Richard Nixon Announced His Resignation

On the night of August 8, 1974, Richard Nixon sat in the Oval Office and told a live television and radio audience that he would leave the presidency. The decision capped two years of fallout from the Watergate break-in and the cover-up that followed, as investigators traced the conspiracy ever closer to the White House itself.

Nixon had lost his footing in Congress. With impeachment looming and his political support collapsing, he concluded he no longer had the backing needed to govern. “I have never been a quitter,” he said, but insisted he had to put the country first.

“To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body.”

The resignation took effect at noon the next day, August 9, when Nixon’s signed letter reached Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in. Nixon remains the first and only US president to resign, a moment that reshaped public trust in the office.