- 18 hours ago
Documentary, American.Experience S03E02-S03E03-S03E04 Nixon 1990.
American Experience Season 3, Episodes 2–4 (1990) is a three-part documentary, "Nixon," chronicling Richard Nixon's life from his rise in Congress through his presidency and the Watergate scandal. Titled The Quest, Triumph, and The Fall, the series explores his insecurity and political skills using archival footage and interviews.
Episode Breakdown (Originally aired Oct 15, 1990):
Part I: The Quest: Details his early political rise.
Part II: Triumph: Focuses on his presidency.
Part III: The Fall: Covers the Watergate scandal and resignation
American Experience Season 3, Episodes 2–4 (1990) is a three-part documentary, "Nixon," chronicling Richard Nixon's life from his rise in Congress through his presidency and the Watergate scandal. Titled The Quest, Triumph, and The Fall, the series explores his insecurity and political skills using archival footage and interviews.
Episode Breakdown (Originally aired Oct 15, 1990):
Part I: The Quest: Details his early political rise.
Part II: Triumph: Focuses on his presidency.
Part III: The Fall: Covers the Watergate scandal and resignation
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:25Less than six months after his humiliating
00:28defeat in California, Nixon appeared on the Jack Parr Show, playing a tune he had written
00:33himself. Although no one in the audience could have known it, this was the beginning of one
00:39of the most remarkable comebacks in American political history. Can Kennedy be defeated
00:45in 64? Well, which one? Just to be very serious, I know, of course, you're referring
00:58to President Kennedy, and I under no circumstances would speak disrespectfully even of him or
01:02of his office. Aren't you kind of friends? Weren't you kind of friends at one time? Oh, certainly.
01:06We came to the Congress together. I know you were. And we were low men on the totem pole
01:09and the Labor Committee together. And we remained low men until he ran for president. Now he's
01:15up and I'm down.
01:18My little daughter said today that, you know, she's Mr. Nixon, I'll be honest with you, she
01:22says, I do hope that man finds work.
01:32Nixon found work as a Wall Street lawyer, determined to succeed at what he called the fast track.
01:40Pat Nixon had never been happy with the constant demands of politics and welcomed the prospect
01:45of a more normal existence.
01:49I hope we never move again, she told him when they settled in New York.
01:56But politics had been Nixon's whole life, all he had ever known.
02:05He soon told friends he would die of boredom if he stayed in private life.
02:11Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President
02:18Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas.
02:20To some, it seemed that Kennedy's assassination might open the way for Nixon in the next election.
02:26But sensing the mood of the country, Nixon concluded that Lyndon Johnson, the new president,
02:31would be unbeatable in 1964.
02:35Are you writing yourself off at this point as a political candidate, as a presidential candidate
02:40at any time?
02:42Well, I've made it clear that I am not a candidate for public office.
02:46I shall not become a candidate in this year, 1964, and I certainly have no plans to become
02:52a candidate in the future. I also want to make it clear at the same time, however, I'm not
02:56writing myself off as a political leader in the United States.
03:02As Nixon expected, President Johnson overwhelmed Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964, and the
03:09party lost disastrously in Congress. But in the ruins of that defeat, Nixon saw his way
03:15back to power.
03:19He worked the Republican Congressional Circuit tirelessly, traveled to 35 states, barnstormed
03:25for 105 candidates. And when the party made a dramatic comeback in 1966, there was hardly
03:35a Republican who didn't owe Nixon a favor.
03:40He was uncomfortable with all of the obligatory activities of politics. Those were the dues one
03:48paid in order to gain admission to the arena. And he paid them. He flinched on occasion, but
03:54he paid them. He learned to do what he had to do.
04:05Nixon promised his family a moratorium on politics in 1967, but immediately took off on a grueling
04:13tour of four continents.
04:18Traveling as a private citizen, the former vice president could still command a crowd in
04:22the most remote reaches of the globe. His trips kept him in the news and strengthened his grasp
04:29of foreign policy. Once again, Richard Nixon was aiming for the presidency.
04:37He had this absolutely core fire that he wanted to be president of the United States. I think
04:46for several reasons, probably to prove a lot of things to himself, but also because he sincerely
04:52wanted to take the country in a direction that he felt was the right direction.
05:02As Nixon officially announced his candidacy in February 1968, the events of that tumultuous
05:09year moved him closer to the office he had sought for so long.
05:15In Vietnam, communist guerrillas fought their way to the very doorstep of the American embassy
05:21in Saigon. Never had the prospects for victory looked more bleak.
05:29At home, anger over the war tore the country apart and forced Lyndon Johnson to withdraw from
05:35the presidential race.
05:38Robert Kennedy was just beginning to emerge as the democratic front runner when he was killed
05:43by an assassin's bullet. Race riots following the murder of Martin Luther King turned many cities
05:54into battlegrounds. The country had not suffered such upheaval since the Civil War. Many Americans
06:03yearned for a leader who promised safety and stability.
