Nixon Resigns: First President Forced from Office
Richard Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974, effective at noon, and boarded a helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House. He gave a double V-for-victory sign from the doorway, a gesture that captured the defiance and self-delusion that had characterized his final months in office. Vice President Gerald Ford took the oath of office ninety minutes later. Nixon left behind a constitutional crisis that had exposed the limits of executive power and spawned 69 criminal indictments within his administration. The resignation established an enduring precedent: no president is above the law. Ford's pardon of Nixon one month later may have saved the nation from further trauma, but it cost Ford the 1976 election.
August 9, 1974
52 years ago
Key Figures & Places
President of the United States
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Richard Nixon
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Watergate scandal
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Gerald Ford
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Vice President of the United States of America
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Watergate scandal
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Richard Nixon
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Vice President of the United States
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Gerald Ford
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United States
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President
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Nuclear weapon
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Fat Man
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Nagasaki
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