Nixon & Watergate

Fascinating People Fascinating Places

Daniel Mainwaring

Documentary, Society & Culture:documentary, History, Society & Culture

5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 8 August 1974, US President Richard Nixon announced his intention to resign from office. This signaled the end of a scandal-plagued period in office. The release of the so-called “smoking gun” audio recording had implicated Nixon in attempts to cover-up his surrogate’s illegal break-in at the DNC national headquarters two years earlier. But why did Nixon do what he did? What was the role, if any of the FBI and CIA in the crime or the cover-up? Were Nixon’s “dirty tricks” anything unusual in US politics? And, what is the legacy of Watergate? In this episode, I discuss these topics with Professor Bruce Schulman the William E. Huntington Professor of History at Boston University. He is the author of three books and editor of six others: From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1991); Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism (Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1994); and The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Politics, and Society (N.Y.: Free Press, 2001). Audio: Nixon resignation, Nixon speech & watergate audio. Public domain. Music from Pixabay

Transcript

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0:00.0	Fascinating people,
0:02.0	Fascinating Places.
0:04.4	On 8th of August, 1974,
0:07.3	Richard Nixon's scandal-plate tenure in the White House
0:10.6	came to an end. I shall resign the presidency effective that known tomorrow.
0:16.0	Vice President 4 will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office.
0:24.0	Nixon's downfall was caused by his involvement in attempts to cover up the illegal
0:29.6	break-in at the Democratic National Conventions Headquarters in 1972.
0:35.0	It was a crime that had been directed by Nixon's associates.
0:39.0	People have got to know whether or not they're president is a crookok. Well I'm not a crook.
0:44.1	Despite initial denials, Nixon's involvement in the cover-up came to light
0:49.6	when his own audio recordings from the White House implicated him in the affair.
0:55.0	The way to handle the sound is for us to have Walgers, compact writing and just say,
1:02.0	said come out of this. In this episode I speak to an expert on the topic
1:07.0	Professor Bruce Sherman of Boston University. He's the author of three books from the
1:12.2	cotton belt to the Sunbelt,
1:13.8	Linden B Johnson and American liberalism and the 70s, the great shift in American culture,
1:19.7	politics and society.
1:23.0	Nixon ran for president against John F. Kennedy in 1960.
1:28.0	It was a close election, but afterwards various Republicans made claims that there had been widespread fraud in places such as Texas and Chicago, and this had not only benefited Kennedy, but assured his victory.
1:42.0	Do you think the perception of malfeasance among
1:46.2	Democrats could have influenced Nixon's decision to use the so-called Dirty Tricks campaign at the time of Watergate with an eye on the
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