06:10In Miami Beach, safe from the crises that engulfed the country, the Nixon family watched as Republicans
06:17chose their candidate.
06:18For Richard M. Nixon.
06:21There, we work for those.
06:24Wisconsin is proud to cast its 30 votes for the nominee of this convention, Richard M. Nixon.
06:37Sit down, get to work.
06:44As he accepted the nomination of his party, Nixon offered himself as the man who could bring order
06:50out of the turmoil of 1968.
06:53When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a war in Vietnam
06:59with no end in sight. When the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued
07:04by unprecedented lawlessness. When a nation has been known for a century
07:09for equality of opportunity for equality of opportunity is torn by unprecedented racial violence,
07:14then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.
07:21Republicans once again pinned their presidential hopes on Richard Nixon.
07:26To them and to many in the press, he seemed a new Nixon, better prepared than the man who had
07:32lost in 1960.
07:35But the Democratic front-runner Hubert Humphrey said he'd seen it all before.
07:39They started their renewal job in 1952.
07:44Brand new Nixon.
07:46There was some reason for it, too.
07:50Then they had another renewal job in 1956.
07:55Then they had another renovation operation in 1960.
08:00Then when he went to run for governor in California in 1962, they renewed him again.
08:07And then in 1964, another touch-up.
08:12And now I read about the new Nixon of 1968. Ladies and gentlemen, anybody that had his political face
08:18lifted so many times can't be very new.
08:28Boating in the Florida Keys, Nixon was relaxed and confident.
08:31He was running far ahead of Humphrey in the polls.
08:35And the Vietnam War was splintering the Democrats.
08:44At their convention in Chicago, the anti-war wing of the party pressed for an end to the bombing
08:49and a negotiated withdrawal of U.S. troops. But Humphrey's stuck by President Johnson's policy.
08:55And I think that withdrawal would be totally unrealistic and would be a catastrophe.
09:06As the Democrats fought over Vietnam, Nixon avoided the issue, promising only that he would
09:11find an honorable end to the war.
09:17Along with millions of Americans, he watched on television as anti-war protests outside the
09:23convention hall exploded into violence.
09:33In the chaos, Nixon saw an opportunity.
09:39A few days later, he moved through the same streets in a motorcade.
09:45400,000 people turned out to cheer him.
09:48He chose the city which had seen open war among the Democrats
09:52to sound one of the central themes of his campaign.
09:55This is a nation of laws, and as Abraham Lincoln has said,
09:59no one is above the law, no one is below the law,
10:02and we're going to enforce the law, and Americans should remember that
10:06if we're going to have law and order.
10:07The emphasis on law and order appealed to millions of Americans.
10:16Nixon's television commercials hammered it home.
10:21In recent years, crime in this country has grown nine times as fast as population.
10:26At the current rate, the crimes of violence in America will double by 1972.
10:31We cannot accept that kind of future for America.
10:35We owe it to the decent and law-abiding citizens of America to take the offensive
10:39against the criminal forces that threaten their peace and their security,
10:43and to rebuild respect for law across this country.
10:47I pledge to you...
10:49To the Democrats, Nixon's call for law and order played to the worst in Americans.
10:54But you can't vote your anger.
10:57You have to vote your hopes.
10:59You can't vote your hates.
11:01You have to vote your hopes.
11:03The preamble to the Constitution doesn't just say double the rate of convictions.
11:09It doesn't just say law and order.
11:12It says to ensure justice, and if Mr. Nixon hasn't read it, then I'll send him a copy.
11:20But Nixon had a feel for the issues that moved the middle American voter.
11:25They were the same issues that moved him.
11:29Blaming liberal Democrats for the upheaval in the country,
11:33he sought to rally a new Republican majority.
11:36The new voice that is being heard across America today,
11:42it is not the voice of a single person.
11:45It's the voice of a majority of Americans who have not been the protesters,
11:50who have not been the shouters.
11:53The great majority finally have become angry.
11:57Not angry with hate, but angry, my friends, because they love America,
12:01and they don't like what has been happening to America for the last four years.
12:05You've just heard Richard Nixon refer to you among all these other people as the forgotten Americans.
12:10What do you think he's referring to?
12:11Well, I sort of think he's talking about the people that are paying the taxes,
12:17that are supporting the schools, the churches,
12:19the people that are, they are sort of forgotten,
12:22because everything's aimed at welfare and things like that.
12:29Nixon's call to the forgotten Americans appealed to a broad band of voters,
12:34mostly white, middle class, hawkish, patriotic.
12:39It was a group that felt ignored and excluded in the upheavals of the sixties.
12:45And the strategy seemed to be working.
12:54Nixon held his strong lead into the fall.
