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33.Richard M. Nixon: Resignation Speech

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 full-time President and a full-time 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 far-reaching 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 one-quarter 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.

　