31. Richard Nixon - Resignation Address
Good evening:
This is the 37th time I have spoken to
you from this office, where so many decisions have been made
that shape the history of this nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you
some matter that I believe affected the national interest. In all the decisions I
have made in my public life I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.
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. As
long as there was such a base, I felt strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through
to its conclusion. that to do otherwise would be unfaithful
to the spirit of that deliberately difficult process, and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future. But with
the disappearance of that base, I now believe that the constitutional purpose has been served. And there is no
longer a need for the process to be prolonged.
I would have preferred to carry through to the finish whatever the personal agony it would
have involved, and my family unanimously urged me to do so. But the interests of the nation
must always come before any personal considerations.
From the discussions I have had with Congressional and other leaders I have concluded that
because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would
consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out
the duties of this office in the way the interests of the nation will require.
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.
America needs a fulltime President and a fulltime Congress, particularly at this time with
problems we face at home and abroad. To continue to fight through the months ahead
for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President
and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great
issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.
Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.
As I recall the high hopes for America with which we began this second term, I feel a great
sadness that I will not be here in this office working on your behalf to achieve those hopes in
the next two and a half years. But in turning over direction of the Government to Vice
President Ford I know, as I told the nation when I nominated him for that office ten months
ago, that the leadership of America would be in good hands.
In passing this office to the Vice President, I also do so with the profound sense of the weight
of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders tomorrow, and therefore of the understanding,
the patience, the cooperation he will need from all Americans. As he assumes that
responsibility he will deserve the help and the support of all of us. As we look to
the future, the first essential is to begin healing the wounds of this nation. To put the bitterness and
divisions of the recent past behind us and to rediscover those shared ideals that lie at
the heart of our strength and unity as a great and as a free people.
By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of that process of healing
which is so desperately needed in America. I regret deeply any injuries that may have been
done in the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if some of my
judgments were wrong and some were wrong they were made in what I believed at
the time to be the best interests of the nation.
To those who have stood with me during these past difficult months, to my family, my friends,
the many others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was right, I will
be eternally grateful for your support. And to those who have not felt able to give me your
support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward those who have opposed me, because all
of us in the final analysis have been
concerned with the good of the country, however our judgments might differ.
So let us all now join together in affirming that common commitment and in helping our new
President succeed for the benefit of all Americans. I shall leave this office with regret at
not completing my term but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as your President for the past
five and a half years. These years have been a momentous time in the history of our
nation and the world. They have been a time of achievement
in which we can all be proud,
achievements that represent the shared efforts of the administration, the Congress and the people. But
the challenges ahead are equally great. And they, too, will require the support and
the efforts of the Congress and the people, working in cooperation with
the new Administration.
We have ended America"s longest war. But in the work of securing a lasting peace in the
world, the goals ahead are even more farreaching and more difficult. We must complete a
structure of peace, so that it will be said of this generation our
generation of Americans by the people of all
nations, not only that we ended one war but that we prevented future wars.
We have unlocked the doors that for a quarter of a century stood between the United States
and the People"s Republic of China. We must now insure that
the onequarter of the world"s
people who live in the People"s Republic of China will be and remain, not our enemies, but our friends.
In the Middle East, 100 million people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered
us their enemy for nearly 20 years, now look on us as their friends.
We must continue to build on that friendship so that peace can settle at
last over the Middle East and so that the cradle of civilization will
not become its grave. Together with the Soviet Union we have made the
crucial breakthroughs that have begun the process of limiting nuclear arms. But, we must set
as our goal, not just limiting, but reducing and finally destroying these terrible weapons, so
that they cannot destroy civilization. And so that the threat of nuclear war will
no longer hang over the world and the people. We have opened a new relation with the Soviet Union. We
must continue to develop and expand that new relationship, so that the two strongest nations
of the world will live together in cooperation rather than confrontation.
Around the world in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, in the Middle East
there are millions of people who live in terrible poverty, even starvation. We must
keep as our goal turning away from production for war and expanding production for peace so that people everywhere on this earth can at last look forward, in their children"s time, if not in our own
time, to having the necessities for a decent life. Here, in America, we are fortunate that most of our people
have not only the blessings of liberty but also the means to
live full and good, and by the world"s standards even abundant lives.
We must press on, however, toward a goal not only of more and better jobs but of full
opportunity for every American, and of what we are striving so hard right
now to achieve prosperity without inflation.
For more than a quarter of a century in public life, I have shared in the turbulent history of this evening.
I have fought for what I believe in. I have tried, to the best of my ability, to
discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me. Sometimes
I have succeeded. And sometimes I have failed.
But always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once said about
the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and
sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who
errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort without
error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed,
who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy
cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and with
the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
I pledge to you tonight that as long as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue in
that spirit. I shall continue to work for the great causes to which
I have been dedicated throughout my years as a Congressman, a
Senator, Vice President and President, the cause of peace not
just for America but among all nations prosperity,
justice and opportunity for all of our people.
There is one cause above all to which I have been devoted and to which I shall always be
devoted for as long as I live.
When I first took the oath of office as President five and a half years ago, I
made this sacred commitment: to consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to
the cause of peace among nations. I"ve done my very best in all the days since to be true to
that pledge. As a result of these efforts, I am confident that the world is a safer place today, not
only for the people of America but for the people of all nations, and that all of our children
have a better chance than before of living in peace rather than dying in war.
This, more than anything, is what I hoped to achieve when I sought the Presidency.
This, more than anything, is what I hope will be my legacy to you, to our country, as I
leave the Presidency.
To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American.
In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God"s grace be with you
in all the days ahead.