12:57Then, just before the election, President Johnson suddenly stopped the bombing of North Vietnam.
13:02Humphrey surged in the polls.
13:04We're going to have the biggest election surprise that America's known in 20 years.
13:09We're going to win this election. Thank you very much.
13:14By election night, Nixon and Humphrey were dead even.
13:18Nixon prepared his family for the possibility of still another defeat.
13:24You see that Nixon has closed a little bit in the last few tabulations there.
13:29I think before the morning is out,
13:32Hubert Humphrey will be the next president of the United States.
13:36And there have been no changes. None of those big states are falling.
13:40Yet, the ones we are waiting for, and Nixon has 175...
13:44All night long, the lead shifted back and forth.
13:47The results weren't announced until 8 the next morning.
13:50With the 26 electoral votes in Illinois, Richard Nixon goes over the top with 287 electoral votes.
13:57He needed 270 to win, and that seems to be the 1968 election.
14:05And he is beaming. Pat Nixon is beaming. One can't help but think back to 1960,
14:10when a tearful Pat Nixon was choking back the emotions.
14:16It was a totally different scene, of course, then.
14:20Here is possibly one of the most fantastic political comebacks in American history.
14:28I saw many signs in this campaign. Some of them were not friendly.
14:34Some were very friendly. But the one that touched me the most was
14:40one that I saw in Deshler, Ohio at the end of a long day of whistle-stopping.
14:45A teenager held up the sign, bring us together.
14:49And that will be the great objective of this administration at the outset,
14:56to bring the American people together.
15:00Nixon spoke of unity, but his margin of victory had been extremely narrow.
15:05He had not reached out to blacks, or the poor, or opponents of the war.
15:11And a nation as badly divided as America in 1968, would not be easy to lead.
15:23America! America!
15:31At age 56, after 22 years of political battle,
15:36Richard Nixon had become the most powerful man in the world.
15:41He envisioned nothing less than a new world order, with himself as its architect.
15:48The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.
15:55This honor now beckons America. If we succeed, generations to come will say of us now living,
16:05that we mastered our moment, that we helped make the world safe for mankind.
16:13This is our summons to greatness.
16:22There's no question at all that Nixon aspired to greatness.
16:26He would talk constantly about the generation of peace that he hoped to contribute to building,
16:37that would indeed be his bequest to the United States and the world.
16:47As Nixon took power, he assembled a staff that would leave him free to carry out his ambitious plans,
16:54and whose loyalty had already been demonstrated.
16:57The White House staff, as it evolves, I think you'll find will be smaller than it's been in the past.
17:02H.R. Haldeman, a former advertising executive who had been at Nixon's side since 1956, was made chief of staff.
17:11He was proud, he once said, to be Richard Nixon's son of a bitch.
17:19John Ehrlichman, a lawyer and top aide during the campaign, would handle much of domestic policy.
17:28Together, he and Haldeman would tightly control access to the president.
17:33Those whom they excluded called them the Berlin Wall.
17:40Behind that wall, Nixon could focus on his main interest, foreign policy.
17:45Bypassing the State Department to work closely with his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger.
17:50Dr. Kissinger is perhaps one of the major scholars in America and the world today in this area.
17:56He has never yet had a full-time government assignment, and he will bring to this responsibility
18:03a fresh approach.
18:05They organize the government to concentrate power in the hands of these two men in the White House.
18:12And it's not accidental that he appoints an old friend, but a decidedly weak practitioner in Bill Rogers
18:18in the Department of State, or essentially a Wisconsin Dells politician, Melvin Laird, his Secretary of Defense.
18:26There are no strong figures in this cabinet, and there are no strong foreign policy figures anywhere
18:30in the higher echelons of the government.
18:33It is to be Richard Nixon's foreign policy, and it is to be carried out with sophistication
18:39and some subtlety by Henry Kissinger.
18:45Looming over the new administration was the war in Vietnam.
18:50American troops had been fighting for four years on behalf of South Vietnam
18:53against the Soviet-backed Communist forces of the North.
18:58The war had already taken the lives of 30,000 Americans and over a million Vietnamese
19:05and destroyed one president.
19:08Nixon was determined not to let it destroy him.
19:14Even before his inauguration, Nixon had Kissinger begin secret contacts with the North Vietnamese
19:20in an attempt to move the stalled Paris peace talks forward.
19:25And soon the two men developed a strategy they hoped would get the U.S. out of the war
19:30without abandoning America's ally, South Vietnam.
19:35We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the South Vietnamese
19:41for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces and their replacement by South Vietnamese
19:49forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be made from strength.
19:55Confident that this policy would end America's involvement in Southeast Asia by the end of 1970,
20:00Nixon and Kissinger turned their attention to global strategy, reshaping America's entire
20:06relationship with the communist world.
