species.
I was an extinct species.
Liberal Republican. - [laughing]
- ♪ You've got to stay here
♪
♪ Until you die
♪
- I was at CBS News for 44 years.
I do, um, hard news investigative reporting
and documentaries.
- ♪ Father
♪ I'm looking for my sister
♪
♪ I can't even find
- That was Kissinger.
Lying son of a bitch-- pardon me.
- ♪ Glory
- ♪ Mm-mm
- ♪ Glory hallelujah
- Uh, I'm a climate change skeptic.
What, they call carbon dioxide a pollutant.
Isn't that the food of plants and trees
that Reagan referred to?
- ♪ Glory
- ♪ That's all you've got to say is "glory" ♪
- ♪ Glory - ♪ Glory
- ♪ Glory hallelujah
- So I have both been fired and resigned for the same job.
- Which do you prefer, sir? - Well, it depends
on what audience I'm talking to.
- ♪ Glory - ♪ Glory hallelujah
- ♪ I've got eyes to see
- ♪ Glory - ♪ It's here
- ♪ Glory
- Woodward would sometimes
go straight to it and say, uh,
"Why was your finger in the cookie jar, there?"
And I would never do that.
I would say, "You--
You like coconut macaroons?"
- I mean, come on... - [laughing]
- It's just...
- ♪ Nobody knows
- ♪ Oh-no-no
- ♪ All the troubles I seen
- ♪ Nobody knows
- ♪ Oh, my sorrow
- Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs
worked closely with the Justice Department in my days.
- You had a role in increasing
the criminalization of marijuana possession.
- Uh, not really.
Uh...
[stammering]
Well, that's another-- a whole other area to get into.
- It is.
- ♪ Hallelujah
♪ Glory
♪ Glory hallelujah
♪
- ♪ Nobody - ♪ Nobody
♪ Nobody
♪ Nobody, nobody
♪ Nobody
♪ Nobody, nobody
♪ Nobody
- All right, cut. - All right.
- Get out of here, you rascals.