President Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, announced that he would resign from office on this day in history, August 8, 1974.
In an address to the nation from the Oval Office, Nixon said his resignation would take effect “tomorrow at noon.”
On August 9, Gerald Ford would be inaugurated as the nation's 38th president.
Nixon was the first U.S. president to resign from office. He left the nation's highest office in the face of possible impeachment amid the Watergate scandal, which involved his administration's cover-up of spying activities at Democratic Party headquarters during the election.
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“In every decision I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation,” Nixon said in his speech.
“Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every effort to complete the term for which I was elected,” he added.
A painting depicting President Richard Nixon addressing the nation to announce his resignation from office on August 8, 1974, in Washington, DC. (Illustration by Ed Vebell/Getty Images)
Nixon said he did not believe he had the support of Congress to serve out the remainder of his presidential term.
He had been re-elected president in 1972 in a landslide victory over Democrat George McGovern, taking 60.7% of the popular vote and winning 49 states (Nixon also became the first Republican to sweep the South, while McGovern won only 37.5% of the popular vote).
“I have never been a deserter. To leave office before the end of my term is abhorrent to every instinct in me,” Nixon said.
“America needs a full-time president and Congress, particularly at this time when we are facing problems at home and abroad.”
“But as president,” he continued, “I must put America's interest first. America needs a full-time president and Congress, particularly at this time when we face problems both at home and abroad.”
The president said that if he remained in office, the struggle to emerge from Watergate and try to redeem himself would “absorb almost the entire time and attention of both the President and the Congress at a time when all our focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and inflation-free prosperity at home.”
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“I will therefore resign from the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as president at that time in this office,” he said.
Nixon said that by resigning from the presidency he hoped to “accelerate the beginning of that healing process which is so desperately needed in America.”
Richard Nixon (1913-1994) gives a thumbs-up gesture after resigning as the 37th president. His son-in-law, David Eisenhower, appears with him as Nixon bids farewell to his staff at the White House, Washington, DC. (Gene Forte/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)
“I deeply regret any harm that may have occurred in the course of events leading to this decision,” he said.
“I would just say that if some of my judgments were wrong and some were “Wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be in the best interest of the nation.”
Nixon then thanked his family, friends and “many others who rallied to support my cause because they believed it was right,” saying he would be “forever grateful” for their support.
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“And to those who have not felt able to give me their support, let me say that I leave without any rancor toward those who have opposed me, because all of us have ultimately had the good of the country at heart, however much our judgments may differ,” Nixon said.
He then urged people to “come together to affirm that common commitment and help our new president succeed for the benefit of all Americans.”
Chinese Communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong welcomed President Richard Nixon to his home in Beijing in 1972. President Nixon urged China to join the United States in a “long march together” along different paths toward world peace. Nixon was the first American president to visit the People's Republic of China since its founding in 1949. (AFP via Getty Images)
Ford would serve out the remainder of Nixon's term before losing the 1976 election to President Jimmy Carter.
A month after Nixon's resignation was announced, Ford announced that he had decided “to grant a full, free and absolute pardon to Richard Nixon for all crimes against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed.”
As a result, Nixon would not face any charges for his role in the Watergate scandal.
Nixon spent the years after his presidency traveling abroad on behalf of the United States and offering advice based on decades of experience.
Although the former president left the White House amid scandal in 1974, his legacy includes being the architect of détente with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
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In 1972, Nixon became the first American president to visit Moscow, where he signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.
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In addition, Nixon spent the years following his presidency making trips abroad on behalf of the United States and offering advice based on decades of experience to guide American policy in the post-Cold War era.
Nixon also foresaw that relations between Russia and Ukraine would dissolve. He described the situation in Ukraine as “highly explosive.”
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“If this is allowed to get out of hand,” Nixon told then-President Bill Clinton in a letter written March 21, 1994, “Bosnia will look like a PTA garden party.”
Nixon died on April 22, 1994, at age 81, notes the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.
Fox News Digital's Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