20:08They both begin in 1969-1970 with a notion that only lately has become fashionable in Washington,
20:16and that is that the post-war is really over, that the Cold War ought to be a thing of
20:21the past.
20:22They are, in that sense, almost 20 years ahead of their time.
20:30Recognizing that the Soviet Union had nearly caught up to the U.S. in nuclear strength,
20:34Nixon and Kissinger dispatched a team of negotiators to work out a treaty with the Soviets.
20:40For the first time in the history of the nuclear age,
20:43the two superpowers sat down to discuss setting limits on nuclear weapons.
20:51At the same time, they began secret contacts with the other great communist power, China.
20:58There were few more forbidding and isolated places in the world in 1969,
21:04but Nixon believed that China, with its vast population and growing nuclear arsenal,
21:09would soon be too powerful to ignore.
21:14Here, for the first time in the 20th century, we have two men at the very pinnacle of the American
21:19government who have some clear notion, not only of what the world is doing out there,
21:24what's happening in the world, but of where they want the United States to fit in.
21:28We are not a nation that practices foreign policy by design, for the most part,
21:33and Nixon and Kissinger are an exception to that rule.
21:40In the summer of 1969, Nixon announced the first American troop withdrawals from Vietnam.
21:51Arms control, China, Southeast Asia.
21:58He seemed to be moving steadily toward becoming a peacemaker.
22:26Richard Nixon loved the movie Patton and watched it again and again in the White House.
22:35General George Patton was a man of action,
22:39contemptuous of his critics, uncompromising, determined to win at all costs.
22:53I want you to remember Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all
23:03the time.
23:04I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed.
23:09That's why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war.
23:22Richard Nixon was determined not to be the first American president to lose a war.
23:30He might simply have brought the troops home and blamed Vietnam on the Democrats.
23:36But Nixon, like many of his contemporaries in both parties, believed that abandoning South Vietnam
23:42to the Communists would be a defeat that invited further aggression,
23:45a sign that America could no longer be counted on by her allies.
23:51Despite mounting pressure for immediate withdrawal, he stuck to his gradual course,
23:56a force, while trying to negotiate what he called an honorable end to the war.
24:05But the months dragged on, casualties mounted, and Nixon's policy seemed only to prolong America's agony.
24:15I said, with respect to Vietnam, I said, the war in Vietnam is lost.
24:21And the sooner you get out, the better we will be.
24:26It was lost, but he, for some reason, kept at it. It wasn't his war.
24:33And it seemed to me that just him handling a presidency,
24:38you stick around with a war for two years, and it's your war, and it became his war.
24:43And in the end, half the country seemed to think he started it.
24:54In October 1969, the largest anti-war demonstrations in the nation's history,
25:00collectively known as the Moratorium, were held in cities all over the country.
25:06Critics of the war had waited nine months for Nixon to make good his pledge to end the conflict.
25:11But now the honeymoon was over.
25:13Are you listening, Nixon?
25:15I understand that there has been and continues to be opposition to the war in Vietnam on the campuses
25:22and also in the nation.
25:24As far as this kind of activity is concerned, we expect it.
25:30However, under no circumstances will I be affected whatever by it.
25:35The moratorium itself was seen by Richard Nixon as 200,000 people out there on the mall protesting his foreign
25:47policy,
25:48while at the same time the polls were showing that 58, 59 percent of the American people supported him in
25:56his foreign policy.
25:58And he would look out the window and he would say, I simply cannot permit foreign policy to be made
26:03in the streets of Washington.
26:05The president of the United States said nothing you young kids would do would have any effect on him.
26:14Well, I suggest to the president of the United States if he want to know how much effect you youngsters
26:19can have on the president,
26:20he should make one long-distance phone call to the LBJ ranch and ask that boy how much effect you
26:28can have.
26:34The fate of Lyndon Johnson did haunt Richard Nixon.
26:38He felt he had to demonstrate that most Americans still supported him
26:42and that it would not benefit Hanoi to stall peace negotiations.
26:48Don't get rattled. Don't waver.
26:50Don't react, he told himself, as he went to work on a speech to respond to the protests.
26:57Insisting on writing it himself, he distinguished his supporters, the forgotten Americans,
27:03from the vocal minority in the streets with a new catchphrase.
27:07To you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans, I ask for your support.
27:15For the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Paris.
27:22Let us be united for peace.
27:26Let us also be united against defeat.
27:30Because let us understand, North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States.
27:39Only Americans can do that.
27:44It was the most effective speech of Nixon's presidency.
27:4880,000 telegrams and letters arrived at the White House.
27:51Nearly all supported him. His approval ratings soared.
27:55But the war continued, and with it the protests.
28:05I think Richard Nixon came to office expecting, if not a quick fix in Vietnam, expecting a kind of responsiveness
28:13in the war.
28:14He had made certain speeches. He had offered certain gestures.
