大象传媒

Fifty years ago, on August 8th 1974, President Richard Milhouse Nixon announced on national television that he would resign from office. He became the first and only man to resign the Presidency. The lies he had told concerning his involvement in the Watergate scandal finally caught up with him.

He knew the game was up when, the previous day, three leading figures in the Republican party including Senator Barry Goldwater went to the White House to make it clear that he did not have the votes within his own party to avoid impeachment.

Nixon's political end still casts a long shadow across American history. It changed the trajectory of the Republican party, as well as American foreign policy, by opening the door to Ronald Reagan. The reaction to the event raised the temperature of partisanship in American politics. Impeachment, which was the threat hovering over Nixon that forced his hand, has become a cudgel used by both parties. And as for accountability, Nixon's famous utterance echoing Charles the First at his treason trial - "When the President does it, that means it isn't illegal" - was echoed half a century later by President Donald J Trump's lawyers when they argued before the US Supreme Court in February 2024 that Presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution.

Yet Nixon the man remains a figure frozen in time. He is still a hate figure for many on the left who cannot forgive him for expanding the war in Southeast Asia beyond Vietnam into Cambodia, and for many on the right his policy of d茅tente and the opening to China needlessly prolonged Communism as a force on the world stage.

This 50th anniversary look back explores the high political drama of the resignation and the personal tragedy of the man. It's an opportunity to look at the myriad ways that Nixon's forced departure changed the course of American history, and a chance to wonder out loud what America and the world might have been like had he managed to stay in office.

And crucially, what has happened to the Republican party? Where are the independent Republican congressional leaders who might stand up to their candidate for president who many are describing as a would-be autocrat?

Using plentiful archive sound from the Nixon tapes held at his presidential library, Michael Goldfarb recreates in Nixon's own voice the days leading up to his departure and the long decades of trying to reclaim his reputation through pronouncements on international affaiirs. He also uses music, held by the Nixon Library (a part of the National Archives) and written for him.

Michael interviews the surviving members of his White House staff and those who worked with him in the two decades of life he had left after leaving office as well as biographers and chroniclers of the Republican party.

Presenter: Michael Goldfarb
Producer: Julia Hayball

A Certain Height production for 大象传媒 Radio 4

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