28:18He had proffered both secretly and publicly what he thought were promising initiatives in negotiations.
28:26None of that had yielded anything.
28:28There was a palpable sense of frustration in the administration about how long this war was going to drag on.
28:37Out of the Oval Office began to flood memoranda that were stream of consciousness,
28:43renditions of the president's fears and ambitions in Southeast Asia.
28:47His image of this whole contest as a kind of challenge being issued not only by the parties on the
28:54ground,
28:54formed by the Cambodian rebels and the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong, but ultimately by more formidable and distant
29:01forces,
29:02the Soviet Union, by China, by his enemies, testing him, measuring his mettle as a man and as a leader.
29:10He took me aside and he said, I'm going to be out of the play for 10 days here.
29:15I won't be able to handle any domestic decisions for 10 days.
29:18So come back this afternoon and tell me all the things that need to be decided for the next 10
29:23days,
29:23and then I won't be able to see it because I'm going to be focusing on this business in Vietnam.
29:29We're going to try and bring it to a head.
29:32At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Laird waited for the president.
29:37After days of tense deliberation, Nixon was about to announce an attack on enemy sanctuaries
29:43across the Vietnam border in Cambodia, and he would do so over the objections of many White House advisors.
29:52We thought the invasion was a bad idea and that it was one more round of escalation on the pattern,
29:59on an old pattern in Vietnam, which would cost lives and national treasure and really only prolong the suffering
30:06and do nothing to affect the larger outcome of the war.
30:09But the military and Kissinger recommended the action, and Nixon wanted to go ahead.
30:15He was convinced that destroying the North Vietnamese hiding places in Cambodia would relieve communist pressure on the south.
30:23And he wanted to take some dramatic action to demonstrate that neither Hanoi nor the anti-war movement
30:29could intimidate the United States or its president.
30:34If when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America,
30:42acts like a pitiful, helpless giant,
30:47the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.
30:56It is not our power, but our will and character that is being tested tonight.
31:05As Nixon spoke, American troops moved into Cambodia.
31:09His critics were outraged.
31:11The president who had promised to end the war seemed to be widening it,
31:15moving into a country perceived as neutral.
31:19Three members of Kissinger's staff, including Roger Morris, resigned in protest.
31:24Nixon was unmoved.
31:26I would rather be a one-term president
31:31and do what I believe was right,
31:34than to be a two-term president at the cost of seeing America become a second-rate power
31:41and to see this nation accept the first defeat in its proud 190-year history.
31:51Early the next morning, Nixon went to the Pentagon for a first-hand briefing.
31:55The military was reporting success.
31:58Nixon was encouraged and praised American soldiers fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia.
32:03The wife of one of those soldiers reached out to shake his hand.
32:07Nixon drew a sharp contrast between the troops in Vietnam and the student protesters at home.
32:14You know, you see these bums, you know, blowing up the campuses.
32:18Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world.
32:25And here they are, burning up the books, I mean, storming around about this issue.
32:30I mean, you name it, get rid of the war, there'll be another one.
32:37Nixon's remarks further infuriated students already protesting over Cambodia.
32:43After three tense days of demonstrations at Kent State University in Ohio,
32:48nervous National Guardsmen opened fire.
32:53Four students were killed.
32:56My child was not a bum, said the father of one dead girl.
33:04American campuses exploded.
33:07Hundreds of colleges and universities closed down.
33:11Governors in 16 states called out the police and National Guard.
33:21Nixon's supporters took to the streets as well.
33:24At New York City Hall, construction workers struggled to raise the flag,
33:29which the mayor had lowered to honor the dead at Kent State.
33:33Nixon's move into Cambodia and his dividing of Americans into bums and heroes had set off a national firestorm.
33:45Angry protesters returned to Washington.
33:49As tensions rose, the Secret Service ringed the White House with a barricade of buses.
33:58It was like living in a bunker in the White House.
34:01I mean, you'd look out in the streets and see thousands of people protesting.
34:04You literally were afraid for your life.
34:07There were times when I can remember saying,
34:08I can't believe this is the United States of America, a free country.
34:11And here we are in the White House with barricades up and buses around the White House
34:15and tear gas going off and thousands, hundreds of thousands of protesters out in the streets
34:19and troops sitting here.
34:21An embattled Nixon faced the press as anti-war demonstrators continued to flock to Washington.
34:28Captain, what do you think the students are trying to say in this demonstration?
34:33They're trying to say that they want peace.
34:37They're trying to say that they want to stop the killing.
34:41They're trying to say that they want to end the draft.
34:45They're trying to say that we ought to get out of Vietnam.
34:50I agree with everything that they're trying to accomplish.
34:54I believe, however, that the decisions that I have made will serve that purpose.
35:07That night, protesters circled the White House with chants and candles.
35:12Inside, a sleepless Nixon made more than 40 phone calls to friends and supporters around the country.
35:19Near dawn, he called for a car and asked to be driven to the Lincoln Memorial,
35:23where protesters had gathered.
35:26White House aide Eagle Krog followed him.
35:30It was, I guess it was almost a surreal atmosphere.
35:33It was almost like dreamlike, because it's really happening.
35:36I was walking up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial, and there was the president,
35:41sort of standing in the middle of a group of young people who were wearing combat fatigues
35:48with peace symbols and bandanas and with all of the clothing of the 60s and the 70s,
35:56and trying very hard to communicate to them.
36:01I think I said, well, what are you going to do about the Kent State killings?
36:06What are you going to do about the war?
36:08He said, I'm really not here to talk about that right now.
36:11We're trying to handle things.
36:13So it was a one-way, you know, conversation or a one-way street, you know,
36:17because he was there trying to be very conversational and casual,
36:21and we were there, outraged and angry and scared.
36:25One student basically told him, he said, I hope that you realize that we are willing
36:32to die for what we believe in. And I think, as I recall, the president's response was,
36:37well, I understand that, but we're trying to build a world where people will not have to
36:42to die for what they believe in.
36:45Oh, how I love Jesus, oh, how I love Jesus.
37:10He knows that Jesus, sweet, loving, merciful Jesus is ours.
37:21He belongs to all of us who want to receive and accept him.
37:33When he appeared as the guest of honor at a Billy Graham crusade in Tennessee,
37:38Nixon had been in office 16 months.
37:41A majority of Americans still backed his Vietnam policy,
37:45but the furor over Cambodia had deepened the divisions Nixon had promised to mend.
37:52Even here, surrounded by thousands who supported him, the president could not escape the ceaseless storm of protest.
38:12And if we're going to bring people together, as we must bring them together, if we're going to have peace
38:19in the world,
38:19if our young people are going to have a fulfillment beyond simply those material things,
38:25they must turn to those great spiritual sources
38:31that have made America the great country that it is.
38:33I'm proud to be here, and I'm very proud to have your warm reception.
38:39Thank you very much.
38:41Let us sing together, God bless America, my home sweet home.
39:01Throughout the next year, Nixon continued to try to rally his supporters while denouncing his opponents,
39:08calling some among the protesters thugs and hoodlums,
39:12blaming his critics in Congress and the press for failing to support the war.
39:27All U.S. troops left Cambodia by the end of June, as Nixon had promised.
39:31He insisted that the military action which had caused such turmoil had eased the pressure on the troops in Vietnam.
39:38Withdrawals continued on schedule, but more American lives had been lost.
39:43There was no breakthrough in the peace talks.
39:49And in the White House, an increasingly frustrated and suspicious Nixon urged intensified surveillance of the anti-war movement.
39:57He grew distrustful even of his closest advisers and installed hidden microphones in his own office,
40:03in part so that his aides could not later claim to have disagreed with his decisions.
40:08But the taping system would eventually trap the president himself.
40:36On June 12th, 1971, the White House staff prepared for a wedding in the Rose Garden.
40:41On June 12th, 1971, the White House staff prepared for a wedding in the Rose Garden.
40:42The president's elder daughter, Tricia, was to be married to a young law student, Edward Cox.
40:48Rain threatened the ceremony, and Nixon spent much of the afternoon on the phone to Air Force weathermen.
40:55Finally, there was a prediction of a 15-minute break in the weather.
41:11I saw the president more relaxed and more happy and more like a typical American father than I've seen him
41:18in a long, long time.
41:20He looked like he was doing a great job out on the dance floor, too.
41:22Yes, and he doesn't dance all that often, you know.
41:30It was a day that all of us will remember, Nixon later wrote, because we were beautifully and simply happy.
41:42The next morning, Nixon picked up the New York Times.
41:45In the left corner was an account of Tricia's wedding.
41:49Across the page was another headline.
41:51The first installment of what came to be called the Pentagon Papers.
41:56A secret Defense Department study which revealed past government deception about the war in Vietnam.
42:01I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible...
42:04Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department employee who had turned against the war,
42:09had given the top secret documents to the press.
42:12I can no longer cooperate in revealing this information to the American public.
42:18Although the Pentagon Papers contained nothing about the Nixon policy in Vietnam,
42:22it was a leak of enormous magnitude.
42:25The President and Henry Kissinger saw it as a disturbing precedent and a threat to their secret diplomacy.
42:31There was panic in the White House, and I remember being in meetings with Henry Kissinger that day,
42:36in which he said this could cause the collapse of American foreign policy.
42:41This could undermine our initiatives with China and the Soviet Union.
42:44And don't forget that at that time, people did not know that we were negotiating secretly with the Chinese.
42:50They did not also know that we were conducting secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese
42:53to end the war in Vietnam.
42:55And so a lot of things were going on that we knew that the public didn't.
42:59Just five weeks later, the Times published another leak,
43:03this one potentially damaging to Nixon's foreign policy.
43:07It revealed U.S. negotiating tactics in upcoming arms talks with the Soviets,
43:11and it seemed to confirm Nixon's worst fears about the press.
43:16I had seen him angry in meetings in the past,
43:20but I had never experienced this kind of fury,
43:24where he was basically walking around the room, slamming his fist in his hand,
43:31saying that this cannot be tolerated, we cannot let this go on.
43:35Nixon became obsessive about the press coverage.
43:38We had a daily news summary that was prepared by a young man in the White House.
43:43By the time I got to the White House, the President had already read it and had marked on the
43:46columns,
43:47uh, John Chancellor last night said this, respond today, uh, call up so-and-so, uh, look at this,
43:55you can't trust these people, uh, Newsweek has done it to us again.
43:59I'd get Nixon's news summary with all these comments down the side.
44:02And so you had the idea when you went to work in the morning, you were going to war with
44:07the press.
44:10A sense of being under siege pervaded the White House, fueled by the leaks,
44:16the constant anti-war demonstrations, and intensifying criticism in the press.
44:24In this atmosphere of us versus them,
44:27Colson's office began an ever-expanding list of Nixon's critics, the enemies list.
44:34It's object was to screw our political enemies.
44:40Reporters and politicians, educators and entertainers were barred from the White House.
44:46Some were targeted for tax audits. Others were trailed by private detectives.
44:54And it was very shortly thereafter that Nixon authorized the plumbers,
44:58the creation of a special group to stop leaks. And they began to take extra legal steps and put
45:06into motion the mechanism which ultimately resulted in the downfall of the administration.
45:12In a White House memo regarding the neutralization of Daniel Ellsberg,
45:17the plumbers discussed how they might destroy his public image and credibility.
45:24In search of damaging information about Ellsberg's private life, they arranged a break-in at the office
45:30of his psychiatrist. They apparently broke a window on the way in and realizing that it could no longer
45:37be viewed as a covert operation, changed courses and decided to make it look as if it had been entered
45:45by a burglar looking for drugs or some other substances. Basically, they smashed up the office,
45:52took pictures of the damage. I was shocked at these pictures. Went to see John Ehrlichman. He was,
45:59if anything, more shocked than I was, and said, shut it down as of now.
46:06The plumbers were eventually disbanded, but some of the agents were reassigned to work behind the
46:12scenes for the newly formed committee to re-elect the president.
46:18Re-election had become Nixon's consuming concern. From the first day of his presidency,
46:24he had fought to hold on to his silent majority and had shaped his domestic policies in part to win
46:30their votes. But those voters were slipping away. Unemployment and inflation were up. Racial
46:37divisions had deepened. And still, week after week, the dead came home from Vietnam. Nixon's popularity had
46:47fallen so low that he had begun to fear he would not even be re-nominated in 1972.
47:05Good evening. The 37th president of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, is in China,
47:10the first American chief executive ever to visit the world's most populous country.
47:21On February 18th 1972, Richard Nixon began still another remarkable comeback with a stunning foreign
47:30policy success. President Nixon's motorcade is now sweeping toward the city of Peking. Here comes the
47:39motorcade now, as you see. The world watched as Richard Nixon drove through a city that few
47:45outsiders had seen for nearly a quarter of a century. He knew, said the New York Times, that for this
47:52journey,
47:53no matter what else occurred, he would always be remembered.
47:58That afternoon, Nixon was abruptly summoned to see Mao Zedong. American television was unaware of the meeting.
48:05The only coverage was by Chinese cameramen with black and white film.
48:12This encounter between Nixon, the career anti-communist, and Chairman Mao, the leader of the
48:18largest communist revolutionary movement in history, shocked Nixon's old conservative allies.
48:24They accused him of surrendering to international communism. But for Nixon, it was all part of his
48:31global strategy. By visiting China, he was beginning to exploit the divisions in the communist world.
48:38One of Nixon's primary objectives in opening up with China was to give him more leverage with the
48:44Soviet Union. These relations were essentially stalled. But soon after the opening with China, the Soviet
48:50Union became much more flexible in several fronts. They agreed to a summit meeting with us in 1972,
48:57two, and it began to be more reasonable on various arms control issues.
49:15Nixon enjoyed the power game, probably as much as any president in modern times.
49:22He played it very hard and very cleverly and very carefully in the world scene.
49:28And he was always thinking strategically. And that's one of the qualities that someone has to
49:32have in foreign policy. I mean, you cannot make decisions in foreign policy based on today's
49:39circumstance. You've got to think about its ramifications for 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the road.
49:44It's like a chess player. You're anticipating six moves ahead if you're a good chess player.
49:53We love you, president. Oh, yes, we do. We love you, president. And we'll be true.
50:02When you're not near us, we're blue. Oh, president, we love you.
50:20In the spring of 1972, the North Vietnamese suddenly launched a massive offensive.
50:26South Vietnam's forces were overwhelmed. Thousands fled.
50:37If the offensive were not stopped, the war would be lost, and with it, Nixon feared the presidency.
50:47But if he ordered a U.S. counterattack, the Soviets might cancel the upcoming arms control
50:52summit in Moscow, a vital part of Nixon's grand design. Most of his advisors urged Nixon not to
51:00take any action that might jeopardize the summit. Once again, Nixon overruled them.
51:06His view was that it would be embarrassing for him to go to Moscow without responding to North
51:12Vietnamese aggression, that he would look weak. He's talking to Soviet leaders who are providing arms to
51:17North Vietnamese troops who are killing American troops. So he didn't think the summit was worth it,
51:23unless he could also show that he was strong within Vietnam itself.
51:28Nixon ordered the most drastic escalation of the war since 1968, massive, sustained bombing of Hanoi,
51:36and the mining of Haiphong Harbor, risking a full-scale confrontation with the Soviets
51:42by putting their supply ships in peril. After explaining his decision to the American people,
51:48he made a direct appeal to the Kremlin. Our two nations have made significant
51:53progress in our negotiations in recent months. We are near major agreements on nuclear arms limitation,
51:59on trade, on a host of other issues. Let us not slide back toward the dark shadows of a previous
52:08age.
52:09We do not ask you to sacrifice your principles or your friends, but neither should you permit Hanoi's
52:19intransigence to blot out the prospects we together have so patiently prepared.
52:37Nixon's gamble paid off. The Soviets did not cancel the summit. On May 22, 1972,
52:45Richard Nixon became the first American president ever to set foot inside the Kremlin.
52:57Nixon had done what none of his predecessors had been able to do.
53:01He had negotiated a treaty in which the two superpowers agreed to slow an arms race that had
53:07been accelerating for more than a quarter of a century. It was his greatest achievement.
53:19Two days later, five burglars working for the committee to re-elect Richard Nixon entered the
53:24Watergate complex in Washington.
53:29They broke into the office of the Democratic National Committee, placed bugs on the telephones,
53:34and made their escape. But the microphones failed to work. They would have to go back.
53:55Nixon returned from Moscow in triumph. He had almost completed the withdrawal of American forces from
54:02Vietnam, opened the door to China, and signed the first nuclear arms limitation treaty since the dawn of the atomic
54:11age.
54:14He had often said that all he wanted was a life with one more victory than defeat.
54:20Now that victory, a second term as president, seemed his for the asking.
54:31Five men wearing white gloves and carrying cameras were caught early today in the headquarters of the Democratic
54:36National Committee in Washington. They apparently were unarmed, and nobody knows yet why they were there.
54:42But I don't think that's the last we're going to hear of this story.
54:52Five men wearing white gloves and carrying cameras were caught early today in the headquarters of the
54:57Democratic National Committee in Washington. They were caught by a night watchman, and they did not
55:01resist arrest when the police came. They apparently were unarmed, and nobody knows yet why they were there.
55:07The film and the camera hadn't even been exposed. In any case, they're being held.
55:19On Sunday morning, June 18th, Richard Nixon later wrote, I left for Key Biscayne.
55:25When I got to my house, I could smell coffee brewing in the kitchen, and I went in to get
55:30a cup.
55:32There was a Miami Herald on the counter, and I glanced over the front page.
55:37The main headline was about the Vietnam withdrawals.
55:40There was a small story in the middle of the page on the left-hand side.
55:45The Watergate apartment hotel office complex in Washington has a fortress-like appearance,
55:50but the burglars penetrated that security.
55:52Four of the men arrested were Cuban nationals now living in Miami.
55:56And the fifth, James McCord, was a former FBI and CIA agent recently employed as a security aide by the
56:04Republican National Committee and the committee to re-elect the president.
56:07The presidential press secretary Ron Ziegler today called the incident a third-rate burglary,
56:13and nothing the president would be concerned with.
56:18But the president was concerned.
56:21On June 23rd, he met with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman.
56:37To thwart the FBI investigation, Haldeman suggested that the break-in could be made to
56:43look like a CIA operation.
56:57There is no evidence that Nixon had ordered the break-in, but his aides had.
57:02The president approved the plan to divert the FBI.
57:19I saw Watergate as politics pure and simple, Nixon wrote in his memoirs.
57:25We were going to play it tough.
57:27I never doubted that was exactly how the other side would have played it.
57:33Richard Nixon pulled it into the White House.
57:36He couldn't leave it alone.
57:38And so within a week after the break-in, or maybe two weeks,
57:41he had personally involved himself in the intrigue of the whole thing.
57:45So Nixon sealed his fate six days after the break-in.
Comments